1. The competition is organised by Electric Ireland* as part of its Game Changers NI campaign.
2. The competition opens for entry on Friday 16th April 9:00 and closes on Friday 14th May at 17:00. Only entries submitted within this timeframe will be considered.
3. Entry to this competition is open to children who will be aged between 7 and 11 years on the 16th April 2021.
4. Employees of Electric Ireland or their family members or anyone else connected in any way with the competition or helping to set up the competition shall not be permitted to enter the competition.
5. There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.
6. Participants must be full time residents of Northern Ireland.
7. Participants’ stories must be between 300-500 words in length and must be fictional
8. Entry is via an online entry form available at www.electricireland.com/shootingstars
9. An adult must submit the story on the participant’s behalf. The parent/guardian or teacher submitting the story on behalf of the participant, will be asked to provide the participant's name, county and their age and ensure that they have parental permission to do so. This adult may be asked, with parental/guardian permission, to provide proof of age, identity and eligibility of the participant.
10. The submitting adult must provide their contact details and not that of the participant.
11. All stories should be submitted in English.
12. Entries can only be accepted online either written in the text box or as a scanned image of handwritten stories.
13. Scanned stories must be fully legible or will not be considered.
14. Only entries submitted in the above manner will be considered.
15. The person submitting the participant’s story must accept the Rules of entry, including Electric Ireland’s use of entries, by ticking the relevant box on the submission form.
16. Teachers submitting stories on behalf of pupils must seek parental permission and if requested by Electric Ireland, provide evidence of permission in the event of an enquiry or complaint.
17. For the top three shortlisted entries, if permission to enter was given by a teacher, Electric Ireland will contact the teacher and ask for confirmation of permission from the participant’s parent or guardian.
18. Only one entry per person is permitted. The participant must write the story in full, it cannot be written by more than one person. If more than one entry is submitted, only the entrant's first submission will be considered.
19. Participants stories must be a work of fiction. As three finalists’ work will be published it is important that personal details are not included.
20. The judges will select three finalists, from which the winner will be chosen. The finalists will be notified of their selection in advance of any publication of their stories (see Condition 23). Only the three finalists will be notified. No submissions will be returned.
21. All participants must be the original work of the participant and must not infringe the rights of any other party. Electric Ireland accepts no responsibility if participants ignore these Rules and the participant’s parent, guardian or teacher agrees to indemnify Electric Ireland against any claim by any third party from any breach of these Rules.
22. Entries must be suitable for publication to a young audience. Electric Ireland reserves the right to disqualify any entry that is deemed to have content that is defamatory or offensive.
23. The parent or guardian of the three finalists grants to Electric Ireland a limited licence to publish, broadcast (across all media) and post the entry online and on any other platforms yet to be envisaged. This licence will be deemed to include all the necessary rights and permissions to enable such use by Electric Ireland, to fulfil the prizes and to complete the administration of this competition.
24. By submitting a story, the participant’s parent or guardian agrees that Electric Ireland may at its sole discretion edit, adapt, abridge or translate the entry for the purposes listed in condition 23 above.
25. Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
- Creativity
- Footballing theme
- Storyline
- Originality
26. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into relating to their decision.
27. The parents or guardians of the top three successful participants will be contacted once judging has taken place and further proof of age, identity and eligibility may be requested.
28. Electric Ireland reserves the right to disqualify any entry which breaches any of these Terms and Conditions, brings Electric Ireland, the Game Changers campaign or the Shooting Stars campaign into disrepute or to withhold a prize if in its opinion entries do not reach the required standard.
29. Electric Ireland reserves the right to amend these Rules or cancel this competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.
30. Electric Ireland, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries, agencies and/or any other organisation associated with this competition cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any server, Internet access, system or otherwise which may result in any entry being lost or not properly registered or recorded. Proof of sending is not proof of receipt.
31. The personal data of all participants, parents, guardians and teachers, submitted with applications will only be processed in connection with this competition, and retained only for as long as necessary. For further information on how Electric Ireland manages personal data, please refer to our
Privacy Notice.
*[1] ESB Independent Energy (NI) Limited, trading as Electric Ireland, registered in Ireland Company registration number, 252609, registered office Two Gateway, East Wall Road, Dublin 3. Belfast address: 1st Floor, 1 Cromac Quay, The Gasworks, Belfast BT7 2JD,