“If you try you might, if you don’t you won’t” – Year 4 from Droylsden comes 3rd in BBC 500-word competition

Ash Body entered the BBC 500-word competition and ended up coming 3rd out of 44,000 other entries.

Ash, who attends Fairfield Road Primary School, wrote his story as a part of the competition in the school.

It was teacher Lee Constantine, and his mum that then encouraged him to submit his short story to the BBC competition.

Ash’s story was based on his main character travelling on the tram, but the ticket machine was broken, during the journey he meets some crazy characters all whilst being followed by the angry ticket inspector.

He wrote the story whilst on holiday in North Yorkshire with his dad, and the inspiration for the story comes from his love for the trams and Metrolink service: “I know every stop and I actually had my own little map. One day me and my parents set off on a tram, we tried to go around the whole Metrolink network.”

Ash got to go to London to the awards and met many famous faces including Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Alex Jones and even the Queen!

“I was most excited to meet the gladiators because Nitro is my favourite gladiator.”

Ash also enjoyed getting to meet the queen: “I felt very proud because my dad met the old queen when he was like 16, but yeah I was really proud of that and now the only one who’s not met the Queen is my mum, but hopefully next time.”

To come third out of 44,000 people who entered the competition is a big thing and Ash told us how he felt when he found out that he won: “It was out of 50 people who got into the final but 44,000 people who entered in the first place which is a lot of people. So, I am glad to be the person who got third.

“It was a big achievement, and I made lots of friends on the coach there.”

The winners of the competition were unveiled on World Book Day 2025 in a special episode of The One Show hosted by Alex Jones and Roman Kemp on BBC One.

The grand final was hosted at Buckingham Palace.

The judges for this year’s competition were Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, Olivia Dean and Malorie Blackman.

The winning stories have also been illustrated by children’s illustrators, framed, and put into a BBC 500 Words winners' book.

Speaking at the grand final, Her Majesty the Queen said: “I know from meeting the judges that they have had an almost impossible job – and from the illustrators that they have had an extremely enjoyable one! I would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has contributed to this very special BBC 500 Words competition.”

Teacher Lee put the competition on within the school and told us about how he felt when he found out Ash had won: “We’re obviously incredibly proud of Ash and his achievements.

“It was something that we ran as a school initiative just to try and get the kids writing about something that they wanted to do. We had a bit of a push on writing for pleasure at School.

“When I read Ash’s entry into the school competition, I knew it was excellent, but I didn’t know he would go on to become third in the country.”

The whole school is very proud of Ash, and he has even become a bit of a local star: “I can’t go anywhere, even at cubs, people have watched it, and they say to me oh you won the 500 words, didn’t you? And all my family is really happy about it, and I was very proud of that.”

Lee also spoke on how he hopes that Ash’s success inspires other young people in the area to follow their dreams: “I think it needs to serve as a bit of inspiration to the children around here like why not somebody from Fairfield Road? Why not somebody from Droylsden?

“It’s open to everybody give it a go and you never know where you might get to.”

Ash added his class quote: “If you try you might, if you don’t you won’t.”

The competition had inspired Ash, and he would now like to pursue writing in the future: “I want to be an author or an illustrator. I just love writing, and I come up with very good ideas.”

You can watch the full interview here: