FOBISIA Short Story Competition

Gavin Donnelly

Head of English, British International School Ho Chi Minh City

BIS Ho Chi Minh City had the honour of hosting the 2021-22 FOBISIA Short Story Competition.This year’s theme was ‘Memories’ and students from across the FOBISIA community displayed their willingness to get involved, and obviously relished the creative challenge. With almost 50 schools participating across the three competition categories, the English teaching specialists in secondary and primary at BIS had their work cut out. However, it was a real pleasure and a delight to read so many imaginative interpretations of the theme of memories, and much discussion ensued as we drew up a shortlist of the best entries. This shortlist was then forwarded to UK children’s author Ruth Eastham to make the final decision about the overall winners and runners-up. In Ruth’s own words:

"I had the real privilege of reading the five shortlisted entries in each age category. With so much wonderful writing and diversity of themes, it was so hard to choose! But choose I have – a winner and two runners-up, and there are others too, who I felt deserve a special mention." - Ruth Eastham.

The overall winners and runners-up are listed below and more detailed comments from Ruth about each story can be found on the FOBISIA website

RESULTS: Years 3 & 4

Winner: David, North London Collegiate School Jeju - ‘The Memory Café’ Runner Up 1: Finn, The Alice Smith School, Kuala Lumpur - ‘The Magnificent Machine’ Runner Up 2: Andy, British International School Ho Chi Minh City - ‘Photo Album’

Years 5 & 6

Winner: Rae En, Prince of Wales International (Primary) School, Penang - Untitled Runner Up 1: Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok Riverside - ‘Twinkle’ Runner Up 2: Shamindra, elc International School ‘Day by Day’

Secondary

Winner: Yoonsong (Elizabeth), The International School of Penang (Uplands) - ‘Our Street’ Runner Up 1: Zhiyi, The Alice Smith School, Kuala Lumpur - ‘The Memory Snatcher’ Runner Up 2: Rishi, British International School Ho Chi Minh City - ‘Tethered’