Staff and students at Bridekirk Dovenby School were delighted this week to find out that two of their pupils have been awarded prizes in the Cockermouth Rotary Club’s writing competition.

Phoebe Bell (Year 6) was the joint-winner overall across the seven schools that entered the competition for her enthralling account of delivering a lamb in Blindcrake.

“Phoebe’s story was full of suspense and made for a brilliant read,” said her teacher Mrs Fiona Taylor. “Her excellent variety of sentence-structure, spelling and grammar also made her story stand out.”

All Year 5 and 6 pupils across Cockermouth’s primary schools had been invited to enter the competition, writing a short piece entitled “My Happiest Day”. Bridekirk also enjoyed success in the Year 5 competition, with Keeva Postlethwaite coming in second place across the schools for her emotive tale about a trip up Scafell Pike with her family.

 Isobel Johnson (Year 6) and Benjamin Wareing (Year 5) were both awarded second place in the Bridekirk Dovenby entries.

Despite Covid restrictions preventing a formal awards ceremony from the Rotary Club, students received certificates and prizes in school. Rotary Club Chair of Youth Services, Paul Lack, praised the quality of work this year from all students who entered the competition, saying that deciding the winners was a very difficult job indeed.

Here is an extract from Phoebe’s story detailing the moment she realized that she would have to deliver a lamb herself.

“The ewe delivered the first lamb; my heart was pounding with excitement but we quickly discovered, to our despair, that she wasn’t breathing.  Matty used all that we had learnt from his dad to resuscitate the lamb, but swiftly from the corner of my eye, I noticed the lamb was pushing again. It was twins!”