Young writers inspired at Creative Writing Competition Final

On Thursday 8 November we held our seventh annual Creative Writing Competition final at the Senior School. The theme this year was ‘Mystery and Detective Fiction’.

Over 350 students from Years 5 to 8 from 11 schools across Cambridgeshire entered the competition. Over 330 people came to the presentation evening at St Mary’s School, Cambridge on 8 November.

Julia Golding, author of the Cat Royal and The Companions Quartet series, was the guest speaker at the event and announced the winners. Julia has over 50 published books, which have sold three-quarter of a million copies sold worldwide, under three different pen names.

Split into two categories, the winner of the combined Year 5 and Year 6 category was Anna Pattara (The Spinney Primary School), with Charlie Compton (Swaffham Bulbeck Primary School) receiving the accolade of being runner-up. The winner of the combined Year 7 and Year 8 category was Innes Lapraik (St John’s College School), with Lilian Gleave (St Mary’s Senior School, Cambridge) the runner-up.

Extracts from the winning entries in each category are as follows: “Suddenly a small lump appeared on the canvas. Minute by minute, it steadily grew, under Chloe’s watchful eyes. Then ‘Pop!’ The lump exploded and the hand that Chloe had painted was stretching out of the large hole, now blood and flesh, not paint and paper.” (Anna Pattara, winner of the Year 5 and 6 category).

“Working as a detective for five years means that I had to abolish any feelings of doubt a long time ago, but a little trace of it always remains lingering around my brain, questioning what I know. […] This case was the usual: attempted murder, drug overdose, guilt, relationships, accidents. Whatever the case the culprits were always caught out by the same thing every time.

Themselves.” (Innes Lapraik, winner of the Year 7 and 8 category).

In addition to the schools mentioned above, the judges were inspired by excellent stories from Queen Emma Primary School, St Mary’s Junior School, Cambridge, Fairstead House School, Cromwell Academy, St Ivo School, Edwinstree Middle School, Landmark International School and St John’s College School.

Julia said: “It’s great to see a school encouraging young creatives to follow the clues left by their imagination on the trail of their stories. It’s been great fun and a privilege to be here at the unveiling of the mystery and the murders”.

Mr David Walker, Head of English at St Mary’s School, Cambridge and Head Judge of the competition, said: “It was really exciting to see so many young people enthused by creative writing. There were some outstanding entries, and everybody really rose to the challenge of writing about mystery and detective fiction. There was lots of creativity and imagination on show in their entries – we’re already looking forward to next year’s competition!”