Coventry's Young Writer of the Year Awards

Last year's winners with organisers and judges.

Have you ever wondered who our future playwrights, authors and journalists are going to be? Well, encouraging Coventry’s primary school children to explore their creative writing ideas, is the Coventry Building Society’s Young Writer of the Year Competition 2023.

Leanne Stanley, Senior Community Officer at Coventry Building Society explained that they are committed to supporting basic education skills and raising aspirations of young people in the city through their ‘Coventry Counts’ programme. So for the second year running they have launched a writing competition for primary school children, years 3 – 6.

Every primary school in the city has been invited to take part with great prizes to be won in each year group – with an overall winner. A celebration prize-giving event at the Coventry Building Society Arena is planned for Thursday 2 March 2023.

Organisers have once again enlisted the support of two local authors, Ann Evans and Aaron Ashmore, along with a former English teacher, and experts in creative writing from their partners at Explore Learning, Coventry.

Leanne Stanley says: “Last year the children were asked to write on the topic: My World Only Better, and we had some amazing entries. The overall winner was Maya (pictured above left) a year 3 pupil at St Thomas More Catholic Primary School. This year we want to allow the children’s imaginations to run wild. And with prizes to be won, we want them to go big with their ideas and to get as creative as possible, starting with this simple sentence:

I looked out of the window, and I could not believe my eyes.…

“We’re really excited as creative writing is not only a tool to help pupils unleash their creativity, but it can also help them feel more comfortable writing about everyday life. We’re hoping that the competition will motivate pupils and encourage them to express themselves artistically, use their imagination and discover their writing style – allowing their personality and voice to shine through.”

Closing date for the competition is Friday 16 December 2022. Coventry Schools can get a complete pack of entry forms, tips and guidelines by emailing Leanne at: community@thecoventry.co.uk