The following letter was received on 15 January 2009 from Aimee Vanstone, Assistant Managing Editor of YoungWriters:
Dear Head of English
You may remember that some time ago you submitted 168 entries on behalf of your pupils to our ‘Mini S.A.G.A.S.’ creative writing competition.
I have recently edited the Surrey entries, which includes The Archbishop Lanfranc School, and I am writing to inform you of the school’s success.
On this occasion I have offered 142 of your pupils a place in the forthcoming anthology entitled ‘The Adventure Starts Here 2009 – Surrey’. I wanted to write to you personally to congratulate both you and the pupils.It is rare that such a high number of young writers are successful, but in the case of your school I found the pieces entered to be all of a similar high quality. They all were well-written, thought out; and imaginative, with good uses of spelling, grammar, speech and paragraphing where needed, and the variety of themes was a welcome change.
Because of the school’s achievement I have spoken to my managing editor and she has agreed that you will receive a further complimentary copy of the book upon publication for your school library or classroom(s).