A
s I write to you, we’ve just wrapped up this year’s
Hong Kong Young Writers
Awards
(HKYWA). Our parent company – P3 – has been sponsoring and organising this
wonderful competition for five years now, and
Playtimes
lends a hand. I’ve had the pleasure
of judging entries and presenting awards for several years now, and I always
leave the ceremony
feeling so uplifted
, so full of promise for the next generation of writers.
It works like this: starting in September, schools sign up to participate in the competition. There’s a
theme (this year it was “New Tales of the Gobi Desert”), and kids can choose to write fiction, non-fiction or
poetry, or create cover art. The schools then select the best pieces and submit them for judging. This year,
we received
more than 900 entries from 135 schools!
From there, the pieces are judged
and winners selected – there’s a winner in every category and age group, and an overall winner. The whole
process culminates in a lovely awards ceremony in April and a published anthology of the students’ work.
If you’ve got school-aged kids who love to write or draw, I encourage you to learn more about the
HKYWA. We’ve included some photos from the awards ceremony on page 116, along with the website so
you can look into getting involved with next year’s programme.
The rest of this issue is all about
health and fitness
. If the rain ever stops, you might be
looking for
ways to enjoy the outdoors as a family
. We’ve got expert advice inside. If you
manage to get your kids exercising and participating in sports, you might want to learn about preventing
injuries. We’ve got that covered, too. And, if you’re still not convinced that spending time on sports is as
valuable as time spent studying, read on for some perspective.
We’ve also
updated our summer camps listing
. There’s just so much to do this
summer, you’ll wish you were a kid again!
Thanks for reading,
Tracey Starr, Editor-in-Chief
welcome
Tracey and models Eva and Kyla
6
Playtimes
