The creativity of children at one Lowestoft primary school has been hailed after success in a popular contest.

Lowestoft Journal: William F is pictured in front of his winning design at the John Lewis store in Norwich with his prize. Picture: Courtesy of John LewisWilliam F is pictured in front of his winning design at the John Lewis store in Norwich with his prize. Picture: Courtesy of John Lewis (Image: Archant)

Before Christmas, schoolchildren aged between five and 11 were encouraged to 'unleash their imaginations' as part of an art competition organised by department store John Lewis.

With Year 3 youngsters from Gunton Primary Academy taking up the challenge, they were praised for their efforts – as one seven-year-old was selected as the winner.

As the popular festive John Lewis advert celebrated the imagination of Joe and his imaginary friend Moz The Monster, pupils were tasked with creating an artwork of their own imaginary monster friend plus a short sentence explaining why their monster is fun.

And after almost 400 entries were received from across the area by the John Lewis store in Norwich, William – from Lowestoft – was chosen as the winner.

The Gunton Primary Academy pupil won a certificate, his very own Moz The Monster toy and also had his drawing framed and displayed in the restaurant area at the Norwich store alongside other entries throughout last month.

Matthew Jordan, headteacher at the academy in Gainsborough Drive, said: 'Well done to William who won the Moz the Monster competition at John Lewis Norwich. We are incredibly proud of William and his creativity, which is one of our learning dispositions in school. It was a challenge for all the children to create their own imaginary monster and we were really impressed with all their efforts.'

With the school sending their entries off, the competition saw about 380 people take part. Mr Jordan added: 'It is good for the children to have a challenge in the wider world. William has done really well and we are very, very proud of him.'

Delighted to have been selected as the winner, William said: 'We watched the Moz The Monster advert in class as we were learning about myths, and the idea for the competition was to create a pretend monster. I was really happy to have won and my parents were very proud.'

Along with his imaginary monster design, William's sentence about his creation said: 'My imaginary monster friend is fun because it plays with you really nice.'