TWO SUPER story-tellers from Belbroughton Primary School have won a national writing competition.
Cerys Hickman, ten, and Mary Muthuveloe, 11, were awarded the top prises in Pearson’s My Twist on a Tale contest.
Children between the age of four and 16 were tasked with ripping up the rule book and giving their favourite fairytale, fable or regional folk story a 21st Century twist, showcasing the diverse and modern-day Britain within which they live.
Cerys’ creation The Eco-Friendly Wolf won the Key Stage 2 section. It was centred on the Three Little Pigs and featured a kind wolf who worked for a cavity wall insulation company and wanted to address climate change. His huff and puff showed customers how draughty their homes were. Later he teams up with the eco-builder pigs to create the village ‘Huffalot’ where Snow White makes apple cider, Pinocchio runs a theatre group and there is a vegan cafe.
Mary’s modern-day Goldilocks story – Goldie and the Three Shop Assistants – won the West Midlands region category.
It features teenage girl Goldie who is always on her phone and finds herself on the wrong side of the Three Bears Company.
The pair did extremely well as more than 3,000 children entered the competition.
Cerys said she was so surprised she had won. I really enjoyed twisting my story, writing about climate change as it’s such an important topic but I wanted to include morals too like working together is stronger than working apart and that it’s wrong to judge people.”
Mary added she was proud to have finished first.
“I thought it was important to reflect modern tech problems and the panic in people it can cause but also to say that these issues aren’t really issues at all and to remind people that we don’t need to have our lives ruled by technology.”
Katy Lewis, head of English, drama and languages at Pearson said: “Cerys and Mary should be extremely proud of the stories they have written.
“Their imagination and writing skills were outstanding.
“It was an incredibly difficult decision choosing winners from the 3000+ stories we received, as they were all fascinating to read.
“It was important to us that all entries included a personal twist and reflected the personalities, locations, heritages, interests and experiences of the authors.
“It has been fantastic to see the world from the perspectives of learners today and incredibly interesting to be able to identify the issues and areas that matter most to them.
“This competition goes to show that diversity, inclusion and belonging matter to children and young people across the country.
“They matter in the literature we consume and the books, poetry and plays we put in front of them as well as in the literary content they are empowered to create.”
Visit pearsonschools.co.uk/mytwistonatale for a free download of My Twist on a Tale containing Cerys’ and Mary’s stories.
