Creativity flows at Creative Writing Competition final

On Thursday 2 November we held our sixth annual Creative Writing Competition final at the Senior School. Nearly 400 students in Year 5 to Year 8 from St Mary’s School, Cambridge were joined by students of the same age from 13 other schools across Cambridgeshire who had been invited to enter the competition.

The theme this year was: the year 3017. “Imagine you have just stepped out of your front door (that's if there are still front doors in 3017!). What kind of technology is being used? What do the buildings look like? How are people travelling about? What kind of clothes are they wearing?”. Excerpts from the stories were shared on the night, such as: “I step out onto the dusty, parched earth; Mother told me that the earth was once verdant and fertile, but I'm too young to remember those happy times.”

Emily Winslow, author of Cambridge-set crime series including The Whole World, The Start of Everything, The Red House, and Look For Her, was the guest of honour at the event and announced the winners.

Split into two categories, the winner of the combined Year 5 and Year 6 category was Rohan K. (St John’s College School), with Isabel S. (Westfield Junior School) and Olivia H (St John’s College School) receiving the accolade of being runners up. The winner of the combined Year 7 and Year 8 category was Ritu G. (St Mary’s School, Cambridge), with Anna L. (also St Mary’s School, Cambridge) receiving the runner up accolade.

Emily said: "What an inspiring evening! It was wonderful to see so many students excited about writing, and the shortlisted excerpts were excellent. My hope is that all of these students will keep writing, keep reading, and keep looking around at the interesting things in their lives. All of these will help them grow as writers."

In addition to the schools mentioned above, students also entered from Bassingbourn Community Primary School; Bourn Academy; Cromwell Academy; Dame Bradbury's School; Great Abington Primary School; Katherine Semar Junior School; King’s College School; Monkfield Park Primary School; St Alban's Catholic Primary School; St Helens Primary School and Swaffham Bulbeck Church of England Primary School.

Mr David Walker, Head of English at St Mary’s School, Cambridge and Head Judge of the competition, said: “We were delighted at the breadth of imagination and the creativity shown by the young writers. They responded fantastically well to the challenge of writing about the future and there were some outstanding entries this year. It is simply brilliant to be able to celebrate writing on such a large scale with so many students involved. We look forward to next year's competition!”