This article is from page 23 of the 2009-05-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 23 JPG
TWO budding west Clare writers did the county proud at last week’s National INTO/EBS Handwriting Competition, winning one category and coming third in another. Caitrio- na O’Gorman and Ciara Quinlivan, both from Kilmihil National School, each collected awards at the national prize giving ceremony which took place on April 25 at the EBS Head Office in Dublin.
Each girl was presented with a certificate and a specially commis- sioned medal to mark their achieve- ment. Caitriona, took the first prize in the category for third and fourth class students while Ciara took third
place in the category for first and second class students.
The competition involved submit- ting a sample of handwriting on the theme of family. Each entrant was allowed to write a piece of prose or a poem about their own family. The children were not judged on the con- tent of the writing but solely on their handwriting skills.
Caitriona and Ciara both had to qualify through the County Clare element of the National INTO/EBS Handwriting Competition before they made it as far as the national finals.
There was an extra surprise for C1- ara at the ceremony when she won a special prize draw which includes a
trip for her whole family to Disney- land.
The National Handwriting Com- petition is organised each years to encourage young children to develop their handwriting by rewarding ex- cellence in penmanship. The Irish National Teachers Organisation or- ganise the national event, which has been growing in size greatly over the last number of years.
Indeed, this year’s competition had one of the largest entries ever with representative from more than 1,200 schools taking part.
The INTO extended their thanks to all the children who took part in the competition and to their teachers for organising the event in their schools.
“We also thank the INTO Hand- writing Co-ordinators for all their hard work in co-ordinating this event,’ said an INTO spokesperson.
“We realise the enormous work- load involved and appreciate your time and dedication to making this competition a great success.”