One of the pillars of the English Language and Literature programme at YCIS Shanghai is writing. When given the opportunity, students are encouraged to write for a real-life audience, which helps them to visualise who they are writing for and gives their writing an authentic feel.

With the focus on e-learning over the past few months, an online creative writing competition was launched across all Yew Chung (YCIS) and Yew Wah (YWIES) schools. Students had to choose and respond to an image (from a choice of six), describing it in whatever written format they desired. Emboldening students with the choice to select their image and writing style led to greater engagement, with many YCIS Shanghai students submitting their work for a panel of external judges to evaluate. In total, there were around 400 submissions from Yew Chung and Yew Wah students.

Two YCIS Shanghai students won first prize for their respective age groups: Jaymee (Year 9) took top honours in the "Ages 12-14" category with her adventure story entitled "The Long Way Back" and Winston (Year 2) took top honours in the "Ages 8 and Under" category with his story entitled "Alien Mod, the Cleverest Detective", a story about robots.

Jaymee described her experience with the competition saying: “This competition just happened to be the perfect way for me to express myself through a story. I love writing for fun and enjoyed every part of the process of writing this story, from coming up with the idea to re-reading it over and over again at the end, nervous at the thought of submitting it. It truly felt like I had poured my heart into that story. My favourite thing about all of this is that I wrote something so different to anything I’ve ever written before, and while I was writing, I felt like I was discovering a new part of me. The results were definitely a surprise to me, but absolutely an amazing one. It has helped me gain more confidence in myself and my writing, and inspired me to do even more of it."

All of the winning entries from across the network – including Jaymee’s and Winston’s stories, along with the students with honourable mentions – will be featured in an e-book due to be published very soon.

At YCIS Shanghai, we recognise that authentic learning happens when it is anchored in the real world and when students are motivated. Fostering curiosity with engaging activities like this one helps to stimulate inquiry and engage learners in creative and fun ways.