Pupils invited to tell tall tales

Each of the six schools involved have been visited by heritage centre volunteers Val Dawson, Emma Dearman and Wendy Cartwright, who gave a short assembly presentation to outline the theme of this year's competition.

“Last year Manor Park, Egerton, Bexton, St Vincents and Yorston Lodge took part, and the competition was a great success with more than 40 children telling us some tall tales with a Knutsford theme,” said Val Dawson.

“The same schools are taking part this year.

“Our theme is slightly different for 2013 as we have chosen four old photographs of scenes from the town, and are asking the children to weave a story around these images.”

This year the heritage centre is delighted that pupils from Knutsford Academy years seven and eight are taking part.

“All the schools will vary in their approach to the competition, but we hope for many more entries this year,” said Val.

Guardian news editor James Wilson and Allostock writer/poet Charlotte Peters-Rock are two of the judges.

The deadline for entries is half-term, but latecomers will be allowed to hand in their entries at the centre until the end of this month.

Primary school children in years three to six are being asked to write a maximum of 300 words for the competition, and Knutsford Academy years seven and eight a maximum of 500 words.

The reading and judging of the competition entries are due to take place in early November, with the winners being announced in the Guardian.

A prize presentation at the centre is being planned.

“It was lovely to see such enthusiasm from the children who were full of ideas for their stories and asked a lot of questions,” said Val.

“We’re looking forward to reading a wide variety of tales – Knutsford surely has young writing talent.

“It was also good to see that following my talk at Knutsford Academy when I encouraged them to visit the centre, six pupils popped in the same afternoon asking about the town’s history.”