Young Umar battles the bully and is the winner of the Story Stars competition! Story Stars is an annual creative writing competition for all Grade 4’s in the province, and adds the winning stories to ‘The Adventures of Felix And Felicity’ series.
And now, the children’s series features Umar as a character! Felix and Felicity find themselves on fun, whacky adventures – all fueled by the creative minds of the Grade 4 learners.
The winner of the competition has a chance to narrate and feature in their own story. The written words are turned into an animated, ongoing film showing the adventures of Felix and Felicity.
Young Umar, from Blossom Street Primary School in Athlone, was approached discreetly in 2022 to record his voice over for the animated film.
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Picking the winning story
Umar now joins fellow Story Stars winners, Keschrie Booysen and Xia Du Toit in the hall of fame!
‘Battling the Bully’ is the winning story with a powerful message about bullying. It includes the imaginative character, Ashtastic, the flying unicorn (which the animators were very excited to animate). It also includes a rap battle! Umar’s submission, besides its artistic flare, was chosen because of his excellent use of punctuation, spelling and vocabulary.
Education MEC, David Maynier also congratulated Umar’s teacher for her hard work and inspiration.
I also congratulate his teacher, Ms Andrea Liddle, for inspiring her class to participate and
produce such good creative writing skills, and his former principal, Mr Davids who has
since retired. This year, two other learners in the school were also placed in 5th and 6th place. Ms Liddle keeps producing these budding writers as the 2nd place winner from last year was also in her class!
Here are the Top 6 Winning writers:
- Umar Jones (Blossom Street Primary)
- Blair Davids (Northwood Primary)
- Kenzo Segals (Rietenbosch Primêr)
- Chesnay Petersen (Balvenie Primary)
- Nkaximlo Mandindi (Blossom Street Primary)
- Talia Alexander (Blossom Street Primary)
READ MORE: Grade 4’s invited to enter 2022 Story Star writing competition
Story Stars 2023 competition
The next installment of the competition has begun. It is open to all Grade 4 learners in the Western Cape. The idea of the competition is to get learners excited about creative writing. And the animated version really pushes learners to put their best work up for judging.
The Western Cape Education Department says a survey found that Grade 4 learners in 2019, most enjoyed watching cartoons and hope to become internet stars! The Department then decided to create the Story Stars competition.
All submissions must be sent to the Department by April 14.
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What are up for grabs
In addition to writing, starring in and narrating the film – the winner also gets a tablet, book bag and Story Stars branded stationery.
The winning school receives a R10,000 transfer payment for learning and teaching support material. The learners in second and third place, receive a tablet, book bag and stationery.
‘We can’t wait to see who our next Story Star will be,’ says MEC Maynier.
Read Umar’s full winning story right here:
Battling the Bully
Ashtastic, the flying unicorn, found Felix and Felicity and offered them a ride.
“I’m in a rush. I have to make it back before the bell rings for break.”
The two hopped on, excited for another adventure after their African Safari. They blasted off with Ashtastic. The passengers saw children playing and eating their lunches around the playground as Ashtastic hovered, searching for a place to land without disturbing the other learners.
“Phew! We made it in time. “Now I can introduce you to my friend,” said Ash who
transformed from Ashtastic. “This is my friend, Umar. He is new here,” explained Ash.
Felix and Felicity greeted Umar and introduced themselves to him. Umar was sitting on a bench by himself. He was holding his knee.
“What happened to your knee?” asked Felicity.
“Bruce Bruiser, the school bully, pushed me when we were coming out of classroom for
break.”
At that moment, the school bully walked up to them. “Is little Umar hurt?” He didn’t wait
for a reply, he simply let out a monstrous laugh.
Felix stepped in front of Umar, blocking him from the bully.
“Umar, drop the beat!” instructed Felix.
Felix started to rap:
Bullies are bad
Bullies make you mad
Don’t give them the time of day
Bullies stay out of our way
Bullies beware
If you’ve been bullied then share
No need to hide or cry
What the bully tells you is a lie
No need to fight or swear
Show the bully you don’t care
No need to scream
Be part of our anti-bullying team
Now’s the time
To put an end to this crime
The bully dropped a beat and started to rap. Bruce started off with: “Felix looks like an
alien!”
The crowd of learners went silent. Bruce didn’t know what else to say. He decided it was best to walk away. The crowd of learners cheered because the school bully wouldn’t be a problem anymore.
“That was fun,” said Felicity. “It seems our job here is done,” continued Felix.
Felix and Felicity took off in their spaceship in search of another adventure.
