Huge Cash Prize for School

The Abbey Junior School in Reading was announced as the winner of the generous prize after Bethany Sercombe, a ten-year-old pupil at the school, was named the winner of the national story competition.

The competition invited KS2 pupils across the UK to write a story on the theme of ‘One World’, and elicited a fantastic response from pupils, hundreds of whom entered the competition, which offered a total prize fund of £4,500.

Bethany’s story beat off stiff competition from entries of a very high standard to win the top prize for her school.

Bethany’s form teacher Heather Mockler commented: “We were delighted to hear the news that Bethany had won the competition. We are all very proud of her achievement and congratulate her on writing such an effective story.

“We were very excited to win a competition which not only demonstrates the high levels of Literacy we have in the school but also the excellent understanding that the girls have of environmental issues.”

The Abbey Junior School is currently working towards its Green Flag Award with Eco-Schools and was thrilled to be able to enter the SCEMES National Short Story Competition, as the theme fitted perfectly with the work that they are already doing to promote environmental awareness in school.

The closing date of the competition, World Environment Day, 5th June, coincided with an Eco Week that the school was running and provided pupils with the perfect opportunity to pen their ‘One World’ stories.

Bethany’s story has won the school £2,500 to spend through the educational suppliers directories ‘The Headteachers and Bursars Handbooks.’

The directories are exclusively designed for educational buyers and contain the details of companies supplying a vast range of products and services to schools.

The Abbey Junior School could choose to spend the prize money on any of the products or services contained in the Handbook of Procurement, from curriculum supplies, to school furniture and building services to playground equipment.

Alternatively, considering the theme of the short story competition and their commitment to sustainability, they may wish to spend the money through the only directory offering schools a comprehensive list of sustainable suppliers, the Handbook of Sustainable Procurement.

Staff at The Abbey Junior School are currently looking through the directories to decide where to spend the prize money, but hope to use it to improve their beautiful school grounds.

Heather Mockler commented: “We are constantly working on improving our school grounds and I am sure that the money we have won will help to continue our work in this area.”

Bethany Sercombe, whose story won the fantastic cash prize for the school, won a thrilling 5-day break in the frozen forests and lakes of Swedish Lapland courtesy of the responsible travel company Explore.

SCEMES has been running competitions for schools for the last five years and has donated prizes in excess of £100,000 during that time. SCEMES is extremely proud of the success of this year’s Short Story Competition, which inspired so many thought-provoking stories and is thrilled to be able to reward the winners and their schools with such fantastic prizes.