This year, I had a writing bucket list moment. The opportunity to work for the BBC as a first tier judge for their 500 Words children's writing competition. And what an opportunity it was. As I know myself, it takes a lot of effort to write a story, and then to take that next step to submit it to be judged by a stranger is not an easy decision. But I was delighted that each child took that next step and that I was accepted to take on this important role for the age range of 5 to 9 year olds.
So that all stories were judged on an equal basis, I was given a five-point judging criteria of: originality, characterisation, plot, use of creative language and level of enjoyment. Tips and guidance by famous children's authors were also provided to all the judges. I was told not to judge the stories on their quality of spelling, grammar or punctuation as it was all about the story content. I then had to score each criteria out of 10; these were then totalled for each story and sent back to the BBC.
As you can imagine, the content, length and ideas varied so much for this age range (from those just learning to write to those who are about to enter the most senior level of their primary education). Some stories were funny, others took you to another world, and a few were about day to day life.
Overall, it was lovely to see children write in such an imaginative way and express themselves very individually, and although none of the stories I judged made it to the final, I enjoyed reading every allotted entry.
If you want to listen to and watch the stories of the finalists being read by the famous, just pop over to the BBC 500 Words website. You won’t be disappointed.
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BBC Radio 2's 500 Words Website 2019 |
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