BeaconFest Creative Writing Competition 2026

There was a considerable number of entries from across Key Stages 3 and 4 for our creative writing competition. This made it extremely difficult to choose a winner in each category.

Special mentions must go to Sky in Year 9 for her thought-provoking poem about feminism, to Tyler in Year 10 for his metaphorical poem ‘To Bloom Again’, to Immy in Year 10 for her emotional poem about love through the seasons, to Isaac in Year 10 for his poem ‘Avarice’, inspired by his love of nineteenth century literature and to Daniel also in Year 10 for his powerful poem about humanity. However, there could only be one winner for each category.

The winner in the KS3 category is Humairah in Year 8, for her short story ‘Enzo’. This story was chosen as the winner because she carefully used figurative and sensory language to evoke a clear sense of place. Humairah also used a range of punctuation judiciously to create moments of tension and suspense in the story which are very compelling.

The winner in the KS4 category is Evelyn in Year 10, for her poem, ‘War in a Wonderful World’. From a wide range of excellent poetry entries, this was chosen as the winner because of its inspired use of a scientific extended metaphor to reflect the complexity of human beings. It beautifully reflects Evelyn’s passion for science as well as her profound understanding of human emotion!

These are two worthy winners, who clearly love writing, and I hope that they will be inspired to continue with their creative writing into the future.

Mrs Hamilton-Brown
Literacy and EAL Coordinator and Teacher of English

Extract from Evelyn's poem:

War in a Wonderful World

Deep within the central intelligence hub

Up high in your head

Wires humming with power

Secret messages being spread

That get you out of bed

And into school…

Dreams take flight, with little guilt

Thoughts are crafted, and sparkle in the light

It’s a world full of WONDER.

There are tiny, MICROSCOPIC little warriors, living here,

Protecting you from the nasty flu,

Standing guard, all day and night,

Fighting pathogens, oh what a big word,

With all their might.

They have a pretty hefty book,

Helping them distinguish what’s what,

It cries - the heart is mine!

So’s that lung tissue!!

Look out - to your left!

One day though,

The pages blur.

Very random, with no warning.

Imagine the chaos, the CONFUSION.

My little warriors, they’re battling blind!

They venture down, into the world full of wonder…

I don’t blame them really,

So much to see, so much to explore

A world full of wonder.