Celebrating homegrown storytelling: Winners unveiled for BBC's 500 Words competition

BBC News

06-03-2025

The winners of the UK's most successful children's writing competition, 500 Words, have been unveiled on World Book Day® in a special episode of The One Show - 500 Words with The One Show – hosted by Alex Jones and Roman Kemp on BBC One and iPlayer.
From thousands of entries, six exceptional young authors who submitted their stories to the BBC's 500 words competition were crowned last week at the Grand Final in Buckingham Palace, with their identities kept secret until the big reveal on today's special edition of The One Show.
Her Majesty The Queen invited celebrity readers Olivia Colman, Rob Brydon, Matt Lucas, Rose Ayling-Ellis, JB Gill and McFly bandmates Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones to Buckingham Palace for the final event, opened by a special performance from the cast of Oliver! the musical.
All the excitement from the event, including the live performances by celebrity readers of the winning stories, will be available to watch on CBBC at 4pm Friday 7 March.
The judges for this year's competition were Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson, Olivia Dean and Malorie Blackman, chaired by The One Show's Alex Jones. The winning stories have also been illustrated by children's illustrators, framed, and put into a BBC 500 Words winners' book.
Speaking at the Grand Final, Her Majesty The Queen said: 'I know from meeting the judges that they have had an almost impossible job – and from the illustrators that they have had an extremely enjoyable one! I would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has contributed to this very special BBC 500 Words competition.'
BBC Head of Education, Helen Foulkes said: 'BBC 500 Words is all about encouraging children from across the UK to enjoy writing and bringing people together to celebrate children's boundless creativity. We encourage every child to write a story they would love to read with no need to worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar. We hope everyone who entered continues to enjoy storytelling.'
The six winners were chosen from two age group categories, ages 5-7 and 8-11 with each consisting of gold, silver and bronze awards.
500 Words Gold Winners
The GOLD Winner for 5-7 age group is Harvey from Kent, his story, Bruce's Big Choice was read by actor and comedian Matt Lucas. Harvey said: 'Nice stories are lovely, but gruesome and scary stories are better!'
The GOLD Winner for the 8-11 age group is Theo from Greater Manchester, his story, A New Harmony was read by actor and comedian, Rob Brydon. Theo said: 'My story was inspired by a love of music. When I read my story to my family, they loved it, especially the dramatic bits.'
500 Words Silver Winners
The SILVER Winner for the 5-7 age group is Michael from Surrey, his story, Thumbed Cat was read by McFly duo, Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones.
The SILVER Winner for the 8-11 age group was Blake from Derbyshire, his story, The Transformation was read by singer and presenter JB Gill.
500 Words Bronze Winners
The BRONZE Winner for the 5-7 age group was Dylan from Cheshire, his story My Name is Jack was read by actor Rose Ayling-Ellis.
The BRONZE Winner for the 8-11 age group was Ash from Greater Manchester, his story A TRAM-atic Journey was read by actor, Olivia Colman.
Each of the finalists' stories are available to read now on the BBC Teach website, alongside audio versions which have been voiced specially by BBC Radio Drama Actors.
Notes
The children's illustrators who have contributed to the BBC 500 Words winners' book are Momoko Abe, Dapo Adeola, Rob Biddulph, Yasmeen Ismail, Lydia Monks and Nigel Parkinson.
BBC Teach run 500 Words in partnership with: Anderson Press, Beano, EFL in the Community, HeadteacherChat, Libraries Connected, National Book Tokens, National Literacy Trust, Oxford University Press, Pobble, Premier League Primary Stars, Publishers Association, The Reading Agency and World Book Day.
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