Seaford College Prep School is holding a writing competition. We are looking for creative writers who can create captivating stories or poems that show off the best of our school.

Adam Cooper, KS2 Literacy Coordinator, said: "We wanted to provide our young people with an opportunity to stretch themselves and write outside of the boundaries of the curriculum. It has been really exciting to see so many young people rise to the challenge and the abundance of creativity and imagination on show in the entries thus far.” 

All entries will be assessed and the top 3 will be awarded prizes. Also, excellent contributions will be submitted to an external competition – the 2021 Elmbridge Literary Competition.

The theme of the competition is Music. What we mean by this is that music must be a key part of the poem or story. It doesn’t automatically have to be about music, music just has to be an important part of the story.  Some ideas you could use are:

 

-  How a character feels discovering music for the first time.

-  An old, abandoned house where a piano is mysteriously heard at night.

-  A tiger, or another animal, that organizes itself to the dawn chorus.

-  A crazed musician who must constantly play a certain rhythm to keep an evil force at bay.

-  Tales from the life of a famous musician or even a busker with his singing cat.

-  A thief who pretends to be in an orchestra to attend an extravagant ball.

- A mysterious music box whose tune brings out forgotten memories.

 

The Disney and Pixar films Coco and Soul are good examples of stories that are based around music

 

The Rules Are:

 

- You can submit a poem or short story.

- There is a maximum word limit of 1000 words for a short story (500 words if you are 7 and under).

- Poems must be a maximum of 30 lines and double spaced (20 if the author is 7 and under).

- It must be submitted in a word file (7 and under can submit a hand-written work, as long as it is neat).

- The deadline to get them to me is 3rd March.

- All entries must be submitted to Mr Cooper (acooper@seaford.org).

- The story must have music as a theme.

 

Some Tips…

Writing a good story is all about re-writing and polishing. Never be satisfied with the first draft. Take your time to create believable characters and scenes, try and paint a picture with your words so that the reader can see what you see.

Don’t be afraid to let other people read it and offer you advice. Often, they will see something you missed.

And remember to check the basics such as spelling, punctuation and presentation before emailing your story. Ad alta everyone!