Upper School Success in 500 Words Competition

Each year, Upper School spend the first half of the Spring term planning and creating original short stories for Radio 2’s 500-word short story competition.  Each child finishes the half-term with their own short story which is lovingly shared amongst the pupils.  500-word story entries from the past two years can often be seen entertaining pupils in our book corners – they really are very special. 

This year, our entries continued to be diverse and engaging.  There was such a broad spectrum of stories, each one unique and surprising.  Well done to all the children that took part; your stories were a joy to read.

Like all competitions, there is a judging process and for the second year running, we are delighted to announce that we have been successful in getting Upper School stories through to the second round.  Emre and Kitty from Year 4 have been successful in beating over 125,000 other short stories to reach the last 5,000 stories in Radio 2’s 500-word short story competition.

Emre’s story, titled, ‘The 500 Word Story Competition’ tells the story of a boy who was desperate to win a writing competition. The humorous story follows the trials and tribulations of the boy whose story is blown away, eaten by a dog and set on fire in a restaurant. It is his growth mindset that saves the day and keeps him going towards his goal.

Kitty’s story, titled, ‘The Dinosaur is Alive!’ tells the story of Dippy, the skeleton dinosaur at The Natural History Museum who is being taken on a tour around the country.  After discovering that he comes to life in daylight, Dippy goes on a hilarious journey through London disguised as a tourist in a top hat and a moustache.  He gets up to all sorts of adventures resulting in total chaos!

Asked how they felt about their success to the second round, Emre said, “When I heard about it I was quite shocked because the chances of going through to the next round were about one in a billion! The inspiration for my story came because I kept changing my mind about the storyline and I didn’t give up which gave me the idea for my story. I feel like going through to the next round has given me an extra boost to make me feel like I’m a good writer and has given me an advantage with creative writing.” Kitty said, “I feel really happy because writing isn’t one of my strongest points and I feel I’ve really shown my abilities. My inspiration for the story came from my love of Dippy and how much I’ve missed him at The Natural History Museum. My Grandmother is friends with someone who is taking Dippy on the tour around the world which gave me my story idea!”

The whole school enjoyed hearing their stories and it was a proud moment for Kitty and Emre. We wish them the best of luck for the final stages of the competition, where 5000 stories are reduced to 50 finalists. Whatever the outcome, we very much hope they are celebrating their successes as authors!