PUPILS from schools in East Renfrewshire have a story to tell after they won awards for their writing skills.

Their creative flair has been recognised through East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure’s first ever short story competition, which attracted hundreds of entries.

Seven-year-old Lyla Elliot, of Neilston Primary; nine-year-old Ethan Watson, a pupil at Busby Primary; Joe McGhie, 12, from St Ninian’s High; and 13-year-old Anna Mitchell, who attends Isobel Mair School; scooped the prize in their respective age categories.

As winners of the Once Upon a Time contest, they were invited to meet cast members from the Cinderella panto staged at Eastwood Park Theatre, in Giffnock.

Each was also presented with a family pass for the fun show.

Youngest winner Lyla wrote a story about a unicorn superhero, while Ethan penned a story about a flexible superhero named Noodle.

Joe impressed the judges with his thought-provoking war story after a teacher set him the competition as part of his English homework.

Anna’s story, A Fish Called Rosie, was based on her own pet fish.

She said: “I love writing stories with my family about our adventures in Barra.”

As well as presenting the winners with their prizes, the cast from Cinderella visited both Barrhead Library and Giffnock Library to perform a short excerpt from the panto.

Ava Anderson, who played Cinderella in the show, said: “We had such a lovely afternoon meeting with all the children, getting involved in some craft activities and presenting the short story winners with their panto passes.”

Anthony McReavy, of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure, said it was a pleasure to read each entry submitted for the short story contest.

“We had some brilliant characters with fantastic plot development and creative conclusions,” he added.

“Our four truly worthy winners’ stories really stood out and we were thrilled to invite them along to meet some of our Cinderella cast and present them with a family panto pass as part of the Big Blethering Book Bash activities at our libraries.”