Today Radio 2 have launched their annual 500 words competition for children aged 5 to 13. It was launched via a live lesson, which included advice from authors Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Charlie Higson, and many of our pupils watched this. You can access the live lesson here.

The purpose of the competition is to celebrate imaginative writing and to get children excited about writing. Writing is a big focus within our school and we want to encourage as many of our pupils to enter this competition as possible.

The rules are simple! Write a fictional story of no more than 500 words about any topic. Stories are judged by teachers and librarians all around the country, on creativity and enjoyment. The top 50 stories in the country will be judged by a group of famous authors alongside HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. The winners will have their stories read live on the radio by some superstar celebrities and even receive their height in books!

We are also having a competition of our own within school. There will be a prize for the most imaginative original story from each class and a prize for the class with the most entries. The deadline for entries to the school competition is Friday 1^st March.

Entries to be submitted to the main competition must be typed via a submitter’s account, but we will ensure we facilitate time for this to be done in school if you do not have access. The deadline for entries to the main competition is Friday 8^th March. More information can be found on the 500 words website: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00rfvk1 .

We look forward to reading all the stories. Please get in touch if you have any queries. Happy writing!