A hairdressing and GCSE English student from Solihull College & University Centre has won a national creative writing competition.
Ray Jones, 18, has had a tough couple of years. But the recent competition entry has boosted their confidence and helped them fall in love with creative writing.
Ray studies hairdressing as their vocational course and is re-taking their English GCSE alongside. Recently, their former tutor and Competition Champion for English, Rachel Arnold, suggested they take part in a creative writing competition, organised by GCSE Resit Hub, offered to students in colleges across the country. Ray comments: “I didn’t really want to do it! I had just failed my GCSE English by 4 marks and was feeling pretty low. Rachel thought it would be a good thing to do to boost my confidence. So I gave it a go.”
The subject of the competition was ‘Me and My Place’. Ray wrote about what it meant to them, and focused on the fact that having a place was all about the people in life.
“I really had to dig deep to write this as it was very personal to me. I did feel that writing it all down was very therapeutic, and I really wanted to get my message across that for me, my place is being surrounded by my people.”
Ray submitted the entry and was over the moon when they received an email telling them they had won, winning a £100 voucher and coming top out of nearly 200 entries.
Rachel is incredibly proud of Ray and says its vital students are not just judged on their exam results. She comments: “Some of our resit students are fearful of the maths and English environment and competing against students across the country is a great way of celebrating skills and success. Creative writing is also incredibly beneficial to wellbeing, and personal fulfilment and exploring creativity. I’m so happy Ray is being recognised in this way, and hopefully it will encourage him to continue creating writing.”
