Primary schools across the UK can submit their entries online from 1st April.

Beano has launched a new national joke competition to find Britain’s funniest primary school class. The top three classes, voted for by Beano’s gag maker experts and kids on Beano.com, will each win a bundle of Beano annuals, comic subscriptions and a special VIP Beano visit and joke workshop.

The announcement of the competition follows the successful launch of Beano’s free ‘SPAG LOLZ’ programme for primary schools. The programme, free to download on school.beano.com, covers six key SPAG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) topics with six curriculum based lesson plans each for KS1 and KS2. Lesson plans focus on joke writing techniques taught through SPAG, designed to help classes hone their comedy skills and inject some unique Beano fun into literacy lessons.

Mike Stirling, editorial director at Beano, commented: “Beano is calling on pupils up and down the country to put forward their very best jokes, gags and funnies to be in with a chance of being crowned Britain’s funniest school class. Beano has always known how funny kids naturally are, so this competition is the perfect way to shine a spotlight on the comedians of tomorrow and add some Beano LOLZ into primary schools across the UK.”

Classes can source further inspiration from Beano’s ‘Joke Generator’ which hosts 80 year’s worth of classic jokes. Beano’s national school joke competition is open for entries from April 1st. Primary school pupils or teachers (on behalf of their pupils) can enter via www.beano.com/jokes.