Pupils pen a prize winner

The prize was instigated by English teacher Sarah Sutton in 2008 and has proved very popular with pupils.

For the past few years school secretary Sandy Hashimi, herself a published author, has judged the competition.

The prize started after the more famous Bridport Prize opened up for children. The school entered but thought it would be nice to have a competition of its own.

Sandy said: “For the last couple of years I luckily got to judge it. I am in the garden surrounded by stories for a weekend.”

The children have to write about 1,000 words and start with some prompts from Sandy.

She added: “I judge on how well they have followed that prompt and description. This year, for the first time ever, three boys won which is brilliant.

“I don’t know who they are when I read the stories.”

She said the standard was very sophisticated – so much so she had to check with teachers the work was actually done by the children.

“They are very good readers here. They enjoy reading and there is a lot of storytelling – and that is really reflected in their work.

“Each year the calibre of writing improves, and this year I had a very difficult task trying to decide on the winners. “Fortunately, last year’s winner, Evie Scott-Sentance, was on hand to offer her advice. I hope that all the writers who entered a story in this year’s Loders Prize will continue with their writing.”

Overall Winner of The Loders Prize 2014 went to Year 6 Zebedee Caddick for his story ‘The Two Tolkovskys’.

Year 4 winner William Howell for his story ‘The Mystery Room’.

Year 4 runner-up Fran Lincoln for her story ‘In to World War 2’.

Year 5 winner, Ben Lovell for his story ‘The Deal’.

Year 5 runner-up, Cecilia Jennings for her story ‘Alice and Jane’.

Year 6 runner-up Maddy Herbert for her story ‘The Mushroom Problem’.

Stories receiving a highly-commended award were by Dorothy Hudston, Chiara Sidebotham, Evie Scott-Sentance and Daisy Parsons.