To wonder if the 7 year old really wrote the story?

[rhubarbcrumbleplease]

500 words or less, Chris Evans.
The silver winning story was amazing, but I wonder how much help his teacher mum gave?

Ha! I rolled my eyes at this!

I dunno. My 12 year old DS wrote a story for English and handed it in yesterday, his teacher was astounded and said it was as good as if not better than many of her current S5 pupils' work. I checked it over for spelling but made no other contribution, so you never know.

The competition encouraged nearly 120,000 children to sit down and write a story.
It's possible that a lot of the children had help, whether it be from teachers, parents or older siblings.
Yes, it would be a shame if an extremely talented youngster didn't win because they didn't get help but the winner did.
I honestly think we should be applauding the people who put do much time and effort into getting these children to be creative and not questioning the validity of each and every entry.
Sorry for the rant, but this isn't the first thread I've seen and I just think it's a shame that people are so cynical.

I wondered if they all went to public school or something but they dont apparently! My 6 year old can tell me a good monster story, and sometimes write down bits, not spelt correctly or anything, but understandable. Who cares if they get a bit of help with structure and spelling? They are using their imaginations and coming up with a story. As Wuthering said, 120,000 children are sitting down and writing in the hope that it will be read out on national radio. Those kids must be thrilled!

Can you link it?

Dd wrote a story for 500 words. It was astoundingly good. She is a superbly talented writer. All her own work and I suspect most adults wouldn't have written such a good story. Her 5 friends who entered were given lots and lots of help, with one mum admitting she practically wrote it herself.

Nowt you can do about it.

My ds1 was writing stories when he was 7. All about Thomas the tank engine though, I had them all bound and made into a book for a keepsake :) I love it he is not amused :)

Now ds2 is 7 and he wouldn't be able to write a paragraph let alone a book like ds1 did. I'm now amazed at what I thought was normal for a dc at 7.. Depends entirely on the child. Ds1 is now on the gifted and talented register at his school for several subjects and is still writing stories!

I found it. I don't think it's quite extraordinary for a such a young child, great story though. I would say that he maybe had some help with sentence construction in order to condense it, as it did not seem to flow as I can imagine many good writers of that age would do. They were short concise sentences and I think many children that age are taught and naturally write standard three part scentences.

Helen Oyeyemi wrote Icarus Girl aged 14, IIRC.

At any rate, she wrote it whilst at senior school.

Some people are really talented.

I think YABU actually. It seems mean to question whether a 7-yr-old deserves a prize.

I may be coming from my own bias as I remember entering a writing competition at school and being grilled for ages by one of the teachers about how I researched my story, when I wrote it, how I structured it, etc. Before she ultimately asked how my parents had helped. (They had turned on the oven because I wanted the paper to look aged!).

She didn't believe me until she spoke to one of my other teachers who confirmed I was just good at writing. Not that you'd be able to tell from my MN posts!

However, my point is that I think questioning the outcome creates a cloud over opportunities like this, and that makes me because really the competition should be viewed as a cause for celebration because it encourages so many children to write.

Aww... It was cute. --> Link to story

I think an adult might pick a different subject matter than not knowing what to write about. That seems like a very kid thing to do.

I think that's mean thing to put on a public forum, that the child might come across when they're older, or the parent might now.

When I was about 12/13 I won a prize at the local show for a soft toy I'd made and overheard someone saying that I shouldn't have won because it was "obviously from a kit." It wasn't and I had made the pattern up myself, and designed a little parasol for it to carry-which if they'd looked properly was stuck together underneath with bluetac and masking tape. It hurt and took a lot of pleasure away from my prize; as I went up I felt everyone was saying I shouldn't have it.

Even if it was entirely made up by the parents I don't see what you've benefitted by posting that.

Some children are very talented and can write above their age. Why can't we just celebrate that.

My 8yo DD is disabled - significantly. She can dictate a story (with interpretation, her speech can be difficult to understand), but is physically incapable of typing/writing it.

She loves to make up/tell stories, and I have been keeping them for posterity. I record her telling the story, transcribe it and draw a couple of pictures to accompany it, and tuck it into a folder on a shelf.

Because I "help" her with her stories, not to make them better or right, but because she lacks the physical ability to do them herself, does that mean she shouldn't be eligible for this competition? Obviously writing a story and claiming it was done by your child is one thing, but where do you draw the line?

I think the sentence structure and general tone fits that of a 7 year old.

Clever idea but some children are very clever and creative!

My friend designed a plaque for her 6 year old to enter in his schools anniversary competition. I was disgusted when it won as it was so obviously designed by an adult in a childish way.

He's v embarrassed about it now as a teenager, as he knows he didn't do it. His Mum still talks about how talented he is artistically!

As an English teacher I have met several students who are beyond gifted at writing from an early age. In fact i currently teach a boy who can mimic the style and writing pattern of pretty much any author, at 14. In fact he could do this at 12, writing detailed and complex narratives easily.

YABU to suggest a child cannot be as, if not more, creative than an adult and thus cheated to win a prize.

It's a tricky situation. Some kids will have no help, some a little bit of help, some a whole lot of help, some will have a parent do it for them. There are degrees of what is acceptable....but not all parents will agree on those!

I remember at school aged 9 when we were playing a well-known TV theme on the recorder. I sat down at the piano and worked out the bass line so I could play it on the piano. I said that I'd done this to my recorder teacher and she said 'You mean your Mum or Dad showed you how to play it'. I was really pissed off, my Mum and Dad had no clue how to play the piano or any other instrument, and I remember being gutted that she dismissed what I'd done like that.

I imagine an adult may have helped to edit and tidy up the story. It's beautifully tight and controlled and most 7 year olds, no matter how gifted, would have some stray words or superfluous sentences included.

Very clever idea.

I think the sentence structures are spot on for a bright seven year old. Great, original idea though - a good example of "show not tell" writing to show younger DCs.

OK, IAMBU. I'm comparing it the stories written by my DC at that age

I am a bit .

Even the bad sentence structure seems deliberately contrived.

I'm a veteran of doing the kids' homework for them - I recognise the form.

The idea of the main person not noticing things around them is the same as in 'Once Upon A Time' which is a children's book in which a little boy has a very dull day whilst the pictures show nursery rhyme characters surrounding him. I immediately thought of it- so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that a child or their parent would have read that book.

It's a cute story still.