Congratulations to the students who received Honourable Mentions in the Hong Kong Young Writers Awards.

A number of our students received high praise for their entries in the prestigious annual writing competition.

The HYYWA is an annual competition and fantastic opportunity for writers to showcase their talents and creativity. The awards encourage and recognise excellence in English writing and artwork among students and this year’s theme was New Tales of China’s Silk Road.

Our students received a letter from Chairman of the Judges, and author and journalist Nury Vittachi, applauding them for the quality of their work.

It read: “We get hundreds of pieces of work, some very long, entered for the competition every year. Each time we run the contest, the quality of the entries gets better and better. This year, there were a great many extremely well-written pieces of work – including yours. But each category has just a handful of places for “shortlisted” works and a single individual wins the title for each category. That means that some works which really impressed the judges narrowly miss out on being on the shortlist. Yours was one of those.

“So, to ensure that you know that we loved what you wrote, I usually write a note to people who came very close to being on the shortlist. You did really well! We want to encourage you to keep writing. Not just for this competition, but for every competition out there – and if you have it in you to start writing a book or other serious work, then we have a message for you: Go for it! You have the skill.”

We congratulate the students on their writing achievements.