Beano Reveals Britain's Funniest Class 2025
By Jill Dando News
Place2Be was honoured to join top Beano creatives in drawing up the shortlist for this year’s ‘Funniest Class’ competition.
The competition is a celebration of children being empowered, funny and mischievous.
This nationwide search for Britain’s funniest class saw a panel of Beano’s expert gag-makers narrow down the wittiest submissions to their favourite ten finalists, before handing the final decision over to a public vote.
Among the hundreds of hilarious entries from schools across the UK, it was Stratus Class (Year 5) from Riverley Primary School in Leyton, London, emerging victorious with their winning gag:
"What do you call the fanciest punctuation? An a-posh-trophe" securing 36% of the overall vote and their title as the nation’s funniest class.
Stratus Class and their teacher, Ms. Maisha Mahfuza (who has also been named ‘Britain’s Funniest Teacher’) have won the ultimate prize of being immortalised in Beano form by legendary artist Nigel Parkinson.
Riverley Primary School's Maisha Mahfuza, crowned Britain’s Funniest Teacher said:
“Britain’s Funniest Class competition is a fantastic way to spark laughter, boost creativity and build confidence in children. Learning should always come with a healthy dose of fun, and how many people can say they’ve spread a good giggle beyond the classroom to the whole nation?!”
“As the only comic where kids are in charge, Beano continues to celebrate childhood in all its mischievous, screen-free glory.”
Now in its seventh year, this initiative aims to boost confidence and wellbeing in the classroom.
It’s supported by children’s mental health charity Place2Be, who’ve partnered with Beano to create free, fun-filled Bouncebackability lessons - showing that laughter, movement and creativity can help improve mental wellbeing.
Laughter and mental health
Learning the art and nuance of joke-telling is a creative process that brilliantly supports children’s development.
Joke-telling promotes thought and reasoning, builds concentration, enhances communication skills, nurtures imagination, and encourages a playfulness that can aid creative problem-solving and a growth mindset. In turn, all of this helps children build up a positive sense of self.
Sharing laughter through joke-telling is a wonderful way to build strong, positive connections. By creating their own jokes, the children - and the adults around them – have created a strong bond and sense of belonging. When children share their jokes or stories in this way, they are welcoming the adults into their world, their experiences, and their unique perspective.
Competition was close, with a strong shortlist of witty one-liners all vying to receive the official Beano 'Britain’s Funniest Class' trophy, coveted Golden Gnasher Badges, comic subscriptions for the whole class and their school library, and a copy of Beano’s boomic ‘The Day We Got Uploaded’:
The special comic (Issue 4290) commemorating this year’s winner is on sale on Wednesday 11 June 2025.
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