Rotary Young Writer

The Rotary Young Writer Competition allows entrants' imaginations to run wild! This competition offers participants the opportunity to express themselves and get creative with the written word.After being given a theme, participants can choose to write fiction or non-fiction, a story or a poem.

2025-26 Theme - Happiness in Nature

Age Categories

The competition is open to young people in three age groups:

Junior                Up to 10 years

Intermediate        11 – 13 years

Senior                   14 – 17 years

Competition Information

The Rotary Young Writer competition is run over three stages; club level, district and the national final.

The deadline for entries for the District round 2025/26 is Saturday 28th February 2026. Late entries will not be accepted – the independent, non-Rotarian judges need adequate time to carefully assess the entries.

Resources for the Public

Competition specific Information Packs, and a poster are available to the public in the Rotary Youth Competitions pages of the website. Those interested in finding out more please contact your local Rotary club in the first instance. The various competition Information Packs are published here.

Resources for Rotarians

Download information and entry forms from here - Rotarians will need to be logged in to gain access .

**Please note: If you do not print off the form and you would like to use the interactive version, please save a copy to your computer before you start inputting. If you do not save the form to your computer, you will lose all inputted information

The Information Pack contains everything a Rotary club needs to know about offering these competitions to young people in their community. The rules change (generally only minimally) from year to year. The theme changes each year. Please ensure you look at the current year's Information Pack!

Club entries should be e-mailed to Howard Ferdinando  (Rotarians - you should find me on DMS, or please make contact via the link below). Please advise me which club you represent. Every club may submit one entry in each age category per school (see note below) - this would normally be the winners of the club competition. Entries must include a fully completed and signed entry form, sent in a separate attachment. Each entry should also be in separate attachments.

The 2019/20 variation to the "one per club per age category" was that for 2019/20 (and beyond, until further notice) ciubs may (if they wish) enter one per school - this is by popular request and aimed at accommodating clubs who sponsor more than one RotaKids club (or engage with more than one school for this competition). This "one per school" relaxation equally applies at Intermediate and Senior levels.

Advice to Clubs: Please consider an early approach to schools for 2025/26. Engagement before the end of the Summer term is suggested! Please also encourage entrants to use the correct theme (see the competition Information Pack for the current year). In 2023 not one of the entrants headed their work with the correct title, which immediately puts them at a likely disadvantage!

Consider agreement with schools that the school holds an internal competition first, to send (say) the best 10 or 15 to the Rotary Club for judging. One club, who will remain anonymous, did not make such a restriction, and were then faced with around 300 entries (the whole school), which then took them a considerable time to assess!

District 1180 Competition History

The 2025 competition was supported at all levels: The Junior winner was Darian Richards (supported by RC Wrexham), The Intermediate winner was Molly Williams (RC West Wirral) and Senior was Laura Ziomek (RC West Wirral). These three were the D1180 entries at RGBI. Darian Richards, a year 6 pupil at Ysgol Froncyysyllte and sponsored by Wrexham Rotary came first - congratulations to Darian, the club and to the school.

The 2024 competition was supported at Intermediate and Senior level. There were no entries at Junior level. Intermediate winner - Emily Weatherhead. Senior winner - Sophie Dolphin. Both sponsored by West Wirral Rotary. These entries were submitted to RGBI as the District entries. Neither entry won through (there was tough competition with 19 Districts entering). 

The 2023 competition was only supported at Junior level. The winner was Yusuf Buldu from Froncysyllte County Primary. The sposoring club was Wrexham. His entry was submitted to RGBI as the District entry. It was well received, but not placed.

The 2022 competition was not well supported, but for perfectly understandable reasons. The winner at Intermediate level (and hence then entered to RGBI) was Hannah McKay, entered by West Wirral RC. There were no entries at Junior or at Senior levels.

The 2021 winners were:

Intermediate: Mia Kellett, entered by West Wirral club

Seniors: Thea Matheison, also entered by West Wirral club

There were fewer entries in 2021 (and none in the Junior group) - presumably as coronavirus had made it difficult for clubs to engage with schools.

The 2021 winning entries were sent to RGBI as the District entries - and the good news is that Thea's entry was placed first. Congratulations to Thea, and thanks to the West Wirral club for selecting her piece for entry. Winning entries are published on the RGBI website.