We are thrilled to announce that San Anton School participated for the first time in the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition—and what an extraordinary debut it was! We are immensely proud of our 27 talented young writers across the Junior and Senior Sectors, who collectively achieved bronze, silver and gold awards.
Congratulations to Anna Aquilina, Eliza Azzopardi, Cora Borg Barthet, Olivia Carbonaro, Adam George Camilleri, Jean Paul Camilleri, Lara Camilleri, Maria Pia Ciantar, Sam Ciantar, Berta Cristiano, Francesca Curmi, Faye Dingli, Marcus Farrugia, Luigi Fiott, Rebekah Galdes, Gianni Garcia, Chiara Gouder, Sophie Grima, Michela Lautier, Peter Mamo, Andrew Mifsud Bonnici, Ed Montebello, Max Spiteri Bailey, Leila Anne Sammut, Edward Tabone, and Jessica Warren.
This year's competition attracted remarkable participation, with 53,434 students from 56 Commonwealth nations submitting entries. Winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges including Booker Prize-winning novelist Sir Ben Okri OBE, Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry recipient Imtiaz Dharker, bestselling author Victoria Hislop, and several other acclaimed writers and educators from across the Commonwealth.
This marks our school's first participation in this prestigious competition, and it certainly won't be the last. We remain deeply committed to fostering creative writing excellence and providing opportunities like these for our students to shine.
To commemorate this achievement, we have published all submissions and accompanying artwork in a beautiful keepsake book. Each participant received a copy along with their individual certificate, which was presented to them by our Head of School, Ms Bernadette Stivala, who also led the initiative.
Reading and writing are invaluable lifelong skills, and we encourage our young writers to continue honing their craft.