![\"IMG_7157\"](\"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/img_7157-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Great Reading Competition celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The competition has grown and strengthened considerably over the years and is now held nationwide. The final event of the Grand Reading Competition in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur was held in V\u00ed\u00f0ista\u00f0akirkja yesterday, attended by representatives from the town's primary schools, along with pupils' relatives and guests. This remarkable competition begins each year on the Day of the Icelandic Language on 16 November and concludes in March with the recognition of three students in each community who are deemed to be the best among their peers. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here are the students who took the top places, along with the headteachers of their schools. Sigur\u00f0ur \u00cdsak Hlynsson at Hraunvallask\u00f3li with headteacher Lars J\u00f3hann Imsland, and R\u00e1n \u00de\u00f3rarinsd\u00f3ttir and Lilja D\u00eds Hj\u00f6rleifsd\u00f3ttir at Setbergssk\u00f3li with headteacher Mar\u00eda P\u00e1lmad\u00f3ttir.<\/sup><\/p>\n All of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur's primary schools send representatives to the competition, with two from each school. At the festival, sixteen students from the 7th grades of the primary schools took to the stage and performed excerpts from a work of fiction by Bergr\u00fan \u00cdris S\u00e6varsd\u00f3ttir and a poem by Kristj\u00e1n fr\u00e1 Dj\u00fapal\u00e6k, who are this year's competition poets. All the students received a certificate and gifts for their performance, and encouragement and congratulations from the President of Iceland, Gu\u00f0ni Th. J\u00f3hannesson. Minister of Education Lilja Alfre\u00f0sd\u00f3ttir, Mayor R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0bjartsd\u00f3ttir, and Bergr\u00fan \u00cdris S\u00e6varsd\u00f3ttir, the competition's poet and Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur's Artist in Residence for 2020, all honoured the group with their presence. The judging panel ultimately selected the three best speakers and awarded them special recognition. They were R\u00e1n \u00de\u00f3rarinsd\u00f3ttir from Setbergssk\u00f3li (1st place), Lilja D\u00eds Hj\u00f6rleifsd\u00f3ttir from Setbergssk\u00f3li (2nd place) and Sigur\u00f0ur \u00cdsak Hlynsson (3rd place). at Hraunvallask\u00f3li, who were deemed the best of the best this year. This year's judging panel consisted of Anna \u00deorbj\u00f6rg Ing\u00f3lfsd\u00f3ttir, Bj\u00f6rk Einisd\u00f3ttir (chair of the panel), Almar Bl\u00e6r Sigurj\u00f3nsson and Birgir \u00d6rn Gu\u00f0j\u00f3nsson. Pupils from the Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Music School performed, giving a beautiful instrumental performance, and pupils in Year 4 and participants in the 2021 Junior Spelling Bee also came forward as the talking choir, one of the hallmarks of the Junior Spelling Bee.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The President of Iceland, Gu\u00f0ni Th. J\u00f3hannesson, Minister of Education Lilja Alfre\u00f0sd\u00f3ttir and the Mayor of Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, R\u00f3sa Gu\u00f0bjartsd\u00f3ttir, honoured the group with their presence. <\/sup><\/p>\n Awards for artwork and short stories<\/strong><\/p>\n At the festival, awards were presented for a short story competition for pupils in Years 9 to 11, and for a competition to design the poster for the closing ceremony. Kolbr\u00fan Gar\u00f0arsd\u00f3ttir, a Year 11 pupil at Hraunvallask\u00f3li, won first prize for her story. Snowflakes that take their time<\/em> and Marta Bj\u00f6rnsd\u00f3ttir at \u00d6ldut\u00fanssk\u00f3li for the story, second place Lois<\/em>. El\u00edsa Lana Sigurj\u00f3nsd\u00f3ttir at V\u00ed\u00f0ista\u00f0ask\u00f3li with the story With life at stake and<\/em> El\u00edsa Krist\u00edn B\u00f6\u00f0varsd\u00f3ttir at Skar\u00f0shl\u00ed\u00f0arsk\u00f3li with the story Flateyri <\/em>finished joint third. Eyr\u00fan Gu\u00f0mundsd\u00f3ttir, a student at L\u00e6kjarsk\u00f3li, received an award for her artwork on the final festival invitation, but every year, students in the sixth grade of the schools take part in a competition for the invitation.<\/p>\n It's not about being the first to finish. <\/strong><\/p>\n The Great Reading Competition is not about being the first to the finish line, but about training and perfecting one's reading. Ingibj\u00f6rg Einarsd\u00f3ttir, the founder of the Great Reading Competition, has overseen the competition since its inception, 25 years ago, developing and shaping it in active collaboration with, among others, local authorities and the school community in each locality. The St\u00f3ra Upplestrarkeppnin began as a pilot project on reading in Hafnarfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur during the winter of 1996-1997, but it quickly developed into a nationwide project run by the association R\u00f6ddum, an organisation for quality reading and public speaking. This year is the last year that Raddir and the pioneer, Ingibj\u00f6rg, will be in charge of the competition and the festival, and Ingibj\u00f6rg received thanks and best wishes at yesterday's awards ceremony. From now on, the event will be run by the municipalities themselves. Raddir will continue to run the Little Reading Competition, a growing spin-off from the Big Reading Competition for pupils in Year 4 of primary schools, which has the same aim but a different approach. At their core, both competitions are about nurturing the warm Icelandic language through training and quality recitation. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St\u00f3ra upplestrarkeppnin fagnar 25 \u00e1ra afm\u00e6li \u00ed \u00e1r St\u00f3ra upplestrarkeppnin fagnar \u00ed \u00e1r 25 \u00e1ra afm\u00e6li og hefur keppnin st\u00e6kka\u00f0 og eflst svo um munar me\u00f0 \u00e1runum og er n\u00fa haldin \u00e1 landsv\u00edsu. Lokah\u00e1t\u00ed\u00f0 St\u00f3ru upplestrarkeppninnar \u00ed Hafnarfir\u00f0i var haldin \u00ed V\u00ed\u00f0ista\u00f0akirkju \u00ed g\u00e6r a\u00f0 vi\u00f0st\u00f6ddum fulltr\u00faum fr\u00e1 grunnsk\u00f3lum Hafnarfjar\u00f0ar, a\u00f0standendum og bo\u00f0sgestum. \u00deessi merkilega […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-frettir"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14620"}],"curies":[{"name":"WordPress","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A professional and beautiful reading by sixteen students<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"IMG_7166\"](\"https:\/\/hafnarfjordur.is\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/img_7166-scaled.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n