Over 200 entries have been received for this year’s Gozo Live/Gozo College writing competition, which first started in 2013 and has increased in popularity ever since.
The careful process of judging, which is now underway, is carried out by a group of former school teachers who carefully read all the entries and judge them in terms of content and age of the entrant, the organisers said.
Gozo Live said that the competition is open to all students from state and church schools in Gozo, with the aim of finding students who can write on a given theme in a fresh and creative manner.
Many teachers introduce the competition in a lesson and entries arise from this approach. The competition is supported by the English department at Gozo College and therefore all entries are in English.
This year’s themes were ‘How I can make an improvement in the world’ or ‘What I have learned from an animal.’
Even though the competition was open when schools were closed due to Covid-19, Gozo Live said that they had a good response and the standard was particularly high.
There were entries from 16 different schools and entrants ranged in age from 6 to 17-years old.
Gozo Live said that the entries “demonstrated the ability of students of all ages to think creatively and to write fluently and with originality. Obviously many students put their time at home to good use.”
They added that every entry will receive at least one comment and many are read by more than one judge in order to assess entries and decide on prize winners.