YEAR 6 students from St Joseph’s Molong and St Joseph’s Manildra were given the opportunity to explore their creativity with Wiradyuri author Anita Heiss during a special creative writing workshop on Monday 27 July.
Heiss has written adult fiction, non-fiction and children’s literature.
The workshop was part of an annual visit by Heiss to schools across the region, coordinated by the Catholic Education Office of the Diocese of Bathurst.
Heiss, who has been running writing workshops in schools across New South Wales for 30 years, described her annual visits to Wiradyuri Country as her “week of joy” and said the students at St Joseph’s were among the most extraordinary she had worked with.
“Their creativity, imagination, writing skills, capacity to weave a story on first draft, and their generosity in sharing, and listening to each other, was exemplary,” Heiss said.
The day involved a series of conversations, brainstorming activities and writing exercises designed to encourage students to develop their storytelling skills.
Students created characters, explored the concept of sacred places and considered what it meant to be a hero before writing letters to people they had chosen as their heroes.
Props including a sparkly hat, a string of beads and clapsticks were also used to spark the students’ imaginations, with the children developing characters including aliens, scarecrows, rock stars and softball players.
Principal of St Joseph’s Manildra, Glenn Corben, said it was wonderful to see Heiss support the students and provide them with practical techniques to develop their characters and stories.
“Just watching how Anita has supported the kids and scaffolded and given them the techniques and shown them how to create and develop their character and identities in their writing, it’s been wonderful to see that unfold with the children,” Mr Corben said.
Year 6 teacher Olivia Kerwick said the workshop had also highlighted the importance of bringing characters and settings to life through the senses.
She said creative writing was an important skill for students to develop and one that could be applied across all areas of the curriculum.
Under the national curriculum reforms, writing is increasingly embedded across key learning areas.
Heiss said creative writing could provide young people with an important outlet for self-expression and imagination.
“Giving young people the opportunity to be creative allows them to feel free to express emotions that are sometimes bottled up, or fears they might not otherwise share,” she said.
“Creative writing also allows them to dream, to escape, to transport themselves to places they may only visit in their imagination.”
Heiss said she saw potential in more than one student at the workshop for a future in writing.
Her advice to other budding authors is: “Read widely, across genre, geography, and gender. And write daily.”
“Keep a journal, write down your dreams, make time for yourself to write,” she said.