Premier League Writing Stars is a national poetry competition that inspires schoolchildren across England and Wales to display their creative writing skills.
The competition is run by the Premier League and the National Literacy Trust and encourages children aged 5-11 to write poetry in all its forms, including lyrics or a rap.
Over two years, PL Writing Stars has received an incredible 50,000 poems submitted by children.
In the 2018/19 PL Writing Stars schoolchildren wrote poems on the theme of diversity.
They Key Stage 1 winners were a Year 1 pupils from St Finbar's Catholic Primary School in Liverpool for their poem "Being Different".
Read: 'Being Different'
The winning poem for Key Stage 2 was "An Ordinary Girl from Birmingham" by nine-year-old Maariya, of Heathfield Primary School in Birmingham.
Read: 'An Ordinary Girl from Birmingham'
They and 20 regional winners were selected by a judging panel of former Manchester United player and now BT Sport presenter Rio Ferdinand, singer and songwriter Olly Murs, Waterstone's Children's Laureate Lauren Child, and poet Joseph Coelho.
The winning poems will all be included in a limited-edition Writing Stars book, with pictures from illustrator David Mackintosh, which will be distributed to schools this year.
"If football and the Premier League can come together to help kids understand that literature, writing and reading is a big part of their life going forward then it's an important role to play," says Ferdinand, who made more than 500 PL appearances.
Writing Stars is part of the Premier League Primary Stars education programme.
PL Primary Stars uses the appeal of the Premier League and professional football clubs to inspire children to learn, be active and develop important life skills.
Since its launch in 2017, Primary Stars has engaged more than 16,000 primary schools and 37,000 teachers across England and Wales.
