Pictured above are first and second prize winners with their teachers Mrs Mone, Mrs McCormick, Miss O’Rourke and Mrs Campbell (Head of English).

Here was the challenge…. Deliver a story in and around 100 words that would entertain the reader.

What was needed was a tight plot, colourful words and clear punctuation to draw the reader in; and a twist that would make them smile or chill them to the bone. The standard was amazing, from Year 8 to Year 11, and we found it very difficult to pick the winners.

Well done to everyone who took part and a big thank you to your teachers too.

See below to read the winning entries.

Tiarna Ferris 11/38
Weeping uncontrollably, my mother dropped the phone and wrapped her arms around my father. “He’s dead!” she screamed. The cold look on my father’s face alarmed me. I tried questioning them but they didn’t respond. A sense of emptiness floated over me but my parents were in too much turmoil to answer. Rain lashed the windscreen as we drove to the hospital. What was going on? Who was dead? Eventually, in a stark, cold and windowless room, I saw my sobbing mother holding a little boy’s hand at a bed. I rushed over to see a lifeless child covered with blood. The child was me.

In The Forest by Michaela Mc Givern 10/33
He lived in a vast forest stretching into the wilderness. He loved how the squirrels would leap excitedly onto the branches, how the deer would roam gracefully in the distance, the foxes spying craftily at you from behind the trees, the birds merrily chirping high in the branches. Birds gripped trustingly onto his wrist and pecked birdseed from his palm, and the foxes visited his porch. As dusk descends, he would make his way home and close the door of his cosy cottage. On the walls hung the stuffed animals. He longed to add another one to his collection.

Mission Impossible by Sean Boylan 9/72
They were gaining on him! He could just about make out their hideous features through the cold, lashing rain. How did he get here? He couldn’t remember. He was filthy and covered in sticky mud. What day was it? Everything was suddenly unknown to him. He remembered a mission, to infiltrate some organisation. He wasn’t leaving, that was for sure! A perimeter fence stretched long into the distance. Suddenly he had an idea. The knife was his only hope. The ‘things’ were only metres away. His iPod suddenly beeped and the screen went black; it had run out of power!

Killing me with Kindness by Orlagh Mc Ginn 8/51
It was a beautiful summer’s evening for my sister and I to have a kick about. We were really enjoying it, but of course my sister kicked the ball so hard that it landed beyond the high fence. I scaled the fence to get my ball and came face to face with a crazy dog, growling and drooling at me. I thought to myself that this cannot be true; I am too young to die. I quickly turned and ran towards the fence. I glanced back to see this ferocious dog going crazy with wild red eyes. I fell to the ground and waited to be eaten alive. Yeah! I was being killed….with utter kindness because this great big lump was the most friendly, cuddly dog you could ever meet.