After a few years of planning and after several COVID-related cancellations, students with literary aspirations were finally able to travel to the city at the end of Term 3 for the Book Crawl excursion.
My Year 9 Creative Writing class and Mr Matthew Vallis's Year 7 LEAP English students attended a writing master class in Carlton, led by entertaining Melbourne author Kirsty Murray. She stressed to the students the importance of using personal experience to inform our writing, and giving strengths and failings to our characters so they're believable and readers will care what happens to them.
A shopping trip to the Readings bookstore and some time at the State Library filled out the day, punctuated by lunch at Melbourne Central.
Thank you to English Faculty Learning Leader Mrs Donna Mulazzani and Mr Vallis for looking after the students on this valuable trip.
Here are some student reflections of the excursion:
The excursion to the city was amazing. It was so cool to meet the creative author Kirsty Murray and for her to teach us some of her writing methods. I enjoyed being able to hang out with my friends, meet new people and go to the library to look at or buy books.
— Lily Swain (Year 7 Jade)
I learnt lots of things from Kirsty Murray, including how to get through writer's block and how to use the elements in your writing to make it better.
— Jessica Gould (Year 9 White)
When we were at the writing class I learnt that all good writers do speed writing to just get their ideas out first and then they go back and look at it more carefully. I enjoyed going and having a look in the State Library. I had a really enjoyable day.
— Jaruwan Lewis (Year 9 Aqua)
