Scottish Catholic Observer

Pupils from a Catholic primary school in Glasgow will be the envy of all their friends after winning a competition to spend the night in one of the city’s biggest toyshops.

Nineteen P7 pupils from St Philomena’s won the competition organised by Hamleys in the St Enoch’s Centre and will now get the chance to enjoy a sleepover at the store.

The children scripted, filmed and produced a mini movie, which convinced the judges that they should win the dream experience. And the kind-hearted youngsters gifted the second part of their prize to P1 pupils at the school who will now have breakfast with Santa.

Surprise visit

The children had not realised they had won the competition until the Hamleys bear paid a surprise visit to the school last week to break the good news.

Pauline Brown, St Philomena’s headteacher, spoke of the pupils’ delight when they found out the judges had picked them out as winners.

“The children are absolutely thrilled to have won the competition,” she said.

“They were very enthusiastic about their entry and produced a mini documentary from scratch about the work they are doing in school.

“They are working on their enterprise and business skills and told the judges they could be future managers of Hamleys.

“It was a really funny presentation and it obviously did the job.

“They’ve very kindly donated the prize of breakfast with Santa to their buddies in P1 who are so excited.”

Hamleys invited pupils at all Glasgow’s primary schools to take part in the competition and were inundated with entries.

Pupils at St Roch’s Primary School were runners-up and will also get the chance to meet Santa.

Teachers from the school will accompany the excited St Philomena’s pupils on their sleepover at the store later this month.

Grant Yuill, marketing and events manager for Hamleys, praised the youngsters competition entry and let slip some of what lies in wait for them on their special trip to the store.

Once-in-a-lifetime

“The Hamleys Sleepover is an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said.

“Having the entire toy store to yourself and your closest friends, all night long. It’s like a dream come true!

“St Philomena’s were very worthy winners. Not only did they provide an incredible amount of information about why they should be the first group of children to have this experience, but the winning P7 class demonstrated how inventive and imaginative they are by producing a short film about their school.

“Although there were many fantastic entries to win this prize, St Philomena’s stood out from the crowd with this impressive piece of work.”

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