Pupils at both schools entered a WRU competition to formulate the next instalment of a popular graphic novel, provided free of charge by the Union and utilised in literacy lessons by over 500 schools around Wales, which depicts Scorch’s back story.
Joseph Lewis, aged 10 years, from St Josephs, was selected as the winner in the primary school category from a list of hundreds of entries and, alongside the secondary school winner, also won a day out for his class at Wales’ Dove Men Series clash with Tonga at the Millennium Stadium last night.
Year 8 pupils at Dyffryn Taf school Iwan Morgans, Rhys Kemble, Griff Evans, Harri Worthin
g and Calan Davies collaborated on their entry and were awarded the honours in the senior category by the independent judging panel – comprising of renowned author and playright Owen Sheers and Welsh cartoonist Huw Aaron – with both winning stories selected from a shortlist created from hundreds of entries.
“It’s been great to see the children engage with the idea and story of Scorch so enthusiastically, and especially to see them blend the contemporary with the mythic and historical past of Wales with such imagination and energy,” said Sheers, who also picked out entries from Evan Jenkins (Ysgol Y Strade, Llanelli) and Ellie Rossitter (Ferndale Community School) – for her storyboarding – for special attention before deciding on his winners.
Sheers is a former Artist in Residence for the WRU and was honoured, alongside Aaron, a cartoonist for the Rugby Paper who was nominated as a judge by FILMCLUB Cymru, to be asked to pick the winners.
“This has been an enjoyable competition to be involved in, with some great imagination and humour in the shortlisted entrants, there are definitely some great Welsh cartoonists and animators of the future out there,” said Aaron, who picked a ‘stream of consciousness’ entry by Nathan Box of Tycroes School in Carmarthenshire in second place and also picked out the entry from Ellie from Ferndale for special attention: “A beautifully drawn comic outline of a very amusing story, seeing the mighty dragon kicking a winning penalty would be great fun!” he said of the entry from the Cardiff region.
Aaron was also fond of another entry which hailed from West Wales, saying of Rosie Mammatt, Ceira Wood and Taylor Rees’s work: “This was a great continuation of the Scorch story, starting with an evocative dragon-less Welsh flag and containing references to old Welsh mythology, plenty of action and a starring role for Legend the little dog!”
But in the end the final plaudits in the senior category went to the entry which saw the story’s main protagonists venture into outer space and time travel back to Merthyr in the 1935, before saving a flagging Scorch by feeding him with the winning ball from a famous Welsh win – the Dragon’s very own ‘Bread of Heaven’.
In the primary school category it was a story which included a host of latin-inspired magic spells, Merlin’s evil sister Morgana and an anti-hero white dragon, which won the day.
Both plotlines will now be incorporated into the next instalment of the WRU’s graphic novel initiative which initially introduced Scorch to hundreds of schools around Wales.
Teachers from all over the country have written the WRU to commend the Scorch project, with entries for the competition also coming in from as far and wide as Elfed High School in Flintshire North Wales, Rougemont School in Newport, Ysgol Tycroes and Ysgol Gyfun y Strade in Carmarthenshire, Narberth CP School in Pembrokeshire, Porthcawl Primary in Bridgend County Borough, Llanishen High School in Cardiff and many others.
“We have had an overwhelming response to this project and to the associated competition,” said John Williams the WRU’s head of communications.
“The children from St Josephs and Dyffryn Taf should be extremely proud of themselves to have beaten of stiff competition from schools all around Wales to write the next instalment of the Scorch story.
“But we would also like to thank each and every school who bought into the idea behind this project, who entered the competition or who simply were able to use the books as a teaching tool.
“There was a more than 30 per cent take up from the 1,600 or so primary and secondary schools around Wales who were offered the Scorch books. Our next challenge is to increase that figure with issue two and we will have our joint winners Joseph Lewis, Iwan Morgans, Rhys Kemble, Griff Evans, Harri Worthing and Calan Davies to thank when we achieve that aim.”
Comments from Tina Davey, Class Teacher from Ponthir Primary School, are typical of the kind of enthusiastic response to the WRU initiative from Schools all around Wales: “Our class consists of 27 pupils from Years four, five and six,” she said. “We used the Scorch – Unleash the Dragon magazine as an introduction to graphic novels. Some of the children had never read a graphic novel before.
“We spent time reading it individually and as a drama – with the children reading the parts of the different characters in the story.
“We rewrote the graphic novel as a story (narrative), and then used this as the stimulus for Scorch’s next adventure. As a class we planned our story – children worked in pairs/small groups to discuss their ideas and feedback to the class. We used this as a model to plan a short story. The pupils then suggested ideas, and agreed on the most popular story lines.
“The finished story is a combination of all their suggestions and ideas. When we finished, they proof-read the story. Our next step will be to create a graphic novel (group project) based on our class story.”
Teacher Rob Randel from Ysgol Tycroes, who’s pupil Nathan produced one of the top five entries said, “The pupils really enjoyed reading the graphic novel and have come up with some interesting ideas!”
Robert Newsome, headmaster at Dyffryn Taf, said: “The children have really enjoyed their Scorch experience and also taken an active interest in detailed lessons which our teaching staff have been able to produce using these WRU resources, which has been shown by our competition entries.”
David Guinee, who teaches winner Joseph Lewis at St Joesphs added: “The children were extremely keen on entering the competition, but we didn’t for a second expect to win. They have all been very excited all week about attending the game and it is something they will never forget.”
