Joust About That

For their Assessment Folders, the students were asked to write a story with a medieval theme. All children in the syndicate were given the same set of characters, setting and problem. It was up to them to decide how they were going to 'solve' this problem and how the story would play out.

I usually do not enjoy marking the English assessments much (I like maths), but this task was different. I found all the stories interesting, and I was really impressed with the level of creativity and imagination that was used.

The class selected some stories that they thought were particularly well done. We were looking for stories that had descriptive language, and had original solutions to Julia's problem.

This first story was written by Callum, and was a hit with many in the class. There will be more stories published on this blog in the coming days.


Joust About That

It was the day before the jousting tournament when with a pang of sadness and jealousy, Julia remembered that her father (Lord Robert) and his knights had gone to battle the Normans. She had asked if she could go but her father had said that she was too young and she was a girl.

So now she was stuck in the castle with her crazy Aunt Odelia. She wanted to play with her friend Timothy. Julia decided to go check what Aunt Odelia was doing, so she crept down the hallway to her aunt’s chamber. She heard Aunt Odelia fussing about what to do with her.

Julia had a plan; she was going to wait outside Aunt Odelia’s chamber with a pot and then, BAM!!!

Aunt Odelia won’t know what hit her. Julia got ready quickly, then she got into position. Within a minute the door creaked open on its rusted hinges and before she knew it, Aunt Odelia lay unconscious in front of her.

Julia then walked to her father’s chamber and thought “a bit of gold won’t matter” so she walked up and grabbed a handful of shiny gold coins. Then Julia snuck off to find the Master of Ceremonies.

She crept along the well-worn path towards the arena. Suddenly she heard hooves pounding along the well-worn gravel path. Julia dove into the undergrowth and spun around to see a horse galloping speedily by with the Master of Ceremonies on its back. ”Stop” Julia yelled at the top of her voice. The Master of Ceremonies was obviously surprised and fell off his horse.

“What do you want” he shouted angrily. “I want to enter the tournament as Billy” she exclaimed. ”But you’re a girl” he replied. She showed him the coins and he accepted instantly.

That day she trained hard with Timothy and cut her hair. She was extremely tired by night time and fell into a deep sleep.

In the morning, she woke, hastily put on her armour, stole a horse and hurried off to the arena. ”Oh no!” she said, the tournament had already started.

Timothy was battling fiercely with another knight. The enemy fell painfully off his horse. Timothy had won. Now it was her turn. She struggled in her heavy armour and hefted a lance (that was two times her size) and charged at the enemy knight. She felt a sharp pain in her side and all went black.


The End