| Pupils in London were today rewarded for their creative talents at a unique awards ceremony at the London Aquarium. The My School Is Great competition, part of the London Schools Celebrating Achievement campaign and run in conjunction with Archant Media, asked primary school pupils to summarise the pride they feel in their school through a poem, story or drawing. A record seven thousand pupils entered this year’s awards to tell London why their school is great.
Winning pupils from across 15 London boroughs were presented with their awards by London Schools Minister, Andrew Adonis. 15 schools were also rewarded for submitting the most entries in their borough.
Elmhurst School in Newham was awarded the prestigious Overall School Winner trophy, having submitted the highest number of outstanding entries. The 14 pupils who created these entries will be treated to a ‘money can’t buy prize’ courtesy of Archant Media, which will involve spending a day at Archant Media’s state-of-the-art printing press where the pupils will experience how a newspaper is made, from print to press.
Minster for London Schools, Andrew Adonis, said:
“The My School is Great competition is a fantastic way for pupils at primary school age to showcase their creativity and ambition whilst at the same time expressing pride in their school and education. The judges had a very difficult task choosing this year’s winners.
“Through the London Challenge, we will continue to support primary schools to ensure the creativity shown in this competition continues to flourish and pupils can realise their full potential.”
Riya Patel from Elmhurst School, My School Is Great Winner in the Newham borough, said:
“I am proud of my school and I tried to show it in my poem. Our lessons are always fun and this helped inspire me when I was making my poem.”
Enzo Testa, Executive Managing Director from Archant, said:
“We have received over three hundred per cent more entries than in the first year we launched the competition, which is phenomenal. This year’s entries were of an extremely high standard and we hope we get a similar response to next year’s competition which will be launched in January 2009.”
After the awards ceremony, pupils were treated to a guided tour of the Aquarium to learn about marine life.
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