Wickham Aspirations 2023

When Brian Ray, an Honorary Rotarian of our club, was a member of Coulsdon Manor Rotary Club, they instigated an annual prize for primary school children for a written project of their choice. This was a usual part of the curriculum in Primary schools but may not be so now! There were only three suitable in the Coulsdon Manor catchment area unlike Fareham (including Wickham and maybe Gosport). This was very popular and winners submitted excellent entries. Cash or book tokens were awarded annually.

The project was administered by 3 or 4 Rotarians and every script was carefully assessed by two adjudicators. Rules and Guidance were formulated including a timescale and circulated to all suitable schools etc. As an adjudicator Brian found the task very rewarding and informative! By the end of the school year or specified period a prize giving ceremony was held in one of the schools. Possibly with the Mayor and/or someone seniorfrom H.C.C. Education Department.

Under the guidance of Loren Way, the deputy head of Wickham Church of England Primary School, this year's competition was started in the Autumn Term of 2023 at her school. The subject on which the pupils had to create an illustrated A3 sheet of paper entitled ‘Aspirations’, that is, what job they want to do when they finish their formal education.

The fifty one entries were then judged by Chris Edwards, Graham Lawrence and Brian Ray using a set of categories by which the entries were to be judged. The list of categories were Writing, Illustrations, Neatness, Content, Innovativeness, Grammar, and Spelling. Marks out of ten were awarded by each of the judges, independently. The totals for each category by each judge for each entry were accumulated.

Three prizes of Amazon vouchers were to be awarded and a trophy given to the winner. The judges decided there should be four prizes as two entries had tied for third place. The results were confirmed by Loren Way who said that this was a really good competition as it is work by pupils judged by a set of outside people.

On 15th December, 2023, Nick Leaver, the club’s president, attended by Chris and Graham, presented the trophy and prizes to the winners, . The winner wanted to become a Police Officer.