Time to Write - Winners announced!

We are delighted to reveal the winners of the IAPS and ISEB Time to Write 2026 competition.

We received almost 3,000 entries for this year’s competition, all on the theme of ‘Thread’. The standard was extremely high, with truly creative storylines, wonderfully crafted characters and brilliant use of vocabulary and language techniques on display.   
Announcing the winners!
  • Years 3 & 4: ‘The Girls’, St Dunstan’s College Junior School, UK.
  • Years 5 & 6: ‘The Journey’, Channing Junior School, UK.
  • Years 7, 8 & 9: ‘The Red Thread’, Perrott Hill, UK.
  • Years 10 & 11: ‘Loose Ends’, The Roman Ridge School, Ghana.
We are delighted that all of the winning writers are from IAPS member schools! All four winners will now see themselves in print, as each will have their story turned into an illustrated book! These books will be illustrated by talented third-year illustration students at our competition sponsor Arts University Bournemouth.

Each winner will also receive an audiobook player, audiobooks and a set of accessories from sponsor Voxblock, an Oxford Dictionary from sponsor Oxford University Press, and a winner's hoodie from sponsor Team Elite!

The winning writer's schools will each be awarded a great set of books for their libraries from our sponsor Oxford University Press.
And the runners-up are...
  • Years 3 & 4: ‘The Threads of Belief’, Winterfold House School, UK, and ‘The Blue Thread’, Lyonsdown School, UK.
  • Years 5 & 6: ‘The Thread at the Bottom of the Box’, Bassett House School, UK, and ‘The Threadlands - The Last Witch’, The Manor Preparatory, UK.
  • Years 7, 8 & 9: ‘Me and Mel’, King's College School Cambridge, UK, and ‘The Girl with The Tattered Red Scarf’, Sherborne Girls, UK.
  • Years 10 & 11: ‘To Come Undone’, SOKA International School, Malaysia, and ‘Threads’, Runnymede College, Spain.
The two runners-up in each category will see their story come to life through an illustrated concept page, created by illustration students at Arts University Bournemouth.
Highly commended stories
Stories that were included in the top ten for each category and were read by our panel of judges in Winchester will each receive a highly commended certificate. You can see these stories on the Time to Write website.
The judging process for 2026
Entries were collaboratively shortlisted online by a group of almost 200 teachers and literary professionals and experts, using Adaptive Comparative Judgement technology on the RM Compare platform. Thank you to all who took part in the shortlisting round.

The top ten entries in each of the four categories were read and discussed by our panel of literary experts in our final judging event, held at St Swithun’s School, in Winchester, last Friday. The panel included:
  • Emma Drage, Senior Commissioning Editor for children’s books at Oxford University Press
  • James Cole, Senior Lecturer at Arts University Bournemouth.
  • Naomi Anson, Head of English at St Swithun's School.
  • Marc Knight, Head of English at York House School.
  • Rebecca Fletcher, literary journalist and author.
  • Rebecca Henderson, Head of English at Marlborough House Vinehall School.
Thank you!

Thank you to everyone involved in this year’s competition, including those who took part in the shortlisting and judging, and our generous sponsors.  We’d also like to thank the teachers who encouraged and supported their young writers to enter and craft their stories.

Most of all, we need to thank the young writers who participated, providing us with memorable, entertaining and enjoyable stories.

It has been a joy to read this year’s entries, and we remain inspired by the creativity shown across every age group.