Hollywood star Nicole Kidman reads out schoolgirl's story that won a national Black Lives Matter-themed contest
An Aslockton schoolgirl has won a national writing competition.
Lucy Moxey has won a national competition organised by Virgin Radio, which encouraged children to submit 500-word pieces with the theme being the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
Lucy attends Archbishop Cranmer Academy in Aslockton, and was among more than 6,000 entries to the competition from children across the country.
At just 10 years old, Lucy won the older age category of the competition against children up to the age of 13.
Hollywood star Nicole Kidman read Lucy’s winning submission, entitled ‘Kristofer Was Quiet In School Today’, live on Virgin Radio.
For those who missed the live reading of Lucy’s piece, a podcast where celebrity actors read out the eight stories that made the final can be found on Spotify or Amazon Alexa by searching for ‘500 words: Black Lives Matter’.
On the podcast, TV actor Rob Brydon read out Lucy’s story.
Eight finalists were chosen by a judging panel, which included notable authors such as Malorie Blackman, Charlie Higson, Francesca Simon and Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
Lauren Rogers, deputy headteacher at Archbishop Cranmer, said: “Lucy’s done such an amazing job. We’re really proud of her as a school community.”
The competition, a special edtition of Chris Evans’ 500 words initiative, sought to encourage children to join in the BLM conversation.
Fred Manning, a member of Archbishop Cranmer School’s governing body, said: “It’s absolutely fantastic. She did it off her own back. Quite incredible, I think.
“The school is closely associated with the local church in Aslockton and its religious themes, including BLM, are quite high up on our priorities at the moment.
“Lucy is a fifth year student and is obviously very talented. It is ironic that such a leafy backwater of Nottinghamshire can produce such talented authors.”
Here is Lucy’s powerfully written submission: "Kristofer was quiet in school today. When I asked him why, he told me he was late home because him and his mom were stopped by the security guard in the grocery store. I remember when that guy helped me when my bike had a flat tyre. So he obviously had a good reason to do what he did. He's a good man. After lunch we did science. I hate science. It so hard. But Kristofer loves it. I have no idea why, but he's very good at it. He is very smart.
"Kristofer was quiet in school today. When I asked him why, he told me his mom still hadn't found a job. I remember months ago Kris said his mom was looking for a job. I don't know why, but I expected she would have found one by now! My mom found a job in only a few weeks! He was quite sad about it, so we played his favourite game at recess. He'd bought his toy gun into school (he's not allowed, but I didn't tell). That game seemed to cheer him up a bit. We had so much fun, but for some reason my Mom wouldn't let him come over after school.
"Kristofer was quiet in school today. When I asked him why, he said he and his older brother had 'the talk' I don't know what that means... so I asked him. He said that boys with brown skin had to be told what to do when a cop approached them. Why though? Police are there to protect us, doesn't he understand that? Police are our friends. Kris told me he heard his parents say that 'there were guns in our area' whatever that means. Then we played soccer. It was super fun. I like soccer.
"Kristofer was quiet in school today. When I asked him why, he said he was watching the news and his Dad told him to go out the room. But he peaked at it anyway. He saw riots, and police and signs that said 'BLM'. What's 'BLM'? why was Kris watching the news anyway? It's boring. I never watch the news. And why would Kris's Dad tell him to go out the room? There's nothing to hide, like I said, it's boring anyways. At lunchtime we played tag. I was it. But when I went home my Mom told me I couldn't hang out with Kris anymore. I was super sad about it. What did Kris ever do wrong?
"Kristofer was not in school today. He might have caught the bug I thought. It's spreading. The Teachers called us in to assembly. Our Teacher was crying. She told us Kris is not coming to school today, that he's never coming to school ever again, whatever that means. She said the police had thought the toy gun he had was real. I don't understand. I'm scared. I wish Kris were here so I could ask him what this is all about."
