WORCESTER Sixth Form College was inspired to launch our ‘Life in Lockdown’ competition which encouraged students to be creative and submit an entry.

At the end of April the college invited students and current year 11 students to be creative and enter the competition.

A large quantity of entries were received with a mixture of written, photographic and musical entries.

The winners of the competition have been announced: The two winners were Ella Hart (current year 12 student) with her poem ‘A to Z of lockdown’ and Emily Vines (year 11 student) with a short story titled ‘The girl with no hobbies’.

Paul Morris, head of English, Film and Media described Ella’s poem as “a very clever and wittily structured poem” with a “range of emotions and attitudes: at times funny, sad, angry, satirical or optimistic” capturing “the complex feelings we have all had in his period” and Emily’s short story as “authentic with a well-controlled narrative voice” and a “genuinely optimistic and uplifting story.”

Due to the quality of the entries runner up prizes were also awarded to:

• Rebecca Phillips, Charmaine Chadhani and Izzy Riddlestone for written pieces;

• Maddie Welsh, Scarlet Seymour, Jennifer Freeman, Fay Longthorn and Bethany Harding for graphic designs; and

• Emily Kemp for a musical piece performed with her father and brother.

Ed Senior, principal, said: “I am really proud that throughout the period of lockdown, staff and students at Worcester Sixth Form College have been involved in a range of activities supporting each other and the local community. These have included donating PPE to local hospitals and food to a local food bank and our life in lockdown competition. I was impressed with the quality of the entries from current and future students both in terms of the written, musical and artistic skills but also the awareness of current events and the impact on the community.”