Thank you to everyone who supported our first short story creative writing competition - The Tunnel.
We have been thrilled with the number of entries and how many past and present students have participated. We've absolutely loved reading all the stories and know many of them wouldn't have got there without the care and dedication of our wonderful teachers!
We are very pleased and excited to announce the winners, runners-up and also those students who have been nominated by their teacher for their outstanding personal achievement. Every winner receives a 20 GBP Amazon gift voucher and each runner-up and commendation awardee gets a 10 GBP Amazon gift voucher for the student to spend on something of their choice.
And the winners are...
Under 8 Category
Winner: Shenaya A - Age 7 from Qatar (teacher Boe)
Runner-Up: Hedva L - Age 5 from UK (teacher Donna)
Under 11 Category
Joint Winner: Scarlett G - Age 9 from Singapore (teacher Donna)
Joint Winner: Mia M - Age 8 from Hong Kong (teacher Alex)
Runner-Up: Zoe B - Age 9 from Italy (teacher Boe)
Under 15 Category
Winner: Marta A - Age 13 from Latvia (teacher Mark)
Runner-Up: Anam M - Age 11 from Kuwait (teacher Alex)
Well done to all our winners! You can read their winning stories below.
Every story is special, but we know some students have gone to great lengths and exceeded our expectations. Even though they didn't win their age category, we want to recognise the following students for their effort, personal improvement and individual achievement:
Teacher Commendation Award
Zeynep Erva - Age 9 from Turkey (nominated by teacher Donna)
Ella R-B - Age 9 from Spain (nominated by teacher Boe)
Sophia T - Age 8 from Germany (nominated by teacher Alex)
Anthony S - Age 7 from Poland (nominated by teacher Lisa)
You are all winners to us! Thank you so much for each and every story, we so enjoyed reading them all. Look out for our next competition this Autumn.
WINNING STORIES (please remember these stories are all the student's own ideas and words)
The Tunnel by Shenaya A - Age 7 from Qatar
On the side of the green, dark, honted forest lived a kind girl called Posy. She had short, sleek hair with a brown bow. She was so poor so she had brown, dirty clothes, she also had shoes that had holes in them. She was a girl who liked runing around and she liked climbing trees like a monkey.
On the beautiful, sunny spring day, Posy happily skipped to the clear, blue river. Posy was jumping from a rock to a rock when suddenly she saw a huge, green crockdile. She screamed like a terified princess.
Unexpectedly, the enormous, green, sharp crockodile grabed Posy and took her under the deep clear river. The crockodile puts Posy in a huge, blue cage. An hour later Posy woke up in terrible pain. After a while, her terrible pain had disappeared. Posy was so miserable and comfused. Posy looked around. She had enough! She decided to escape. She digged and digged then she made an elephantine hole. Posy thought it will lead her to her lovely home. But it did not. Suddenly, she saw a tunnel. She was scared to go to the tunnel. Posy said, "Nothing can stop me!". So Posy went inside the tunnel. The tunnel smelled salty like sea water and Posy could hear some voices wisperiring to her.
As Posy walked slowly through the dark, long, scarey, black tunnel she heard some weird sounds. Maybe it was a turtle or a seahorse Posy thinks. But it was a blue, kind, clever dolphin. Posy was scared to talk to the dolphin. But thats wrong, the dolphin was friendly.
The dolphin said "Hello, what's your name?" and Posy replied "My name is Posy, what's your's?". The dolphin replied "Blue". Posy asked "Do you know how to get out of here?". The dolphin replied "Yes, can I take you?". Posy said "Yes".
As quick as a flash, they arrive at two doors. One door had colourful, tiny stars and the other had black marks and blood on it. She wasent sure, but after a few minutes she had a great idea. She choose the colourful one and open it. A littel green weird bird was staring at them greedily and the bird asked "Are you here to die?".
Posy and Blue the dolphin was confused, but all of a sudden the little green bird turn into a huge ugly green sea monster. Posy was scared because she did not bring anything to fight. Luckly, the dolphin had hidden ninja stars and a huge sword beside him. In a blink of an eye, Blue threw the ninja stars but he missed the ugly monster. At last he threw the final ninja star at the ugly, green sea monster. The sea monster said "Aww Aww.". He is in a terrible pain. Without a sound, Blue gave a sharp sword to Posy and asked her to chop ugly sea monster legs. Quickly, Posy took the sword and killed the enormous green sea monster. The sea monster fell to the hard ground and died to death.
Posy and Blue felt fantastic. They hug each other but Posy is missing her lovely family. Posy asked "Can you please take me back home?". "Yes, hold my fin and let's get back to your lovely home." Blue replied. They swam to the top of the clear river. Posy was so greatful to be back home. Posy told her mummy about this dangrous story and specially about her new, kind friend Blue. She made a large beautiful pool next to her small house and bring Blue to that pool. Everyday Posy will go visit Blue and feed yummy fish. Finally, Posy and clever Blue live happily ever after.
The Tunnel by Scarlett G - Age 9 from Singapore
On a boring Monday, Molly and Lilly where sitting in the back of Mr Bergen’s History class. Molly whispered to Lilly, “ I saw a creature lurking in the playground.”
“What!” shreaked Lilly.
“ Shhh,” said Molly.
“What is that noise?” shouted Mr Bergen.
“It’s Molly and Lilly,” said Mike.
“Get out of the class! Learn some respect” screamed Mr Bergen.
They stomped out of the class feeling angry. Molly says, “ Look there is a green colourful thing in the playground let’s chase it.” Lilly looked outside and saw the monster. It had green, short hair all over its body. It also had big feet and was the size of a jaguar.
“No!” says Lilly,
“ Relax” says Molly. Lilly felt guilty walking towards it in the playground slowly.
“Look its going into a tunnel under the slide. Let’s follow it!” said Molly.
Molly and Lilly walked into the tunnel nosely where they saw sharp, wet rocks all over the walls. They felt a bit sick because it was squishy and narrow. At the end of the tunnel Lily and Molly looked around they saw a brick castle on a hill. They decided to go to the palace.
When they walked into the palace they saw an old, Queen ringing a bell for tea. The Queen saw them and alerted the guard to get rid of them. Lilly had a sick feeling in her tummy. Molly shrieked, “Please, we will do anything.”
The Queen says, “OK, you both may marry my two sons.” Two very tall handsome men walked into the room. They both had orangey reddish hair and tight black suits.
“ Come here Ronald and Jack.”
“What is it?” they said feeling very annoyed.
The Queens says, “ You may marry these two women.”
“But I don’t want to,” says Ronald. The Queen tells them to get ready for the weddings. They all walked into a big, silent room.
Lilly says, ‘Can you help us please?”
“Ok” says Jack.
“Follow us,” says Molly. They make there way back to the tunnel and walk through. The Princes said, “ I’ve never seen this before,” they said excitedly.
They enter the High School playground back home. Molly and Lilly fall in love with the princes and they live happily ever after.
The Tunnel by Mia M - Age 8 from Hong Kong
One day there was a boy named Jack and a girl named Rosie, they lived in the same house
with their mother. The children were always arguing about random things like who flooded
the toilet or who put maple syrup in mum’s shampoo on April’s Fools day.
That day the children were fighting over their mum’s dress. “What in the world are you doing?” exclaimed Mum. Jack said, “What do you think we’re doing?”
“Something ridiculous” replied mum. “You’re correct,” Rosie said in a cheerful voice. “I think
you need to go outside in the garden together,” Mum said calmly.
The children rushed to the backyard. At the same time the children discovered a massive
hole in the backyard. “What is that?” whispered Rosie. “Probably something exciting and
fun,” Jack replied excitedly. Jack jumped in while Rosie waited quietly outside. ‘What am I
going to do?’ Rosie thought to herself. Mum’s voice echoed through the dining room and into
the backyard, “It’s lunchtime!!!” Rosie gasped to herself, “this is terrible I can’t let Mum know
as she worried about Jack.”
“Ten more minutes,” shouted Rosie back to Mum. “Okay girl, just be quick!”
Rosie gave a big squeal into the tunnel, there was no reply. ‘All I have to do is jump into the
tunnel,’ Rosie told herself. Rosie took a big breath and jumped into the tunnel anyway.
Rosie tumbled down the dark tunnel quickly and all the way she was screaming in a terrified
voice. She felt as nervous as when she goes to the doctor to go for an injection.
When Rosie got to the other side of the tunnel straight away she saw there weren’t many
trees, just ducks waddling all around the place. Rosie saw a river and she went to check out
if her brother was there. “Oh he’s not here!” Rosie replied to herself sadly. But wait a minute,
there was a reflection of Jack in the water! Rosie quickly looked behind and there was
nothing there, just ducks.
Rosie decided to investigate so she hopped into the shivering, cold river. Just then, she ended up upside down on the opposite side. She looked behind her and this time Jack was there but he’d turned into stone. She kneeled down and began to cry.
Rosie was laying down on her brother. One minute later, Jack began to unfreeze slowly. As
she sadly sobbed, at the last moment Jack was back to normal. “You’re alive!” exclaimed
Jack. “And you are,” Rosie replied happily. Jack held onto Rosie’s hand tightly and together walked back to the tunnel.
The ten minutes were over and Jack and Rosie were home ready for lunch. “What has happened? Why are you so quiet?” Mum asked. There was no reply from Jack or Rosie. After lunch, the children took Mum’s hand and dragged her into the garden. “What’s going on?” Mum said in confusion. Rosie told her mum all about the adventure in the tunnel. “That’s horrifying!” said Mum and then closed the tunnel with soil and created her own flower bed so the kids could never go there again.
The Tunnel by Marta A - Age 13 from Latvia
One Friday after school, I was at swimming practice, warming up. Two girls next to me started to discuss something. They asked me:
“Did you hear about the tunnel?”
“What? No...” I, confused, replied: “What tunnel are you talking about?”
They explained: “Well, there is a tunnel under the sea, near the shore. Scientists can’t explain it and everyone that goes to explore it... never return.”
I thanked them for the explanation and moved on.
Late at night, I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about this tunnel. I really wanted to explore it. I got up and ran outside. I took my old surfboard and went towards the shore. The moon was as bright as a flashlight. I took a deep breath and jumped into the waves.
Surprisingly, the tunnel was easy to find. There was a small light coming from it. I jumped into the water and swam downwards. The pressure got to my ears, but I stuck-through it. When I reached the bottom of the straight line down, I looked to my left – the light! I swam towards it. There was a futuristic shield, dividing water and dry cobblestones. I moved through the shield easily.
I stood, saw two dark-brown wood planks with paint written – ‘Answer 3 riddles, get a dreamy, eye-catching prize!!’ and ‘If you answer wrong… death is guaranteed!’
I thought to myself – is this worth it? Well, I’m quite good at riddles!
I looked around in my dripping-wet clothes and understood – there is no way back now.
I looked at the first riddle. It read: ‘It is a tiny house that you will find on the shore, sometimes there is a treasure inside it. What is it? Say the answer.’
I thought for a moment, it clicked to me, and I confidently said: “An oyster!”
Two gigantic stone doors, shaking, opened with dust flying everywhere! After the dust cleared up, I walked towards the next door. The next riddle read: ‘If you throw a red stone into the blue sea, what will it become?’
I thought quite long about this one, but I to used common sense and chimed: “Wet!”
Two doors opened. I saw multiple bones on the ground, and it creeped me out. I walked to the final riddle, it read: ‘What has no beginning, end, or middle?’
This for me was the most difficult. I was scared to answer, but I yelled: “The sea?”
There was a pause and the two stone doors opened. I was relieved. There was a small, ill-lit room with one gold pedestal with a charming, massive pearl on it. As I took the pearl, a big flush of water sent me back up to my surfboard and the tunnel sealed-up. It was sunrise. When I got back to my room, I placed the pearl on my shelf.
On Monday, discussions of the tunnel’s disappearance arose. I was smiling to myself, knowing I was the only one who had ever successfully gotten out of the tunnel.
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