The Poles in South London Project announced the winners of the Competition Ocalić od Zapomnienia (To Save from Oblivion) at a special event on 1 May 2021 organised as a part of the 5th edition of the Polish Heritage Days in the UK.
The competition was open to students attending the Polish Saturday Schools in London. School pupils aged from 6 to 16 submitted essays, creative visual works and video clips. The different tasks for three age groups (Year 1-3, 4-7 and GCSE or higher) were designed to encourage children and young people to explore intergenerational relations and engage with parents and grandparents’ history, culture, and language. The key requirement for all groups was to use the Polish language to create their entries. We hope the students had some fun while working on creative tasks and enjoyed discovering their family’s memories, traditions, and heritage. The project team received a range of drawings, collages, photos, short essays, poems and video clips.
We recognise it has been a challenging year for all school students and are very happy to announce that everyone would receive a prize (Polish books and/or board games) for their competition entry thanks to the generous support from the competition sponsors. We owe special thanks to the Polish Embassy in the UK, the Tactic Games Sp. z o.o and Jacek Lewinson, Publishers’ Representative Central/Eastern Europe for sponsoring the competition this year.
The competition winners were announced at the online event on 1 May 2021 hosted by the project Coordinators, Marta Sordyl and Marta Babecka, who delivered a presentation of the submitted works. The winners themselves were named by the special guests: Jolanta Kutereba, who runs the South London based Polish song and dance group ‘Karolinka’ promoting Polish heritage since 1978; Clarinda Calma, who represents the Polish Embassy in London and helps promote Polish culture and language in the UK, and Piotr Szkopiak, a Polish-British film director and screenwriter from London famous for films such as ‘Small Time Obsession’ and ‘The Last Witness’.
Warm congratulations to all of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize and special award winners!
Competition tasks and winners
Year 1-3: My Summer Holidays in Poland
1st prize: Agata Rożak
2nd prize: Olivier Wilk
3rd prize: Adrian Czarnecki
Year 1-3: Special awards
Year 4-7: My Polish Grandparents
1st prize: Ata Özüt
2nd prize: Oskar Rosłaniec
3rd prize: Amelia Czarnecka
Year 4-7: Special awards
GCSE+: Polish Places on the Map of London or Favourite Polish Recipe
1st prize: Julia Grzywacz
2nd prize: Tymek Stetner
3rd prize: Anna Bachańska
Special Award: Artur Rabenda
Videos
1st prize: Julia Grzywacz
2nd prize: Tymek Stetner
3rd prize: Anna Bachańska
Special Award: Artur Rabenda
Students participating in the competition represented the following Polish Supplementary (Saturday) Schools in London
- Akademia Polskiej Literki ( Bromley)
- Polska Szkoła Przedmiotów Ojczystych im. T. Arciszewskiego (Balham)
- Polska Katolicka Sobotnia Szkoła im. Jana Pawła II (Clapham)
- Szkoła im. A. Mickiewicza w Londynie
- Szkoła Przedmiotów Ojczystych im. Marii Skłodowskiej Curie (Putney-Wimbledon)
- Polska Szkoła Sobotnia im. Hetmana Karola Chodkiewicza pod patronatem Św. Jana Pawła II
And:
- Salesian School (Chertsey, Surrey)
Competition sponsors
Poles in South London – Local Heroes Archive 