CREATIVE students who put pen to paper to create a 100-word mini story were delighted to have their work selected for an anthology.
English teacher Amy Parish set the Young Writers assignment for Key Stage 3 students in Years 7, 8 and 9.
The latest anthology was called ‘The Glitch’ and the budding writers had to write a short piece on the subject of … What if?
Mrs Parish said: “I just sent in everybody’s work as I didn’t want to be the judge, but the majority got published.
“This is something the students don’t always get to do and they found it very cathartic just being creative.
“In English we encourage creativity but we have to work to a framework, that is why I like to put in these challenges.
“It also fitted in with the work the students had been doing over the last term.”
Iyla Quraishi, 12, in Year 8, said: “I did ‘What if’ about fairytale characters becoming real. I started with a girl walking home from school and then she looks up at the sky and sees Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter.
“I like writing. With this task you had to condense it because you could only use so many words, but I like a challenge.
“It is pretty cool seeing your work published.”
Another published writer was Robert Barrett, 14, from Year 9 but his story was a bit more sinister.
He said: “My ‘What if’ was that you could not fall asleep and if you did you had to fight an entity or you would not wake up.
“I made the 100-words into something like a blurb for a book. When the person falls asleep there is a sinister entity that comes forward and into their dreams; if you lost to the entity, you die – if you survive then you come back to reality.
“I do enjoy writing. I feel it brings out the expressive side of me that I don’t get to show in other subjects.”
A copy of Young Writers The Glitch is in the school library.