Online Competitions to Win

Does your child love poetry? Does your child enjoy writing in English? Then you will be interested in the Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition which we are running in partnership with the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf.

Children aged between 7-11 years old who live outside the United Kingdom and who are learning English as a second or foreign language will be able to enter the international category of the competition. Judging for the competition will be chaired by the UK’s Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. The winning poems will be published on the LearnEnglish Kids and Children’s Poetry Bookshelf websites, and all winners will receive audiobooks. Read on for more details about the competition.

The topic of this year’s competition is ‘heroes and heroines’. Children could have heroes and heroines from many areas of life. Here are a few examples:
Heroes and heroines can be explorers, civil rights and environmental activists, political leaders; people who excel in sport, art and science.
Or there are the fictional heroes of fairy stories, books, films and cartoons.
As well as the more famous heroes and heroines there are teachers, ambulance drivers and carers – the quiet, unsung heroes found in every community.

Poems must be:
about the theme of heroes and heroines
no longer than 25 lines
written in English
the writer’s own work

Please remember that the writer must be aged between 7 and 11 years old when they send in their entry.

COMPETITION CLOSES: MONDAY 19 OCTOBER

You can get an entry form by contacting: info@childrenspoetrybookshelf.co.uk or phone +44 (0)20 7833 9247