We are delighted to announce that Emilia Williams, in year 5, has made it to the final of the BBC’s 500 words competition.  There were 123,000 entries and Emilia is down to the last 50 (25 in her age category).   Emilia has been invited to the final at The Globe Theatre on 27th May.  The six winners will be announced live on the Chris Evans Radio Show that day.  The Duchess of Cornwall and a team of Celebrity authors will meet the finalists.   Well done Emilia!

We will keep you posted!

Click here to read/hear Emilia's story!

About 500 Words:

In the year of Shakespeare's 400th anniversary, the final will be live from the home of British story-telling, Shakespeare's Globe, on the 27th May.

Six years ago, Chris Evans had a dream: to get children excited about reading and writing. All children, no matter what their ability. 500 Words is now one of the most successful story-writing competitions for kids in the world. Nearly half a million pupils have written a story for us; that’s over 215 MILLION words!

It’s very simple. Entrants write an original story on any subject or theme in 500 Words or fewer and submit it online. If they win, their story will be read live on the radio by a superstar celebrity…like Sir Kenneth Branagh, Jeremy Irons, Hugh Bonneville or Sherlock himself – Benedict Cumberbatch. Each year, 10 million Radio 2 listeners hear, read and love these stories.

Winners will rub shoulders with the world’s biggest celebrities and massive pop-stars performing at the final. Plus in 2016, 500 Words is delighted to welcome back real-life royalty to the competition: Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cornwall, who returns in 2016 to support the competition as our Honorary Judge! She'll be reading and debating the top 50 stories of the competition with our amazing author panel: Malorie Blackman, Charlie Higson, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Francesca Simon.

AND in the year of Shakespeare's 400th anniversary, our final will be live from the home of British story-telling,Shakespeare's Globe, on the 27th May.

Notes from Emilia about her story:

 

1. My story has been inspired by my Grandy Clive and My Grandy Alan, I have combined the two of them to create my story. My Grandy Clive (my Mum’s Dad) is a great gardener, I love my Grand Parents garden in Scarborough it is so colourful and packed with so many types of flowers. Grandy is always busy in his garden planting something new. He is one of my inspirations and he also loves bird watching in his garden with my Nanny Dorothy. My other Grandy Alan, my Dad’s Dad passed away before I was born, so I never meet him. It may sound funny but whenever my family see a Robin, we always say “Hello Grandy Alan to it”; it is something we have always done. It is a way of us all remembering him. I think it is good for my Dad to talk about him, even though he has been gone for a very long time.

 2.  I love helping my Mum and Dad in the garden, it’s my job to fill up the bird feeders and recently I bought new birdhouses to encourage more birds.  I like to watch the birds in my garden and I have taken lots of photographs of them busy about their work. Watching the birds helped me come up with my idea of the Robin creating a new garden for Morgan.

3. There is a family of Robins in my garden that are very tame, they get really close to you. Sometimes a Robin follows me when I walk my dog Horrace. My Mum and I whistle to him and he bobs along in and out of hedgerows watching us. This was also part of my inspiration for my story, as Robins seem to be very knowing.

4.  I also used the seasons to describe how Morgan was feeling. When I started writing it seemed to just work. My story took me a few attempts and I worked hard on my descriptions to make them better. I tired to use all the things we do at school – metaphors and similes to improve it.

5.  I am really proud of my story; I worked very hard on it to make it the best I possibly could. I will keep a copy of it forever. I hope you enjoy it?