Bournemouth Collegiate School pupils welcomed teenage fiction author, Shalini Boland, to the School when she visited to judge the entries from the School’s recent short story competition.
Bournemouth based Shalini who has written books such as ‘ Thicker than Blood’ , ‘The Clearing ‘ and ‘A Shirtful of Frogs’ said, “I was blown away by the talent shown. It was a really hard decision trying to pick a winner.” She told the pupils, “ I have hi lighted a few lines from each story because I want you all to know how much I’ve enjoyed reading your work. It’s quite inspiring!”
The winner picked was Year 8 Danni Poll who wrote ‘ Beacon of Hope‘ . Danni said, “I was surprised and amazed but really pleased to win. I really enjoyed listening to Shalini’s advice and I’m looking forward to reading some of her books which I’ve won today.”
Highly commended entries from Dominic Farrow, Thomas Bourne, Poppaea Bramwell-Reeks, Daisy Stallard, Oliver Lande, Charlie Bates, Tomas Seville and James Downey were praised by Shalini.
Judith Hayward, Head of English, said, “It was great to hear how highly regarded the creative work of our key stage 3 pupils is, especially getting such positive individual feedback from a real, successful author like Shalini. It was good to see so many Year 7 pupils having their work recognised and commended too.”