CHILDREN in Hartford have been given awards for their outstanding literary achievements.

Pupils at Hartford Manor Community Primary School have read more than 1,450 books between them as part of the Read For My School competition.

Four pupils were given awards for their particular achievements.

Year Five pupil Alex de Wolff was presented with an award for reading 52 books.

Sisters Anna Smith, from Year Three, and Mary Smith, from Year Five, received awards for reading 160 books and 195 books respectively.

Kerry Westwood, from Year Five, was also awarded for her outstanding effort and attitude to reading as she arrived into school early each morning during the competition on her own initiative to read from the wide selection of books available online.

Jan Diamond, deputy headteacher and organiser of the school’s Read for My School competition, said: “In total, 86 of our Key Stage Two pupils participated in the competition and read a staggering 1,451 books. This goes to show just how much the children here at Hartford Manor love to read and why we have such a high standard of reading at our school. We are so proud of all the children who got involved in the competition.”

Read for My School is the free national reading competition for children ages 7 - 13, delivered through schools in England since 2013 by Pearson and Book Trust with support from the Department for Education.

Over 200,000 children take part in the competition each year, and to date they have read almost 2,000,000 books between them as part of Read for My School.

86% of participating teachers state that taking part in Read for My School has had a positive impact on their whole-school reading culture.