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As part of a class project pupils were asked to mine interesting and unusual words from the classic ; Smith by Leon Garfied. Winner Runner – Up She approached the door with circumspection. This was her first ever job and she had brooded over this moment a thousand times. Indecision of whether to knock or not passed through her. She looked behind her and could see her quaint little house standing sombre adjacent to all the others in the village. She wiped her hands on her livery disdainfully and knocked the door. Third equal Third equal Although Miranda was not top of the pyramid you would be foolish to under estimate or get on the wrong side of her sarcastic, quick-witted tongue and shrewd personality. <\/p>\n Jade was the naive, vexatious airhead who impressed the group with her gentry background but if rumours were to be believed her dad\u2019s impressive title had been bought off the Internet. Comments: Well done to all the winners.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As part of a class project pupils were asked to mine interesting and unusual words from the classic ; Smith by Leon Garfied. This is what the winning pupils came up with. Winner The Client \u2013 By Joseph It was just another day. You know the usual; my secretary dextrously tapping away at her keyboard; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1815,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5184],"tags":[20271,131,244812,249],"class_list":["post-1324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whats-new","tag-competiton","tag-english","tag-smith","tag-winners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1815"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1329,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions\/1329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/er\/LibraryWebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThis is what the winning pupils came up with.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThe Client \u2013 By Joseph<\/strong>
\nIt was just another day. You know the usual; my secretary dextrously tapping away at her keyboard; me in the solitary confinement of my office, customary coffee in hand. The tapping came to a halt abruptly and I could vaguely make out the subtle tones of female voices. One was of course familiar to me. The other was not.
\nWhat followed was the subsequent tottering of my secretary\u2019s heels and after a few seconds a brisk knock at my door.
\nIn her sanctimonious tone, Miss Lancaster announced the arrival of a potential new client anxious to see me. I agreed and the lady was directed into my office. A little embarrassed I became aware of the rooms musty odour and I turned to open a window.
\nThe lady introduced herself with a slight accent though she was proficient in English. She was beautiful but from her complexion I could detect she was flustered.
\nComment:
\nMy winner is \u2026 The Client. A crisp and clean short story. The new vocabulary fits well into the story and does not feel as if it has been put there for a class project. It reads like the beginning of a detective novel and already there are little clues as to what might happen next \u2026 strained relationship with a snotty secretary, musty room why? A client with an accent ooh exotic… so many questions \u2026 great!<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nFirst Day by Jenna<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAn affable man wearing a freshly pressed suit opened the door. \u201cYou must be the new maid\u201d, he said gesturing for her to come in, \u201cyes\u201d she replied while looking around the huge hallway decorated with hatchments and paintings. \u201cThere is no need to look so peevish\u201d, he smiles, \u201cI\u2019ll look after you\u201d. He led her down towards the maid\u2019s chambers. She blundered down the staircase and almost crashed into him. He laughed as he said \u201cDon\u2019t worry, you\u2019ll get used to the darkness\u2026\u201d
\nComment:
\nThe New Maid story is second in my selection. It could have been taken right off the pages of a Bronte\/ Austen novel. It was so easy to imagine the scene and it painted a vibrant picture of a vignette of someone\u2019s life\u2026 and then there is the ending … pure Victorian Gothic horror \u201cDon\u2019t worry you\u2019ll get used to the darkness.\u201d It\u2019s as if the author has closed the door on the new maid and we are left with only our imagination as to what the \u201cdarkness\u201d might hold. Come back don\u2019t go in there!<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThe Present \u2013 by Joshua<\/strong>
\nOn Christmas Eve I looked wistfully at the brightly coloured gifts under the tree. The lights from the Christmas candles and the tree lights made the pigment of the brightly shining gift wrap shimmer and glisten in the darkness. All that vexation over whether my mum\u2019s present would arrive had been unnecessary. All the sanctimonious crowing from my sister over my lack of gift was finished.
\nI had bought my mum the best present ever! My sister\u2019s complexion had changed dramatically; when she saw me briskly and dextrously wraps the immense gift. As my mum prepared the Christmas dinner in the scullery, I could sit back and relax, knowing everything was under control.
\nComment:
\nThe Christmas Eve story about the present was a great example of how less is more. It was a short, to the point, succinct and well \u2013 rounded story with hints to other unexplored themes \u2013 such as the relationship between the two sisters and the warmth of feeling from the writer to their mother… and you never do find out what the present is!<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMean Girls by Caitlin<\/strong>
\nSt David\u2019s High is a high school in the west end of Glasgow. Channel, Alison, Brittany, Miranda and Jade think they are in the \u201cin crowd\u201d in fifth year. They strut the corridor with formidable attitude, glaring at the rest of the fifth years contemptuously. Part of their self-confidence comes from their prosperous background. Their sanctimonious attitude intimidates other girls. They were known as \u201cthe plastics\u201d which gave them great eminence.
\nThere were five girls in \u201cthe plastics\u201d ranging from Channel who was at the top of the pyramid and felt she was unaccountable to anyone.
\nNext on the pyramid was Alison with her long blond hair and pretty face but her looks belied her felonious personality.
\nAfter Alison came Brittany the cheer captain who was very sporty and very popular despite her blasphemous mouth. <\/p>\n
\nSo, the moral of this story is \u201c all that glitters isn\u2019t gold, because sometimes it\u2019s just plastic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nMean Girls brought 19th century vocabulary bang up to date and applied it very successfully \u2013 I could imagine those girls… in fact I think I went to school with some of them .. not in the 18th century and you can never go wrong with a story with a moral!<\/strong><\/p>\n