By Mrs Graves (Head of English)

Huge congratulations to Zaynab in Year 11 who has been shortlisted for the Girls’ School Association Creative Writing Award (Senior). 

The overarching theme of the student events from the GSA this year has been ‘Go Bold!’ As you can imagine, this aligns perfectly with our own school values, so we were excited to see the creative writing award advertised as a challenge which would ‘appeal to budding news reporters and girls who are keen to hold truth to power, to speak up, and speak out.’

Zaynab worked independently to plan and write her entry, a personal and thought-provoking piece entitled: ‘You believe I am oppressed? Girl, I’m just differently dressed.’ In a short video she had to produce to go alongside her shortlisted entry, Zaynab said: ‘I wanted to speak up about something that affected me personally but also I know it affects a lot of other people.’  

The power of her writing has been recognised by the judge (Hannah Barnes- Associate Editor at The New Statesman) and she is now one of three shortlisted finalists from Year 10-13 across the country. This is a very impressive achievement, especially amongst all the other pressures of being a Year 11 student with a busy exam schedule. We are waiting with fingers crossed for the announcement of the winner at the GSA Summer briefing on Monday 16th June. Good luck, Zaynab!