Kingston Writers Festival

On August 22, five Mordialloc College students (Years 7-9) braved a bus and train to represent the school at the Kingston Writers Festival - an annual festival celebrating literature and the love of reading and writing. After signing in at host school Beaumaris Secondary College, the day started with keynote speaker, author Meredith Costain (known for her famous Ella Diaries) sharing her expertise and writing tips to the cohort, giving examples of times she based her stories on real life experiences.

After that, we split up into groups based on our year level and combined with students from other schools in order to co-write a story; after discussing which picture prompt to use and creating a plot, the year level groups allocated sections of the story to groups of two to three students. Eerily, every year level group from prep to secondary chose the same prompt - an image of a mysterious bridge! We ensured the story maintained fluency by working as a group to efficiently link them together after each section was completed. Then, the cohort combined as a whole again to share the stories.

Tim Richardson, MP for Mordialloc, even made an appearance to show his support for the festival’s promotion of literature. Tim stayed to listen to teacher and student representatives from each year level read out their stories. Organisers of the event revealed that all the stories written that day will be typed up, put into a book and sent to each school to display their collaborative work and serve as a memory of the festival. Thanks to Ms Vrettos for taking us and the school for organising it!

Aaliyah Zaph,

Year 9