500 Words has returned for 2025!

Last week, The Queen hosted finalists, judges and celebrity readers at Buckingham Palace for the Grand Final of the BBC’s creative writing competition, 500 Words. 

The competition, run by BBC Teach and supported by The One Show, encourages children, in the age categories of 5-7 and 8–11, to write a fictional story using 500 words or fewer. 

In September 2024, the 2025 competition was launched, encouraging children to create a short story and submit their entry. 

Earlier this year, the 500 Words judges - Sir Lenny Henry, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson and Malorie Blackman, and new judge Olivia Dean - came together to read the stories and deliberate on the finalists. There were almost 44,000 entries received in total, highlighting the popularity of the writing competition. 

Last week, the 50 finalists came together at a special reception at Buckingham Palace with The Queen. During the Grand Final, the six winners were announced and their stories were read by celebrity readers including Olivia Colman, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Matt Lucas, as well as some of the judges. 

Following the Final, The Queen met six illustrators - Momoko Abe, Dapo Adeola, Rob Biddulph, Yasmeen Ismail, Lydia Monks and Nigel Parkinson - who were commissioned to illustrate the winning stories on display at the reception. 

Also, on display for guests to enjoy were items from the Royal Library, including copies of Oliver Twist, The Little Mermaid and Cinderella.

The final was televised during a special episode of The One Show on Thursday 6th March, World Book Day. Catch up on the show and hear the winning stories, now on BBC iPlayer.