All Saints’ David Williams named National Young Writer of the Year

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Kai Williams, Centre Director at Explore Learning Barking, David Williams and Steve Backshall

A 12 year old from Barking has been crowned the winner of the National Young Writers’ Awards!  David Williams’ story about a robot in 3017 triumphed over 10,000 entries from all across the UK. Author, TV presenter and adventurer, Steve Backshall surprised David with his prize at his school to mark the tremendous achievement. The special presentation assembly took place on Tuesday 20th June at All Saints Catholic School in Dagenham.

The annual competition is organised by tuition provider, Explore Learning and this year’s theme was ‘The Future’. Children were tasked with writing a 500 word story set in 3017!  Entries were judged by Steve Backshall and the team at Explore Learning who selected David’s futuristic tale as the overall winning story and awarded him a trophy, a trip to Disneyland Paris for his family and £500 worth of books for his school.

Robots were overwhelmingly the most popular characters in this year’s entries, whilst teleportation, rockets and jets were the common modes of transport. Meanwhile, planet earth was the most popular location, followed by the Moon and Mars.

It was David’s story though that came out on top – a tale of a robot who wants to be accepted by the world and explore.

Steve Backshall says: “The quality of the stories was beyond belief! If I didn’t know this was a competition for young writers, I’d believe I was reading the scribblings of Isaac Asimov or Philip K Dick, every story was original and had its own sense of individuality. What astounded me more than anything was that these young people had not only imagined future worlds, but imbued them with the conundrums of our modern planet; pollution, greed, climate-change, the disturbing dark potential of Ai and genetic modification. It gives me great hope that our young people are aware and concerned about these critical issues, and writing with such extraordinary maturity.

“I had to choose the piece that stood out as the most publishable. David’s tale of the awakening of consciousness in a sentient robot was the most complete of all…”

Winner, David Williams says: “I feel so happy. Winning the National Young Writers’ Awards is one of the things that’ll help me prepare to be an author. I can’t believe I have accomplished it, I’ve written something worth reading!”

Every child that entered the National Young Writers’ Award received a certificate to celebrate their story, along with personalised feedback from Explore Learning.  The top ten runners up also won an engraved pen from National Stationery Week sponsors, Sheaffer, whilst all regional winners received prize bundles with goodies from National Stationery Week partners, Nu notebooks, Mustard, edding, Maped Helix, Write Size, Manuscript and Stabilo.

Carey Ann Dodah, Head of Curriculum Development at Explore Learning says: “This year’s National Young Writers’ Awards attracted so many entries and all were thoughtful and inventive…”

Clare Cantle, Head Teacher at All Saints Catholic School says: “We are all incredibly proud of David’s outstanding achievement. To win a competition with 10,000 entries is such a fantastic recognition of his talents in writing. I am sure we will be reading much more of his work in the future.”

Explore Learning has 126 centres located across the country providing English and maths tuition to children aged five to 14.

For more information on Explore Learning and the National Young Writers’ Awards please visit www.explorelearning.co.uk/youngwriters

 

Fun for little ones with Hape Bug About

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After a fraught Christmas and numerous birthdays we now approach new toys with some trepidation. What will we need to get the toy out of the box while the impatient child stands at our side, desperate to play with their new gift? We arm ourselves with screwdrivers, scissors and knives to tackle the job. Will we need one or the other – or all of them?

No need for that with Hape Bug About. I opened the box quite easily, and took out the toy. I had expected to need at least a screwdriver and Allen key or two but what joy to be able to take it straight from the box and have it ready for play.

 

The Hape Bug About is mostly made from wood with a bright red removable fabric seat.

Little ones hold on to the antennae and push along with steady feet. Great fun for budding adventurers and there is space in the buggy belly for a child’s precious treasures, those teddies and books that must be taken everywhere.

The Bug About is easy to wipe down and clean, easy to store.

As will all Hape products it is made with a commitment to sustainability and  compliant with international safety and quality standards.

Recommended for ages 12 months and up.

Hape Bug About £44.99 available from Argos.

Hape Maple Building Blocks

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Hape_maple_building_blocks

Are you looking for the perfect gift for a young child? Then look no further. The classics are still the best and Hape is the master, providing traditional and innovative toys that are perfect for learning and stretching the imagination.

Is there anyone who didn’t have a set of bricks when they were kids? What’s the first toy you go looking for when you have a child of your own, or your first grandchild? A bag of bricks.

Hape’s Maple Building Blocks are painted bright primary colours and are perfect for building towers, garages, palaces and kingdoms. My four grandchildren had great fun building their empires and the littlest member of the tribe (6 months) loved sucking and biting on them  – and there was no need to panic because all Hape’s products are designed and made with quality and safety in mind.

It really is a must for every grandparent’s toy box and the set of 50 bricks comes in a neat drawstring bag, so they are easy to tidy away until the next time they come to play.

Hape Toys is one of the world’s largest producers of toys made from sustainable materials. Thier range is creatively designed and eco-friendly.

All of the products meet, and often exceed, the strictest international standards for quality and safety.

The Hape Maple Blocks are available to buy online from John Lewis for £14.40

The Business of Books: Publish and Don’t be Damned

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Jane Cable’s big lessons from self publishing

At the moment I’m juggling. Even more than ever with a house move and Chindi’s talks at the Festival of Chichester both approaching at a frightening pace. And juggling means making the best use of my time, so when I was thinking about the biggest lessons I’ve learnt for Chindi’s self publishing workshop I thought they would make a good article as well.

Put simply, they fall into two categories.

  1. Your book may be self published but it has to be as good as anything brought out by a major house – if not better. You can’t afford for it to look out of place in a bookshop or on people’s shelves at home. Cover design, shape and size are hugely important.The content has to be perfect too – and I mean perfect. You are asking people to pay for your work and this is a total game-changer. How would you feel if you picked up badly stitched shirt – or a book full of typos where the plot didn’t hang together?The best single piece of advice I can give any would-be author is that if you are tempted to publish your book without anyone else looking at it first, then don’t. Even the super-talented have lapses of concentration and mistakes creep in. At least have some sort of edit or proof read. Follow your gut instinct as to which would be the most important for you.

    Basically there are three main sorts of edit: structural (which evaluates the whole manuscript and how well it works as a novel); copy (studies the manuscript line by line for spelling, grammar and consistency); proof read (works on the print or ebook ready version for formatting and a final check on spelling and grammar).

    It’s always best to pay a professional but if you really can’t afford it and/or have a super-careful relative or friend at least get them to proof it. You’ve spent so long nurturing your manuscript you just won’t see all the mistakes yourself.

  2. You will spend at least as much time marketing as writing and you need to do it. You have no-one else to do it for you, unless you can afford professional help.Before your book comes out, cover the basics: think about who your target audience are, how you are going to reach them and how/where they are going to buy your book. You will be in a very crowded market. How is your book different? How can you make it sound unique and enticing?Although I had some background in PR and promotion, when my first novel, The Cheesemaker’s House, came out I was clueless about book publicity. I had arranged for a former colleague to do some PR for me, but that was it. Pretty soon I had to learn about social media, book bloggers, AI sheets, collateral. Because I had chosen an assisted publishing route with Matador it was easier, but I still needed to invest a huge amount of time.

    There are, however, great resources available: books (such as Chindi’s Before You Press Publish), online (ALLi – The Alliance of Independent Authors), blogs and of course groups like Chindi which exist to help you and provide mutual support. When I joined Chindi my marketing came on in leaps and bounds and as the group becomes more online we welcome authors from around the world.Even if you move into the world of traditional publishing these skills are hugely important and it’s always worth remembering that ultimately you are responsible for your book’s success.Find out more about Chindi’s author resources here: http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk/for-writers/

 

 

Starting an Online Business Has Never Been Easier

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– simply-communicate.com

Even in this day and age you’d be surprised to hear that there are still many businesses out there yet to join the online revolution. Companies have been taking full advantage of the digital boom for years now, and with new and exciting emerging platforms and devices helping us get connected and online more easily than ever, there’s no better time to try and break into that ever-increasing online market.

It’s an incredibly fast-moving marketplace but it’s safe to say that if your business is not already online then it definitely should be. No matter what industry you may work in, no matter who your customer base is or even where they may be its very important for you to have some form of online presence. Long gone are the days where having a website was an expensive and time-consuming chore. Nowadays thanks to many cost-effective and innovative systems and facilities you can have your very own website up and running in a matter of hours.

Getting started with a new website is a straightforward experience. First off you will require a domain name as well as a hosting package, so it’s important to find a suitable provider. The hosting side of things allows you to effectively “park” your site on the web as well as control other aspects of how you would like your site to be seen, how errors are handled and other more technical aspects of website ownership.

Packages and the prices included will vary greatly dependent on what exactly is required. For example, if you’re just looking for a basic package for a simple 5-10-page site then you could probably pick up a decent package for as low as £10 per month. If, however, you are looking to start and build a more sizeable website with lots of pages of content or an e-commerce site you could pay anything up to £100 per month. The prices will also determine the amount of traffic that can pass through your site as well as how much webspace you’ll be entitled to.

When you have the basics setup then you’ll want to think about how best to go about designing, developing and putting your site together. Of course, you have the option to work alongside a professional web developer or development team, but if keeping costs down is important then you’ll be pleased to hear that you can piece together your own website using intuitive drag and drop builders which require absolutely no web scripting knowledge.

The usability of these drag and drop builders go hand in hand with the recent surge in popularity of online affiliate marketing websites. In this system, a larger brand will provide you software to use on your site and pay you a percentage of every transaction from your site, in exchange for driving qualified traffic to that brand.

There are numerous online sectors where this is possible, with travel booking, comparison sites and gambling affiliate sites like this being some of the most popular.

Once your new site is up and running then it’s a case of getting the word out. Social networking has become a fantastically useful way to drive people to your website though having useful, interesting and relatable content on your site will always be the main traffic driver.

 

NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards Call for Entries

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Francesca Russell

NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards call for entries

Applications are now open for the 2017 NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

Now in its fifth year, the Awards celebrate the hard work and inspiring stories of British entrepreneurs, not simply their financial success. There are 11 categories to enter in each host city – Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and London.

This year also sees the introduction of a new category for ‘Family Business Entrepreneur of the Year’, which will be awarded to those leading and excelling within a family business. Creator of the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards, Francesca Russell, said: “Family businesses are often considered incompatible with entrepreneurship because they are usually tradition-bound and multi- generational. However, for family firms to continually prosper, they need to ensure that they pass on the entrepreneurial mindset and capabilities to create new streams of wealth across future generations.”

Francesca added: “Succession planning is also a big issue in business and, if handled well, can make a massive difference to the future viability of a company. Passing on the business baton to the younger generation is a challenge and we want to celebrate those who have successfully managed that transition.”

This year, the Awards have attracted a number of high profile judges including James Caan CBE, Hayley Parsons, founder of Gocompare.com, Tony Mascolo, co-founder of TONI&GUY, and Jeff Lynn, co-founder of Seedrs.

As well as attracting some of the highest profile business leaders in the UK to its judging panel, the Awards has also expanded its reach across five cities, up from two in 2016, and has secured sponsorship from a number of leading brands. NatWest is the headline sponsor for the Awards and MINI has recently renewed its support for 2017 and is sponsoring the ‘Creative Entrepreneur of the Year’ award.

Francesca continued: “2017 is an exciting year for the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards. As well as increasing the number of regions that we can cover, we have attracted the best of the best in terms of a judging panel and sponsors. We are excited about the next phase and hearing the great entrepreneurial stories out there, waiting to be celebrated.”

In its five-year history, the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards has celebrated some outstanding entrepreneurs who have gone on to become household names. Previous winners include David Buttress, former CEO of Just Eat, Julie Deane, founder of The Cambridge Satchel Company, James Watt, founder of BrewDog, and Alexander Solomou, founder and CEO of TheLADBible Group.

The NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards is open for applications, and you can enter here: www.greatbritishentrepreneurawards.com. The deadline for entries is August 18th, 2017.

 

 

Calling all Prammies

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 This could be fun and there’s still time to enter. 

This Saturday June 24th the Ferndown Pram Race is back. Bigger and better than ever. So if you don’t want to miss out on this fun packed event you need to be quick.  If you can get a team of 5 together, 4 pushers and a baby please get in touch with Pete Thornton.  Obviously you’ll need a pram too and dressing up is essential!

 

We’ve got an exciting line up of prams and some of them have already had an outing at New Milton Carnival. (See above)

 

If you feel like you are up for the challenge phone Pete Thornton today on 07792121645.

 

This event is part of the Ferndown Fete on the Field and will be raising funds solely for the John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation.

 

To find out more about Fete on the Field please visit their website at:

 

www.ferndownfotf.org/

Winners announced for Mercury Playwriting Prize 2017

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It’s so hard for any aspiring writers to become visible so to hear of competitions which might bring that about is exciting, and something to drive towards. At the very least you reach a deadline and to win is even better.

 

It is the inaugural year of The Mercury Playwriting Prize and one might expect entry numbers to be low, but not a bit of it: over 160 entries were received.

It has been announced that Oliver Bennett is the winner with  Europe After the Rain, a noir, surreal exploration of the world we live in now. It offers up a mirror to the concerns of contemporary Britain: immigration, enfranchisement, globalisation, loss and love.

 

 

The runners-up are Berri George for her play Shadow Kingdoms, and Phil Tong for his play The Furrow. Entries from University of Essex students were simultaneously entered for the student prize of £200, and this year’s winner is Ryan Cogman for his play Floodgate.

So who is Oliver Bennett? Oliver Bennett trained as an actor at RADA, and has collaborated with the Belarus Free Theatre, whose work he has found inspirational. He has worked frequently with Howard Barker, Edward Bond, performing at Southwark Playhouse, Arcola, The Print Room, and in ‘Backbeat’ in the West End, Canada and LA.

 

Dan Sherer (Associate for New Work and one of the Mercury Playwriting Prize judges) said:

“Europe After The Rain is a tremendous script – a worthy winner of the Mercury Playwriting Prize 2017 Oliver Bennett has written something timely, beautifully layered, and highly theatrical. We are delighted to be able to work with Oliver over the coming year as an Associate Artist, as part of our absolute commitment to nurturing new work and emerging artists at The Mercury Theatre.”

 

Berri George is a writer and a performer, and graduate of both the Belgrade Theatre’s Critical Mass and The Royal Court Theatre invitation playwriting schemes. She is 2014 alumni for the Orange Tree Theatre’s invitation writers group, and made the Old Vic 12 shortlist for 2016. Her work has been staged by a range of the UK’s leading new writing venues; Manchester Royal Exchange, Bolton Octagon Theatre, Theatre 503, High Tide, The Space, Talawa, Old Red Lion, and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

 

Phil Tong was Director of Drama at the City of London Freemen’s School until 2014, at which point he made a decision to stop teaching and to concentrate full time on his work as a playwright. He has had nine plays premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2000 and his plays for young people’s theatre are published on Treepress. His work has also been performed in London, Paris and Milan.

 

Artistic Director Daniel Buckroyd  said:

“The Mercury is committed to supporting emerging artists and providing a platform on which upcoming theatre-makers can develop their work, and so it’s been fantastic to see just how many writers have engaged with this opportunity and the sheer quality of this year’s entries. Our upcoming New Talent Festival is a real showcase of the many skilled artists working in our region, and I would encourage anyone with a passion for new theatre to come along. You won’t be disappointed.”

Prize-winner  Oliver Bennett will receive £2000, a year-long attachment to The Mercury Theatre  Colchester as an Associate Artist, and will be supported to stage a production of his winning play in the Mercury’s Studio Theatre. Local residents can hear rehearsed readings of Bennett, George, Tong and Cogman’s plays, as well as last year’s Essex Playwriting Competition winner – Kenny Emson’s The Piscator – as part of our 2017 New Talent Festival.

 

Bravo! We need more of the competitions.

Tickets for the rehearsed readings are free but must be booked in advance.

For more information about this work, or other Make It opportunities, visit: www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/make-it

Or call 01206 573948.