Suggest next year’s theme!
Choose from the list of possible themes and suggest your own idea!
Teachers – give us feedback!
The winners!
Congratulations to the 50 competition winners whose poems and stories will be published in the Loast and Found book.
- Winners are listed in school order or listed under Idea Stores if are Tower Hamlets residents but do not attend a Tower Hamlets school
- Prizes (1st, 2nd, 3rd place and commended in each category) will be announced at the prize-giving!
- Prizes are awarded to pupils whose work was selected by the competition judges
- Additional runner-up stories and poems will also be published in the book
- All of the prize-winners entered either via their school or the Tower Hamlets Idea Stores. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- If the work of any prize-winner listed is subsequently found to be AI-generated or plagiarised, we reserve the right to disqualify this work.
Prize Giving
Date and Venue : Monday 21st September 2026
The Grocers Wing, Tower Hamlets Town Hall, Whitechapel
4:45pm to 6pm.
Prizes to be awarded by competition judges JP Rose and Jessica Spanyol.
*** Please inform us of any spelling errors or name changes by 10th July – we will use pupil names as written below in the published book and on certificates. ***
Anyone wishing to make any changes or to withdraw their work from the published (paperback) book must contact the Schools Library Services by 10th July 2026.
| Pupil name | Pupil school |
| Maya Hussain | Bigland Green Primary School |
| Alfil Bhuiyan, Shakir Hussain, Hamza Ali & Jawad Shah (group entry) | Blue Gate Fields Junior School |
| Arisha Rahman Chowdhury | Blue Gate Fields Junior School |
| Jibreel Yasin | Blue Gate Fields Junior School |
| Md Omar Jakir | Blue Gate Fields Junior School |
| Nura Ali | Blue Gate Fields Junior School |
| Zaynab Hussain | Blue Gate Fields Junior School |
| Retal Afifi | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Dora Dey | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Jannat Rashid | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Loren-Joe Hossain Ali | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Mary Tekle | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Minha Syeda Ali | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Myra Meher Choudhury | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Priyota Rahman | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Sahela Afrin Shajuti | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Taha Rahman | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Usha Anamika | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Wajeeha Syeda Ali | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Yusra Halim | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Zunainah Alam | Central Foundation Girls’ School |
| Dylan Finlayson | Chisenhale Primary School |
| Enid Akinola | Chisenhale Primary School |
| Lily Isherwood | Chisenhale Primary School |
| Nina Morin Gomes | Chisenhale Primary School |
| Harlan Turvey Burbidge | Globe Primary School |
| Jasper Wilson | Globe Primary School |
| Hrithvik Singh | Idea Stores |
| Nabiha Mujahid | Idea Stores |
| Aarifah Rahman | Mayflower Primary School |
| Jing Wen | Mayflower Primary School |
| Asia Ibrahim | Mulberry School For Girls |
| Fariha Hossain | Mulberry School For Girls |
| Mariyah Zaman-Shikder | Mulberry School for Girls |
| Rachael Obue-Grillo | Mulberry School for Girls |
| Charis Jelfs | Old Palace Primary School |
| Ali Eid | Osmani Primary School |
| Sadiyah Ahmed | Osmani Primary School |
| Nusrat Hossain Mim | Stepney All Saints School |
| Alice Addari | The Aldgate School |
| Ariela Thomas McKenzie | The Aldgate School |
| Caleb Mitchell | The Aldgate School |
| Lara Abraham-Schiebuhr | The Aldgate School |
| Ruby Bail | The Aldgate School |
| Alisha Kazi | Thomas Buxton Primary School |
| Ayat Rahman Miah | Thomas Buxton Primary School |
| Jasia Amin | Thomas Buxton Primary School |
| Abdur-Rahman Saad | Wellington Primary School |
| Leena Aqsa Djellal | Woolmore Primary School |
| Mariam Rahman | Woolmore Primary School |
This year, we’ve had two fantastic authors judging the competition!
Jessica Spanyol
Jessica is both an author and illustrator. She’s best kown for the Carlo series, Minibugs series and the Rosa series of picture books.
J.P. Rose
J.P. writes for both adults and children. Her most recent books – The Haunting of Tyrese Walker and Birdie – were shortlisted for the Tower Hamlets Book Awards
Competition Theme :
Lost and Found
For Schools
Parents/ students entering via the Idea Stores do NOT need to register
In order to enter the competition, receive posters, entry forms and flyers, and take advantage of these free author workshops, schools need to:
- enter the competition by “buying” it via the Services to Schools/ SLAonline platform (Creative Writing Competition 2025. Just £40 to subscribing primary schools to cover administration – discount applied on purchase)
- email jacob.turner@towerhamlets.gov.uk letting us know who is to lead on running this event in your school.
- use the form at the bottom of this page to book your free writing workshops!
Workshops are available on a first come-first served basis. All schools that pay to take part in the competition can send an unlimited number of entries from their school for judging. The competition will be judged by two children’s authors (names to be announced).
The Arts Council grant also enables us to publish a book of the winning entries.
For Parents
If your child’s school has registered for the competition, or you’re entering via Tower Hamlets public libraries.
Please note – to be elligible for this competition, children need to:
- attend a school in Tower Hamlets OR
- be a Tower Hamlets resident OR
- attend a school that subscribes to the Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services
Entering the competition
Visit our Get Writing page for
- Ideas on how to approach the theme
- Story prompts
- How to write poems
- How to write stories
- How to create a character
- Full competition rules and advice on what the judges are looking for
Visit our ENTRY FORM page when you’re ready to send us your writing
Fully-funded writing workshops for schools
We are thrilled to announce that Arts Council England has again awarded Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service with a grant to enhance our annual Creative Writing Competition with author-led creative writing workshops for schools, Idea Stores and home-educated children.
The author workshops are intended to provide practical creative writing skills to your pupils (and teachers!) including structuring a story and character creation. The workshops will relate to the theme of the competition but the skills learnt can be applied to other projects and lessons.
Competition Registration
Schools requesting workshops will be assumed to be registering for the Writing Competition and will be elligible for entry fees (see above)
How will a visit to your school work?
- It is our intention to arrange in-person author visits rather than virtual visits.
- An author will be able to work with up to 2 groups of pupils during the time allocated to their visit. These 2 sessions will be up to 50 minutes each and run one after the other with a short break in between.
- An author or poet can also work with just 1 group for the visit duration as a more advanced workshop for older pupils – let us know in the additional details box in the booking form.
- The school should suggest a date or (preferably) a range of dates during which you can host your visit. We will match you with an author based on your requirements and their availability.
- Workshops should take place from January to March (world book day week is likely to be booked up very early on)
- Each group of pupils can be up to the size of one class
- Workshops can be for all ages from year 1 upwards
- Groups can be of mixed ages, although there shouldn’t be too wide a gap between these ages in order to ensure age-appropriate content