A PENARTH school pupil made it to the final 50 of the prestigious BBC 500-word competition.
One of the biggest writing competitions in the UK, judged by the likes of comedian Lenny Henry, actor Tom Hiddleston and Wales’ very own Luke Evans, Westbourne Prep School’s Oscar Smith, 7, was invited to a once in a lifetime occasion at Buckingham Palace where the overall winner of the competition was announced by Queen Camilla.
Oscar’s story was about an octopus and an electric eel fighting over who was the best, and in a twist to the tale, neither the eel or the octopus won.
The Westbourne year two pupil was inspired to write after lessons on Fables, run by teacher Vicki Edwards.
Oscar said the trip was amazing and reliably reported back that Queen Camilla is “very nice.”
Apart from meeting the Queen, another favourite part of the trip, which Oscar attended accompanied by his mum Francesca, was the chocolate brownies at afternoon tea – for which he had two!
Nine Penarth pupils make it to round two of BBC 500 word competition
Penarth should be proud of its writing talent in town with Westbourne Prep represented by nine pupils all of which made it through to the top 4,000 entries in round two, however it was Oscar who got through to the final 50.
On the achievement, Ms Edwards said: “We have some fantastic writers in this school and a good group of them who love writing stories.”
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In Oscar’s category, ages five to seven, Evan from London won with his story Message in a Bottle.
Speaking at the Grand Final, Her Majesty The Queen said: “Over the years, it has actually turned into half a billion words that have been tumbled onto thousands of pages by children across the UK, read by an army of volunteers and then sent to Oxford University Press to form the biggest collection of children’s writing in the world.
“Thank you to everybody who has taken part in 500 Words – it is a huge pleasure to have you back.”
On Oscar, teacher Ms Edwards said: “Oscar is very good at English lessons and very hard working. We are all really proud of him.”
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