Over the last week all three campuses of Newington College participated in the biennial Literature Festival. We were very excited to be able to bring quality literary experiences to our students. Throughout the event, the students explored ways that story can be told. 

Matt Cosgrove, author of Macca the Alpaca, engaged our Kindergarten to Year 2 boys. We were very fortunate to have Matt visit our school as his book was chosen for 2019 National Simultaneous Storytime. 

The boys also shared stories with Kate Forsyth, the author of many books for children, young adults and adults. The boys were particularly interested in her little treasure box which held many trinkets some of which were very valuable. All of these had a story to tell. 

Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 shared stories with Oliver Phommavanh, Tim Harris and Tristan Bancks. The students explored worlds of fantasy and explosions and storytelling of an extreme nature. The Year 5 and 6 students also collaborated on illustration as story with Tom Burke, creating their images in cartoon styles, based on the character Tom Weekly and Con-Nerd.

This type of event helps us to promote literature and a love of reading. I interviewed some of the boys, here are their thoughts on Lit Fest 2019:

‘What I liked about the Lit Fest was that we got to see a real live author and we got to talk to them. My favourite author was Tristan Bancks because he was really funny and he has some really good books to read’. Declan Williams

‘I really enjoyed the Lit Fest because we got to talk to the authors and see how they got their ideas for their books. My favourite author was Oliver Phommavanh he was really funny and told us a lot about how to make books based on your own life and make them funny’. Jonathan Fitzgerald

‘The authors that we saw at Lit Fest were some of my favourite authors. They gave us many tips about writing our own books. The main one was to write about what you love’. Sam Schultz.

Kylie Bain – Art Teacher/Librarian