Children recognised for their creativity

The Mayor of South Tyneside, Coun Richard Porthouse, and his wife Patricia, presented eight pupils from Westoe Crown Primary School and eight from Marine Park Primary School with certificates after they created their very own story books.

The Year 5 pupils took part in a 10-week online creative writing camp working with Flowing Tales and the Library Service, a project which encourages children to write their own stories.

Youngsters from each school then developed their stories by voting on the genre and title of their tale.

The next stage saw them begin writing each chapter to put their story together.

Children from Westoe Crown chose to create a crime and mystery story, The Disappearing Chimney Sweep.

Pupils from Marine Park wrote a fantasy story, Rescue From The Underworld.

And the schools’ stories have now been published.

“I was blown away by the inventiveness of the pupils from both schools,” the Mayor said.

“It was a pleasure to read their stories and to celebrate their hard work and creativity.

“It is vital that the children are encouraged to challenge themselves and to develop reading and creative writing through projects such as this.

“The pupils from both schools have been able to play a part in producing two excellent books.

“They should be very proud of what they have achieved and I hope other children are inspired to write their very own stories.”