Tales from Stocksbridge

By Stocksbridge High School

Believe...Achieve...Succeed!

Tales from Stocksbridge is a collection of short stories written by the students, parents and staff at Stocksbridge High School. Prepare to be amused, delighted, moved and horrified as you read fifty-seven unique stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stocksbridge High School
• Release date: Apr 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301957781

Book preview

Preface

Everyone has a story to tell. Some brilliant, creative, lucky people have many countless stories to tell, too many to pen before their active synapses cease to spark. But not everyone is given the opportunity to tell their stories. There can be many reasons for this: some stories stay shelved away, collecting dust; some are spurned by an editor having a bad day; some just never quite make the jump from the brain to the page. Things are changing, however, with the dawn of electronic publication. Now, anyone can publish anything to be downloaded and read, and while this may have its pitfalls, it is without doubt an incredible opportunity.

I dreamed up this project, Tales of Stocksbridge, at the beginning of the new age of publication, whilst working as a teaching assistant at Stocksbridge High School, an 11-16 comprehensive school in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. There are so many interesting and brilliant students at the school, and I wanted to give them a chance to speak out to the wider world, to get their stories out there. More than that, I wanted to encourage students who might not have really considered writing before to have a go, and then, when the collection was published, to become interested in reading the stories here, which would hopefully lead them into reading more generally.

Tales of Stocksbridge wouldn’t be what it is without the dedication and enthusiasm of the English Subject Leader at Stocksbridge High School, Mr Parry. He helped to shape and craft my vision and to spread it to other members of staff. Neither of us could really believe it when, the Friday before we announced it to staff and students, he said, Right, you know what we have to do this weekend, ready for Monday. Write a story. Yet that was exactly what we both did over the next forty-eight hours, and that was how we stumbled across the theme for the collection: Believe, Achieve, Succeed – the school motto.

Though I had great belief when I launched the project, I have to admit there were odd moments when, late at night, a spike of dread would hit me at the thought, What if no one writes anything? I shouldn’t have worried. The students, staff and parents of Stocksbridge High School were fully up to the challenge, and their achievements speak for themselves. What really struck me, as I occasionally helped out students with their writing, was the real joy storytelling brought: it was the happiest I’d ever seen one boy in year 7 – he just couldn’t stop beaming.

Now there is only a little more to say: I hope, as you read, all fifty-seven stories will succeed in moving, intriguing, scaring or delighting you – as they did me.

Miss Taylor

Teaching Assistant

Tales from Stocksbridge is a new venture for the school. When we started talking about the idea, it was both exciting and frightening, which is always a good sign. Frightening because we didn’t know whether it would work; exciting because it was new, different and unknown.

There were lots of reasons for running this as an invitation and challenge for the whole school community – students, staff and parents. The main one was to celebrate writing. We wanted to show everyone that they could choose to write and could enjoy writing; that they could participate in a project and take pride in getting their work published. We wanted people to recognise and believe that they have a voice and that they can express their ideas. That writing isn’t something that is just done in lessons or for examinations, but something which can be used to communicate with others, to explore feelings and to share ideas.

And what a voice! Reading the stories has been an eye-opener. As an English teacher, I’m used to telling people how they should be writing, but here everyone has chosen their own subject matter and their own style. There are lots of ghosts and vampires. There are what appear to be quite autobiographical stories and there are stories of fantasy and wish fulfilment. There are stories with strange and unusual narrators... which I won’t give away here. There are stories in very different styles, some of which reveal avid readers... there’s definitely one very similar to Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson books. There are humorous stories and there are some rather dark tales...

What they show are the creativity and imagination of the students in the school, and the hidden talents of some of the staff and parents. The stories have been a pleasure to read and we hope that you will enjoy them just as much.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Miss Taylor as the inspiration and cheerleader for this project, without her enthusiasm and huge amount of work proof-reading and typesetting the stories, this could never have happened. Thank you to Mr Turner for providing the prize of a Kindle. Most of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to write and submit a story for the collection – it is your creativity and courage that makes this collection what it is.

Hopefully we can make this a regular publication, so keep those pens warm...

Mr Parry

English Subject Leader

I was delighted to be asked to write a few words for the Preface to Tales from Stocksbridge. This wonderful collection is a powerful symbol of all the work that takes place in school to develop engagement in reading and writing – a big focus area for us at the moment. It also does more than this by reflecting the passion, creativity and spirit of our students, staff and community. It is testament to our ‘can do mentality’; a perfect example of how a good idea can quickly grow and become an exciting reality. Thanks to all those who have made a contribution to the collection and thanks to you for reading it. Enjoy!

Mr Cole

Headteacher

13 Mary Street

by

Jessica Singleton, 7VKD

Have you heard the rumour? says one of my friends at school. We are half way through an English lesson at the time, to be precise in Miss Evans’s English where we are learning about a book called The Girl with No Face. It is quite a spooky book with danger and all about believing in yourself. What? What rumour? I ask, baffled by the question.

The rumour about Mary Street? My friend replies like it is the most obvious thing in the world. Mary Street is supposedly haunted but I don’t believe in that rubbish.

No, I haven’t heard it, so tell me, I whisper loudly.

Yesterday, a new family moved in from Australia. Still, my friend gives nothing away.

And? Good for them. I am still baffled.

They didn’t move into just any house. They moved into... 13... Mary Street!

At this point, I think my friend is expecting me to scream or stare with horror but no, I just say sarcastically, Oh, not that house! My friend does not take this very well, so we both turn around and get on with our work.

Anyway, I’ve not had chance to introduce myself yet. My name’s Jess; I’m twelve years old and I go to Stocksbridge High School. My friend there who I was talking to is Isobel. We are in year seven and our class is 7VKD.

The next day, a new pupil joined our school. He was Australian, so I suppose some of the rumour may be true but still I don’t believe all the nonsense about Mary Street. So the new kid, he is called Shane Pontion, weird name I know but still, he is an Aussie. It just happens Shane has to join 7VKD. As soon as people heard that he was Australian and he had just moved here, he was soon surrounded by a crowd of people, who were asking questions like, Did you really move into the house on Mary Street? The poor kid didn’t know what was going on. So the whole thing about Number 13 Mary Street was right but it still doesn’t mean it is haunted.

Shane has turned out to be a rather nice person and we hang out a lot together now so I guess we are friends; I really just think it is because I was the only one who couldn’t care less about where he lived. Today, Shane asked me if I wanted to play out after school with him because Mary Street is not far from my house. I really enjoyed playing out, especially since it was such a nice day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and we had a great time playing out on our bikes. So we are now inside his house, guzzling down a can of coke because it was so hot and we were so thirsty.

The house was all cleaned up since he has been living in it for just over six months now. His room was bright blue with gold stars; it was like being in a sky at day but also a night with all of the stars, and I think this is related to Shane wanting to be an astronaut when he is older. I have been invited around for tea with Shane’s family who are really kind and cook great spaghetti. It is getting late now as we sit in his living room playing on the Wii.

Suddenly, there was a creepy scream coming from outside. Shane’s parents both went outside with a torch to see who it was, but no one was there. A little creeped out, both Shane and I carry on with our game. Then there was another loud scream, this time closer to the house. We ran to the door but Shane’s parents took all of the torches. We peeked outside the living room window and we saw...

The dishevelled face of a disastrous looking woman, who was half dead, stared us in the eye and she pressed her head against the window and moaned. She wandered towards the door and we heard the hatch click...

We hid behind the sofa, away from the creepy figure. Shane was whimpering like a poor little puppy dog. Then a shadow loomed above the sofa…

Ahhhhhhhahhhhhhhh! we both screamed with horror.

I am not that scary-looking, am I? spoke Shane’s mum. So we told Shane’s parents everything that happened and they said, Well, that is one bad daydream.

But it was true, we really saw a half dead woman in front of our window then she went to the door and we hid and you found us, Shane said, trembling as he was reminded of the horrid thing.

Okay, okay. Whatever you say. If you saw that, then you saw that, Shane’s dad said and then his mum said, Okay, I think it is getting a bit late now, you two. You’d better be off home, Jess.

I can’t sleep. I just keep on getting reminded of that horrid sighting and I keep on checking outside so that no one is outside. On my third check, I wished I hadn’t. She was there! The half dead woman again! I screamed, Ahhhhhhh! Leave me alone! What have I done to you?!

I told my mum this morning but she didn’t believe me, neither did my dad. So now the only people that believe are me and Shane, and even I don’t even believe it myself half the time.

She came back last night, I whispered to Shane.

She came into my room last night, too. I didn’t know what to do.

So today, we organised to stay at his house, wide awake all night, not getting a wink of sleep. The woman appeared again to terrify us. She followed us as we ran to his mum and dad’s room and his mum and dad said, What are you looking at? There is nothing there.

Shane and I were so confused! She was floating right after us and pulling horrid faces; she had a pale coloured dress and was about half a metre off of the ground, floating around, and there was something strange and familiar about her, though I couldn’t put my finger on it. She disappeared when we were with Shane’s mum so we got sent back to his room to go back to sleep. Then it dawned on me.

Aha! The girl from the book. The girl with no face. She looks exactly like the pictures it shows you in the pages! I told Shane and he said, Oh yeah! We have finished the book now so we know how it ends; she gets destroyed by the town’s people with a huge bucket of water. She eventually vanishes and the town’s people are not bothered about the ghost girl, or the girl with no face, again.

Maybe that is what we have to do, Shane said. You know, destroy her with a giant bucket of water. To get her here we will do what we did tonight but we will go to yours next week!

I am so glad that we have sorted this horrid mess.

So it is Saturday again, and tonight is the night. At seven o’clock, Shane came to my house and we got the bucket of water ready and set up our pillows so we were comfy because we could be waiting a while. It soon turned dark but we were ready, and she was here in less than two minutes. We led her into the bathroom, shut the door (not that it would make much difference since ghosts can float through walls, but it was worth a try) and we got her right where we wanted her. We got the bucket of water. On three... one...two...THREE! We drenched her in chilly liquid water and poof! She disappeared! Amazing! We have done it! We chuckled happily together.

We were never bothered about her again and we were friends as long as forever.

A Day In The Life Of A 20p...

by

Megan Jones, 7AD

I used to wake up in many different places, like pockets and purses, but for the last couple of years, it had been different... Instead of waking up all cosy and warm in a furry coat pocket, I had woken up wet and cold, lying on a hard, grey concrete floor. For the last four years, I had been awoken by my coughs, as all the rubble that surrounded me was disturbed by the daily tram passengers sprinting for the best seats on the tram. If not that, then their heavy and hard boulder-like shoes treading on me! Exactly four years ago, I was off to be swapped with a loaf of bread in a shop