Lichfield Radio Host tells us about Judging the BBC 500 Words Competition and Introduces ‘The Lunar Listeners’ Club’ Podcast
Iona Chisholm has joined Lichfield Radio as a host of the live Monday lunchtime show and three of our podcasts. She’ll be presenting our gardening podcast, ‘Sowing and Growing’, our parenting podcast, ‘Parenting Wins’ and a podcast for young readers called ‘The Lunar Listeners’ Club.’
These podcasts cover Iona’s main areas of interest. She is a keen gardener and writes for gardening magazines, she is the proud mum of four sons and, as a volunteer school Governor with a focus area of writing, she is always on the lookout for ways to promote children’s writing, listening and reading skills in an enjoyable way.
Iona now works as a writer and writes monthly for Garden News Magazine’s ‘Over the Fence’ feature and occasionally for other gardening magazines such as ‘Gardeners’ World’ and ‘Modern Gardens’, plus wildlife and travel magazines (such as ‘Sail Away’), when the opportunity arises.
‘I’ve always loved writing,’ Iona says, ‘I remember being very proud of myself at primary school when I described the skin on an old man’s face as ‘…wrinkled, like a brown paper bag.’ When I took a career break from the law to raise our family, I rediscovered my love of creative writing and I started to self-publish some rhyming children’s books on Amazon. My latest book is called ‘Hector the Hermit Crab Finds a New Home’. It is a rhyming children’s picture book set in a rockpool and about a hermit crab who has outgrown his shell and asks his rockpool friends for help to try and find another one. When he finally does, he is sad that his old shell is empty. However, it soon becomes home to the hermit crab, Mona, whose shell was broken and they become friends. I took my storytelling workshop based on this book to local libraries last summer and really enjoyed spreading the message of the book which is to take care of the beach, the ocean and everything in it.’
Having published his book, Iona found more confidence to enter writing competitions and started to attend a weekly writing group which happens to be led by Lichfield Radio’s Head of Culture and presenter of the Arts Podcast, Joss Knibb. Currently, Iona is one of the thousands of volunteer judges investing in the BBC 500 Words children’s writing competition.
I get so much pleasure from reading and writing, and being able to read the BBC 500 Words entries that are allocated to me for marking is such a privilege. The different characters, settings and plots that are imagined and woven into wonderful tales by the 8–11-year-olds that I judge, is nothing short of inspiring.
Here’s all you need to know about the BBC 500 words competition.
All 500 Words stories must:
- Be 500 words or less (title is not included in the number)
- Be written by an individual and not a group
- Be a child’s own original idea
- Be prose, not rap or poem
There are two age categories for entry into the 500 Words competition: 5-7 and 8-11 year-olds and spelling, punctuation and grammar are not marked – as has always been the case for 500 Words, it’s all about brilliant creativity!
In every 500 Words competition, all stories are judged on the following criteria:
- Characterisation
- Plot
- Originality
- Language
- Enjoyment
The competition usually opens for entries in September and closes in November. Marking is currently in progress for this year’s competition.
If you are a Teacher, Teaching Assistant, Librarian or SEND staff, and love to read and mark the work of 5-11 year-olds, then you could sign up to be one of the thousands of volunteer judges for next year’s competition. You need to apply for a particular age category and provide a reference and, if being able to read and mark children’s stories isn’t enough, each volunteer judge is entered into a random draw and could see themselves attending the Final.
Actor and children’s author Rose Ayling-Ellis has joined Sir Lenny Henry, Malorie Blackman, Francesca Simon, Charlie Higson and Frank Cottrell-Boyce to complete the panel of celebrity judges for the 2025/26 competition.
When the judging is concluded, 50 finalists will be invited to a star-studded Grand Final at Windsor Castle in February 2026, which will be hosted by Her Majesty Queen Camilla. Bronze, Silver and Gold winners will be announced, along with the six overall winners who will have their story read by a celebrity on TV. This will be shown as part of a special 500 Words programme on The One Show in early March 2026.
The Gold, Silver and Bronze winners of both age categories will receive a huge bundle of books:
- Gold winning stories will receive the height of Sir Lenny Henry in books,
- Silver win the height of Her Majesty The Queen in books, and
- Bronze winners win the average height of a child relevant to their age category in books.
The Gold winners’ schools will also receive 500 books each for their school library.
All winning stories will be illustrated by children’s illustrators and published in a special 500 Words winners’ book, which will be produced by The Oxford University Press. Illustrators include Korky Paul, Harriet Muncaster, Paula Bowles, Rochelle Falconer, Leigh Hodgkinson and Ken Wilson-Max.
Any eligible schools with 50% free school meals (or above) that submit entries will receive a £75 Book Token.
As an added incentive for schools to enter, every story (excluding Bronze, Silver and Gold winners) is entered into a random draw. The entrant will not only receive a ticket to the Final (with a parent or guardian) and a bundle of books for themselves, but their school will also receive 500 books and a literacy wall art, to promote the love of storytelling.
‘I feel a real responsibility when judging the stories,’ Iona confides, ‘because it is very clear that the entrants have taken so much time and effort to craft their entries and so I always read each story several times and compare the batch of stories which I am sent to mark with each other before I finally submit their scores to the BBC. Once that is done, I wait for more stories to be allocated to me and this continues until the final marking date, which this year is 3 December.’
As a volunteer school Governor, Iona attends regular meetings and makes school visits to celebrate the strengths of the school and support its continued growth and development. She takes a particular interest in the journey that children make with their writing and spelling throughout the school.
Iona comments, ‘Visiting Chadsmead Primary School is such a joy because you can see how much energy and passion the staff put into the writing and reading provision and the children are so enthusiastic. I love to see their pride in their work and how the children and staff flourish together throughout the school year when following exciting new writing initiatives.’
And Iona hopes that ‘The Lunar Listeners’ Club’ will encourage children to listen to stories and poems and then be inspired to write their own.
She concludes, ‘I hope that ‘The Lunar Listeners’’ Podcast will bring children enjoyment and inspiration for listening, reading and writing stories. I’ll be asking listeners in the podcasts to think about how a poem or story that I have read out makes them feel, if any words stood out for them and what they have imagined the main character and the settings to look like. Also, I’ll challenge them to think about how they would continue a story or poem if they could write what happens next. Maybe these questions will inspire listeners to enter writing competitions such as BBC 500 words next year…’
The Lunar Listeners’ Club Podcast is open to anyone who likes to hear stories and will be broadcasting with poems and stories when Lichfield Radio goes live from 19 January 2026. To start with, the podcast will feature Beatrix Potter’s stories and a book first written in 1911 called ‘The Magic Dragon’ by Baldwin S Harvey.
Iona will be sourcing books that are out of copyright and in the public domain and so if you have any children’s stories that were published in the 1910s or 1920s or any known public domain titles that Iona could borrow and read out on the podcast, then please do get in touch. Alternatively, if you are a local writer who would like to offer your stories for broadcast, then please let Iona know.
Look out for more information on ‘The Lunar Listeners’ Club’ podcast on Instagram @thelunarlistenersclub
Look out for more information on the gardening ‘Sowing and Growing’ podcast on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/sowingandgrowingpodcast
Look out for more information on the Parenting podcast ‘Parenting Wins’ on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/parentingwinspodcast
See the 500 words website for more information on that competition and for next year’s opening dates.
