Radio 2 launches 500 WORDS 2017

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall returns as Honorary Judge and, to mark the launch of the competition, features in a very special animation.

Chris revealed that this year’s live final on Friday 16 June will take place at the Tower of London and all those attending the final will receive free entry to the Tower for the day.

In the specially created animation, The Duchess of Cornwall, who is a passionate advocate for children’s literacy, appears as the 500 WORDS Fairy Godmother who encourages a little boy to jump inside his imagination – a world of pirate ships, dragons and giant gingerbread man – which inspires him to put pen to paper. It can be viewed at bbc.co.uk/500words.

The initiative, created by Chris, is now in its seventh year and encourages children around the country to get creative and send in their stories of no more than 500 words. The competition is now open and the closing date for entries is 7pm on Thursday 23 February.

Lewis Carnie, Head of BBC Radio 2, says: “We’re very excited to welcome back Radio 2’s 500 WORDS competition for the seventh year. From 30,000 entries when it first launched in 2011 to over 123,000 in 2016, I’m so proud that Radio 2 is able to inspire so many children to get involved, writing their fabulous stories.”

Richard Harrold, Governor of the Tower of London, says: "Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity that cares for the Tower of London, is thrilled to host the live BBC Radio 2 final of 500 WORDS at the Tower of London. The Tower has nearly a thousand years of stories, from the grand to the ghastly, and we hope they can inspire as many children as possible in their future storytelling."

As part of the launch today, BBC Learning is holding a Live Lesson from 11am, which will be available to all schools as a webcast. Presented by Blue Peter’s Barney Harwood and BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty, the fun-fair themed extravaganza will see a whole host of celebrity guests from the worlds of Lego computer games, Harry Potter and Revolting Rhymes. They’ll be taking part in fun activities covering different aspects of story-writing.

Joining Honorary Judge, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, on the esteemed 500 WORDS judging panel are Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Charlie Higson and Francesca Simon. They will all read the shortlisted entries, debate them and ultimately decide who will be the Bronze, Silver and Gold winners in the two age categories.

The competition asks children in the UK aged between 5 and 13 to compose an original work of fiction using no more than 500 words. Entries are in two categories: 5-9 years and 10-13 years. Budding young writers have until 7pm on Thursday 23 February 2017 to submit their stories. More information and terms and conditions are at bbc.co.uk/500words. Also on the website, children will find an array of tools to inspire and help them.

For the final on Friday 16 June, all the finalists will be invited to The Tower of London for a special live broadcast of The Breakfast Show where the winners will be revealed. The winning entries will be announced and read out by some superstar narrators. Previous readers of the winning stories include Tom Hiddleston, Julie Walters, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Kenneth Branagh.

Last year a record 123,436 children put pen to paper and entered the competition. All of the stories were analysed by Oxford University Press (OUP) to find out more about the words and language used by children. In 2016 OUP selected ‘Refugee’ as the Children’s Word of the Year, owing to a significant increase in its usage by entrants writing in that year’s competition, combined with the sophisticated context that children were using it in and the rise in emotive and descriptive language around it. 500 WORDS also went interstellar in 2016, as British astronaut Tim Peake became a new entry in the Top 10 list of famous people appearing in the stories. Words associated with space also showed significant increases in usage on previous years.

Vineeta Gupta, Head of Children’s Dictionaries, Oxford University Press, says: “Each year I am fascinated by the imaginative new ways in which children use language. In collaboration with the University of Oxford, I’m looking forward to analysing the stories again this year. The findings are shaping our understanding of children’s literacy and giving us valuable pointers to improve reading and writing skills.”

Notes to Editors:
BBC Radio 2 is the most listened-to radio station in the UK and has a weekly audience of 15.1m (RAJAR Q3 2016). The output of the station is highly distinctive, with its entertaining popular music programmes and speech-based content, such as news, current affairs, documentaries, religion, arts, comedy, readings and social action output, reflecting the diversity of the UK.

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