The Rotary Club of Cleckheaton & District report: At a time when there are concerns that school children may be spending more time 'writing' on computers, laptops, mobile phones etc. rather than with pen and paper, The Rotary Club of Cleckheaton & District has yet again organised its annual handwriting competition for year 4 pupils attending Primary schools in our area to support the development of handwriting.
In February 2022, 10 local Primary Schools were invited to take part and 251 entries were received. Each entry had to write out a poem which was provided. Each entry was clearly identified only with a number relating to each individual, known only to the school. Also, the entries should not show the name of the pupil’s school. Entries could be submitted in pencil, biro or ink.
Each school’s entries were initially judged separately. Sponsored by Copy Concept of Cleckheaton, the best entry from each school received a certificate and a prize of writing materials and a gift voucher.
The winning entry from each school then went forward to be judged against the winners from the other schools.
This year the winning entry was from Elisara of Birkenshaw CofE Primary School who was presented with a certificate, a prize of various drawing/writing pens, a voucher for £10 and a trophy.
Rotary Great Britain & Ireland (RGBI) Young Writer 2021-22 Competition
As with previous years, the youth in our district showed their creative streak by entering the Young Writer competition.
This is a competition run by RGBI and each year they set a theme. This year, the theme was “Environment”
Clubs run a local heat in 3 age categories: Junior, Intermediate and Senior. The entries are judged locally and the winner for each age category is forwarded to Rtn Susan Rogers who oversees Young Writer for the District. These club winners are then judged to find a District winner in each category. This year there were 4 judges, 2 Rotarians and two non-Rotarians with literary credentials.
As usual, the quality of entries was of a high standard and the winners for each category and their sponsoring club were:
Junior: Natty, Skipton Craven
Intermediate: Ellen, Whitby
Senior: Georgina, Whitby
Congratulation to them all and thanks to the other clubs who encourage local children to enter and thanks to the judges. The photo shows Natty being presented her certificate by Simon Manly and George Garland.
Their winning scripts have now been forwarded to RGBI for the National final, the results of which are expected in the summer. Good luck to our 3 candidates.