Cranford Review 2020

BBC
500 Words
Competition
2019/2020
BBC 500 Words is the UK’s most successful short story-writing competition for children between the
ages of 5 and 13. It was launched in 2011, after the radio presenter Chris Evans had a dream of getting
children excited about reading and writing. He wanted to involve all children: no matter what their ability,
experience, or background and since its launch, the competition has received over 912,986 short stories.
All entrants have to write an original story, no more than 500 words in length, and submit it online. It can
be about ANYTHING you want – space-ships, grannies, insects, time travel. The list is endless and this
year we had some amazing entries from our Cranford story tellers. Here are just a few of the wonderful
stories submitted by our young authors.
Katherine Pedersen (English Department)
Mystery of a town
This story is about a town and a few people in the town. The name of this town is Greendale. In Greendale, a
lot of unexpected things happen, no one knows why these things happen, some say the town is cursed, others
know but they wouldn’t say anything. It was a normal day, people were going to school or work, nothing weird
was going on. There were 10 teenagers, they were always in all the things that happened to the town, there were
others. That day, they went to school, there was something about these teenagers, something they didn’t know.
That morning, at school some were talking about what’s new, others talking about the things that happened to
them in their summer holidays. Kat, she is one of the 10 teenagers that have something weird, well Kat, she is
the mean girl you see in the movies and her family is the richest in Greendale. Max, he is in the football team,
Sam, she is the smartest, Nick, he writes music, these four have a lot to do in the town, and the other 6, are
Jess, her mother is the Mayor, then there is Tom, he is the quiet one, Sabrina, she is an artist, and the twins,
Jake and Ben, they are Kat’s siblings. That day they went to school, something was in Nick’s backyard at his
house, he didn’t know, infected. Noone knew what happened, because no one was at home, everyone was at
work or school. The town was small but, it was very rich, and some say dangerous. When Nick got home, he
found out what happened. Before he went to look at it, he called Max and asked him to come over at his house
and help him find out what happened. Max came over to Nick’s house, they both went to find out. They found
a garden house that was never there, they opened it and they found a note in the box. Nick started to read, it
said ‘Nick you know me we have met once, I want you to do something, don’t you dare tell anyone if you do
I will know, I want you to get me the town’s most precious thing which is the diamond. If you don’t, someone
you know is going to die’ Nick and Max called everyone that can help them find out who it was and why they
wanted the diamond. They had a meeting and they made a plan. Jess’s mum is the mayor of the town, so Jess
would know how to get the diamond, and Nick would get the diamond and make a copy of it, and Max, Kat,
Sam would be looking at the CCTV cameras, and Tom, Sabrina and the twins would be hiding. If the plan
doesn’t work they are to do something like call the police. The plan worked they called the police, but the
person disappeared, with Nick, Max, Kat, and Sam.
By Gresha Leitao (year 8)
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