Hundreds of young students across Swindon are being invited to take part in a competition with cash prizes to celebrate their talent.
Four business owners from Swindon and the Cotswolds have raised thousands of pounds in sponsorship to launch the contest aimed at young people who would have been taking their GCSEs, A Levels or equivalent examinations in 2021.
At the beginning of the first lockdown in March last year, a team of self-employed professionals: Nigel Chute (Chute Design), Allison Murray (Allison Murray Design), Chris Roberts (Chris Roberts MBE PR), and Fiona Scott (Scott Media), founded The Cotswold Challenge to provide support and an educational initiative to 15-19 years old students who were going to miss out on their GCSE and A-Level exams.
With education in schools and colleges being disrupted for the second year running, The Cotswold Challenge team are launching their competition again from June 1st, giving young people from the Cotswolds and across Swindon the chance to win a ‘real world’ prize, judged by people who are successful in their profession.
The team believes that the past year’s Year 11, 12 and 13 students, who have been penned ‘the lost or Covid generation’ need to be able to showcase their talent and be rewarded for what has been, without doubt, a very tough time for them all.
Fiona Scott runs her business, Scott Media, from Swindon and has lived in the town since 1997. She said:
“My daughter was one of those young people last year who left school with 48 hours’ notice, no A level examinations, no long goodbye with friends, and it was heart-breaking. To be able to offer young people an opportunity to shine in another forum is amazing. We felt it was right to do the same thing this year and the first prize winners will get £500 each and a mini professional photo shoot to support them on the next stage of their lives.”
The initiative was so successful in 2020 that around 500 young people entered the categories of Art & Design, Creative Writing, and Innovation & Entrepreneurial Thinking. The prizes in each category are: £500 for first place, £300 for second, £150 for third, £50 for fourth and £25 book tokens for four students in each category who are highly commended. This year there will also be a Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Talent chosen by The Cotswold Challenge team and given to one person in each category.
The Cotswold Challenge 2021 will be launched on Tuesday 1st June. The final closing date will be Tuesday 6th July and judging will take place in mid-July.
The judges in each category to date are:
Art & Design:
Val & Martin Adamson of The Sculpture Studio
Lady Bathurst of Cirencester Park
Martin Burgess – Art gallery owner & artist
Trevor Hart – Creative writer, artist & commercial photography
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen – Interior design & TV presenter
Lucy McMillan-Scott – Portrait artist
Nic Vickery – Artist
Sally Wyatt – Artist
Creative Writing:
Angela Atkinson – Author & Swindon blogger
Paul Cottrell – Creative writer & oil artist
Kim Harvey – Owner of The Mad Hatter Bookshop
Amanda Jennings – Author
C.L. Taylor – Author
Enterprise & Innovation:
Nicky Godding – Editor of Business & Innovation magazine
Adam Henson – Farmer & TV presenter
Andy Langley – CEO of tech company Ntegra
Verity Manners of Wrag Barn Golf Club
Caroline Summers – Owner of The Paperback Shop
Jeevan Thandi of Enterprize
Ruth Waddingham – Designer & innovator
This year’s sponsors to date are:
Jeevan Thandi of Enterprize
Ernest Cook Trust
Jodie Fraser of Fraser Allen Estate Management
Fi Da Silva Adams of Revolution Performing Arts
The Royal Agricultural University
Caroline Summers of The Paperback Shop
Kevin Wignall – Mystery, crime fiction, thriller and suspense novelist
To find out more, please visit: www.thecotswoldchallenge.com
Or email allison@allisonmurraydesign.com or chrisrobertsmbe@gmail.com