Great News! Romy has won a prize in the 2010 Scholastic Short Story Competition

Romy has won 3rd prize in the National 2010 Scholastic Short Story Competition. This is great news and show cases a real talent. See the beginning of the story below:

The Cheetah's Hunt

A hot breeze fanned the top of the Savannah grass. The grass swayed slightly, testing the sun-baked ground in which its roots were embedded. Crouched low among the grass, paws barely touching the hard ground, lay a cheetah. His fierce amber eyes were riveted on a herd of wildebeest. He stalked forwards, making barely a rustle. Then, with a sudden graceful bound, he took off. he was flying, racing the wind. His claws slid out from his paw pads. He was the hunter. He was invincible. BANG!

The shot echoed through the Savannah, like the mountain was collapsing. Instinctively, he swerved, then crouched. His head whipped round to focus in on where the shot had sounded. It didn't seem threatening, so he ignored it, and turned back to the wildebeest. They were gone. The cheetah snarled angrily. He needed prey. Throwing caution to the winds, he stalked towards where the shot had sounded. A new scent filled his nose. Metallic.

BANG! BANG! BANG! three shots were fired in rapid succession. A new emotion filled his mind. Fear. The cheetah turned and bolted. Not running to kill, but running to hide. The tables had turned. He was the hunted.

The full story will be published in a collection available later in the year, keep your eyes peeled for it!

Gifted awareness Week: What does it mean to be gifted?

Click on the title of this post for a link to the 2010 Gifted Awareness week Competition

For Gifted Awareness Week, the students were asked to think about what being gifted means to them, whether practically, at school or home or emotionally. Their thoughts are below:

Being gifted is a gift.

It is not something to be embarrassed about, but sometimes people are. I sometimes thought that I was different as people didn't understand my different way of thinking. When I was assessed and i found out I was gifted, I realised that was the reason that i thought differently to others. Being different to others doesn't bother me as long as people don't judge me for that

To me, being gifted means: Coming to STAR. STAR gives me a chance to not hide my giftedness, to challenge myself and to take risks that I would not usually take.

When I was little I thought that I was smart but when I did the Gifted assessment, it all came together. Now, if i get something wrong, people say, "You're supposed to be smart", but when I get something right, they say "well, you do have an advantage". If I don't listen and have to ask my friend what the teacher said, they say "You should listen!" They expect me to always be listening because since I am usually quiet, I listen lots. I am quiet because if I answer a question wrong, everybody says "OOOhh, you got something wrong". if anyone else gets something wrong, people don't notice. I'm only human, I'm not perfect!

I like being gifted and thinking deeply about things.

This is what being gifted means to me- other people may expect too much of me, but it is what I expect of me that truly counts.

I've never really thought about it, I guess that I always thought I was different and I always found work easy. People were always asking me questions and just expecting that I should know the answer or copying my work. Teachers thought I knew too much, so whenever they asked a question, I would put my hand up but they would never ask me. Instead, they would ask someone without their hand up. I have always enjoyed reading, Art and Music but find maths and Writing boring. Since the teachers thought I was 'so smart' I never got to do the things I wanted. School was like this until mum got me assessed, now all the teachers give me extra work and expect all my work to be excellent. If I get something wrong, they think it is really bad. I really enjoy the STAR programme because I can be different.

When I was young, I always thought I was different. At the age of 4, I could read most of the Dr Seuss books and could do easy addition and subtraction maths equations. When I started school, there were 3 other pupils that had the same ability as me but were 11 months older than me. After 6 months at school, I moved up to Year One with that group. Now I am in my own Maths group but in all of my other subjects I am normally in a group with 3 other students.

Being gifted is enjoyable but sometimes it gets in my way. I don't want to stand out too much. The main thing that motivates me to do my absolute best is competition with other bright kids. Sometimes I wish I wasn't gifted, but most of the time I think its brilliant.

Good things about being gifted: I could go far in life, my teacher likes me

Bad things about being gifted: Getting teased about being bright. Getting called a 'nerd' or a 'geek'. Having really high expectations.

To me it means to have a better understanding. When I was younger, I was the youngest in my class but I was always performing at the top of the class. When I first found out I was gifted and took the test, there were some areas where I was doing work as the average 27 year old would.

Arts week Exhibition

Matthew:

Paint

Style: Cubism

Inspiration:

Amy: Feel the Music

Mixed Media

Style: Cubism

Inspiration:

This piece was inspired by the sculptures of Picasso and other Cubist artists. I was interested in using sculpture as an inspiration to create a mixed media effect with a range of levels to explore the idea of what an abstract concept feel like to touch. I enjoyed working with the textures and working out how to achieve the 3D effect.

Romy: Pausing in Flight

Pencil

Style: Impressionsim

Inspiration:

Kit: All Seeing Eye

Chalk and Oil pastel

Style: Cubism

Inspiration:

Adriana: In the Spotlight

Paint/Pencil

Style: Impressionism

Inspiration:

I loved Degas' paintings of ballet dancers and decided I wanted to do something similar.

Emma: Runaway Bride

Paint/Charcoal/Indian Ink

Style: Impressionism

Inspiration:

I looked at photos for my inspiration and enjoyed expressing feelings through the use of different media. Using pencil, charcoal and Indian Ink for the bride gives the picture a more sombre feeling, which I like, especially with the colour washed background. i think it makes people want to know more about the woman in the picture.

Maddie: Hand of God

Paint/Charcoal

Style: Surrealism

Inspiration:

Initially, I wasn't sure what kind of art I wanted to create. I began sketching my hand with pencil and charcoal and then developed my idea from there. I liked the Surrealist works we looked at by Dali and Ernst and wanted my work to reflect looking at the world differently.

Adele: Focus

Indian Ink/Paint

Style: Pointilism

Inspiration:

I thought the Pointilist works of Signac and Seurat were effective because they trick your eye into seeing detail using dots. I didn't realise how much time it would take but I think that the result really works. I chose to use Indian ink for the tree in the foreground to show how we focus on some things leaving other details to distort.

Michael: Standing Out

Oil Pastels

Style: Pop Art

Inspiration:

I enjoy drawing but found it hard to decide how to use styles of art as inspiration. Then, I decided I wanted to use stickmen and thought this would look great with a repeated pattern in the style of Pop Art. I liked making the middle figure different and the message that this conveys in a simple but powerful way.

Harry: Unique

Pastel/Paint

Style: Pop Art

Inspiration:

I chose to call my piece 'Unique' because everyone is unique in different ways, some you can see and some you can't. All of these lizards are different. I got the idea for it when my class made a pastel lizard each. I thought mine went well so i chose to do that but with more lizards and on a black background.

Chocory's Adventures

I'm A food item- Get me Out of here More Challenge Video

I'm A food item- Get me Out of here Challenge Video- Mr Luigi !

Romy's Biography

Hi! My name is Romy. My favourite colour is blue.
At school, my favourite subjects are English, P.E, Science and Art.
In my spare time, I like reading, playing the piano and riding my pony (Bobby Dazzler). I live on a farm so we have lots of dogs! My other pets are Bubbles and Swish (guinea pigs), Bramble (rabbit) and Spike (a cat). I mentioned all my pets because they can be an inspiration in any artwork or poetry I do.
I also like playing sports.
BYE!!!