CLEOBURY Mortimer Primary School pupil Maddie Meredith, 10, has reached the regional final of Royal Mail’s children’s Christmas Stamp Design Competition.

Maddie’s design was chosen as one of the best entries from thousands across the West Midlands and is one of 12 shortlisted in the region and 140 UK wide.

It will go through to the next stage of the competition, where judges will select their top two entries to represent the region in the national final.

Cleobury’s MP, Conservative Philip Dunne, congratulated the year 6 pupil, saying: “Maddie should be really proud of her achievement. There were over 240,000 entries to design this year’s Christmas stamps, so to be one of only 140 UK wide is an outstanding result.

“Maddie’s artistic flair is indicative of the excellent talent of Shropshire school pupils and I wish her the best of luck with her Christmas pudding drawing in the next stages of the competition.”

During the national final, the Prince of Wales will lead a panel of judges to select the two designs from 24 finalists that will feature on this year’s first and second class Christmas stamps. The stamps will be on sale from November 5.

Only twice before in Royal Mail’s history - 1966 and 1981 - have the official Christmas stamps been designed by children.

As with all special stamps issued by Royal Mail, both winning designs will have to be approved by the Queen.

Entries submitted to the competition will be displayed on a special website - royalmailstampcompetition.com