To encourage students’ love for writing, in Autumn term, Cambian Wing College organised a Creative Writing Contest with an exciting prize of ‘Lego Education: Story Starter Kit’ for the winner. Students were asked to submit a Flash Fiction which should be no longer than 1000 words.

They were provided the flexibility to create their own story, characters and setting. The deadline for the submission was 9th December which was later extended by a week to meet the students’ needs.

Students were really excited about the contest and showed interest. In total, we received five creative writing entries by students. A three teachers’ panel was set up to review the entries using the marking rubric. It was found that all the entries were well written and had some great aspects in terms of experimenting with narrative, language or characters.

For example, Bradley had an experimental and mysterious narrative in the form of a diary which was left open ended. Katie took inspiration from her own experiences as a neurodivergent in the story and wrote a story to spread awareness about Autism. Hattie showed great command on language and wrote an inspiring Christmas story perfect for a Christmas newsletter.

Finally, after reviewing all the entries, the panel found that Phoebe’s entry was outshining all the criteria from the rubric and she was selected the winner of the competition. Her story was a great amalgamation of ideas, organisation and content. She used a unique style and voice with vivid and descriptive details. She builds the mystery around the static noise with sophisticated word choice and sentence fluency which will leave the reader with shudders at the end.

Unanimously, the panel decided that Dylan should get recognition and a consolation prize for his brilliant detective story. His unique diction and complex character building stood out to us. He received a £10 waterstones voucher and a game fiction writing book as he expressed interest in that previously. To recognise the contributions by other participants and to further motivate them to continue and improve their writing, all other participants also received a £10 waterstones voucher.