PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Use Wednesday 27th February 2008
Children’s Authors Unite in Support of SCEMES’ National Short Story Competition
A raft of renowned children’s authors including Joyce Dunbar, Alan Gibbons, Brian Keaney and Geraldine McCaughrean have united to support this year’s SCEMES National Short Story Competition on the theme of ‘One World’.
The competition, which is open to KS2 pupils nationwide, is one of the most renowned and rewarding on the school competitions calendar and is widely supported by authors, government ministers and education organisations such as NATE, The NPH and the National Literacy Association.
Offering a total prize fund of £4,500 pounds, with £2,500 going to the winning school and fantastic prizes on offer for all the winning pupils, the SCEMES National Short Story Competition is one of the largest of its kind.
This year, the overall winner stands to win a fantastic ‘Arctic Ice Adventure’ courtesy of responsible travel company ‘Explore!’ and there are more great prizes on offer for all the runners up.
The SCEMES National Short Story Competition is highly regarded by teaching professionals not only because of the generous prizes on offer, but also because of the vast range of teaching resources made available by SCEMES.
As well as comprehensive details on how to enter the competition, the website contains a raft of resources including lesson plans, worksheets, sustainable school resources, story ideas and writing tips that will guide pupils and teachers alike through the competition process.
The eight authors who have joined forces to support the competition all feature on the ‘Meet the Authors’ page of the SCEMES National Short Story Competition website, where they offer writing tips to the children entering the competition and express their own thoughts on the theme of ‘One World’.
Prolific children’s writer Joyce Dunbar explained:
“Human beings have made terrific strides in all sorts of ways, but they have taken the resources of our beautiful earth for granted. Now, we know we have to take care of the earth…
“Humans have always made stories. Not only do stories make sense of the past and the present, they can help to shape the future. Be part of it. Pick up your pens and let everyone know what you think."
The theme of ‘One World’ was chosen following an extensive consultation process with teaching staff and is designed to fit effortlessly with teacher’s own schemes of work, whilst giving pupils a platform from which to explore issues about the world they live in today.
SCEMES Ltd. first began running National Writing Competitions in 2006 in response to the DFES’ Sustainable Schools Consultation Document.
Their idea was to provide teachers with an easy route through which they could teach sustainable development through the National Curriculum and give pupils an opportunity to voice their opinions about issues such as climate change, which would affect their futures.
Last year, their National Poetry Competition on the theme of ‘The Environment’ was an outstanding success, eliciting some fantastic responses from teachers and pupils and showing that children are capable of expressing an acute sensitivity to the world around them.
This year’s National Short Story Competition follows hot on the heels of that success, with the theme of ‘One World’ designed to give pupils the opportunity to develop their understanding of ‘The Environment’ by placing it within a global context.
Jonathon Porritt, Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission expressed his support of the theme at the Competition launch:
“Now that we have all (at long last!) woken up to the dire state of the earth, partly as a consequence of accelerating climate change, it’s really important that we call on all our human resources to find ways of responding appropriately,” he said.
“This Short Story Competition, on the theme of “One World”, is therefore a very timely initiative, and will no doubt stimulate a lot of creative and committed writing. A great idea!”
Entries are welcomed from schools throughout the course of the competition, with the closing date for entries falling on World Environment Day, 5th June 2008.
Schools will be supported throughout the competition with regular email updates containing lesson plans, worksheets and assembly outlines as well as competition updates from SCEMES Ltd.
They will also be kept informed of forthcoming National and International events that link to the theme of ‘One World’ in order to encourage pupils to relate their classroom activities to larger national and global issues.
To enter your school into the SCEMES National Short Story Competition, or to make use of some of the many ‘One World’ resources available to teachers, visit the SCEMES website: www.scemes.net/writing
ENDS
For more information contact Helen Gordon, Marketing and Projects Manager on 01691 664199 helen@scemes.net