Creative Writing Masterclasses

The following excerpt is from a student early in Year 6. He went on to score highly in the exams for St. Olave’s, the CSSE exam in Essex and Queen Elizabeth’s Barnet.

The room had a sickening stench of rotten and reeking apples, which climbed up everyone’s nostrils and abseiled into the depths of their lungs, and [they] coughed at the unpleasant odour of it. 

A nurse came in and called Neil for a checkup. She had wisps of grey hair flowing out of her scruffy bun. She was fat, and her forehead was covered with beads of impatience. And with that, Neil was whisked away.

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Below is a short excerpt from a Year 5 student’s work. He attended classes with throughout years 4 and 5. The following work is a first draft completed without help. Original punctuation errors have been left in.

‘Suddenly, the door creaked open and a tall, slim man tip-toed to the patient. The doctor had hair the colour of dates and fair skin. Covering his hands were a pair [of] paper thin plastic gloves. In a soft voice he asked, “So exactly how did you get this enormous cut?” The patient replied like it was forty years ago. “Ahh, good times that was.” His voice dripping with sarcasm. “It all star’ed when I was goin’ to the [woods] with me shinin’ axe.” He stopped so the doctor could write it down…’

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The following excerpt was completed in an exam setting by one of our Year 5 students a few months before taking the St. Olave’s exam. He went on to pass the Olave’s exam and also received a scholarship offer from Dulwich College.

‘As I sat there on that dump of a train, I clutched my suitcase while sobbing sorrowfully. I secretly knew I was never going to set eyes on my parents [again]. The train laboriously chugged along the track and as it did, I stared out of the window looking at a beautiful scene. It was an immense sea of grass with lovely black horses surmounted on top of it. Next to the beautiful black beasts, I witnessed black and white cows munch away at the massive green sea. Next to me were little children frolicking around like the cloud white lambs did around their lazy mother.

Suddenly the train stopped, followed by the booming voice of the conductor telling us to evacuate the train. I pursued the people in front of me like a predator stalks its prey in hope of getting to my aunt’s house.’