Young writers in Heacham and Terrington win prizes for outstanding stories

Two students from West Norfolk have written about hard-hitting subjects that affect their future.

Lyra Cummings wrote a story about a dystopian future and Alice Wenn wrote a poem on environmental disaster as part of the competition.

A series of schools in West Norfolk took part in a writing competition where students were given the task of writing a 550-word story or a 40-line poem with the given theme this year being the environment.

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.

Heacham Junior School and St Clements are part of the West Norfolk Academies Trust.

The competition was open to all schools and colleges and had three different age categories, junior, for children aged seven to ten. Intermediate, aged 11-13 and seniors, aged 14-17 years-old. It was also open to home schooled pupils and other youth organisations with the likes of Guide and Scout groups and the RotaKids.

Winners of the competition could progress through to different stages of the competition, being district, regional and national.

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. She won a certificate and a £25 gift voucher for her efforts. Lyra had just missed out on having a place in the final.

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 of the young writers have been recognised for their efforts by the Rotary Club and their schools alike.

This was the first time that the Rotary Club of Hunstanton and District has got involved with the writing 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.”