Student Voice

Last term in Upschool, the students have been taking on the role of author. The great thing about this course is that it teaches students the intricacies of narrative writing, structure, storytelling, character development, settings, and about morals. In addition, the children get to use their imagination in a completely student-led 10-week unit. 

The teachers provide support to students during the program to help with the delivery of core writing components; inferential meaning and creative designs for anyone who needs some help.

The students have not had the opportunity before to delve so deeply into what it takes to become a published author. This will be their time to shine and show off their writing and storytelling skills. 

The students also get to create some illustrations to accompany their words. The pictures and text will go together to create a very special story. 

It has been a joy roving around during the lessons seeing all the different ideas everyone has come up with. It is clear we are working with a very imaginative group of children. I am very much looking forward to seeing the final result. 

The books the children create will be able to be purchased by others and the money we raise will go towards building a library at Taleemabad School Ghauri Campus, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The books will also be made available in the library for the children who attend the school in Pakistan.

Here are reflections from two students in the Year 3/4 classroom.

Every Friday, we go to the library to do Upschool. During the first couple of weeks, we planned our own picture book. Before we started the activity, we read “Are these your glasses?” written by Gavin McCormack. Then we discussed some questions which helped us to better understand the story.

The first activity we did was to write or draw where the setting was, who the characters were, what we learnt from the book and what other characters were going to be involved. We weren’t allowed to make our story too scary because it is a book for children and it might be published to the whole world.

Our next activity we did was to write about three characters, the hero, the sidekick and the villain. Then we had a task where we had to come up with ideas for a start, middle and end to our story. We had to write or draw in the box to brainstorm what we wanted to do.

I’m writing a story about when a bird travels deep into the forest and meets a koala and a platypus. The bird asks for help from the koala and platypus. Who answer yes! They then try to save the forest from pollution using teamwork. I’m really excited to be an author. - Ariel

Every Friday, we have been doing Upschool with the Senior class. We have been writing our own picture books. Before we got started, we read a book called 'Are these your glasses?' Once we read a few pages we got to answer a few questions. Once we finished answering the questions we got into groups and started brainstorming ideas for our very own picture book.

My picture book is about an astronaut, his name is Nick. Early in the morning, he walk to his rocket. When he gets in the rocket, there is a countdown, three, two, one. Boom! The rocket shoots up into space. Then, he crashes onto the moon. 

I am still thinking about where I want the story to go next and the ending. 

I really like Upschool because we learn a lot about using our imagination and I am really excited because I will be able to tell people “I am a published author.” - Lakyn

During Upschool this semester, we have been writing picture story books that are going to be put in the library we are building in Pakistan. We are trying to raise $10,000 to make the library and we have been creating little projects to make this money. To raise the $10,000, the MiniVinnies are going to be doing food stalls, cake stalls, lemonade stands etc. We are also going to be writing letters to the children at the Pakistan school we are supporting, like penpals. We want to build a relationship with them and to know who we are building this library for. Also, our school will be writing letters to companies like Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and more to hopefully get donations or sponsorships to help raise the $10,000. At school, we have already ran a few lemonade stands to start raising money and if you would like to buy anything from the kindbox to help us raise the $10,000 you can shop at this link: https://www.kindbox.com/project/st-bridgets-primary-school-greythorn-are-building-a-library-in-rawalpindi-pakistan/  - Allison

Kind regards

Mr Tom Brophy 

Year 3/4 Classroom Teacher