Wales

This year’s ceremony took place in the President’s Lounge at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, and was hosted by The Welsh Rugby Union Group. This stadium is accustomed to hard-fought rugby competitions and to welcoming hordes of excited rugby supporters, but the staff gave a very warm welcome to the excited schoolchildren and their teachers from 45 schools who came to find out who had won the prizes in this, the 23 rd year of this national competition. They represented the many hundreds of children who take part in our competition every year.

More schools than ever had entered this year, and the judges and moderators had to work hard to decide the winners, especially since the topic, the Heritage of Wales, can be interpreted in so many ways, and the entrants’ ages range from 5 to 18. Some of the prize-winning topics included ‘A Digital Map of Prehistoric Dyffryn Tanat’, ‘Superheroes’, ‘Who we are and who we can be’ (winner of a major prize) and ‘We will remember them’, an investigation of the stories of men from the school’s local area who had died in the 1914-8 war (also a major prize winner) .

The winning entries were all of a very high standard, and it gave the judges much pleasure to see not only the excellent work done by the schools, but the enthusiasm and curiosity of children who are learning the excitement of historical research.

On this occasion we had to say a sad farewell to our wonderful Secretary, Mrs Iris Hopkins, who has done so much of the administrative work of the Initiative for 21 of the past 23 years. But she knows that she leaves the competition in excellent order – and that it will take two very good people, Mrs Gill Foley and Mr Clive Thomas, to replace her!