Seven local children have had their artwork selected by Mike Wood MP as winning entries to be shown on his 2021 Christmas card.

This year’s competition saw more than 600 entries submitted to the MP’s annual Christmas card competition, with entries sent in from 10 primary and special schools across Dudley South.

The overall winning entry was from Year 1 pupil Harry Jones from Dawley Brook Primary School in Kingswinford.

Harry’s festively decorated dinosaur ‘tree Rex’ design pipped six other shortlisted designs to take pride of place on the front of the card – the six runners-up will also see an image of their entry included on the card which will be sent to the likes of the Prime Minister, the Mayor, Head Teachers, charity leaders and community organisations across the borough.

The six runners-up entries came from: Evie Parkes, Year 3, Fairhaven Primary; Zainab Ali, Year 3, Brockmoor Primary; Grace, Opals Class, The Brier School; Evie-Rose Osborne, Year 3-4, Blanford Mere Primary; Rayhan Rizwan, age 9, Pens Meadow School; and Abbie-Rose Silk, Year 6, Ashwood Park Primary. Mike said:

“I really want to give a big thank you to all of the local children who submitted entries to this year’s competition. I was so impressed by the creative designs and artistic skills which made it so hard to pick an overall winner and runners-up.

“I’ll shortly be sending off copies of the card to the Prime Minister, the Mayor, Head Teachers, community leaders and others, and I hope they enjoy looking at these fantastic designs as much as I have.”

The MP also thanked Merry Hill, Red House Glass Cone, Dudley Zoo & Castle, Black Country Living Museum and Cadbury World who donated prizes for the winners.

Members of the public will also be able to enjoy the shortlisted designs as Merry Hill plan to install a display of the 6 runners-up and overall winner over the next few weeks.