Melksham student reaches finals of Young Journalist of the Year

Churchfields, the Village School student Josie Green has been chosen as one of the top 9 finalists in the national Stabilo Young Journalist of the Year competition.

Josie, aged 11 was chosen by a panel of judges after she wrote an entry about the worries around palm oil. The entry was chosen for the final from hundreds of entries. The overall winner will be announced in October.

 On her finalist achievement, Josie said, “I was really excited when I found out I was one of the 9 finalists in the Young Journalist of The Year competition.

“I really love writing and enjoyed having an opportunity to write about something I feel strongly about.  I hope other people get the chance to read my article and learn a little more about how the farming of palm oil is destroying habitats of endangered species”

Josie’s father Matt said, “We were delighted to hear that Josie had been chosen as a finalist.  She reads and writes non-stop and we have all learned a bit more about palm oil recently!  The weekly shop at the supermarket takes a lot longer now that we have to check the ingredients of everything to make sure they don’t contain palm oil!”

 In its sixth year, the annual writing competition is run by Stabilo and First News and aims to find the most talented young writers in Britain. The winner has the opportunity to have their very own column published in the leading children’s newspaper First News and win £1,000 of Stabilo goodies for their classmates. The runners-up also all win a little bundle for themselves.

 Vanya Hunter, marketing manager at Stabilo said, “As always, we are overwhelmed with the writing talent that has come through our door. Each and every entry is fantastic in their own right and its extremely hard to whittle it down. The stories we receive really do vary, going from funny to inspiring and are all very different. 

“We have discovered a wealth of natural writing talent and hope every young writer carries on using their talent, even if they didn’t make it as a finalist.”