Story-writing competition on early childhood - A collection of stories and poems from pupils |24 November 2014

Winners of a story-writing competition for early childhood pupils which was launched towards the end of 2012, received their prizes on Saturday at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (SITE) auditorium, Mont Fleuri.

The prize-giving ceremony formed part of activities for the Ministry of Education’s Early Childhood Week held from November 17-22, 2014.

Also included in the ceremony was the presentation of certificates to two groups of day care assistants who followed a basic course in day care in 2012-2013 organised by the Ministry of Education’s Institute of Early Childhood Development.

Helene Basset, curriculum development officer for CCATS (Curriculum, Assessment and Teacher Support Division) in the Ministry of Education and also a member of the jury, said the competition followed the successful implementation of the first story-writing  competition in 2011, as well as the overwhelming feedback from teachers, pupils and parents.

The children were invited to write short simple stories in Creole and in English.
“Furthermore it equipped primary schools with a collection of stories and poems as a means to further promote and develop reading and writing. This last competition targeted two cohorts of children - Primary Two and Primary Three and two of our national languages which were Creole and English,” she said.

Explaining the procedure of the story-writing competition, Mrs Basset said each level in question had to submit at least six stories or work which were relatively short.  Pupils were free to write on any topic or theme of their choice and interest.

“It is to be noted that for the competition to become a success, teacher support and encouragement was crucial so as to better prepare the pupils to start the writing process. To facilitate the process a number of topics such as nature, environment, beauty of our country, the life around the sea, were suggested for consideration,” said Mrs Basset.

Different stories and poems were forwarded to the Early Childhood section and the six best were chosen. Two panel of judges, one for English and one for Creole, were appointed. The Creole panel of six members was led by Marie Thérèse Choppy while the English panel of the same number of members by Sonia Mancienne.

Poems, songs animated the prize-giving ceremony which included short recitals from kids from the St Antoine day care centre at Anse Etoile. There was also presentation of story books to different partners which were officials of the ministry including Minister Macsuzy Mondon, the National Library, Creole Institute. Schools also were presented with books.

Thanking the Ministry of Education for the training, one day care centre assistant, Karen Marengo, said the training will help them better impart good learning practices to the small children.