Young Writers Competition

[BrightonBB]

A letter through school tells us my Yr1 DD has been successful in a national writing competition. Her writing is not good so seems odd. Any thoughts?

Dd1 has the same, although she loves books and wants to be an author. However, her "story" is about 5 sentences long and not amazing. It's being published in a book. The cynic in me thinks It's a ploy to sell overpriced books and the standards are fairly low although she tells me not everyone that entered "won".
We have purchased because she's excited to be published.

It's a ploy, but if seeing themselves in print encourages them with their writing, then maybe it's a small price to pay.

Young Writers is a scam. Almost all entries are "winners" to get you to buy the ridiculously priced book.
I think form experience then tell roughly all except 1-2 out of a form group they've won. The 1-2 seem to be random, which is especially mean as those children then think they've done badly.
I suspect if not everyone in the class has "won" that because of:

1. the couple that haven't to add verisimilitude to their "competition"
2. Parents who have come across the scam before not telling their child.
3. The school thinking it's a real competition and only entering (but not necessarily telling them) ones they thought had a chance.

Our school apologised, but only after a few people had bought the books (often for grandparents etc as well).

I had thought of buying books for grandparents too but hesitated when I saw that it would be £34 especially when I'm not convinced it is actually DDs work. Seems a lot to charge. She doesn't seem that bothered thankfully.

While I agree the books are hugely expensive, I also know how exciting is for kids to see something they have written in a book.

Previous threads:
Young Writers 1
Young Writers 2
Young Writers 3
Young Writers 4
Young Writers 5

We fell for this many years ago (now I put the documents straight into the bin when it appears on my desk) and every child won. Even the ones who just wrote strings of letters!

I also know how exciting is for kids to see something they have written in a book

There's lots of places that will take text and photos / pictures a PDF or something book like on a computer and print a resulting book on good quality paper with good hardback covers. For less than half that 34 quid, even for a single book.

Of course that requires some skill, but it's a book only of your kid - or you could do it for the entire class and donate a copy to the school each year.

Interesting to read those threads. Thank you. At ballet today I was chatting to other parents and 5 more had the exact same letter. The Young Writers Competition seems quite successful around here!! If I hadn't asked I would have blindly thought my DD was a genius!! One mum with an older child said she had complained to the Head a previous year but nothing was done. I guess he didn't want to accept that parents felt unhappy. He's very much 'he knows best.'

The books aren't £34, I paid £17 for the Young Writers Anthology that my child's class got published in. I agree it's still far too expensive for lots of people though!

We had this too. I didn't pay for the book though and still received a letter to say it has been published.

I got suspicious when everyone was posting on face book with their letters of being "chosen"

MissMouseMcPhee they are if you buy 2.

Yes. Books are 15.99 for one but I was close to getting books for us and for grandparents so 34 incl p+p. I'd much rather spend that money on something else now especially as like Giles says so many have been "Chosen". Maybe she can choose an extravagant notebook to write more stories in next time we pop into town.

I complained to the school when they were talking about this and it was quietly dropped. I googled and found some articles to send to the headteacher. . As PP poster pointed there have been other threads about this. It's best avoided.

IF people are looking for writing competitions for their primary aged children (I wonder why but there you go) the BBC short story competition is on ATM and is completely legit.

Here is a Link to BBC Radio 3 500 Words 2018

I honestly think it’s great what they’re doing, my grandson lacked self esteem and needed encouragement to continue a passion for writing. I’ve been to the office a few times as they are based in Peterborough and I live in Cambridge and work all over and it’s lovelly going in, they are always so friendly welcoming and so inspirational. if you the quality of the books is excellent and they are all produced in the building and made by hand as you can see them being made as you walk into the building and there is a small team of people on customer service aboit 3 or 4 of them. When we first came across this, we were slightly skeptical however after speaking to them about my concerns all my worries were ironed out and from what I have been advised the issues that have been published by the guardian they were over exaggerated (as all tabloids do) and a new company took over and has turned things around for the best to continue encouraging children like my grandson to find his feet with creative writing. My grandson has also been chosen as a first place winner and he won an IPad

I’m sure they will be more than happy to answer any worries that you have over the phone like I did

In what way is The Guardian a tabloid, elephant?
This young writers is just vanity publishing. It's arrant nonsense, and I'm pleased to say my children's school have stopped falling for it.

Haba - tabloid was used in error, the best was to describe the guardian is liars, infact aren’t all forms of news phony’s? All they do is exaggerate and misrepresent the main story’s just to get a sale. I suppose you’ll not feel the pride of owning your child’s book

As Young Writers publish any old thing children write, no, frankly that doesn't induce pride.
I am proud when my children have made a real effort, and worked hard on a piece, to craft it well, and refine it.
That's really not what goes on in the young writers publication.

I don’t want to sound like a boastful mum (but I am absolutely going to, aren’t I?!), but DS is an extremely gifted writer. His class wrote poems for this and his was amazing (I’m not just saying that as a Mum, but as a teacher). Most of his class except about 3 ‘won’. DS and his friend were almost the only ones not ‘picked’, so I suspected a ‘scam’.

Yes this is a total scam. My twins had a teacher last year who insisted in entering the children in Young Writers competitions. I knew straight off that it was a scam as I’d read about it on here.

I felt sorry for a number of parents with children who really struggle at school who were gushing on Facebook that their children were gifted writers, and one in particular who thought her child was one of only a handful of children picked out of 250,000 entries and wrote a long Facebook post about it. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth but another parent took delight in telling her and she was very embarrassed as a result.

The stupid thing was that out of my twins the one who I would truly consider to be a gifted writer was not selected but his sister who is a less confident writer was. Admittedly what he wrote was perhaps a little bit dark, was supposed to be about a dream and his was about a nightmare (although very well written) and it really upset him and made him question his ability when almost everyone else in the class had theirs published. I refused to give permission for my daughters poem to be published and kept getting letters from young writers asking for me to sign the permission slip ( and trying to push the overpriced book on me ). I complained to their teacher about giving our address out to a third party and asked her not to enter my children’s work in any future competition without my permission.

Someone has linked this, if you want to publish your child's book to boost confidence. Way better than those scam books.

www.storyjumper.com/

They are a massive con! Google them.

"I suppose you’ll not feel the pride of owning your child’s book "

The politest thing I can reply to that is that you pick strange things to be proud of