West Norfolk students are prize-winning writers

A short story detailing a dystopian future and a poem about environmental destruction have won awards for their young writers.

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Lyra Cummings, in Year 6 at Heacham Junior School, and Alice Wenn, a student at St Clement’s High School, Terrington St Clement, wrote the pieces as their respective entries for the Rotary Young Writer Competition, which this year had as its theme ‘The Environment’. Both schools are members of the West Norfolk Academies Trust​.

The competition was open to all schools and colleges, as well as home-schooled students and community youth organisations such as RotaKids, Scout and Guide groups, and offered prizes across three age categories: Junior (seven to 10-years-old), Intermediate (11 to 13), and Senior (14 to 17).

Entrants were asked to write a fiction or non-fiction piece of up to 550 words, or a poem of up to 40 lines, with the winners in each age group progressing through three stages from District to Regional and National. 

It was the first time that the Rotary Club of Hunstanton & District had been involved in the competition.

Rotarian John Crofts said: “We wanted to challenge school children in the area, particularly as they returned to face-to-face teaching following Covid. It’s a three-stage competition designed to support and encourage the development of writing skills, and it aims to encourage young people to use their writing skills and to write with imagination and creativity.”

Lyra won both District and Regional Junior levels in the competition to go through to the National final with her story relating a nightmare where the dreamer opens a series of doors to reveal scenes of environmental devastation.

Although she did not place in the final, her achievement in winning both the other stages was rewarded with a certificate and a £25 gift voucher.

Meanwhile Alice won the District stage of the competition to go through to the Regional level, where she placed second, earning herself a certificate and a £15 gift voucher.

Both Heacham and St Clement’s are members of the West Norfolk Academies Trust.