In the last week of term, the girls in Y5 and Y6 eagerly anticipated the judging of the annual Manor Essay Competition. All Y6 girls had written their essay using the title “The Strangest Day” chosen by our guest judge, Mr Paul Mayhew-Archer. Paul entered the hall to the sound of “The Lord is my Shepherd”, the theme tune to The Vicar of Dibley which he co-wrote with Richard Curtis. Paul praised the incredibly high level and sophistication of the entries and spoke of how hard his task had been to choose a winner.
After much deliberation a winner and three runners-up were chosen. Isobel F was judged to have won with a remarkable story about “Bleakworld”. This entry seemed to take ideas from Romeo and Juliet, Twilight and Discworld to create a stunning mixture of mystery and romance. Charlotte C’s entry was about a child kidnapped while in Paris; Natasha S’s about a ghostly child who steals mothers and Annabel Y’s about a strange day when everything works backwards. The winners and runners-up received their certificates and prizes and, along with twenty short listed girls, a signed, personal comment on their entry from Paul.
Paul stayed with us for an hour telling us about his career in writing and showed us clips from his work. The teachers laughed, the children laughed and we all learnt about script writing and some of the thinking behind the funniest of scenes in The Vicar of Dibley such as the puddle jumping by Geraldine and the wedding of Alice and Hugo.
It is true to say that story writing at The Manor is alive and well. We have many budding authors in our midst and I look forward to reading more stories from our talented girls in September.
Russell King
Head of English
