A BARNSLEY school pupil is celebrating this week after being crowned the ‘story-telling champion’ at a regional competition.

Eve Riches, a pupil at Bank End Primary Academy, won the overall winner’s prize at the annual Northern StorySLAM final.

Delivered by United Learning, StorySLAM is a poetry writing and performance competition for pupils in years five and six across the country.

Following on from the success of last year’s competition, 20 primary schools participated in this year’s initiative.

Children at the event also got the opportunity to learn from special guest Kimba, a rapper and author.

Alongside sitting on the judging panel, Kimba ran an exciting poetry workshop for all pupils before their performances where he gave them tips on how to engage an audience and present with confidence.

The poems of all the finalists will be collated and published in the United Learning StorySLAM 2025 Anthology.

Faye Bettison, principal at Bank End Primary Academy, said: “As a school, we are incredibly proud of the achievements of our amazing StorySLAM champion winner, Eve, who worked tirelessly to write her entry and practise her winning performance.

“Well done, Eve.

“It is such an honour for our school to win StorySLAM again after winning the competition in 2023 and I would like to thank my amazing vice principal and year six Teacher, Mrs. Akram, for all her efforts too.”