Winners of Safer Internet Day Creative Writing Competition awarded prizes

In April, Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Police announced the winners of the Safer Internet Day 2018 creative writing awards.

Children from schools across Warwickshire were asked to submit a creative piece – a poem, a song or a short story piece – of no more than 200 words on the key themes of Safer Internet Day: Respect Online and #BeCyberKind.

A large number of entrants were received across all three age categories (6-8 year old; 9-11 year old and 12+) and the standard was very high, leaving judges with the very tough task of picking the best. The winners in each category were:

6-8 year old category

• 1st Place – Emma Flear, aged 7, from Kineton Primary School
• 2nd Place – Sophia Warden, aged 6, from Arden Forest Infant School
• 3rd Place – Thomas Forbes, aged 7, from St Benedict’s Primary School

9-11 year old category

• 1st Place – Nataniel Finc, aged 10, from St Michael’s Church of England Academy
• 2nd Place – Amaanya Bose, aged 11, from Milverton Primary School
• 3rd Place – William Forbes, aged 10, from St Benedict’s Primary School

12+ category

• 1st Place – Amy Sebastian, aged 13, from St Thomas More Catholic School
• 2nd Place – Joel Milner, aged 12, from Alcester Academy
• 3rd Place – Gabrielle Baker, aged 12, from Alcester Academy

The presentations of the prizes have been taking place over the last few weeks.  Sofia Warden (pictured below), from Arden Forest Infant School received her prize from the Police & Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe and Jo-An Golding from Warwickshire Police.  Her entry, which was entitled “The true story of the Little Unicorn”, was a lovely tale which was really enjoyed by all the judges.  It can be read below. 

The True Story of the Little Unicorn by Sofia Warden

Once in unicorn land, Mummy unicorn had a baby and she called her Little Unicorn.  One day Little Unicorn was playing on Mum’s phone.  Then a message popped up. She was playing on Roblox so someone had messaged and it said “you’re a stinky rotten egg, HA, HA, HA”.  Then Little Unicorn was upset.  Little Unicorn didn’t know what to do.  More nasty messages came.  Little Unicorn didn’t tell her Mummy straight away.

Sometime later she realised it would be best to speak to her Mummy about the messages.  Mummy wrote a message back saying “it’s not kind to say nasty things”.  When Daddy got home he looked at Roblox and changed the settings.  Now Little Unicorn could play safely.

Now Little Unicorn can play on Roblox safely without the worry of being bullied on line.

Be safe kids!

We hope to display some more of the entries around the county over coming months – keep a look out for them making an appearance near you!

You can find out about cyber crime in Warwickshire and how to protect yourself by visiting www.cybersafewarwickshire.com  You can also follow the Cyber Safe Warwickshire Team on Twitter: @CyberSafeWarks, Facebook and Instagram.