If you're a teacher and get the chance to participate with your class in the Pushkin Prizes project, jump at it. "It's extremely rewarding for the school, for the teachers and for the children," says Helen Slattery, who teaches at St John's National School, Shannon, Co Clare.

It can be difficult to teach creative writing, she notes. However, the children quickly grew to love the programme. "They used to cheer when I said we would do Pushkin. The way the project is organised fired their imaginations and they wanted to write."

Some 50 schools, half in Northern Ireland and half in the Republic, are invited to take part in the project for a period of two years. This means that they have two opportunities to submit entries to the competition. Every child who enters - they are all aged between nine and 14 years - is asked to submit a folder containing a total of 1,000 words of poetry, prose or both. Although whole classes participate in the project, entries are restricted and depend on the size of the school.

Prizes are awarded in four categories. There's even one for special schools. The prizes range from a first prize of £50 which includes book tokens to books for highly commended entries. But, as one sixth class student told Slattery, "it's not the winning that's important it's the writing."

The Pushkin programme is more than a writing experience for students. Teachers describe it as a voyage of self-discovery for themselves. This year's competition will be launched this Friday when teachers from participating schools attend a residential training conference on creative writing and work alongside professional writers.

"The weekends are invaluable and enthuse you," comments Paraig Cannon, who teaches at Scoil Cholmcille, Letterkenny, Co Donegal. "I learned to apply all the theories I had learned at college. The biggest breakthrough was getting away from text books."

In the Republic it is the Department of Education's inspectors who recommend to the Pushkin Prizes Trust the schools to be invited to participate. "The schools," says Puskin Prizes director Ann McKay, who is based in Omagh, Co Tyrone, "are carefully balanced between rural, urban, small, large, all-Irish, fee-paying, non-fee-paying, Catholic and Protestant."

To participate, schools don't need creative writing expertise, McKay stresses. "Many schools enter because they wish to develop literacy or do something creative."

About 2,000 students have already taken part in the competition. Every entry is read. The judges, says McKay, are looking for spontaneity, imagination, expression of feeling, the use of words and images, involvement in the chosen topic and a sense of audience. "The Pushkin programme," she says, "enables students to express their thoughts and feelings and develop self-awareness and literacy skills."

Cannon says that he saw a huge improvement in the self-confidence of his students. "They were able to put down on paper what was really in them. They had a greater respect for both reading and writing and, as a result, their comprehension has improved hugely."

The Pushkin Prizes Trust was founded by the Duchess of Abercorn to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of her ancestor, the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The Trust is celebrating its tenth birthday this year. Sasha Abercorn, whose husband is the former Unionist MP James Hamilton, was encouraged to establish the trust as a result of her own educational experiences in England.

Her education was academically based and largely ignored her creative and artistic development. The trust's main aim is to promote high standards in the teaching and practice of the creative arts in schools - particularly through the art of writing.

The trust also fosters North-South links between participating schools. "Through Pushkin, our school has been able to forge a link with a school in the North," comments Helen Slattery. "It's a large Catholic school in Antrim, while we're a two-teacher Church of Ireland school in Co Clare. Such a connection would have been impossible without Pushkin."

On the banks of the river Neva in St Petersburg last autumn, the Duchess of Abercorn with students from St Columba's College, Stranorlar, Co Donegal, and Royal and Prior High School, Raphoe, Co Donegal - from left, Rory Dowds, Amanda Edwards, Dawn McClean and Laura Gallagher.

The Duchess of Abercorn who founded the Pushkin Prizes Trust 10 years ago in memory of her Russian forebear, Alexander Pushkin.