Story Factory May 2019 News Letter

Can you cast a spell to make hot chips and tomato sauce appear? Or throw lightning from your hands? Or make a toilet troll disappear? The kids from Telopea Public School can. Telopea is a small school near Parramatta; over half the 70 students have English as an additional language. We're visiting them every Friday this term to write stories about amusement parks and monsters. But last week, we did something special and the Grade 5/6 students came into our Parramatta centre to imagine and write about their very own magic school. They confidently cast their spells then disappeared in a puff of smoke. A student from Telopea Public casts his lightning-from-the-hands spell, with help from our Storyteller, Bec Smith.  Huge thanks and congratulations to everyone - we reached our target! Over this past weekend, nearly 70 fearless writers completed our Pen to Paper Challenge, raising a staggering $60,594 to fund Story Factory programs for hundreds of young people in two Western Sydney schools! Our most heartfelt thanks to all our challengers, and especially our fabulous Ambassadors: Eddie Woo, Debra Oswald, Vivian Pham, Benjamin Law, Jess Tovey, and Sara Mansour. Special thanks to those who so generously donated prizes and goodies for our Survival Packs: Faber Academy, Michael Robotham, Benjamin Law, Markus Zusak, Penguin Random House, Lovatts Media, The Rabbit Hole and Papier.  Finally, our most sincere thanks to all of you who donated to support participants as they wrote, including Catriona and Simon Mordant AM whose $10,000 donation got us over the line. From us and the hundreds of young people who will discover the joy of writing because of your generosity: THANK YOU! Aunty Uma - a long-time volunteer who also took on our Pen to Paper Challenge, writing furiously in the countdown to 6pm on Sunday.

DID YOU KNOW WE RUN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING PROGRAMS FOR TEACHERS? We've been running our fun and engaging creative writing workshops for nearly seven years now, and in that time we've developed a huge range of innovative strategies to get young people writing. These tried and tested methods work with young people of all ages and abilities. We love sharing them through our suite of Teacher Professional Learning Programs - and teachers love them too! An independent evaluation of these programs found that 100% of responding teachers had implemented what they learnt in the classroom, and 82% had noticed an improvement in their students' writing. We've recently added NEW COURSES too, on the Craft of Writing, poetry, unpacking creative processes, and a step-by-step guide to helping students write compelling journey stories. The programs are open to all teachers and to anyone interested in nurturing creativity. They're run at our Redfern centre in the school holidays, or we can come to your school at a time that suits you. For more information, and to book, click here. Know any teachers? Please help us spread the word and forward this email to them. Teachers participating in our professional learning programs. AND FINALLY, A POETIC PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS... We all know that poetry can be a balm for a broken heart, but can it help alleviate other problems too? The year 4 and 5 students at Shalvey Public in Mt Druitt decided to find out and recently imagined themselves as “poetry doctors,” prescribing poetic advice in response to real life problems. In particular, they explored how their own everyday joys might encourage other people to recognise and appreciate moments of happiness in their own life. They popped their poems in medicine bottles, ready to be dispensed as needed. Some of their favourite moments of happiness - and our favourite lines - were: Going home to eleven puppies who lick my toes. When popping candy fizzes, pops and explodes with delicious flavours. Using free wifi at Mt Druitt shops. Touching my cousin’s baby fingers. Listening to my favourite song Heart to Heart in the car after school. Being treated nice: this makes me feel loved and cared about. Students at Shalvey Public with their poetic prescriptions, which they coiled into medicine bottles. Thanks for being part of the Story Factory community. With warmest wishes, Cath Keenan and all the Story Factory board and staff. Donate Now

MEET OUR SUPERSTARS OF THE MONTH STUDENT OF THE MONTH: TERENCE Terence, from Whalan Public, spent eight weeks working on a digital story...about the day an ambulance called Val discovered a box of money in a car park. It’s a great tale of unexpected good fortune and the community spirit it prompts! He wrote the script with the help of his classmate Chris, and they also created images to accompany their story. He even helped the other students in the class, sharing his techy tricks for collecting images and recording on the iPad. Terence, thanks for being such a fantastic leader in your school! VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: CINDY HO Cindy has been volunteering with Story Factory for less than six months, but has put in a mammoth effort. Last term she committed to two term-long programs at Auburn Girls High School and two others at Liverpool Girls and Liverpool Boys High. She also signed up for a truly impressive number of one-off workshops at our Parramatta centre. Wow! We so appreciate her professionalism, warmth and inspiring degree of commitment. Thank you Cindy! TEACHER OF THE MONTH: HABIBA VEJZOVIC  Habiba teaches a year 3 and 4 class at Liverpool Public. Her classroom is an incredibly positive and welcoming space where students are supported to tackle challenges, take risks and ask big questions. She is innovative, energetic, and goes above and beyond to ensure that each child is successful. Habiba, you are a huge inspiration, thank you!