THE winner of a children's creative writing competition was announced earlier in the month.
Mehek Ahmed, 10, of Highfield Primary School, won Trafford 500 Words with a story called The Magical Door.
The Magical Door stood out among around 2000 entries by children from almost 40 schools.
Developed by Wendi Swan, assistant headteacher at Wellfield Primary School, Trafford 500 Words invited children in Years Three to Six to write a short story using only a picture of a green door as a stimulus.
The competition was supported by the University of Manchester's School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED), which set up a creative writing workshop to help the children with their stories.
Wendi said: "We were in lockdown in January and I wanted to inspire children to write whilst working at home.
"I wanted to make them realise they were still part of a community."
Judges whittled the entries down to 500 in the first round, before choosing a winner from each year group and an overall winner in the second round.
Mehek was announced as the overall winner at the start of July at an event attended by guests including award-winning author Kamila Shamsie and Trafford Council's lead member for education Karina Carter.
She won a Kindle and book vouchers, and The Magical Door is going into an anthology of all the stories to earn a commendation in the competition.
To read The Magical Door, see below.
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