A FANTASTIC celebration of this year’s Swindon Youth Festival of Literature filled The Platform on Thursday evening as the winners of the festival’s competitions were announced.

Among them was the winning team from the inter-school book quiz, Warneford School, who received the trophy from the deputy mayor Eric Shaw.

Stella Rogers, learning resources centre manager at Isambard School said: “Joffre White, the festival's patron of reading and writing, brought to life the winning entries of the short story competition by reading them out to a hushed audience. He confessed that he has struggled to choose winners from the superb entries that had been submitted and that he was honoured to be a part of this unique festival.”

The illustrator and children's author, Fred Blunt also expressed his pleasure at being invited to host workshops for the festival over its eight year span. He explained how the students under his guidance had worked to a professional brief and to a tight deadline to create cartoons and comic strips.

Their completed work was then submitted to be judged and the winners joined the celebration to collect their prizes. Fred, along with local artist Ken White, also judged the illustration competition.

Here students designed their own illustrations to a passage chosen from Tanya Landman's Carnegie medal winning novel, Buffalo Soldier. The winning entries were all described as “showing flair and imagination and made a beautiful display for the audience to admire”.

Fiona Hardcastle, who has been the guiding light of the festival, spoke on behalf of all eleven schools represented and closed the festival with a quote from author Dave Cousins. She said: "Meeting so many enthusiastic and creative young readers and writers was a real inspiration- to quote fellow author Anthony McGowan, 'Swindon Rocks!'"

Inter School Book Quiz Winners– Highworth Warneford School

Creative Writing Competition

Y7-8

1st Place – Amy Border – Ridgeway School

2nd Place – Rasik Chhetri – Swindon Academy

3rd Place – Hannah Stickley – Kingsdown School

Y9-11

1st Place – Jenny Beaven – Kingsdown School

2nd Place – Sholape Olaniyan – Commonweal School

3rd Place – Rebecca Hawkins – Lydiard Park Academy

Fred Blunt Workshops

1st place – Daniel Sheerin – St Josephs

2nd place – Dominic Stroud – Lydiard Park Academy

3rd place – Meg Sheppard – Commonweal School

Illustration Competition

Y7-8

1st place – Archie Bell - Kingsdown School

2nd place – Megan Hoxhaj – Kingsdown School

3rd place – Lucy Kinge – Nova Hreod

Y9-11

1st place – Rebecca Fernandes – St Joseph

2nd place – Ishvarya Sathiyamoorthy - Isambard

3rd place – Faith Vaughan – Kingsdown School