Royal approval for children's poetry

Winning poems in a children’s poetry contest will receive royal letters of approval from Her Majesty Queen Camilla.

It is the third year the creative writing contest, organised by the Gee Cross Brabyns Neighbourhood Watch Group, has been held.

Yvonne Shawdale, who organises the competition, explained: “Her Majesty The Queen will be sending a letter of congratulations to the two prize winners of the competition this year, just as she did last year.  

“Everyone was delighted with the Queen’s involvement then, and we are happy that Queen Camilla continues to show an interest in our local competition again this year.”

The competition this time invited young writers to submit original poems inspired by the enchanting theme “Werneth Winter Wonderland”.

Winners were presented with their prizes by the Civic Mayor of Tameside Cllr Shibley Alam at a special ceremony at Gee Cross Holy Trinity Primary School.

Children received prizes for being runners up, commended, highly commended, best illustrated poem and 1st, 2nd and 3rd per category. 

The winners of category “Age 7 to 9” were 

1st - Romi, 2nd - Zachariah, 3rd - Ronan.

The winners of category “Age 10-11” were

1st - Ariella, 2nd - Poppy, 3rd - Eva.

Yvonne added: “We are very proud that our Civic Mayor presented the prizes to the children. It all helps with the creativity and motivation of the children, encouraging them to do well at school.”

You can read the two overall winning entries by Romi and Ariella one our poetry page this week - see page 26.

The winning poems:

Winter Wonderland on Werneth Low

Ariella Barlow
Age 10

Upon the hill where poppies sleep
The frost begins to softly creep
And Werneth Low in silence dressed
Holds winter’s breath upon its crest

The Cenotaph stands proud and still
A guardian on the dreamy hill
Its stone adorned with flakes of white
Beneath the hush of falling night

Below, the valley gleams in snow
Where the lights of home like embers glow
Yet here, as the world’s refrains
Peace lingers softly free from pain

So when you climb through winter’s hue
And skies of steel turn tender blue
Pause by the cross and let hearts know
The world still dreams on Werneth Low

Werneth Winter Wonderland

Romi Sarcevic
Age 7

Up Werneth Low in winter,
when it’s full of white cold snow
I like to go up with mum and dad
And with BIG and little bro

We take our sledges up
Riding down the hills fast
We love it so, so much
For forever, it could last

Even when its not snowy
On the green hills we walk
We slowly walk look around
It’s the best place to talk

We take our dog up with us
And see all the other dogs
They chase the sticks and twigs
And some can look like logs

If it’s nice and sunny
We carry up with us
A picnic blanket and food
To eat up there is a buzz

If we’re really lucky one day
And the wind’s picked up its speed
We take our kites, and hold on tight
And watch it high, feeling pleased

It’s good that it’s so close to home
And so close to my school
I think I’ll always go up the Low
Cause up there it’s really cool