ARMISTICE PRIZE 2009
One of the objectives of the Western Front Association (WFA) is to educate the public in the history of the Great War with particular reference to the Western Front. At a national level in the WFA, branches (of whom the North Lancashire branch is one) have been encouraged to engage with schools to promote interest and knowledge of the Great War.
The Armistice Prize was introduced by the North Lancashire Branch of the WFA to mark the 90th Anniversary of the Armistice in 2008. It was first awarded to St Cecilia’s College for the winning poem at their school. For 2009 the prize was awarded for course work done by public and private High Schools pupils in Lancashire and South Cumbria relating to the First World War. Three schools submitted a total of 14 entries.
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The winner of the competition was Dane Smith of Bispham High School, Blackpool. Dane had produced the diary of a soldier covering several days during September 1916 whilst engaged in action on the Somme. For his effort he received £100 and a book (H P Willmott’s “WORLD WAR 1”) and his school hold the Armistice Prize trophy for one year.
The second prize of £25 plus the same book was awarded to Jessica Hale of St Cecilia’s Roman Catholic College, Longridge for her poem entitled “When You Left”. Click to see the prize winning entries.
2010
With the success of the 2009 competition and press publicity it is hoped that more schools will be encouraged to submit entries for the 2010 prize. The arrangements will be broadly unchanged with all public and private High Schools in Lancashire and the southern part of Cumbria up to the northern boundary of the County Palatine being encouraged to enter submissions. The only change is to bring forward the closing date to 1st August which will allow more time for marking.
For 2010 the first prize will again be £100 plus book and there will be three area prizes (North & West: Blackpool, Fylde, Lancaster, Preston and part of Cumbria; Central & South: Chorley, Preston, South Ribble, West Lancashire; East: Blackburn, Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale, Ribble Valley and Hyndburn) of £25 plus book. The school of the winning pupil would also hold for one year the Armistice Prize trophy.
Submission of Entries:
- Entries can take the form of poems, essays, news articles, artwork, reports of visits, drama, videos and others from eligible pupils.
- Eligible pupils should normally be in years 9 and 10 but submissions can be from pupils in other year groups if the school feels the entry to be particularly worthy.
- Entries should be sent by the Head of History, or equivalent to competition@wfanlancs.co.uk. If it is not possible to email the submission because of its nature, then details of the submission should be described and arrangements will be made for it to be considered.
- Entries can be made at any time up to the closing date of 1st August 2010.
Marking
As for the 2009 competition each entry will be awarded 20 marks for the following:
- Content
- Structure
- Presentation
- Reasoning/understanding and
- Grammar/diction
giving a total potential mark for each entry of 100
This should fairly cover the vast majority of submission types mentioned above. However special consideration may be necessary for a submission that is entirely artwork or for any other submissions that do not lend themselves to the marking scheme envisaged.
Details of the winning entries will be made available to the press so that they can consider using them to help mark the anniversary of the Armistice.
As mentioned above it is hoped that the 2010 Armistice Prize competition is of interest to more schools and we look forward to receiving entries.
Any queries can be sent to the email address above or contact Terry Dean (Tel: 01772 864182 or Mob: 07866 493210).