So what do today's "pampered" young think of their island life and school? With the cooperation of Mrs Annabella Perrie, teacher at Arinagour School, I had a little compatition to find out. Here are the two winning entries (as they were written) (i) for the up to eight years; (ii) for the nine to eleven year olds.

My Story About Coll

I live on the Island of Coll. Living on an Island can be very usful becase it supplies us with drift wood that is good for our fires in the winter days. It also supplies us with sea foods such as Lobster, wilkes, skate makeral and other fish. We can also get exercise on the beach. We can run and play or serch on the rocks for Black Bach seagulls eggs or in the bogs for the Black headed gulls eggs. When the eggs are checked and we make sure they are fresh, mum can use them for baking.

Some of the men on the Island fish for Lobsters and crabs they then are shiped to the mainland where they are sold. Our supplies come from oban by boat then they are taken by Car or tractor to the post office or supermarket. these supplies are not very regluar in the winter becase very often the boat does not make the pier due to bad wether and when this happens our mum has to bake and we have to do with what we have already.

We do not have a plane service, but we get a plane for emergencies. the runway is Just a field with red and white palings. We never lock our doors or lock our cars becase no one would ever take anything that did not belong to them this is why we do not need a policeman. sometimes we get a visit from the policeman in tiree.

Randy Anderson age 11