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Issue 54 – October 2015 – QUEEN MARGARET CALLING
Taking first place for her short story Dying of the Light , came
as a complete shock for Year 10 student, Mila.
“I was not expecting anything to come out of it. It is a
great feeling. I am very proud,” Mila says.
Budding young writers from across the country entered the
national competition, which is run by the School of Young Writers.
Mila’s winning short story, written in second person, is about a
person going into surgery for a tumour and the pain and emotion
after the surgery fails.
“It was one of those stories that wrote itself. I had an idea and
when I sat down and started typing, I couldn’t stop.”
As well as a $100 book voucher, Mila will also have her story
published in the magazine Write On, which will be her first published
piece.
“I am looking forward to seeing my name and story published,”
Mila comments.
Talented wordsmith Mila Kenny has won the
Senior Section of The Best Story Competition.
Winning
Storyteller
The young author enjoys creative writing because of the
unlimited possibilities it gives her.
“I love taking a blank page and building entire worlds using just
the words from my mind,” she explains.
“When writing, I can be anyone and do anything. Sometimes,
I’ll be a professor of English or a photographer searching for the lost
city of Atlantis.”
Mila is already showing her flair for the English language at
school whether she is writing the script for the Year 10 Musicals or
an essay in English.
Mila plans to continue writing in the future and is even setting
herself a personal challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month
later this year.
“I tried last year but I did not quite finish. This year I am
determined to succeed.”
Year 9 students Alexandra Hickford, Eleanor Burns, Lucy
Poole and coach Helen Wright, were elated to have taken
the top title after winning the final. Lucy was also awarded
Best Speaker on the night.
“We were surprised because it had been a close debate but it
was a very rewarding feeling after having worked so hard,” Lucy
comments.
“A Queen Margaret College team won last year so we wanted to
retain the title.”
This is the first year that any of the three have competed in
Debating.
“It was an entirely new experience and we faced some good
teams,” Lucy says.
There was a total of 54 teams in the competition. A loss at the
beginning of the year motivated the debaters to improve and since
then, the team have gone from strength to strength.
The final debate was challenging as students argued for and
against the moot, ‘This house believes it should be a criminal offence
to not vaccinate your child’.
For the second year in a row a Queen
Margaret College team has won the Debating
Junior Certificate Grade Grand Final.
Debating Champs
“It was a controversial topic and we only had a week to prepare,”
Lucy comments.
She adds that debating within parliament was a daunting
experience but her team were up for the challenge and kept their
focus on the moot.
These talented orators have learnt that a strong team needs to
listen carefully to each other and work together.
Alexandra Hickford, Lucy Poole and Eleanor Burns