The culmination of...

...a year's work.  The Prizegiving for the 2013 Schools Bible Project took place this week at the House of Lords. Baroness Cox, who is a Trustee of Christian Projects, the group that runs this big annual essay scheme for schools, presented the prizes.

This is a nationwide project, run on a large scale. Every secondary school in Britain receives a brochure, inviting pupils to study six different events in the New Testament. Each pupil must then choose one of the events and write about it as if he or she had been actually present. This year, the events included Christ raising Lazarus from the dead,  Christ calming the storm at sea, Mary Magdalene meeting the risen Christ...

As all the essays pour in, a team of judges is gathered and every essay is read carefully. The main winners are selected, together with a large number of runners-up. Prizes are posted  or delivered to all the schools - a mammoth task. During the Autumn term, I am also  kept busy visiting various schools to present prizes - a task I very much enjoy.

The main winners go to the Houses of Parliament, where they are given a tour and taught about the history (JB's task again) and then there is Tea and the presentation of the prizes - which include books for the pupils, and cash awards for their schools.

The winners this year:
1st prize: Megan Tyrell, St John Payne School, Chelmsford and How Turnbull, Hereford cathedral School.
2nd prize: Tyson McGuirk, St Joseph's School, Workington and Alice Cox, Our Lady's Convent, Loughborough
3rd Prize: Alex Meher. st John's C and E School Epping and Isabella Ward, St Mary's School, Ascot
4th Prize Binuri Wijesinghe Dr Challoner's High Schools, Bucks, Lindsay Marie Davis, Hillgrove School, Bangor and Harrison Tinley, Mayville High School, Southsea.