Schoolgirl Evie's winning story

Ten-year-old Evie Wright, a pupil at Windmill Hill Primary, fought off competition from children all over the region with her story, which is now in the running for the national prize.

The competition, organised by tuition provider, Explore Learning - which has a centre in Hillsborough - is now in its ninth year. Over 10,000 children from all over the UK entered in an effort to win a trip to Disneyland Paris and £500 worth of books for their school.

The national winner will be surprised in a school assembly by this year’s judge, TV presenter and adventurer Steve Backshall, on Monday, as he crowns them National Young Writer of the Year. Every child that entered will receive a certificate to celebrate their story, along with personalised feedback from Explore Learning. Evie, along with the nine other regional winners, has already won a prize bundle of goodies from National Stationery Week partners, Nu notebooks, Mustard, edding, Maped Helix, Write Size, Manuscript and Stabilo.

A spokesman for the award said: “This year’s competition theme was ‘The Future’ and children were tasked with writing a 500 word story set in 3017. Robots were overwhelmingly the most popular characters and appeared in almost a third of the entries, whilst teleport, rockets and jets were the common modes of transport in this fictional 3017 setting. Meanwhile, planet earth was the most popular location, followed by the Moon and Mars. We were blown away with the amazingly creative, thoughtful and inventive stories.”