FOUR students from Gordon’s School, West End, have led the winners in the Woking District Rotary Club Young Writer competition.

Marco Ferdinando, Ben Platt, Rory Green and Owen Knight took the honours in the Woking round of the national competition organised by Rotary clubs.

Addressing the subject of peace, students were invited to compose a short piece of poetry or prose on the topic. 

The competition is aimed at secondary school pupils, and more than 30 entries were received in the aged-based categories of intermediate and senior. 

The winners now go through to a regional stage, and if successful there they will represent their school and Woking on the national stage.

Rotarian Dorothy Flower headed the judging panel. “We were delighted to receive so many good-quality entries,” she said. “It was quite a task to whittle the entries down to select the winners – but a very enjoyable one.”

Roy Alder, of Woking District Rotary Club, organised the competition. He added: “We reckon this is an excellent competition for school pupils to enter as it helps to develop critical thinking and creative writing.”

The winning students were invited to a meeting of Woking District Rotary Club, at which  they were presented with their prizes by the Mayor of Woking, Cllr Saj Hussain.