Dolphinholme CE Primary School in Lancaster were celebrating recently, when one of their pupils was revealed as the winner of a national competition for young writers.

Moto’s Young Writer Competition asked pupils from its network of adopted schools across the country to choose from three story starters set by children’s author and illustrator Tony De Saulles and use them to write their own story of 200 words or more.  The competition which grows in popularity every year, received a staggering 900 entries from 19 different adopted schools and author Tony had the unenviable task of picking the winner.

Emily, a year 6 pupil at Dolphinholme, the adopted school of MOTO Lancaster was selected as the overall winner scooping a bumper prize haul that included £2,500 towards outdoor play equipment for her school, a visit from Tony de Saulles and a £50 WH Smith voucher for herself.

Dianne Cross, Head teacher at Dolphinholme School, said:

“We are delighted to have won the Moto Writing Competition for the fourth time in five years. We are so proud of all our writers but especially Emily who submitted the winning story. The fantastic prize that we have won will go towards extending the trim trail which we have been adding to with each win we have had. The pupils love to play on this exciting outdoor provision and we are discussing what to add to it this year. Thank you to Moto for organising this competition and for being so generous with the prize fund.”

In addition to Dolphinholme’s win, four worthy runners up from schools in Toddington, Tiverton, and Woolley Edge, all won £50 WH Smith voucher for themselves and £1,000 worth of books for their school from Oxford University Press.

Judge Tony De Saulles, who is the creator of the Bee Boy series as well as the illustrator of the Horrible Science books commented:

“I really enjoyed reading the competition entries, there were some great ideas, lovely illustrations and lots of creativity to admire.  But Emily’s story The Last One contained all the right ingredients for an exciting tale: a quest for something precious, some dramatic setbacks and an exciting ending, and it was her delightful descriptions that pushed it to the top of the pile, making her a very worthy winner.”

David Bold the General Manager at Moto Lancaster said:

“We are thrilled that Emily, the winner of the national Young Writer competition has come from Dolphinholme, who have been our site’s adopted school for over five years now. We work with the school throughout the year and have previously joined forces with the children and staff on a number of projects including carol singing and fundraising on site, we hope our partnership continues to flourish for many more years to come.”