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Young winner of Blue Peter Queen's Diamond Jubilee emblem competition is announced

BBC Press Office

21 February 2011

CBBC's Blue Peter and Buckingham Palace are today announcing the winning entry in the competition to design the official emblem for Her Majesty The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Katherine Dewar, aged 10, from Chester, created the winning design that will be seen by millions of people, appearing on everything from posters to commemorative tea cups.

Her winning design features a crown poised above the Union Jack flag with columns of diamonds down either side.

The once-in-a-lifetime prize proved a huge draw and the competition received almost 35,000 entries from children aged six to 14. The judging panel included renowned branding expert Martin Lambie-Nairn, Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood and children's book illustrators Tony Ross, Nick Sharratt and Emma Chichester-Clark. They faced an enormous task choosing a winner out of the thousands of entries, but Katherine's simple and eye-catching design stood out as the winning entry.

The top 30 children across the three age categories – including Katherine – have now been invited to a special tea party at Buckingham Palace in March 2011 to celebrate their achievements.

Katherine said: "I was really excited to win the competition. It was great to see my design turned from a drawing into a print that will be used on so many things. I'm looking forward to seeing people waving flags with my design on to celebrate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee."

Tim Levell, editor of Blue Peter said: "We were blown away by the response to our competition. We expected a few thousand entries but ended up with nearly 35,000. The Royal Family and particularly The Queen are clearly much loved by our audience. This competition is helping get children excited already about next year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations."

Martin Lambie-Nairn said: "To give a child the responsibility of designing an emblem as important as this is a brave ambition. The process has been brilliantly managed by the BBC's Blue Peter and the Palace. The result is beautiful, fresh and practical. All of us who were involved are thrilled."

Viewers can see Katherine live on this afternoon's (Monday 21 February) Blue Peter on BBC One at 4.35pm. The programme also features presenter Barney Harwood visiting Buckingham Palace for the final judging process and Barney and Katherine witnessing the transformation of her drawing into the official emblem at the Heavenly design studios.

Blue Peter is transmitted on BBC One every Monday and Tuesday and repeated on the CBBC channel on Saturday and Sunday. The presenters are Andy Akinwolere, Barney Harwood and Helen Skelton.

The competition had three age categories: 6-8s, 9-11s and 12-14s.

Notes to editors

CBBC is the BBC's multiplatform offering for 6-12 year olds bringing the very best drama, entertainment and factual programmes to its young viewers.

CBBC is the most-loved and most-watched channel of children in its target age group. Almost a third of children (6-12) consider it one of their favourites and more than a third tune into the CBBC channel each week.

CBBC aims to encourage children to find out more about existing interests and inspire them to develop new ones. It helps them understand the world around them and provides an entertaining watch when they just want to relax.

The majority of our output is UK-made, reflecting children's lives in the UK today. Popular programmes on the channel include Horrible Histories, Deadly 60, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Tracy Beaker Returns, as well as long-running favourites Blue Peter and Newsround.

As well as a dedicated channel and website, CBBC also broadcasts every weekday evening on BBC One and every morning on BBC Two. Last year, the CBBC website attracted more than 820,000 weekly unique users.

VT