BROMSGROVE MP Sajid Javid has congratulated the winners and runners up to his annual children’s Christmas card competition.

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport announced Catshill First School’s Key Stage 2 school council as first place in the contest.

Billy Woodruff, Lola Pressdee, Isabelle Holliday, Paige Shore, Charlie Dobbins and Liberty Bullock work together to create a snowman design, which used fingerprint painting and collage materials.

Kim Fannon, who runs the school council and is a high level teaching assistant at Catshill First School, said: “It was absolutely amazing we never thought we would win, last year we didn’t even place anywhere.

The runners up were Kyle Dickson, aged eight, from Charford First School, Emily Rippin, aged four, from the Coppice Primary School and Callie Harris, aged seven, from Meadows First School.

Mr Javid said: “It was a real delight to see the excellent entries from our local school children; it made choosing the winner a tough decision.

“The judges were particularly impressed by the range of techniques used by the children at Catshill First School, a great adaption of the classic fingerprint painting.

“I’m always proud to be able to send out the winning card design as your local representative and I hope that, in its own small way, this showcases the talents of our children and reminds us all to thank their dedicated teachers for the fantastic inspiration they give.”

Mr Javid visited each of the winning schools to meet the children and thanked them for their entries.

The children were each awarded a goodie bag with prizes including a variety of gifts from the House of Commons official shop.

Since his election in 2010, Sajid has run the competition amongst local school giving children the opportunity to design the Christmas card their town’s representative will send out to hundreds of people including the Royal Family, the Prime Minister, minsters and dignitaries.

The winning design was chosen by a panel of three local judges, Tony Turpin from Avoncroft Arts Society, Richard Nokes from Bromsgrove Printing Company- where the cards are printed and Lesley Macpherson from Allan Morris Estate Agents.