* The July / August prize: £40 gift card for winning pupil + free workshop for pupil's school (travel + accommodation to be paid by school)  Deadline for entries is Friday September 10th, which gives pupils a chance to put in some summer holiday writing work, whilst librarians and teachers will have a chance to chase up entries on the first week back.

***The JUNE winner is: JOANNA B. , Y8 from Edgecliff School in Kinver, for her Haunted House story. This is the second time one of my competitions has been won by a pupil from this school. Well done!***

The winner of the May competition was Mia M, Y8, from Werneth School, Stockport. I am delivering the prizes on Friday 23rd July, when Werneth are hosting me for the day.

Shortlisted & Highly Commended May entries:

Ashleigh H, Y8 & Monika C, Y13, both of Brooksbank School, Elland

Megan C, Y8, Danum School Technology College, Doncaster

James H, Y9, Austin Friars St. Monica's, Carlisle

Thomas S, Djanogly City Academy, Nottingham

Chloe B, Y8, Werneth School, Stockport

July 26th, 2010

Try one of this week's two tasks (below) or see the archive for more

Task 1:          Creative Writing

Write a story or story opening which contains a desk, an acrobat, rain, a castle and a character who says, 'Never, never, never!'

Task 2:        Reading Springboard

Using a book of your choice, imagine you are a school teacher who has given a detention to the main character. Another character from the book suddenly turns up, uninvited, to the detention room. Write it out as a story, story opening, or script.

Pupils:

·    Maximum lengths: 40 lines for poetry, 500 words for prose - work can be longer, but judgement stops there

·    Any poem, story, script or reading springboard piece you've written can be submitted at any time - no need to stick to weekly or archived tasks - just invent your own!

·    No time limits on weekly tasks - send when finished

·    All work received by each deadline (usually the end of each month) stands an equal chance of winning the monthly prize

·    Don't fancy this week's task? Use an archived one

·    I'm judging your writing for quality, not quantity, and your age will be taken into consideration

·    Send work using the Contact Form - if it fails, email

·    Any questions will be answered on this page for all to read

Librarians & Teachers

·    PDFs and JPEGs for display + extra bookmarks will be posted below when available

·    Not signed up? Email me and I will send you a starter pack, containing 20 bookmarks

·    This project is funded by my paid work in schools, so why not consider me for a workshop?