Literacy
Congratulations to Steffan S (10.2)who was awarded Third Prize in the 2026 Australian Christian Teen Writer Award with his story The Night Watch.
Writing just over 4000 words, Steffan crafted an excellent piece of historical fiction that was set against the backdrop of colonial Australia. His genuine passion for history and faith shines throughout the narrative.
This is what the judges had to say about The Night Watch.
A pickpocket in eighteenth century London gets more than he bargains for when he steals a Bible. This story follows the fortunes of a convict who meets Jesus, changes his ways and serves with the colonial police force under Governor Arthur Phillip. The subject has been well researched, the dialogue is convincing and the development of faith is natural.
An extract from The Night Watch:
Apart from the boat’s dreadful rocking, the stench on board was beyond anything I experienced in London.
On my left I saw a fella reading a book with faded pages bound in leather.
“Trying to sleep?” I joked.
“Can’t sleep with seasickness. I wanna read a chapter or two before cap’n comes down and threat’ns us to sleep.” He had a strong eastern cockney accent.
“I own … er got a similar looking book … well, kind of own.” I hesitated before deciding to take the book out of my satchel and show it to him. “You want it? It’s useless to me. Can’t make head or tails of it.”
“Why, it’s no ‘ifferent at all!” His blue eyes lit up. He turned my copy to the same page he was on and read slowly, “‘By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.’ What’s your name lad?”
“Alfie.”
“You ever ’eard about Jesus, Alfie?”
Mrs Rebekah Paul
Literacy Coordinator
Year 7 Book Launch
In Term 2, all Year 7 students had the privilege of participating in the Launchpad program.
We were instructed to write a 1,000-word narrative which would eventually get printed into an official book.
We had a published author, Mr Robert Verhagen, come to the school and run a writing incursion with us. We learnt 'writing hacks' to enhance our creative writing skills, alongside learning to start our stories with action and use varying sentence length to control tension and pace. Additionally, we were taught how to litter clues throughout the narrative that could be solved in the ending.
We then began our planning process. We thought about characters, the setting and events that could happen in our story. After gathering our ideas, we started to write. We typed all our plans and slowly our stories began to form. We then edited our drafts. These drafts were further edited by Mr Robert Verhagen and published in a book.
At the Book Launch, we were able to enjoy listening to excerpts of students' stories. At the start of the event, Richard L (7.2) gave us a summary of the writing process and what we were required to do. After that, we were able to listen to Hannah D (7.1), Mohi H (7.4), and Diana B (7.2) read some of their amazing stories.
Ultimately, it was an amazing experience being able to have the chance to write a story that would get printed in a hard copy book. I enjoyed learning about the different techniques we could use to make our stories better. I also enjoyed being able to draft and edit my work just as real authors would do.
Morris T (7.2)
