Royal Mail young letter writing competition
What the Olympics means to me
On your marks, sharpen your pencils, get set, and go! It’s time to put pen to paper in this year’s Royal Mail’s young letter writing competition.
The race is on to find the UK’s best young letter writer between the age of 7-11. The theme of Royal Mail’s 2012 Young Letter Writing Competition is “what the Olympics means to me". The first hurdle for children to clear is to get their thinking caps on and put pen to paper. The finishing line is the closing date of Friday 25 November 2011, with winners announced in Spring 2012.
Letters don’t need to be olympic-sized, one or two pages will be enough, up to a maximum of 250 words and they can be illustrated.
We are looking for original and imaginative letters - children can write a letter to their favourite Olympic sportsperson - past, present or future, real or imaginary, or they can write about something or someone more personal to them.
Be in it to win it
The competition is open to children aged 7-11 and there is an additional ‘Special Achievement’ category for children who teachers or parents feel have overcome exceptional experiences or difficulties to enter.
Competition rules
There will be ten heats across the UK with one overall national winner chosen from the 10 heat winners.
There will be prizes for winners in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, North East, North West, London, South East, Anglia, Midlands and South West.
The national winner’s letter will be entered into the UPU (Universal Postal Union) International Olympic letter writing competition in 2012.
The winners
The prize for the overall winner will be a weekend in London for four people, including transport, accommodation and £200 in spending money. The winner will receive their award from Olympic Gold medallist Sally Gunnell OBE.
Heat winners will each receive £100 in vouchers and a selection of Royal Mail stamps, stationery and pin badges to share with their class.
Heat runner-up prizes are £50 in vouchers, a set of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games stamps.
Letters which judges rate as Highly Commended or Special Achievement will receive a £25 voucher and a set of London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games stamps
Reward for writing
Teachers and parents can download and print a Letter Writing Certificate to present to every child who enters the competition and writes a letter.
Teachers, you can download as many forms as you need if you'd like to give one to each member of the class for taking part.
Competition timings
The deadline for entries is Friday 25 November 2011.
Heat winners will be announced in the week commencing 21 February 2012.
The National winner will be announced in Spring 2012.
Notes for parents and teachers
Judges will look for originality, freedom of expression and creativity in the letter content. The content is as important as presentation: while entries should follow the basic letter-format we will take age into consideration and don’t expect them to be ‘perfect’.
If parents or teachers feel that a child has any additional needs or has overcome exceptional experiences or difficulties to take part, we’d ask them to send a covering note telling us about this so that it can be taken into consideration.
Letters should be no more than 250 words and should include the child’s name, age and address on the back. Entries sent by teachers should include the school name.
Letters can be submitted in any format including typed.
Entries sent by parents:
Download the Parent Covering Entry Form, complete all sections and send it along with the letter to the address shown on the entry form.
Advice to teachers:
We ask that teachers sending in entries from their school select the three best entries from each class to enter in the competition, and up to three Special Achievement entries per class. Choosing these letters could be a class activity. Download the School Covering Entry Form here.
We are always pleased to offer advice on any aspect of this competition so please call us on 0151 284 1221 if you have any questions.
Related files for this year's competition:
Terms and conditions (PDF 47KB)
Parent covering entry form (PDF 68KB)
