Teachers commend Burnley student for reaching final 5,000 in BBC writing competition

With Reedley Primary School having held an in-school competition to see which 500-word stories they would submit to the contest proper, Year 6 pupil Muhammad made it to the second round, with his piece chosen in the final 5,000 whittled down from over 135,000 submissions.

"One entry from each year group was entered into the actual competition; we've done this for the past few years but, unfortunately, have not had much success," said acting-Headteacher Kerry Gorrell. "However, this year, Muhammad reached the second stage. This was a massive achievement."

While Muhammad didn't make the next and final round of the competition, the judges encouraged him to keep on writing as his story was so fantastic with The Reading Agency, who selected the Top 50 stories, commenting on the stand-out quality of the submissions as a whole.

Muhammad said: "I am so happy to have gone thorough to the second round. I'd like to dedicate this achievement to my family and friends."