Young Writers' Festival

Storytelling the underlying theme

Cecil Hills High School had the pleasure of sending Monika Eftimovski, Lena Gian, Tiana Nikolic and Aisha Shah from Year 11 to Western Sydney University, to part take in the Greater Western Sydney Writing Festival. Students were nominated by their English Teacher and later invited to part take in a creative writing workshop. An invitation that also comes with an opportunity for a full University Scholarship.

Our students were welcomed with a key note speech by Shirley Le, an acclaimed award winning writer from Western Sydney. Ms Le addressed hundreds of school students from the Greater Western Sydney Region about issues and barriers she faced being a young Asian Australian writer.

After the inspiring address, a sense of hope and excitement filled the lecture theatre. Students then broke off into small groups and worked with established writers and academic professionals by actively participating in creative writing workshops.

Tiana described the experience as a great way to “interact with a variety of school kids”. Tiana further noted that working with other students from across Sydney had a great “influence on [her] own writing”. This wider student engagement during the workshops allowed our students to work collaboratively with others in developing their writing skills, understand the importance of language techniques and how their own unique experiences can inspire their writing. 

The significance of storytelling was the underlining theme throughout the day. As young writers and the next generations influences, our students understood the importance of appreciating diversity in our greater community. Students felt proud to represent Cecil Hills High School and share their creative stories and experiences to a wider audience.

Ms Kulevski, English teacher