Shirley schoolgirl named regional winner in the National Young Writers’ Awards - The Solihull Observer

Shirley schoolgirl named regional winner in the National Young Writers’ Awards

Solihull Editorial 14th Aug, 2016 Updated: 21st Oct, 2016   0

CELEBRATIONS were the order of the day when an 11-year-old Shirley author was named a regional winner in the National Young Writers’ Awards.

Kate Sharp from Greswold Primary School fought off tough competition from children all over the region with her story, Deep in the Ulterverse.

The competition which is organised by tuition provider Explore Learning and have a centre on Stratford Road in Shirley.

This year’s theme was The Mash-up, where children were challenged to write a 500 word story where two genres collide.




Children from across the UK put their writing skills to the test in an effort to be crowned the nation’s best young writer and win the prize of a trophy, a family trip to Disneyland Paris and £500 worth of books for their school.

Entries were judged by best-selling author of the Charlie and Lola, Ruby Redfort and Clarice Bean series of books, Lauren Child.


She said: “As I read the entries, what I could see in them was the voices and the personalities of the people who’d written them and that’s really, really important.

“It’s very hard to write such a short story with a beginning, middle and end without losing the thread.”

Explore Learning has 120 centres located across the country providing English and maths tuition to children aged five to 14.

Carey Ann Dodah, Head of Education at Explore Learning said: “We were once again blown away with both the quality and quantity of entries for the National Young Writers’ Awards.

“The competition grows and grows and we’re thrilled it has inspired so many children to get writing.

“This year’s ‘mash-up’ theme brought out some brilliantly creative entries, it was a pleasure to read through some of them.

“The decision can’t have been easy but the winning entry was of the highest quality, many congratulations to Kate.”

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