Today I am working with Premier League Primary Stars as they are sharing news about the Premier League Writing Stars competition 2018. Last year there were over 25,000 entries around the theme of resilience, maybe there will be even more children giving poetry a try this year and entering? Last year’s winners were absolutely overjoyed with their successes and I can well imagine how proud my children would be!
My Children and Poetry
Boo discovered poetry a couple of years ago and fell in love with it straightaway. She has several poetry books and she has a notebook filled with her own poems. She’s also been enjoying it at school since half term, so this is a very well-timed competition for her.
We have been fortunate to receive several poetry books through working on this campaign and I have loved seeing both of the kids enjoy them. I had expected that Boo would like them, though to be honest I hadn’t anticipated quite how much, as she sat and read lots of them to me whilst I was cooking the dinner the night that these arrived!
Little Man has then surprised me, as he too has sat there with his new poetry books, smiling as he reads through each poem, eagerly sharing with me the ones that he loves (usually the funny ones).
About the Premier League Writing Stars Competition
Premier League Primary Stars have launched their poetry school competition for 2018 and this year the theme is diversity.
The Writing Stars resources available in schools will ask children to explore questions such as:
• How are you different and special?
• Why are differences so important
• Can our differences bring us together to be part of the same team?
The Premier League Writing Stars resources, all inspired by football, encourage kids to consider what it means to be different whilst also being the same. These are such important topics for children to cover, and it’s great to then give them the opportunity to be creative with them.
Joseph Coelho has written ‘Beautifully different, Wonderfully the same’ especially for Premier League Writing Stars, which you can read and take inspiration from here.
The competition is open now, and closes on Friday 21st December 2018. There are two categories, for KS1 and KS2, and there are English and Welsh categories. Teachers needs to go and register where they will see the full competition guidelines and can get resources and upload entries.
The four judges, Rio Ferdinand, Olly Murs, Joseph Coelho and Lauren Child, will then consider the entries and winners will be announced March 2019.
Then there are the prizes, and oooh, the prizes are good!
There will be a top overall prize and 10 prizes for each category (Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2) in each area. There will also be prizes for the best entries in the Welsh language at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
Prizes for overall winners:
A Premier League Trophy visit to your school
A visit to your school by a children’s author or poet to lead a poetry workshop
Winning poems read aloud by one of our star judges
Prizes for regional and Welsh winners and overall winners:
Poems published in an official Premier League Writing Stars book with bespoke illustrations
An invitation to a national celebration event and the chance to meet other poets and special guests
A framed version of the winning poems
Poetry book bags for all winners’ schools
There will also be some brilliant bags full to the brim with poetry books up for grabs for the first 1000 schools who submit entries, so go enter soon!
How Can You Get Involved?
If you are a teacher, then you can register on the website and share this with your class. If you are a parent, then you can nominate your school at PLPrimaryStars.com and express your interest in entering it to your child’s teacher.
Go and visit the Premier League Primary Stars homepage now and as well as loads of useful resources and information, there’s also a link to the competition there, where you can read more and nominate your school.
What do you think? Would your kids be excited about this?
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post