Creative writing competition 2024 – Tower Hamlets Schools Library Services

The winners!

Authors Rashmi Sirdeshpande and Savita Kalhan who judged this year’s competition joined us at the Tower Hamlets Town Hall on Monday 24th June to award prizes to the proud winners!

The competition is an annual event for years 1 to 11 and this time 47 children and young people will feature in ‘Discover’ – the anthology of winning stories and poems. Many of them were coached by authors and poets who held workshops in schools and in the Idea Stores, funded by Arts Council England.

‘Discover’ will be published in the autumn term and copies will be sent to the winners and their schools.

The full winners list is presented below. Please inform us of any spelling errors or name changes by 10th August. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Category	Prize	Pupil name	Pupil school
Year 1 and 2 Short Story	1st	Essrat Zara	Marion Richardson Primary School
Year 1 and 2 Short Story	2nd	Nuriyah Hussain	Wellington Primary School
Year 1 and 2 Short Story	3rd	Adil Kazi Rahman	Halley Primary School
Year 1 and 2 Short Story	Commended	Wren Newman-Day	Globe Primary School
Year 1 and 2 Poetry	1st	Nuri Gillan	Gatehouse Primary School
Year 1 and 2 Poetry	2nd	Ruby Bail	The Aldgate School
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	1st	Rumaysa Islam	Globe Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	2nd	Amaan Uddin	William Davis Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	3rd	Jessica Hayes	English Martyrs Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	Commended	Aqsaa Zikra Islam	Wellington Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	Commended	Ariella Yambala	English Martyrs Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Poetry	Commended	Zaynab Hussain	Blue Gate Fields Junior School
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	1st	Sabeel Akanjee	Globe Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	2nd	Hrihan Mahale	Manorfield Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	3rd	Shiam Mohamed	Bygrove Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	Commended	Sophia Ali	Blue Gate Fields Junior School
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	Commended	Yena Han	English Martyrs Primary School
Year 3 and 4 Short Story	Commended	Zayan Islam	Blue Gate Fields Junior School
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	1st	Mariam Helena Vazquez	Blue Gate Fields Junior School
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	2nd	Syed Waseem Ali & Mohammed Jawdan Ali	Osmani Primary School
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	3rd	Tasneen Haque	Globe Primary School
Year 5 and 6 Short Story	Commended	Maryam Khan & Roma Otti	Old Palace
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	1st	Jamila Warsama	Globe Primary School
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	2nd	Imaan Mohamed	Globe Primary School
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	3rd	Marwah Bouhamouch	Osmani Primary School
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Commended	Musa Ali	William Davis Primary School
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Commended	Fatima Miah	Blue Gate Fields Junior School
Year 5 and 6 Poetry	Commended	Sara Begum	Osmani Primary School
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	1st	Maliha Jannath	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	2nd	Gia George	Canary Wharf College
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	3rd	Loren-Joe Sultana Ali	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	Commended	Jannah Ahmed	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	Commended	Priyota Rahman	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	Commended	Sanika Ahmed	Home educated
Year 7 – 9 Poetry	Commended	Shiab Mohamed	Mulberry Stepney Green Maths, Computing & Science College
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	1st	Sumayyah Abdulmateen	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	2nd	Imaan Rizwan	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 7 – 9 Short Story	3rd	Nusaybah Choudhury	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 10 and 11 Short Story	1st	Afsana Abbas	Stepney All Saints School
Year 10 and 11 Short Story	2nd	Mahdiya Mahasin	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 10 and 11 Short Story	3rd	Salena Miah	Langdon Park School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	1st	Nada Bouharrat	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	2nd	Nafisa Ahmed	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	3rd	Alyssa Molina	Central Foundation Girls School
Year 10 and 11 Poetry	Commended	Faria Hossain	Central Foundation Girls School

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.

Theme for 2024 : DISCOVER

The theme for the competition this year is Discover. Writers can interpret this in any way they wish and there are countless options to choose from. We’ve collected some ideas together at www.towerhamlets-sls.org.uk/getwriting and will be adding to this over the term.

Prompts and a booklist to support the theme and provide ideas for all year groups will go live later this year
Promotional posters and flyers with writing prompts will be sent to all participating schools

QUICK LINKS

For pupils and parents : www.towerhamlets-sls.org.uk/getwriting : Ideas, prompts and other resources. Plus competition rules and what the judges will be looking for,
Entry form : Work can be submitted from February 2024
For schools – keep reading!

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 the Services to Schools/ SLAonline platform (Creative Writing Competition 2024. Just £40 to subscribing primary schools to cover administration – discount applied on purchase)
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

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 the funding for workshops has now been allocated so I’m afraid we can’t take any more bookings this year.

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