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14 March 2023

Posted by Tabby Hayward

Orwell Youth Prize Workshop 1

This week, we were looking at The Orwell Youth Prize, an annual political writing prize for young people in school years 8-13. Every year, there’s a theme inspired by the writing of George Orwell which encourages entrants to look at the world around them and issues which matter today. This year’s theme is ‘Who’s in Control?’


Inspired by this, the writers began by thinking about the first changes they would make if they were the leader of their country, from stopping HS2 to creating more green spaces.

Next, we listened to the song ‘If I Ruled the World’ by Tony Bennett, and inspired by this, wrote our own songs or poems or election campaign speeches for the kind of world we’d create if we were in charge…


Leo:

Gently, gently;

A swallow flicks its tail,

A star in the distance,

It flickers and

Dies.

 

Though somewhere,

Deep into the unknown,

The memory of it stays

Like a voice, it ends

And lays.

 

But like the

Swallow’s twitter,

Like the

Sparrow’s chirp,

It has been heard.

 

If I ruled the world...

 

If I ruled the world, I'd make life feel like a fantasy,

Everyone's life would have such quality, it would be like a dream.

Everyone would have enough money, for food, drink, goods and success,

No rich, no poor, no one earning a substantial amount less.

Everyone would have a 3 layered house with a rooftop garden,

And a nature park every mile to stop the atmosphere filling with carbon.

As for jobs, you get what you want based on your hard working,

Lazy people get paid less, hard workers get better earnings.

Taxes, there aren't any! No mortgage, no bills, no stress,

As the government sorts it all out but now they're kinda in debt.

But in my world money isn't a problem because you can whip it out of thin air,

So that we can all live life without worrying because in my world we don't care.

If I ruled the world, it would be utopia, everyone is happy,

It would be that great that it would make life feel like a fantasy.

 

 

Neelesh:

If I ruled the world, there would be no homework for children. Then nearly all of them would be happy and won't get stressed out about it.                                                                                                                            


If I ruled the world, I would give a pay rise to all the workers that need it and then we won't have a problem at all.                                                                                                                                   


If I ruled the world, I would relax all day and I could go to bed late at night without my parents telling me what to do.



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