Chief Executive of the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Paul Martin has today announced 18 Gold Award recipients in this year’s WriteOn competition for outstanding writing by primary school students.
“Congratulations to our youngest writers and creators, who crafted stories with the support of their teachers. This year 50 students across the state have taken home a bronze, silver or gold award.
“We received almost 600 entries this year from over 310 schools and home-schooling students in NSW, making it the most successful year to date.
“It was wonderful to see that during the height of the pandemic, schools, students and families were able to make the most of the competition, which proved to be an effective activity during the learning from home period,” Mr Martin said.
WriteOn gives students the opportunity to show teachers how they think and interpret the world around them. Teachers can incorporate the competition into their lesson plans as part of the English Kindergarten to Year 6 syllabus.
With an image of a young boy on a bike in the middle of an outback road as stimulus, students impressed their teachers and the judges, with their imagination and writing abilities creating a range of imaginative texts including narratives, diary entries, interviews, letters and poems.
Students wrote about their experience of the NSW drought, others about their experience of COVID-19, bushfires, friendship and family, and one about the importance of following the road on life’s journey as we grow old.
“We know skills in writing are vital to success, both in school and in life, but it is also important that we nurture the abilities of young people to create, think independently and question,” Mr Martin said.
The 18 Gold Award recipients’ entries have been published alongside the works of the 32 other students who received Silver and Bronze Awards in The Best of WriteOn 2021.
This year, students will be celebrated via the NESA website: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/about/events/writeon-competition
Gold award winners
Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 |
Alysha Bagga Roselea Public School, Carlingford | Jia Cheng Murray Farm Public School | Jayden Dao Newbridge Heights Public School |
Chloe He Carlingford West Public School | Henry Grieve Shore Preparatory School | Arfa Kokab Al Noori Muslim School |
Daniel Lumsden-Smee St Columba Anglican School | Isaac Hou Chatswood Public School | Chloe Lu MLC Sydney |
Ruby Ridges Glenbrook Public School | Jihad Joud Unity Grammar, Austral | Salwa Mousa Australian International Academy of Education, Kellyville |
Imogen Skinner Sacred Heart Primary School, Pymble | Joyce Lee Beecroft Public School | Rafael Siemer Bourke-Walgett School of Distance Education – Walgett Campus |
Macie You Wahroonga Preparatory School | Dean Malouf Knox Grammar Preparatory School | Lucas Wei Beecroft Public School |
