Four Rickmansworth pupils have made it through to the next round of a national writing competition, organised by BBC Radio 2.

The Year 6 students from St John’s Catholic Primary School, in Berry Lane, have been chosen from 118,000 entries to go through to the next stage of the radio station’s 500 words competition.

The national contest was launched on The Chris Evan’s Breakfast Show earlier this year and 3,500 pieces of work have been picked to go through to the next round of judging.

Paula Smith, the school’s head teacher, said: "For four pupils from one school to make it from 118,000 down to the last 3,500 is an incredible achievement and is testament both to their talent and the teaching and curriculum for writing at St John’s.    

"This fantastic news shows that our strategy of encouraging the children to get enthused and excited about writing is working and that the school is well on its way to being a centre for excellence for writing. 

"We have been focusing on making St John’s a writing school, with a number of initiatives including a whole school writing competition which was judged by pupils, governors and staff, regular writers workshops run by myself and two teachers and a children’s book club and our school business manager even has her own book being published this June."

The school has been told that the next round of the national competition, which will see the 3,500 short stories whittled down to 50, is due to be judged in early May.