News Young Writers Shine in Book Week Creative Writing Competition 19.03.2026
For Book Week 2026 the English Department, in conjunction with the Library, have run a range of events and activities, including a virtual author visit, a charity book swap, and a whole school reading task.
As part of this suite of events, we also ran a creative writing competition based around the concept ‘the stories of the school site throughout time’. We were looking for reflective pieces which engaged imaginatively with both real and speculative experiences of the school site over time. Godolphin students did not disappoint, as we received a wide range of responses which were thoughtful, skilfully executed, and often witty to the point of making us laugh out loud! This competitive field was judged by Lower Sixth students who support with the running of the creative writing society. They awarded as runner up Year 8 Sasha’s comic poem presenting the student perspective on a fire drill, and as winner, Maya, also Year 8, for her reflective meditation on the development of Godolphin’s site from its creation to the present – see below. Both students were rewarded and recognised at our Book Week assembly this week. Well done to Maya, Sasha, and all of Godolphin’s budding creative writers!
The Ground Remembered
Before this place was a school, it was land. Just land.
No classrooms. No bells, echoing around the school grounds. No students rushing to class or chatting in the hallways. Just open ground, with grass dancing in the wind, and people passing through not knowing they were leaving anything behind.
But they were.
Everyone does.
Over time, things started to change. Paths started to form where the people ambled through the plains. Buildings started to appear, first with straw then with wood, each believing they were the smartest. The ground groaned as horses and carts clicked and clacked over the plain. Boots struck stone as they walked briskly. Voices called across the road, asking about their families and the latest gossip. Some days were loud. Others busy. Others were quiet and heavy, like the world was holding in its breath.
But the ground remembered everything.
When the school was finally built, everything sped up. Suddenly there were thousands of footsteps every day. Some fast. Some slow. Some confident. Some unsure. The ground learned the sound of laughter echoing across the playground and the dull thud of bags being dropped at the beginning of classes.
It learned what it felt like when someone sat down at lunchtime, leaning on their hands, staring into the near future, the close distance. It learned the difference between those who were jubilant and those who were melancholy.
Every year, new students arrive. They think they are the first to walk these paths, the first to feel nervous. The first to feel relief after their first lesson. But they’re not.
Others stood before them.
The ground remembered them. The ground remembered everything.
Sometimes after school, when everything goes quiet, the place feels different. The wind howls like an anguished wolf while leaves scrape the ground, bored. It’s easy to imagine the past overlapping the present, like the layers of a cake, stacked on top of each other.
Someone once sat on the steps after everyone had gone home. They didn’t know why they stayed. But the ground kept them company as they stared into the near future, the close distance. The ground felt their weight and held it, the same way it always has.
That’s what this place does. That’s what the ground does.
It doesn’t speak or show off. It just remembers. Because the ground remembered them.
And one day, long after we’ve moved on, someone else will walk across this same ground, feeling something they can’t explain, and the ground will always quietly add them to the story too.
Because the ground remembered them. The ground remembers everything.
By Maya. 8GH