Rudgwick pupil a finalist in BBC Radio 2 competition

A Rudgwick school pupil has made it to the final of a national BBC Radio 2 writing competition.
Henry Cocks, a Pennthorpe Prep School pupil, is a finalist in a BBC Radio 2 writing competition '500 Words 2020' SUS-200520-083427001Henry Cocks, a Pennthorpe Prep School pupil, is a finalist in a BBC Radio 2 writing competition '500 Words 2020' SUS-200520-083427001
Henry Cocks, a Pennthorpe Prep School pupil, is a finalist in a BBC Radio 2 writing competition '500 Words 2020' SUS-200520-083427001

Henry Cocks, who is in year three at Pennthorpe Prep School, had his story selected from 135,000 entries to make it to the final 25 in the five to nine age category.

The eight-year-old will find out of his story ‘The Grocery Shop Breakout’ has won the 500 Words 2020 competition when it is judged on Friday, June 12.

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Pennthorpe Prep School’s headmistress, Alexia Bolton, said: “We are so thrilled that Henry’s wonderful imagination and incredible storytelling skills have been recognised through the 500 Words competition.

“As a head, it is a privilege to help nurture and develop children’s talents, and reaching the final is a tribute to Henry’s gifts for language, creativity and literacy. He is definitely one to watch for the future!

To celebrate Henry’s achievement of getting to the finals, Pennthorpe’s director of art and design, Lisa O’Shea, created illustrations of Henry’s story, and art and design teacher, Julian Smith, designed a professional book for Henry as a souvenir.

Mrs Bolton also caught up with Henry virtually to congratulate him and to find out more about his story and his inspiration.

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The story follows the plight of a group of fruit and vegetable friends, who decided to break free from a lonely and dreary grocery shop in Horsham.

Henry’s main character, Otis the Orange, got his name from Henry’s new sausage dog, Otis.

The budding author says of his other characters: “I first thought up some facts about each fruit and vegetable, to help create their personalities, and then gave them names that are all alliterations.”

Henry described how he planned the story: “I thought there should be three parts to the character’s escape; the first was getting past an old woman, next it got a bit more serious as they had to get past a security guard, and then finally a policeman.”

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Henry said he wanted his story to also have elements of humour; from the grumpy old lady getting squirted in the face by Lionel the Lemon, to the policeman slipping on Bob the Banana’s skin.

The concept of the competition, which launched in 2011, is that entrants must pen an original story, no more than 500 words in length, and submit it online.

Henry’s form teacher, Charley Annan, encouraged all the children in year three to enter the competition, and inspired their imaginations by listening to some of the previous years’ 500 Words entries.

She shared lots of tips on forming a good structure for a story, starting with considering the characters.

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She said: “We looked at characters from classic stories that the children knew and then they started to design their own characters by thinking about their appearance and personality.”

The children were next encouraged to think about the setting for their stories: ‘where would stories containing your characters be most likely to happen? What interesting descriptions could you use when writing about them?’

She also challenged the children to ‘think of problems your characters might face and resolutions for these’, which Henry certainly took on board.

Pennthorpe was delighted that three children from the school, Henry, Holly and Harry, reached the first round of judging in the competition, where their stories were judged by literary agents.

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Henry’s was chosen to progress from this round on to the final, which in previous years has been judged by celebrities including Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall and an impressive author panel.

All of the finalist entries are available on the BBC Radio 2 website, where they have been narrated by members of the BBC Radio Drama Company.

You can also hear from Henry himself, in a short film that Pennthorpe has prepared: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7IXVC1wZxI&feature=youtu.be

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