GSA Junior Writing Award success

Recently our girls, in Years Four, Five and Six, were challenged to write a fiction story. The brief was 'The Robot Awakes' and the girls were tasked with creating a title for their story and writing a story from any perspective of between 300 and 500 words.

We were delighted with the standard of the entries and submitted these to the GSA Junior Writing Competition. The entries were judged by Tamsin Winter, a multi-award winning author who writes fresh, funny and heartfelt fiction for readers aged 11+. Tamsin grew up in a Northamptonshire village where she spent her childhood reading books and writing stories.

With hundreds of entries from schools across the country, we were thrilled to discover that Daiya in Year Five had successfully made it through to the final six!

Daiya's story was entitled 'Why?' and was a clever take on the brief, whereby a robot prevents a catastrophe taking place:

A shutter of light came out like a gust of wind. I look to my left and right, something wasn't the same. I look daown at my weight, steel legs strapped to the immense lab floor. I knew it, I was being programmed but not for the reason I was expecting.

"Finally, almost done, now more plastic will be in the ocean and I will destroy the world and get rid of this robot!" interjected the boy. I overheard all of this...it's not right! I always thought the boy was a sympathetic person but I guess not. Little does he know, I have tricks up my sleeve, but for now, I turned my 'off'.

I felt faint and disorientated, the next day, my vague memory wasn't visible to me anymore, it wasn't...right. The only thing I knew was that today was the day he will get rid of me. I need to think fast, but I just can't. Why would a warm-hearted boy do this to me and the world? It's not the right thing to do. I really need to think this through. But, when was I going to do something about it, I felt uproarious. beep, bang, clash I heard as the gas pumps moving as swift as a bolt, buttons beeping like never before. What's happening and why? But enough, I...stopped.

I woke up to the words "Yes! All done, the world will never EVER be the same after today. YAY!" exclaimed the boy, not knowing what I did and that I heard of what he did. The thing is, I was planning for this day and that would stop it all, the malfunction, the steam pipes, the banging, it was me behind it all. Finally, it happened. I fixed all of it, the machine, the programming and the buttons.

"Wait! What's happening! Ahh!" cried the boy. His expectations were the opposite of the reality.

Finally, I'm free! No destroying the world. Just me...for now.

We are so proud of this achievement and delighted to be able to share Daiya's success.