Mount Scoops Six Literary Prizes
Pupils at The Mount School in York will scoop up six of the creative writing prizes being awarded by the Ilkley Literature Festival this Friday evening in their Young People’s Writing Competitions.
Benyapa (3rd place, Years 7-9), Rosalind (2nd place, Years 10-11), Coco (1st place, Years 10-11), Megan (2nd place, Years 12-13), Isobel and Katie (Joint 3rd place, Years 12-13) were all recognised by the judging panel for the original poem or original short story.
Adrienne Richmond, Principal of the all-girl Quaker senior school said, “Congratulations to the pupils for this outstanding achievement. As a forward thinking school, The Mount celebrates community events where our pupils have the chance to test their abilities in the wider world. To have six pupils recognised as prize winners and highly commended by the Ilkley Literature Festival is a tribute to the girls’ talent and also to the tireless efforts of our inspirational teaching staff.”
Rachel Feldberg, Director of Ilkley Literature Festival said, “The Mount School has done extremely well in having a number of winners across the age ranges against a very strong field. We had a wide range of entries from schools across the state and independent sectors, as well as from individual young people and we are delighted to have received entries from such a wide range of backgrounds and attainment levels. The standard of entries this year was very impressive and we hope that aspiring writers will be encouraged to keep writing, as just like the athletes training for the Olympics, the more practice you have the better your stories will be. Whether or not you win a prize, getting a story finished and ready to enter our competition is a great achievement. Well done!”
Rachel Feldberg said, “The Ilkley Literature Festival organisers are delighted that so many young people entered our young writers’ competition this year. We are passionate about encouraging young people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy and develop their writing and our competition is just one way of valuing their talent and enthusiasm. We run weekly young writers’ groups and annual Young Writers’ Summer School – all of them open to anyone who is interested, whatever their level – and we celebrate our competition winners and the young people who have done themselves proud, whether or not they have won a prize, in our Cool Voices Club Night on Friday 14 October.”