Sydney Story Factory

This morning I read an article in the SMH about a new initiative called the Sydney Story Factory.

The aim of The Story Factory is exciting - to launch a creative writing centre which inspires kids to tell their stories. It will officially launch at The Sydney Writers' Festival this weekend and a centre is planned to open in Redfern later this year.

You can visit their blog here, and read more about it in the SMH.

This week is Sydney Writers' Festival and there are so many activities to participate in. My husband Mark and I will be in the audience of the 'Q&A Sydney Writers Festival Special' on Monday evening. I believe we will be sitting behind the panel, so if you are a viewer of ABC's 'Q&A' be sure to look out for us - Mark is the tall one (probably with his hand up to ask a question!)

If your child has a keen interest in creative writing (and I know there are a few in the class!) it would be worthwhile to keep your eye on this project.

If you have skills and interest in writing yourself the centre is also looking for volunteers.

A happy weekend to you!

52 Suburbs

I grew up in the 1980s on the outskirts of Sydney in an unfashionable but well-intended suburb called Menai. When I was at Primary School, my Mother didn't work (yet) and had only just learned to drive; so school holidays were a chance for my sister Kathryn, my Mother and myself to get out and discover our city.

Each school holiday Mum would fill our Mitsubishi Colt with free petrol from Dad's work and would take us to suburbs all over Sydney, just to experience and discover for the day. Paddington markets, Cabramatta for noodles, early-morning Bankstown to watch horses train, Liverpool for Country Road outlet shopping, Brighton-Le-Sands for pancakes and the best children's parks, Chatswood for Asian stationary stores, Palm Beach where we grumbled all the way and cooled our feet in the water after a long, non-airconditioned drive.

Discovering my own city was so much fun and made such a contribution to my understanding of Australia. I truly have my Mother to thank for that, I still don't have a lot of time to go back and rediscover many of these places. I learned how to use a street directory and developed a sense of time and distance, so much more meaningful than relying on 'the pages in the textbook.' In other words, I began to see the world outside of myself.

I found a great blog this morning, called '52 Suburbs.' The author visited and photographed one Sydney suburb per week and documented their discoveries. Yes, Randwick is featured!

Perhaps you may like to spend some time discovering our city this holiday...

(The short, less self-indulgent point of this post: this could be an excellent resource to assist with your child's understanding of the diversity of Sydney!)

The Art of Persuasive Writing

We are currently winding up our Stage 3 focus on Persuasive Writing (Exposition Writing). Some students have expressed a desire to continue on with their practice - good news, considering NAPLAN is in Week 3 of Term 2 and we commence class debating shortly!
Here are two videos I have shown my class, in Stage 3 I believe writing tends to 'fine tune' in many of my students rather than develop at a rapid pace.

I hope you enjoy, the second clip is much more technical however it is actually written and presented by an 11 year old girl who has appeared on Oprah to discuss her writing gift.