Which flight should count?

Text C: an original fiction extract.

Jonah planned the paper-plane challenge for the school's activity afternoon. He had enjoyed making planes as a child and expected the event to be simple: paper, a starting line and a prize for the longest flight. His friend Alia offered to help. Together they cleared a space in the hall and placed a table of paper beside the entrance. Jonah folded a sample plane with a narrow pointed nose. It travelled almost to the far wall when he tested it, and he left it on the table as an example of what success might look like.

The first group arrived early. A small boy copied Jonah's design and launched it firmly. His plane landed flat after a short distance. Another pupil made a broad shape which floated slowly and curved back towards the starting line. Someone asked whether the winner was the plane which stayed in the air longest. Jonah pointed to the notice: longest flight. Alia asked him whether that meant time or distance. He had meant distance so clearly that he had forgotten the words might describe something else.

He added distance to the notice and began measuring. After several launches, a parent asked why one competitor had been allowed to throw again while her daughter had not. Jonah said the first plane had struck the table. The parent pointed out that her daughter's had hit somebody's leg. People had moved across the landing area while waiting for a turn. Neither accident told them much about the design, but Jonah had treated one as a reason to repeat and the other as a poor result. He could not fix that simply by insisting that everyone had seen the same notice.

They paused before awarding anything. Alia moved the waiting group behind the starting line and explained that the landing area needed to remain clear. Jonah announced a fresh round with the same number of attempts for everyone. They agreed how an interrupted attempt would be handled before beginning. A volunteer recorded the distances beside each competitor's name. Jonah no longer tried to remember results while answering questions and returning planes to their owners. The second round took longer, but the disagreements became easier to discuss because the arrangement was visible.

The broad, slow plane still attracted attention. Its maker said she had wanted it to remain in the air, not reach the far wall. Jonah was about to explain why it was not a successful design when Alia asked whether it had done what its maker intended. They kept the distance result and its announced prize, then used the remaining time for an unranked demonstration of different flights. The broad plane stayed aloft longer than Jonah expected. His pointed example went further but fell quickly. Neither result made the other design pointless.

At the end, Jonah photographed the marked results sheet instead of only the winning plane. For another afternoon he would state the aim precisely, publish the attempt and interruption arrangements and plan enough help to keep recording separate from explaining. He also wanted a place for experiments outside the prize category. The challenge had not proved one design best for every purpose. It had shown how much a small word, an uncleared floor and an unspoken decision could change what appeared to be a simple result.

You are Jonah. Write an article for the school website about organising the paper-plane challenge, explaining the difficulties and what you would do differently.

In your response:

• describe what you intended the challenge to achieve and why you expected it to be straightforward
• explain how the wording and the first-round arrangements created problems
• evaluate the revised event and explain what future organisers should learn

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.