In honour of Nigel Pickard, the former Ransom Road Head of School at the Academy, the Nigel Pickard prize has been established by First Story, to celebrate and inspire creative writing in secondary school pupils in Nottingham.

First Story was started by former teacher Katie Waldegrave and writer William Fiennes to support and inspire creativity, literacy and talent in schools and communities across the United Kingdom.  They currently have twenty-six residencies under way at schools in London, Oxford and Nottingham.

This prize is in memory of Nigel, who was an inspirational English teacher and school leader and was passionate about encouraging young people to write.  He saw writing as a joyful expression of creativity and personality and a powerful agent for literacy and self-esteem.

Each year First Story will hold a creative writing competition; the winner will receive a laptop and there will be two runners-up who will receive book tokens to the value of £50.  All three will have their work featured in the Nottingham Evening Post.

This year the theme of the prize is 'humour'.  The challenge for pupils is to write a story in 75 words or less!

Entries should be sent to competition@firststory.co.uk 

The deadline is 21 August 2012.  Entrants must be between the ages of 11 and 18 years old on 21 August 2012 and must either live or study in Nottingham City.

In the first instance, the prize will be funded jointly by the Academy sponsor, the Greenwood Dale Foundation Trust, the Nottingham Academy, and First Story.  The prize will be judged by a panel including Jon McGregor and William Fiennes and this inaugural prize will be awarded in the autumn of 2012.