The Big Diamond Jubilee Read
Diamond Writer competition

What’s it all about?

We’ve added a writing element to the competition to bring another dimension to your pupils’ Commonwealth journey. Encouraging children to share their thoughts with another child is the perfect way to get them excited about what they have read. Because we know how motivating having a real purpose and audience can be when children embark upon a writing task, we’ve enlisted the help of a real group of children from a school in Canada…

How does it work?

Children entering the writing competition simply have to choose a book they have read on their Commonwealth tour and write to a group of children from a school in Canada, one of the countries on The Big Diamond Jubilee Read route, to tell them in no more than 150 words what they liked about it and why they should read it. Entries can be as creative as possible and children are encouraged to present their writing in any format they choose (for example using illustrations, poetry or cartoon strips)  

Entries will be judged by these children as well as an expert panel and the most creative entries will win prizes and the chance to become the 2012 Diamond Writer. Find out more about the judging panel.

What are we looking for?

A winning entry will:

• Be persuasive
• Be engaging and entertaining
• Be original
• Show an interesting use of language and vocabulary
• Show evidence of taking the specific audience into consideration.

The prizes

• A winner’s certificate personally signed by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall
• A book voucher worth £50 for the winning pupil, courtesy of Oxford University Press
• A family day out for the Summer holidays: The winning pupil will be awarded a family ticket to their closest attraction, worth up to £75.
• A writing workshop for the winning school from a top UK author Gill Lewis. Gill's last novel, Sky Hawk, has been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the 2012 Red House Book Awards, and has fans all over the world.
• A 12 month PRO account with Radiowaves, the award-winning safe social learning platform (worth up to £1000)

Supporting resources

To get your pupils thinking about what life is like in other countries, we have put together some fact files with interesting information about each of the Commonwealth checkpoint countries. View

In addition to this, members of our network can access exclusive ideas for incorporating the Diamond Jubilee into literacy activities in school. Download.

How to enter

Pupils must write their entries on the template provided, and these entries then need to be sent for the attention of Susie Musgrove at the National Literacy Trust, along with an overall entry form for the school by email or post :

Email: susie.musgrove@literacytrust.org.uk 
Post: National Literacy Trust, 68 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL

Entries must be received by 5pm on Friday 29 June.

Download Diamond Writer entry template (PDF version) 
Download Diamond Writer entry template (editable Word version)    
Download school entry form 
Download competition rules 

Schools outside the UK - you can join the Big Diamond Jubilee Read too!

Unfortunately the main prizes are only available to UK schools, but all international entries will be judged in a special category and the winner will be sent a certificate, personally signed by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall.

Download international entry form  
Download international competition rules  

Share your Diamond Jubilee story with other schools

Radiowaves, the award-winning safe social learning platform, has a fantastic free platform where pupils and teachers can share everything that their school is doing to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. This provides the perfect opportunity for extension activities for your pupils around The Big Diamond Jubilee Read; whether it’s a blog about how their reading journey is going so far, a podcast review of one of their favourite books, or a video of a reading miles celebration event.

There are also chances to win more prizes! Visit www.radiowaves.co.uk/jubileeparty to see what it’s all about and start sharing.

Other useful websites:

http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/ 
The official website for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee has lots of information about the Commonwealth and the Queen’s life including information about how your pupils can send a message to the Queen.

Making links with schools overseas
If the Big Diamond Jubilee Read Diamond Writer competition has inspired you to make your own links with schools in other countries, then here are a couple of links to help get you started.

• http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-ie-school-partnerships.htm
  The British Council can help you bring an international perspective to your classroom through partnerships, policies, projects and funding.
• http://quadblogging.net/ 
  A fantastic project which links up groups of four schools, which can be located anywhere in the world, through a blog. Quadblogging is a great way of linking up with other schools and improving pupils’ writing at the same time.