At Hatfield Town Council, we’ve once again enjoyed celebrating the imagination and creativity of the young people in our town through our Story Writing Competition, now in its second year, launched to coincide with World Book Day.
This years competition invited children from Key Stages 1 and 2, from primary schools across Hatfield, to write a short story. With 2025 marking 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth, we offered a simple prompt to guide their storytelling: base it on a friendship in the life of a girl called Jane.
Shortlisting the Winners
As the stories began to arrive, staff at Hatfield Town Council were impressed by the variety, originality, and heart in each entry. Reading through them was a genuine pleasure, not to mention a real challenge! Shortlisting our favourites wasn’t easy, as each story brought something special to the table, but we managed to whittle them down to a shortlist of around six entries and then passed the shortlist to our special guest judge, Katie Purcell of The Reading Railway.
Katie, who works as an independent Usborne Books partner, is passionate about helping children discover a life-long love of reading through her work with schools and nurseries in the area. She kindly took on the task of selecting one winner from each Key Stage and we are thrilled to announce that Xander from Year 2 and Elinor from Year 5 (both of Countess Anne School!) were chosen as this year’s winners. Both children will receive reading bundles from us and The Reading Railway, which include book marks, vouchers, and story-writing journals to help them hone their skills even further.
Publication
The competition didn’t end there though. We then welcomed back Anne Suslak, Community Content Editor at the Welwyn Hatfield Times, who kindly returned to select our overall winner, as she did last year. That story would then be published in the April 30th edition of the newspaper.
We’re delighted to say that Elinor was chosen as this year’s overall winner. Her clever, funny, and inventive tale about Jane Austen auditioning for The Sound of Music absolutely charmed us and the other judges. It was full of character and showed a wonderful sense of humour and storytelling flair, not to mention a little bit of tension!
Thank you to every child who entered the competition this year and to the teachers who supported them. It has been a privilege to read your work, and we’re already looking forward to seeing where your imaginations will take you next year!
The Winning Stories
Elinor (Key Stage 2)
All day long, rain spat down onto the rain-splashed umbrellas of Rosie and Jane. They both giggled as the girls ran through drowning lakes of water, the day before their audition. As they reached Miniroad Primary School, Jane gasped. Rosie suddenly stopped. As soon as Jane saw the look on Rosie’s puzzled face, she laughed and laughed until her sides hurt. When her laughter had died down, Jane explained that she had been practising for tomorrow’s audition. As she heard this, Rosie glared although she said, “very realistic, you will truly wow the audience.”
The next day, Rosie and Jane sat fidgeting in their seats, waiting for their turn to audition. The announcer called out Rosie’s name. Jane had to nudge her, because she had gone into a staring kind of faint. A second later, she sat up and auditioned beautifully, her voice was clear and loud. “She had to get in”, Jane thought. As she came to sit down again, Jane clapped her on the back and smiled. When it was Jane’s turn, everyone was amazed. She gasped and sighed as if she was an old lady telling her children off. Jane was sure to get in.
After a weeks wait, the results finally came out. Jane and Rosie’s eyes flickered across the page until she could see her name next to Marie from The Sound of Music. She, Jane Austen, was going to be the main part in The Sound of Music. As she turned to Rosie, she could see tears in her eyes. Jane wanted to say something to cheer Rosie up, so she said “it’s okay Rosie, there are other plays”. Rosie didn’t seem to hear and so Rosie ran away. When Jane had finally found her, Rosie was in a grouchy mood. Jane tried to talk, but Rosie just snapped at her and yelled “you take my role, my chance, and now you’re rubbing it in. Now what?” Rosie started to shout and shout until she fumed with jealousy. So that is how the big fight began.
That evening, Jane was looking at the list of roles giving out, everything was in such small print. Jane re-read the list and out of the corner of her eye. She saw Rosie’s name next to Gretl (the smallest child in The Sound of Music). Rosie would be over the moon! Jane rushed back upstairs and showed Rosie the list. Rosie was so happy she forgave Jane for not actually taking her spot and Jane forgave Rosie for being jealous.
Xander (Key Stage 1)
Once upon a time, there was a girl called Jane and she just moved in with her family to a new town called Hatfield. She started a new school called Birchwood Primary. Jane was sad because she didn’t have any friends at her school.
At home time, Jane’s mum took her to the park to cheer her up. When she got there she saw a sad looking puppy on its own. “Mum can we please take him home, he’s all on his own” asked Jane. “Alright then” said Mum, and I took him home. When they got home, Dad was surprised. “Who is this?” Dad said.
That night when everyone went to sleep, the puppy was sleeping in his dog basket in the kitchen when he woke up to two burglars, trying to open the window and the door. When he opened the door, the puppy jumped up and growled at them. The puppy barked and barked until the whole house woke up. The burglars tried to run but the police caught them at the end of the road. The police but the burglars into the police car. They told Jane and her family that they were very lucky. Jane said “I know what to call him. Lucky Luke. He’s my new best friend.”
Above: Elinor and Xander pictured with Emma Byrne (Deputy Head of Countess Anne)
