Following on from our #BlackLivesMatter article earlier this month, we are encouraging our Year 7 and Year 8 pupils to engage in the national 500 words: Black Live Matter writing competition.

Chris Evans, former host of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, launched the 500 Words short story writing competition ten years ago. It flourished as an annual event, with young people able to demonstrate their creativity and imagination in writing some amazing short stories. In 2019, Chris Evans moved to his former radio station, Virgin Radio.

In response to the shocking death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020 and the worldwide condemnation, Chris Evans has returned to the art of short stories, as he firmly believes that young people can make a difference. He wants to encourage children’s voices on the themes and issues emerging from the Black Lives Matter movement. The 500 Words: Black Lives Matter competition opens on Monday 29 June, but there is only a short window in which to send in an entry as the deadline is Friday 3 July 2020.

The aim is to encourage important conversations at home, at school and across the nation, on the themes and issues emerging from the Black Lives Matter movements around the world. The initiative is to encourage children to tap into their own creativity and imagination, using storytelling to share their experience and understanding how different ethnicities and cultures interact.

There are many inspirational authors that Year 7 and 8 pupils study at Cirencester Deer Park School including: Malala Yousafzai, Martin Luther King Jr, Chinua Achebe, John Agard, Benjamin Zephaniah and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  Read more about our Curriculum and #BLM...
 

"One of my favourite writers is Maya Angelou who I heard speak at the Hay Festival some years ago, discussing her novel ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’." Miss Hope, Head of Ethics and Computing