Brodetsky Primary School’s Daisy Williams wins Leeds WIZO Young Writers’ competition with her ode to courage.
For the third year, WIZO teamed up with the Jewish News and PJ Library for its Young Writers’ competition calling on budding young writers to pen their thoughts on courage for their chance to win an iPad for themselves and their schools, with runners-up winning a bundle of books from PJ Library and book tokens for their schools.
The theme of this year was courage, whether their own or someone else’s, in the form of a story or poem, either fact or fiction. There were over 130 entries from 26 schools across the UK from schools both Jewish and non-Jewish. A panel of judges selected a shortlist of entries and guest judge, television writer and children’s author, Ivor Baddiel (brother of David Baddiel) selected the final winners.
The winner of the primary category was 10 year-old Daisy Williams from Brodetsky Primary School with her poetic entry, It’s All About Courage. Commenting on her poem, Ivor said: “It flows really well and I like its simplicity. I also like that it teaches us how courage can mean different things to different people. For someone, patting a dog is the easiest thing in the world, for someone else the hardest, so courage is about overcoming your fears, whatever they might be.”
Following a prizegiving ceremony held in October for the winners and their families to celebrate their inspiring entries, WIZOUK chair Annabel Stelzer said: “Education is at the heart of what WIZO does and I was delighted to be part of an evening that not only encourages talent from schools in this country, but also promotes a literacy programme used in WIZO’s day care centres, developing children’s language and reading skills, strengthening family bonds through the shared experience of reading. The theme of courage felt particularly apposite, and the winning entries were both unique and creative.”
It’s All About Courage by Daisy Williams
This story is set in a stunning place,
Where the ducks swim in beauty,
The birds fly with grace.
6-year-old Danny was next to the lake,
Hugging his mum, afraid a dog might escape.
You see, when it came to Danny, dogs were not
his best,
He was scared one may bite him, which made
him quite stressed.
Later that evening, Danny sat down.
His once-smiling
face was paused
in a frown.
His mum noticed
and said, “Are
you okay?
What’s been bothering you today?”
When Danny told his mum why he had cried,
She understood and pulled him aside.
“Oh darling, it’s okay to have a fear.
Now let me wipe away that tear.”
“The only problem is you haven’t given it a
chance.”
She smiled at him with a loving glance.
“Okay”, said Danny, “let’s go to the park.”
“I’ll give the dog a stroke, and maybe it’ll bark!”
The next day, a small dog stood by Danny’s feet.
He took a deep breath whilst his heart skipped
a beat.
“Wow, you are a cute one, now I understand”,
Said Danny, as he felt the fur on his hand.
Danny was feeling amazing and proud.
“I can’t believe I did it’, he shouted aloud.
Try and be brave, even if you are scared.
Once you’ve done it, you’ll wonder why you
cared.
