Schools in Stratford on Avon responded with enthusiasm to our writing competition 'In Search of Safety' which encouraged our young people to respond to the refugee crisis. Here are some brief  extracts from some of the winners:

14-16 age group:

'She fled to safety

from lands of chaos and catastrophe,

where she woke to the sounds of crashing and crying

and blood-curdling screams;

and she ran with bare-feet

down blood-lined streets,

covered in shards of shattered glass

that sliced at her soles until they stung.

And still she ran. ...

11-13 age group:

Home. A permanent place to stay: where families grow and share their lives; a safe haven where one sleeps soundly with a solid roof over one's head. We take all the above for granted but, for refugees, they lost all this when they left their home. For them, there is no more comfort. There is only hardship.

It had been a week since they left the city. The rubble had consumed their old home. They thought they were safe. Before the bombing their place was the only one still presentable on the street. Their traditional carpet was spread out onto the floor and their possessions neatly away in their place. Then that was it. To leave in the morning from a prized property and to come back to a bombed shell. That was the end of their lives and the start of a nightmare. The very next day they packed what little possessions they had left and made their way out of the city ...

Thank you all for your inspiring contributions