Junior & Young Writers Week 10: SHOWCASE!!!!!!!

With the summer break just around the corner, we celebrated with our end-of-term showcase.

At the end of each term, the showcase gives everyone the chance to practise their performance skills by sharing a piece of writing they're particularly proud of and recommending a favourite book. Some recommendations change every term, while others remain firm favourites.

To kick things off, we started with a free-writing exercise. Each group chose an emotion from the feelings wheel and described it using the five senses. Everyone then read their piece aloud without revealing the emotion, leaving the rest of us to guess. Pride was wonderfully described as feeling 'like being pumped with helium,' while disgust tasted 'sour, like gone-off milk.'

Before taking to the stage, Claire led everyone through a series of warm-up exercises. We stretched long limbs, pulled our mouths into tiny mouse-like smiles, had a good wriggle, and then used a collection of idioms and a volume scale from 1–10 to find our performance voices.

Junior Writers

Juno bravely opened the showcase with an impressive reading of the introduction and first chapter of her story. One standout moment came when the protagonist lamented spending the summer holidays exploring Brockenhurst instead of somewhere like Niagara Falls, describing Brockenhurst as being 'populated by horse poo.'

Elsie took us back to the very first story she wrote this term- a spooky tale about a girl who disappeared from her campsite one evening and, to this day, can still sometimes be heard whistling through the trees.

William shared A Food Fight by Apple Redcheeks, a tragic account of the devastating consequences of a food fight. While 'to a human this might seem fun,' poor Mr Redcheeks would certainly disagree.

Hamish performed Life of a Gooseberry, a sweet poem celebrating one particularly confident gooseberry who triumphantly wins the juice competition.

Bringing the Junior Writers' performances to a close, Evan shared Bob and the End of the World: Part One, a vlog following Bob after the sun mysteriously disappears, leaving him seemingly alone in the world. Thankfully, he still has plenty of beans... and zombies... and aliens. Don't forget to tune in for Part Two!

The Junior Writers also shared their summer reading recommendations:

Hamish – Cogheart by Peter Bunzl

Elsie – Donut Squad by Neill Cameron

William – My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

Evan – Mega Robo Bros: Power Up! by Neill Cameron

Juno – Who Let the Gods Out? by Maz Evans

It was wonderful to see just how confident everyone has become, not only as writers but as performers too.

Young Writers

Thomas opened the older groups' showcase by sharing an illustration to accompany his wonderfully nonsensical horror alphabet poem.

Sonny then presented his school presentation on H. P. Lovecraft, confidently arguing that Lovecraft's influence can be seen throughout modern horror, having inspired countless writers. He followed this with a collection of deliciously dark one-liners, including 'a sea of vomit' and 'clouds with eyes and fingers.'

Next, Catherine took us all the way back to Johnny Green's origins in Red or Blue, What Will You Do? In this unforgettable episode, Johnny is faced with the monumental decision of choosing between red and blue toilet roll. She then contrasted the humour with a haunting piece describing an eternal voice and an 'erratic and frenzied' light emerging from the darkness.

Daisy's magically descriptive writing transported us into emerald waters where a beautiful mermaid resides, before the dream slowly descended into darkness in This Is a Dream, Maybe.

Finally, Eddie reintroduced us to the brutal Goliath- a mighty tree determined to avenge the felling of his friends and family. He followed this with Goliath's Apology, which turned out to be far less apologetic than expected and instead served as a shameless plug for Goliath's latest book, released on June 5th 2026.

The Young Writers also shared their favourite reads:

Thomas – Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter

Daisy – Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Sonny – Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Catherine – Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Eddie – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams

Once again, the Young Writers showed not only their creativity but their confidence, delivering performances that were entertaining in different ways.

It was, as always, a joy to hear everyone's work and to see just how much the groups have grown in both confidence and ability. Standing up to perform in front of an audience (no matter how big or small) is never easy, and I hope everyone is incredibly proud of how far they've come.

I know I certainly am.

This was mine and Claire's final session with the Forest Arts Writers, and I can honestly say it has been an absolute pleasure. Deciding to move on wasn't easy, and I'm going to miss all of the wonderful people I've met through these workshops. My Saturday mornings will feel a little emptier without so much creativity and laughter.

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Junior & Young Writers Week 10: SHOWCASE!!!!!!!

Junior Writers

Young Writers