Entertaining stories and captivating presentations

A talking tree, a bee that can’t fly, a wild pony that needs to be captured – these were some of the protagonists of the stories that primary school children in grades 2 to 4 came up with for the 1st FORUM Bookworm Challenge. The first reading and writing competition for children took place last Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Merching at the Forum Media Group headquarters.

Great interest

Around 30 school children from seven elementary schools in the region in Southern Bavaria – Merching, Mering, Kissing, Ried, Hochzoll-Süd, Hochzoll-Nord and the International School Augsburg – took part in the competition. At 5 p.m., the children gathered together with parents, siblings and some grandparents in the Glasforum, the central event room of the Forum Media Group in Merching.

CFO Katrin Krauß-Herkert welcomes everyone present.

Managing Director Katrin Krauß-Herkert welcomed the attendees and explained the idea of the competition: “There are many opportunities for athletic children to compete with others. We wanted to offer the same for reading and writing, as we believe that both will remain important skills for professional careers in the future.”

Two-part competition

After the opening, the children and their parents were divided into three rooms in the building according to their classes. Each class had its own jury consisting of three judges and a jury leader. A total of twelve employees from the Merching Media Group volunteered to support the competition outside of their normal working hours. In the first part of the competition, the children read a previously unknown text for two minutes, which had been selected to suit the respective class level. The jury paid attention to criteria such as reading speed, emphasis and clear pronunciation.

For the second part of the competition, the participants were asked to write their own text on the topic of “summer” in advance, with a maximum length of 500 words. The jury assessed the structure of the story, creativity and vocabulary, among other things. The stories submitted impressed the jury and audience alike. They not only awakened a longing for an outdoor pool or beach vacation, but also took the listeners on imaginative journeys.

Close decisions

At the subsequent prize giving ceremony, the judges were delighted with the presentations. “All the children impressed us with their enthusiasm for reading, writing and storytelling. The race for the top 3 was therefore very close and made us sweat a lot,” said Lena Schwarz, who headed the jury for 2nd grade and actually works as an editor for the specialist magazine “Der Hund” (“The Dog”). She congratulated all the participating children on their great performances. It was not easy for the juries of the other classes either, but in the end they all chose the children who were most convincing in both parts of the competition.

The event was an all-round success and provided a change of pace in the Forum Media Group building. The media group actually specializes in an older target group and offers specialist media, further education and services for many professional groups. At the same time, the company is very family-friendly and employs many parents. But it wasn’t just them who were enthusiastic about the idea of the competition: employees from all age groups got involved in the project and clearly had fun doing so. A repetition next year is already being planned.

Further images from the event: www.forum-media.com/buecherwurm