Maidenhead writing competition winners celebrated at rotary awards ceremony

A rotary club in Maidenhead celebrated the winners of its writing competition for primary schools in the Royal Borough at a recital and awards ceremony.

Royal Borough mayor Cllr Mandy Brar and her consort Harry Brar attended the event by the Maidenhead Thames Rotary Club and complimented the prize winners for their ‘varied styles, stories, information texts and poetry’.

Six entries were received from each of the participating schools and each finalist read their text to the audience at the event.

All prize winners were awarded with certificates and book tokens, as were the schools of the top three winners.

The five rotary-led adjudicators were ‘impressed with the creativity and imagination of all the entries received’, organisers said.

They added that ‘every entry was a pleasure to read’.

Entrants took a variety of approaches, ranging from ‘energetic, interactive engagement and participation in nature’, to ‘beautiful poetic descriptions’.

The overall winner was Millie Hunt, aged 10, of Cookham Rise Primary School.

Phoebe Grace Clark, aged 10, of Waltham St Lawrence Primary School, was awarded second place.

In third was Andrei Escalante, aged 11, of All Saints Junior School.

Lucy Badham, the lead adjudicator, said: “We were particularly impressed with the varied and refreshing angles with which pupils addressed the theme of ‘Happiness in Nature’ – from going for a walk, the perspective of a tiger, a butterfly, a hedgehog…

“This reflects diversity in nature and also that ‘happiness’ means something different to each Young Writer.”