Monstrous Achievements by St Mary’s Writers!

A warm welcome greeted three of our Lower Sixth International Baccalaureate English students, Millie, Klara and Megan, and English teacher, Leana Mikula, at St Mary’s, Henley, on Monday 3^rd June.

The group were visiting the Henley prep school to celebrate the art of storytelling and the wonderful efforts the Year 5 pupils made in the creation of their monster stories.

Last term St Mary’s Year 5s joined over 200 other prep and primary school children at Leighton Park in March to hear an hilarious and inspirational talk by author, Steve Cole. After the presentation, the children enjoyed a workshop on monsters and characterisation by our English Department team and went away to write their own stories for our competition.

The top five short stories were read aloud yesterday by Klara, Megan and Millie, engrossing their rapt audience with their dramatic storytelling.

“It was a challenge to choose winning stories when it was clear that all students put in such a strong effort.” commented Leana, “However, the top five stories from St Mary’s Henley School were: “Billy Bonker’s First Day of School” by Thomas, “The Flying Unicorn” by Joe, “The Grotesque Monster” by Charlie O, “Clementine” by Tilly, and “The Dream of the Blue Ocean” by Emily. A big congratulations to these young, talented writers!”

Following each story, the winning Year 5 students shared their thoughts on what made their piece such an engaging, strong story. Leana continued “Overall, we were thoroughly impressed by the students’ use of descriptive and sensory language, imagery, similes, characterisation, creativity, humorous and emotive styles of writing, and of course, their suspenseful plot twists. Their positive feedback and the supportive atmosphere was incredible, and we hope that they have all been encouraged to continue writing!”

After sharing and talking about their stories, a few monstrous poses were struck and the class were then presented their prize – book tokens! The winning students have the chance to collaboratively choose the books their class will buy with the tokens. This prize seemed to have come at a great time as the Year 5s are embarking on a school reading project that has been encouraging them to read more.

Leana concluded, “The pupils’ enthusiasm for both writing and reading was truly impressive, and we hope that they keep fostering this passion as they continue their studies in English beyond primary school!”