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A BLACKWOOD pupil is in the running to have her artwork featured in a special set of postal stamps.
Royal Mail and iChild Limited have secured the Guinness World Record for the largest postage stamp design competition with 606,049 entries from 7,479 schools – in a competition celebrating the heroes of the covid pandemic,
The previous record was 239,374, achieved for Royal Mail’s Christmas stamp design competition held in 2013.
12-year-old Brooke Long, a pupil at Glan-y-nant Learning Centre in Blackwood, is one of nine Welsh finalists with 120 finalists across the UK.
We are extremely proud of Brooke, who has been selected as one of the 120 regional finalists in the @RoyalMailStamps’s Heroes stamp competition. An incredible achievement and we’d like to wish her the best of luck in the next stage. Da iawn Brooke #HeroStamps @CaerphillyCBC🤞🏻📮 pic.twitter.com/RaaMViZ2y5
— The Learning Centre – Glan-y-nant (@TLCGlanynant) September 27, 2021
Brooke submitted a design featuring a post office worker as her hero.
Stamp designed by 12-year-old Brooke Long
The other eight Welsh finalists are:
- Amy Bennett, 14 (Cardiff High School, Cardiff)
- Dyfan Jones, six, (Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Bryniago, Swansea)
- Jessica Roberts, 14, (Flint High School, Flint)
- Martha Palmer, 10, (Ysgol Santes Gwenfaen, Holyhead)
- Heather Dawes, 14, (Rhyl High School, Rhyl)
- Megan Earl, eight, (Ysgol Ffridd Y Llyn, Bala)
- Hannah Jones, 10 (Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Bryniago, Swansea)
- Shachow Ali, 11, (Flint High School, Flint)
Designs by Welsh finalists Dyfan Jones and Shachow Ali
The 120 regional finalists – including Brooke – will each receive £100 in gift vouchers and £100 for their school and will go forward to the next stage of the competition with a chance that their design will appear on a stamp next year.
Design by Welsh finalists Megan Earl
Eight winning designs will be chosen to make up a special set of stamps which will be sent to Her Majesty the Queen before they are printed and issued.
Do you work at one of Gwent’s many fantastic schools and want to show off the brilliant work you do each and every day? Click here to submit some information and pictures and we’ll share them with our readers.
Royal Mail CEO, Simon Thompson, said: “We would like to thank all of the 606,049 children who submitted such brilliant designs to the competition. We have been amazed and impressed by the sheer volume of entries.
“To have achieved a Guinness World Records title in the process shows how much the UK’s children value those heroes who have kept the nation moving during such a difficult period. To the 120 regional finalists – well done!
“We are really looking forward to seeing the winning eight designs.”
You can find the regional finalists and their designs here.
OTHER NEWS:
Only five times in the company’s 500-year history have children designed official Royal Mail stamps:
- 1966
- 1981
- 1992
- 2013
- 2017.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said: “It is of great credit to the children of this country that in world record breaking numbers they picked up their paintbrushes, pens and paints and paid artistic tribute to the heroes of our coronavirus response.
“Their brilliant efforts represent the collective gratitude of the nation to everyone who went above and beyond during the pandemic.
“Congratulations to all those who have made it to the next round and thank you to everyone who has taken part and to the teams at Royal Mail for managing this record number of entries.”
