The winners!

Well done to everyone who entered. This year’s guest judges – authors Manjeet Mann and William Hussey – joined us at the prize-giving ceremony and awarded prizes to the competition winners.

We’re in the process of planning our next events, so please let us know your feedback for the 2023 competition (form below).

About the competition

The Tower Hamlets Creative Writing Competition is an annual event for schools in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for students aged six years to sixteen.

Open to pupils in subscribing schools OR to members of Tower Hamlets Idea Stores
Pupils in years 1 to 11 may enter
Categories for short stories and poetry

It has been run by Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service since 2011 with the aims of promoting wider reading and literacy, and to encourage young people to express themselves through the written word. Research carried out during the 2020 competition showed that pupils participating in the competition and in the author workshops benefited by gaining confidence in their writing ability and developing greater insight into the issues raised by the competition themes

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List of prize-winners

Winners are listed by ctegory
Prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and commended and best in school places
The judges’ decision is final and correspondence will not be entered into
We reserve the right to withdraw prizes in the case of any evidence of plagiarism.

Year 1 and 2 Poetry	1st & Best in school	Mohammad Musa Kamali	Halley Primary
Year 1 and 2 Poetry	2nd	Felix Poehler	English Martyrs
Year 1 and 2 Short Story	1st	Zaynab Hussain	Blue Gate Field Infants
Year 1 and 2 Short Story	2nd	Maya Aldridge	English Martyrs
Year 1 and 2 Short Story	3rd & Best in school	Esme Shayaan	Marner Primary
Year 10 and 11 Short Story	1st	Jeannette Goldman	Home educated
Year 10 and 11 Short Story	2nd	Afsana Abbas	Stepney All Saints School
Year 10 and 11 Short Story	3rd	Jorna Al Rahima Hossain	Stepney All Saints School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	1st & Best in school	Jorna Al Rahima Hossain	Stepney All Saints School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	2nd	Afsana Abbas	Stepney All Saints School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	3rd	Nada Bouharrat	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	Commended	Talibah Hart	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	1st	Marlow McInroy	English Martyrs
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	2nd & Best in school	Ruby Desmond	St Mary and St Michael
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	3rd & Best in school	Astrid Wiseman Stoate	Globe Primary
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	Best in school	Nalya Mohammed Aziz	Osmani Primary
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	Best in school	Zaynab Zaman	Seven Mills Primary
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	Commended	Owen Linton	Hermitage Primary
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	1st	Owen Linton	Hermitage Primary
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	1st	Alishba Khan	Stepney Park
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	2nd	Aidan Collins	English Martyrs
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	3rd & Best in school	Hiba Miah	Wellington Primary
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	Commended	Mariam Helena Vazquez	Blue Gates Fields Jnr
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	Commended	Thomas Wilson	St Lukes
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	1st & Best in school	Grace Claris Nalubega	Blue Gates Fields Jnr
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	2nd	Amiya Ali	Blue Gates Fields Jnr
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	3rd	Ava Notaro	English Martyrs
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Best in school	Sumaya Hasan	Cubitt Town
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Best in school	Eadie Warsing	Harbinger
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Best in school	Priya Ghai	Mayflower
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Best in school	Ali Ahmad	St Paul’s Whitechapel
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Best in school	Tanisha Ali	Virginia
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Commended	Rubi Olakitan	Blue Gates Fields Jnr
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Commended	Yusuf Shahriar	Marner
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Commended	Tahim Alam	Wellington
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	1st & Best in school	Alya Jain & Halima Maisha Islam	St Lukes
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	2nd & Best in schol	Tanisha Nusrat	The Clara Grant Primary
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	3rd & Best in school	Greta Winkelgrund	English Martyrs
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	Best in school	Nuba Rouzat Islam	Lansbury Lawrence
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	Best in school	Ibrahim Abdin	Old Palace
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	Commended	Sebastian Hartlin	English Martyrs
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	Commended	Max Collins	English Martyrs
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	Commended	Hannefah Bint Hamza Kataongale	Marner
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	1st	Tasniya Choudhury	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	2nd	Sohana Abbas	Stepney All Saints School
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	3rd	Jiyaad Ahmed	Bow School
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	1st & Best in school	Mahdiya Mahasin	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	2nd	Frida Greer	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	3rd	Ahlam Mugambwa	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	Commended	Zahara Godwill	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	Commended	Sohana Abbas	Stepney All Saints School

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Theme for 2023 : A Brighter Future ?

The theme for this year’s competition is A Brighter Future ?

Prompts and a booklist to support the theme and provide ideas for all year groups can be found at www.towerhamlets-sls.org.uk/cwc-ideas
Promotional posters and flyers with writing prompts will be sent to all participating schools

Entering the competition

The Competition

In 2023 there will be 5 age groups in the competition:

Group 1: Years 1 & 2
Group 2: Years 3 & 4
Group 3: Years 5 & 6
Group 4: Years 7 to 9
Group 5: Years 10 & 11

To enter

Write a short story up to 500 words (primary) and 750 words (secondary)
- may also be an illustrated story or comic book
Write a poem or verse story up to 25 lines (primary) and 35 lines (secondary)
Poems and stories may exceed this word count/line limit by up to 100 words/5 lines
Poems and stories must follow the competition theme

Pupils may enter both the short story and poetry categories. The competition deadline is Friday 31st March 2023. Work must be submitted by this date.

Submitting work:

The competition is now closed!

Good luck to everyone who entered. This year’s guest judges – authors Manjeet Mann and William Hussey will be reading the stories and poems over the next few weeks. Winners and their schools will be contacted in May and the list of winners will be posted on this website.

Register for the competition (Schools only)

Parents/ students entering via the Idea Stores do NOT need to register

In order to enter the competition, receive posters, entry forms and flyers, and take advantage of these free author workshops, schools need to:

enter the competition by “buying” it via SLAonline (Creative Writing Competition 2023. Just £40 to subscribing primary schools to cover administration)
email jacob.turner@towerhamlets.gov.uk letting us know who is to lead on running this event in your school.
use the form below to book your free writing workshops!

The Arts Council grant also enables us to publish a book of the winning entries.

Author Workshops

Fully-funded writing workshops for schools

We are thrilled to announce that Arts Council England has again awarded Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service with a grant to enhance our annual Creative Writing Competition with author-led creative writing workshops for schools, Idea Stores and home-educated children.

Information about the workshops

All of the author workshops have now been booked.

Important information

The author workshops are intended to provide practical creative writing skills to your pupils (and teachers!) including structuring a story and character creation. The workshops will relate to the theme of the competition but the skills learnt can be applied to other projects and lessons.

How will a visit to your school work?

It is our intention to arrange in-person author visits rather than virtual visits.

An author will be able to work with up to 2 groups of pupils during the time allocated to their visit.
These 2 sessions will be up to 50 minutes each and run one after the other with a short break in between.
An author or poet can also work with just 1 group for the visit duration as a more advanced workshop for older pupils – let us know in the additional details box in the booking form.
The school should suggest a date or (preferably) a range of dates during which you can host your visit. We will match you with an author based on your requirements and their availability.
Workshops should take place from January to March (world book day week is likely to be booked up very early on)
Each group of pupils can be up to the size of one class
Workshops can be for all ages from year 1 upwards
Groups can be of mixed ages, although there shouldn’t be too wide a gap between these ages in order to ensure age-appropriate content

Idea Stores

We are working with the Tower Hamlets Idea Stores to provide five workshops in public libraries between January and March. Dates and times to be announced.

If you have any questions, please email jacob.turner@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Poetry Slam Link!

Schools can also combine this competition with a performance poetry event! Give your pupils a confidence boost with a two-day intensive poetry workshop in association with the Poetry Society. This will prepare them for a half-day Slam performance where they’ll compete with other schools for prizes!

For more information see our Junior Slam page. The Junior Slam requires a separate registration.

Author workshop booking form

All of our workshops are now booked.

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