As Halloween is approaching, horror suspense stories are in full swing at the annual English storytelling competition. Every student created an engaging storyline that evolved into a horror story after teachers’ feedback and students’ modifications. Talented speakers jumped through the hoops and the final battle is about to begin.

In the YD classes of October 27^th 2022, the English oral presentation of Grade 8 officially began with two competitors representing each level (8 competitors overall). The four competitors took turns giving their speeches and their efforts were marked by the judges. The one who received the highest mark was the winner. Two winners, each representing S/S+ and H/H+ levels were chosen from the four competitors.

Students initially gave their oral presentations as an important assignment counting towards the student’s term score. Secondly, a student representing each class would advance into the second round where they would meet and compete with skilled storytellers from other classes in the grade. Lastly, four candidates would be chosen from those participants, then presenting their stories on stage.

All students gathered inside the auditorium in the first period of YD class, welcoming their fellow friends and peers with the greatest applause and giving them confidence as they stood up on stage. Teacher representatives, who were responsible for marking the performance of the students, sat right beside them. As the four participants started narrating their amazing horror stories, the audience couldn’t help but applaud and cheer for them. Every participant told a very passionate and interesting story.

Aarman from 8(3)’s story told of a typical middle school student entering his dreams after being chased down by a bully on his way home. He witnesses the terrible murder of his peer and is determined to look for the truth. Helen of Class 8(1) told the story of a student who became the next monster after being repeatedly tortured by a monster. Victoria of Class 8 (7) created a horror story about how a mother was driven crazy by her daughter and finally made her daughter into a cake with her own hands. Ethan and Alexander of Class 8 (9) wrote the story of a reporter who went to interview the famous writer David and never came back, and a teenager was made into a cigarette by his grandmother. Everyone had a unique story with thrilling plots.

All the speeches were exciting and scary. The storytelling competition concluded with the teacher representatives revealing the champions.

The storytelling competition not only gives us an opportunity to learn from our peers but also to entertain ourselves with awesome stories. It has been a wonderful storytelling competition this year. We will look forward to the competition next year!

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Written by 8(9) Cici, 8(2) Ethan

Pictures by Xujing

Supervised by Sally Gibbs

Edited by Serene Yang, Niall Keenan