Chickens In Shalvey Public School - & More Stories - Story Factory

One of the most popular things to do at Shalvey Public School, near Mt Druitt, is  look after the chickens. The school has a coop with eight of them. In The Secret Life of Chickens, one of our favourite programs this past term, the  year 3 and 4 students wrote about what the chickens do in the day (sleep, play  in the dirt, lay eggs) and what they do in their surprisingly active secret lives at  night (eat curry, have a pool party, dance to Lil Nas X's Old Town Road). As you  can see below, Isabella wrote that: "the chickens steal all the classroom keys  from Mrs Lee's office so they can go into the computer room and play Minecraft  and Roblox. None of the kids are allowed to play so the chickens say 'ha ha!'"  We've been working with these fantastic kids - and their equally fantastic teachers and support staff - for nearly a year now. Their confidence as writers, and their willingness to engage at school, has improved tremendously. DANCING WITH BANGARRA DANCE THEATRE This past term, we've been working with students at Chifley College Dunheved and Granville South Creative and Performing Arts High School as they write creative responses to dance, and learn more about the artform. We're doing this in collaboration with Kaine Sultan Babij, a former dancer with Bangarra and choreographer, as part of Art, Write, Light, a three-year project generously supported by The Balnaves  Foundation. Recently these students visited the Sydney Opera House and were blown  away to see their first Bangarra performance (one student said: "I never knew you could go inside the Opera House"). This week Kaine returned  to dance a commissioned piece at the students' schools, based on stories  from his country about the caterpillar. It was a profound cultural and artistic experience for many of them. Here's an extract of the collaborative poem the students at Granville South CAPA wrote in response to Kaine's dance: caterpillars move the landscape his body was rising the land was being sculpted a stiff body wiggling around, it looked as though it wanted to hatch.   Students from Chifley College Dunheved outside the Sydney Opera House, before seeing a performance by Bangarra Dance Theatre. Huge thanks to Bangarra for the tickets!

ACCOLADES FOR CATH We were thrilled that our co-founder and executive director, Cath Keenan, was awarded an Member of the Order of Australia in the Queens Birthday Honours List. The official citation was "for significant service to children as an advocate for improving literacy and creative learning, and to the community of Redfern." Cath said: "I am humbled by this award but it really should be shared by everyone who makes the Story Factory the special place it is: our staff, board, volunteers, supporters and most of all, our amazing kids." Our co-founder and executive director, Cath Keenan, with Zara, a student in our Year of Poetry workshop.   TEACHERS - BRING A FRIEND FOR FREE TO OUR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING PROGRAMS THIS HOLIDAYS We've been running our fun and engaging creative writing workshops for 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 NESA-registered Teacher Professional Learning Programs - and teachers love them too! This holidays only, teachers can bring a friend to one of our workshops for free! From 15-17th July, we're running three workshops on Matchbox Poetry, Modular Odyssey and Craft of Writing. If you know a teacher, please let them know! It costs just $150 (plus GST) for TWO people to come to a program. Each program is 2 hours of NESA-registered PL and comes with a swag of classroom-ready resources to take home. 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. To find out more, click here. Teachers participating in our professional learning programs. See you again when Term 3 gets underway! Thanks for being part of our Story Factory community. With warmest wishes, Cath Keenan and all the Story Factory board and staff. Donate Now

MEET OUR SUPERSTARS OF THE MONTH STUDENTS OF THE MONTH: INTAN, REECE & SIU These three legends are in Year 12 at Alexandria Park Community School, and we've been working with them in their English Studies class to write pieces that define what it means to be Australian. They were so good we published them on our website right here so you can read them in full. There is a new arrival point of view from Intan, a fictional take from Reece, and an Aboriginal perspective from Siu. We have been blown away by their commitment and thoughtful writing. Fun fact: We've been seeing Siu and Reece in workshops, on and off, for four years now! VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: ROBA AWAD Roba started volunteering at Story Factory in January last year, and is currently studying to be a primary school teacher. She is an incredibly generous and talented volunteer who set the bar high at Liverpool Public this term. She does an amazing job of supporting all of her students; from the moment she steps into the workshop you can feel the buzz of positive energy. She is warm and welcoming and her whiteboard art skills make her such an asset in any workshop. Roba, you are a huge inspiration, thank you so much for all that you do! TEACHER OF THE MONTH: REBECCA LI  Rebecca teaches at Matraville Sports High and is a total superstar! She says, "Being part of the students’ writing process and watching them grow has been an absolute delight. The Story Factory workshops have privileged me in seeing the potential that may not be so noticeable in the usual classroom. In particular, the workshops have really given our students a rare opportunity to improve their craft of writing and pursue their stories by sharing ideas and working with peers and volunteers. Even for the students who face instability each day, being able to see their proud smiles when they receive their final bound book confirms the reasons why I chose to become a teacher." Thank you Rebecca for all that you do!