Christ Church Primary, Redhill Street, Camden wins Passage to Paris
The Franco British Council are delighted to announce that 'Willow' a year 5 class at Christ Church
Primary, Redhill Street, Camden has won the 2012 Passage to Paris prize. Thanks to the generous support of Eurostar the whole class will be travelling to Paris for an exciting day trip which will include a journey to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
The jury consisted of author Michael Morpurgo, Mary Walsh from Eurostar, Boyd Tonkin from the Independent and Baroness Quin, chair of the FBC. They were particularly impressed by the variety and quality of the 19 stories submitted by the children of ‘Willow’. On being informed of the prize teacher Amy Stroud said ‘the class are going to be so excited’.
In addition to the trip to Paris the children will also receive a Michael Morpurgo children’s novel at the author’s special request.
Ann Kenrick, the Secretary General of the FBC, said that the competition was aimed at schools close to the Eurostar Terminal at St. Pancras. “We received about 400 stories in all and we were very pleased with the quality”. Children were asked to imagine going through the Channel tunnel and to write a story about what might happen on the other side. “We encouraged the children to let their imaginations run riot. Quite a lot of stories included encounters with aliens!” said Ms Kenrick.
On discovering they had won the children of Willow class (all aged 10) were thrilled and “over the moon” as remarked by pupil Nawfal Ajraam. Another child, Deshira Madjuni, was “gobsmacked” on hearing her class had won. Most of the children said they had never been to France before and Callum Davies said he had “never left the country before”.
Sana Touchi said she had lots of fun writing the stories and for Nasrudin Abshir, the best bit was “letting your imagination burst”.