CANDI students write winning short stories as part of GCSE English Course

Students showcase writing skills and create dystopian worlds for a college competition.

A group of six GCSE English students from City and Islington College (CANDI) have been awarded creative writing prizes for their original stories. The students, all of whom study at CANDI’s Centre for Business, Arts and Technology, Camden Road (CBAT), wrote short creative pieces as part of their GCSE English course. The course involves a range of project-based work and in February students completed a creative writing task on the theme of Utopia and Dystopia.

The creative writing competition was organised by Sean Vernell, a GCSE English Teacher, who opened up the challenge to five of his GCSE English groups. Sean invited students to submit their creative pieces and chose six winners.

The winning pieces are set in dystopian worlds brought about by wars, climate change, new technologies and pandemics. They include richly descriptive and detailed portrayals of dystopian landscapes, incorporating dramatic scenes of conflict and survival as well as engaging original characters.

The six winnings stories were:

• The Authority by Zahara Parsons
• Life in 50 Years by Kiara Ezechie
• A Time To Die by Aisha Sharif
• The Silent Room by Ediana Pires
• Meta Earth by Plando Hoppe
• Trapped in a World by Jade Byrne

Sean Vernell, the GCSE English Teacher who guided the students through the project and organised the competition, said: “The world in which young people live is fraught with tensions and fears. These stories reflect these anxieties about their future worlds. […] All six are worthy winners of this year’s creative writing competition.”

The winning authors received a short anthology containing their creative writing pieces along with Amazon vouchers. The prizes were presented by Sacha Murmann, Head of School for Maths and English at CANDI, Shima Javadzadeh, Curriculum Manager for Maths and English. and Seval Fadil, Assistant Principal at CANDI.

Sacha Murmann, Head of School for Maths and English at CANDI, said: “We found all the entries to be outstanding examples of high-quality powerful writing that should now be enjoyed by a wider audience. […] I look forward to seeing these young, exciting writers in a few years’ time with their first novels.”

You can read the anthology containing the students’ winning stories here.

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