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E: 23/02 BBC 500 words story competition (5-19 year olds only)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/13FxbKl0D1DP80zvWRgw2CK/submit-your-500-words-story
See Rule 22 below for prize details.
500 Words Rules
1. The competition is organised by the BBC.
2. The BBC's Code of Conduct for Competitions and Votes applies to this competition. You can read more about it here: BBC Competition Policy.
3. Entry to this competition is open to persons who will be aged between 5 and 13 years on the 16th June 2017 who are full time residents of the UK (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) except the children or close relatives of BBC employees, employees of the Hay Festival, the Reading Agency, Oxford University Press, or the children or close relatives of any person closely connected with the competition. Proof of age, identity and eligibility may be requested. Entry will be in two age categories – ages 5 to 9 years (on 16th June 2017) and 10 to 13 years (on 16th June 2017).
4. Entrants must write a fictional short story (no more than 500 words in length). Entry is via an online entry form available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/500words. Entrants will be asked to provide their name, gender, region and their age. They must enter the story in the text box provided for submission. All stories should be submitted in English. We can only accept stories which are 500 words or under according to the word counter on the online submission form; the BBC cannot accept word counts from any other software. Please make sure you check the word count on our form if you are pasting from another piece of software.
An adult will be required to approve the entry and agree to these Terms and Conditions (including the BBC’s use of the story submitted and the fictional nature of the story) on behalf of the entrant, by way of a check-box in the online form. The adult may be the child’s parent, guardian or teacher. The adult must provide their own contact and personal details (not the child’s).
For the top 50 shortlisted entries, if permission to enter was given by a teacher, the BBC will contact the teacher and ask for confirmation of permission from the entrant’s parent or guardian.
The personal data provided will be used for the purposes of administering the competition and in accordance with the BBC’s Privacy and Cookies Policy. The BBC will use the contact details provided by the adult to send general updates as to the progress of the competition by email. For further information please see the BBC’s Privacy and Cookies Policy
Limited information, which cannot be used to identify any individual, will be passed to Oxford Children’s Corpus for use in Corpus research (age, gender, school postcode, school name, whether the entrant has taken part in the competition before, whether another language is spoken in the home, story text & title).
5. Entry opens on Monday 16th January 2017 at 08:00. Entry closes on Thursday 23rd February 2017 at 19:00. Submissions received outside of this time frame will not be considered, so please do not wait until the last minute to upload your entry. Our website receives a lot of entries in the last few hours of the competition, so make sure you get yours in early.
6. Entrants can only enter individually. Only one entry per person is permitted and the story must be wholly written by the entrant only; stories cannot be written by more than one person. If more than one entry is submitted, only the entrant's first submission will be considered.
7. Entries must be an original piece of fiction and not an account of real events – either historical or current. However, stories can feature well known public figures from present day or from history (e.g. Wayne Rooney or Charles Darwin) take place in historical eras (e.g. the English Civil War) or use real-life experiences as a creative springboard as long as the story is FICTIONAL. If you are unclear on whether the content of a story contradicts these Terms and Conditions email the competition administrators at 500words@bbc.co.uk. The entrant warrants that they have not used material or depicted events that actually took place or used the personal details of any living persons in the story. As the stories will be published it is important that entrants do not include any personal details about themselves. The entrant must not include their name in the title or body of the story; entries which do contain this information may be removed from the competition.
8. Entries cannot be returned so please remember to retain a copy. Unsuccessful entrants will be contacted in respect of their entry but no feedback on any entry will be provided.
9. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The BBC accepts no responsibility if entrants ignore these Terms and Conditions and entrants agree to indemnify the BBC against any claim by any third party from any breach of these Terms and Conditions.
10. Entries must not contain defamatory, obscene, offensive, or any other unsuitable material. Entries must be suitable to be broadcast, published or used online by the BBC for audiences of all ages, but in particular for a child audience. Please see the following for further information: BBC Editorial Guidelines, If the story has troubling content the BBC may if required take advice from the NSPCC, and may refer the Troubling Content to the relevant authorities BBC Child Protection Policy.
11. Entrants retain the copyright in their entries but grant to the BBC a perpetual non-exclusive royalty-free licence to publish, broadcast (across all media) and post the entry online and on any other platforms yet to be envisaged. This licence will be deemed to include all the necessary rights and permissions to enable such use by the BBC, to fulfill the prizes and to complete the administration of this competition.
12. By submitting a story the entrant agrees that the BBC may at its sole discretion edit, adapt, abridge or translate the entry for the purposes listed in clause 11 above.
13. In the event that the entry is published online at https://www.bbc.co.uk/500words, for the avoidance of doubt, this will not be part of, or influence in any way, the judging process. Only the story title, entrant’s name and age will be published with an entry.
14. Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Originality
- Plot
- Characterisation
- Language
- Enjoyment
15. The first round will be judged by teachers and librarians across the UK. Each teacher and librarian will receive a batch of anonymised stories, from entrants located in a different area of the UK, to read and score using the criteria above. Each teacher and librarian will be emailed all stories (via a secure login) along with details of the criteria and how to score the stories. The 4500 highest scored entries from this round will be put through to the next round. This process will be overseen by a BBC Editorial Figure. Parents or teachers of entrants may sign up to judge in the competition.
16. All teachers and librarians taking part in the judging will automatically be entered into a draw, the winners of which will be randomly selected, to receive a pair of tickets to attend the broadcast of The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Friday 16th June 2017.
17. The Top 50 shortlisted entrants will receive a pair of tickets to the Final (for the entrant and a parent or guardian). All entrants of the competition will be asked if they wish to be entered into a random ballot to receive a pair of tickets (for the entrant and a parent or guardian) to the Final; this ballot will be run among the remaining entrants after the finalists have been selected, and winners of the ballot will be notified in May. We cannot notify unsuccessful members of the ballot. The BBC cannot pay for the travel and accommodation of winners of the ballot.
18. The 4500 highest scored entries from the first round of judging will be collated and considered by a judging panel from The Reading Agency, in partnership with a BBC Editorial Figure. The Reading Agency panel will read and score these anonymised stories using the criteria above, to produce a shortlist of the top 50 entries comprising the top 25 entries from each of the two age categories. The Top 50 stories will be verified by a BBC Editorial figure and the ages and identities of the writers confirmed.
19. These top 50 entries will be read and judged by a guest panel chaired by Chris Evans. 3 finalists with 1 overall winner will be selected in each age category (gold, silver and bronze – gold being the overall winners).
20. The Top 50 shortlisted entrants (25 in each age category) will be invited to attend the final at a London location on Friday 16th June 2017 for the live broadcast of the BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show. The full names of the 6 finalists and the overall winners will be announced during this live broadcast, subject to parental consent. We will request parental consent for pictures of the Top 50 children for use during the broadcast. These pictures are not for online publication.
21. The entries from the 6 finalists will be performed by an actor or well-known figure and broadcast on Radio 2. In addition, the entries of the 6 finalists may be published in a national newspaper. An anthology of the top 50 entries (25 in each age category) may also be published.
22. Prizes will be awarded to the 3 finalists in each age category: the 2 Gold winners will win Chris Evans' height in books (6.2") and 500 books each for their school. The 2 Silver winners will win Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall's height in books (5.6"). The 2 Bronze winners will win their own height in books.
23. The parents or guardians of the top 50 successful entrants will be contacted by a member of the production team at the beginning of May 2017; further proof of age, identity and eligibility may be requested at this stage. The BBC will contribute towards travel expenses and endeavour where possible to provide one twin hotel room to share for the child and a parent or guardian to attend the broadcast of The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Friday 16th June 2017, however the BBC cannot cover any additional travel and accommodation that may be incurred by any other family or friends of the entrant.
24. The BBC's decision as to each stage of this competition, the top 50 (25 in each category), the 6 finalists and the choice of gold, silver and bronze in each category is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
25. The BBC reserves the right to disqualify any entry which breaches any of these Terms and Conditions, or to withhold a prize if in its opinion entries do not reach the required standard.
26. The BBC reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions or cancel this competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.
27. The BBC, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries, agencies and/or any other organisation associated with this competition cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any server, Internet access, system or otherwise which may result in any entry being lost or not properly registered or recorded. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt.
28. These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
Any reference made in these Terms and Conditions to "Hay Festival" or "The Hay Festival" refers to Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts being staged at Hay on Wye in 2017.
See Rule 22 below for prize details.
500 Words Rules
1. The competition is organised by the BBC.
2. The BBC's Code of Conduct for Competitions and Votes applies to this competition. You can read more about it here: BBC Competition Policy.
3. Entry to this competition is open to persons who will be aged between 5 and 13 years on the 16th June 2017 who are full time residents of the UK (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) except the children or close relatives of BBC employees, employees of the Hay Festival, the Reading Agency, Oxford University Press, or the children or close relatives of any person closely connected with the competition. Proof of age, identity and eligibility may be requested. Entry will be in two age categories – ages 5 to 9 years (on 16th June 2017) and 10 to 13 years (on 16th June 2017).
4. Entrants must write a fictional short story (no more than 500 words in length). Entry is via an online entry form available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/500words. Entrants will be asked to provide their name, gender, region and their age. They must enter the story in the text box provided for submission. All stories should be submitted in English. We can only accept stories which are 500 words or under according to the word counter on the online submission form; the BBC cannot accept word counts from any other software. Please make sure you check the word count on our form if you are pasting from another piece of software.
An adult will be required to approve the entry and agree to these Terms and Conditions (including the BBC’s use of the story submitted and the fictional nature of the story) on behalf of the entrant, by way of a check-box in the online form. The adult may be the child’s parent, guardian or teacher. The adult must provide their own contact and personal details (not the child’s).
For the top 50 shortlisted entries, if permission to enter was given by a teacher, the BBC will contact the teacher and ask for confirmation of permission from the entrant’s parent or guardian.
The personal data provided will be used for the purposes of administering the competition and in accordance with the BBC’s Privacy and Cookies Policy. The BBC will use the contact details provided by the adult to send general updates as to the progress of the competition by email. For further information please see the BBC’s Privacy and Cookies Policy
Limited information, which cannot be used to identify any individual, will be passed to Oxford Children’s Corpus for use in Corpus research (age, gender, school postcode, school name, whether the entrant has taken part in the competition before, whether another language is spoken in the home, story text & title).
5. Entry opens on Monday 16th January 2017 at 08:00. Entry closes on Thursday 23rd February 2017 at 19:00. Submissions received outside of this time frame will not be considered, so please do not wait until the last minute to upload your entry. Our website receives a lot of entries in the last few hours of the competition, so make sure you get yours in early.
6. Entrants can only enter individually. Only one entry per person is permitted and the story must be wholly written by the entrant only; stories cannot be written by more than one person. If more than one entry is submitted, only the entrant's first submission will be considered.
7. Entries must be an original piece of fiction and not an account of real events – either historical or current. However, stories can feature well known public figures from present day or from history (e.g. Wayne Rooney or Charles Darwin) take place in historical eras (e.g. the English Civil War) or use real-life experiences as a creative springboard as long as the story is FICTIONAL. If you are unclear on whether the content of a story contradicts these Terms and Conditions email the competition administrators at 500words@bbc.co.uk. The entrant warrants that they have not used material or depicted events that actually took place or used the personal details of any living persons in the story. As the stories will be published it is important that entrants do not include any personal details about themselves. The entrant must not include their name in the title or body of the story; entries which do contain this information may be removed from the competition.
8. Entries cannot be returned so please remember to retain a copy. Unsuccessful entrants will be contacted in respect of their entry but no feedback on any entry will be provided.
9. All entries must be the original work of the entrant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. The BBC accepts no responsibility if entrants ignore these Terms and Conditions and entrants agree to indemnify the BBC against any claim by any third party from any breach of these Terms and Conditions.
10. Entries must not contain defamatory, obscene, offensive, or any other unsuitable material. Entries must be suitable to be broadcast, published or used online by the BBC for audiences of all ages, but in particular for a child audience. Please see the following for further information: BBC Editorial Guidelines, If the story has troubling content the BBC may if required take advice from the NSPCC, and may refer the Troubling Content to the relevant authorities BBC Child Protection Policy.
11. Entrants retain the copyright in their entries but grant to the BBC a perpetual non-exclusive royalty-free licence to publish, broadcast (across all media) and post the entry online and on any other platforms yet to be envisaged. This licence will be deemed to include all the necessary rights and permissions to enable such use by the BBC, to fulfill the prizes and to complete the administration of this competition.
12. By submitting a story the entrant agrees that the BBC may at its sole discretion edit, adapt, abridge or translate the entry for the purposes listed in clause 11 above.
13. In the event that the entry is published online at https://www.bbc.co.uk/500words, for the avoidance of doubt, this will not be part of, or influence in any way, the judging process. Only the story title, entrant’s name and age will be published with an entry.
14. Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Originality
- Plot
- Characterisation
- Language
- Enjoyment
15. The first round will be judged by teachers and librarians across the UK. Each teacher and librarian will receive a batch of anonymised stories, from entrants located in a different area of the UK, to read and score using the criteria above. Each teacher and librarian will be emailed all stories (via a secure login) along with details of the criteria and how to score the stories. The 4500 highest scored entries from this round will be put through to the next round. This process will be overseen by a BBC Editorial Figure. Parents or teachers of entrants may sign up to judge in the competition.
16. All teachers and librarians taking part in the judging will automatically be entered into a draw, the winners of which will be randomly selected, to receive a pair of tickets to attend the broadcast of The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Friday 16th June 2017.
17. The Top 50 shortlisted entrants will receive a pair of tickets to the Final (for the entrant and a parent or guardian). All entrants of the competition will be asked if they wish to be entered into a random ballot to receive a pair of tickets (for the entrant and a parent or guardian) to the Final; this ballot will be run among the remaining entrants after the finalists have been selected, and winners of the ballot will be notified in May. We cannot notify unsuccessful members of the ballot. The BBC cannot pay for the travel and accommodation of winners of the ballot.
18. The 4500 highest scored entries from the first round of judging will be collated and considered by a judging panel from The Reading Agency, in partnership with a BBC Editorial Figure. The Reading Agency panel will read and score these anonymised stories using the criteria above, to produce a shortlist of the top 50 entries comprising the top 25 entries from each of the two age categories. The Top 50 stories will be verified by a BBC Editorial figure and the ages and identities of the writers confirmed.
19. These top 50 entries will be read and judged by a guest panel chaired by Chris Evans. 3 finalists with 1 overall winner will be selected in each age category (gold, silver and bronze – gold being the overall winners).
20. The Top 50 shortlisted entrants (25 in each age category) will be invited to attend the final at a London location on Friday 16th June 2017 for the live broadcast of the BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show. The full names of the 6 finalists and the overall winners will be announced during this live broadcast, subject to parental consent. We will request parental consent for pictures of the Top 50 children for use during the broadcast. These pictures are not for online publication.
21. The entries from the 6 finalists will be performed by an actor or well-known figure and broadcast on Radio 2. In addition, the entries of the 6 finalists may be published in a national newspaper. An anthology of the top 50 entries (25 in each age category) may also be published.
22. Prizes will be awarded to the 3 finalists in each age category: the 2 Gold winners will win Chris Evans' height in books (6.2") and 500 books each for their school. The 2 Silver winners will win Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall's height in books (5.6"). The 2 Bronze winners will win their own height in books.
23. The parents or guardians of the top 50 successful entrants will be contacted by a member of the production team at the beginning of May 2017; further proof of age, identity and eligibility may be requested at this stage. The BBC will contribute towards travel expenses and endeavour where possible to provide one twin hotel room to share for the child and a parent or guardian to attend the broadcast of The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Friday 16th June 2017, however the BBC cannot cover any additional travel and accommodation that may be incurred by any other family or friends of the entrant.
24. The BBC's decision as to each stage of this competition, the top 50 (25 in each category), the 6 finalists and the choice of gold, silver and bronze in each category is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
25. The BBC reserves the right to disqualify any entry which breaches any of these Terms and Conditions, or to withhold a prize if in its opinion entries do not reach the required standard.
26. The BBC reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions or cancel this competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.
27. The BBC, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries, agencies and/or any other organisation associated with this competition cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any server, Internet access, system or otherwise which may result in any entry being lost or not properly registered or recorded. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt.
28. These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
Any reference made in these Terms and Conditions to "Hay Festival" or "The Hay Festival" refers to Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts being staged at Hay on Wye in 2017.
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