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The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) today announced the 2019 WriteOn Gold Award recipients for outstanding writing by primary school students.

400 talented children, the most in recent years, from around the state entered this year’s annual WriteOn contest, taking inspiration for their clever writing from a photo of coloured hats.

Five students from Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2), six from Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4), and six from Stage 3 (Years 5 & 6) were chosen to receive WriteOn’s highest award at last Friday’s ceremony at the State Library of NSW.

Students were presented with their certificates by Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning, Sarah Mitchell and will receive a copy of The Best of WriteOn 2019, featuring their now published stories.

Now in its tenth year, WriteOn is an annual writing competition open to all NSW primary students from Years 1 to 6. Using the above image supplied by the State Library of NSW, students wrote up to 500 words with entries including narratives, poems, descriptions, recounts and letters.

Minister Mitchell praised the creativity and talent of these outstanding young writers.

“WriteOn is a wonderful opportunity for our students to interpret an image and create a text using their imagination. It is judged by a panel of experienced educators from all school sectors and NESA.”

“We are pleased to be able to encourage the development of imaginative writing skills among our young students with writing an integral part of every child’s schooling. The Best of WriteOn Anthology provides a wonderful resource for teachers with its inspirational examples of students’ written works,” said Ms Mitchell.

Two Gold award winning students read their works at the ceremony, Erin Kruger from Masada College and Gabriel Siemer from Bourke Walgett School of Distance Education.

Six year old Gabriel has lived the devastating effects of the drought most of his young life on the family farm outside Walgett. They haven’t harvested a crop since 2016 and had to sell all their sheep and cattle due to the drought.

Young Gabriel and his older brother Rafael ‘attend’ the School of Distance Education by satellite link two or three times a week, leaving mum Casey to supervise their work and run the farm. Dad works as a movie and TV stuntman and due to the drought has been away from home much of the year.

WriteOn has been a welcome diversion for the budding author.

“I can’t believe I’ve won a Gold Award. I feel very proud that other people enjoyed my funny poem about Mr. Pip’s party hats.”

“It’s really fun to imagine crazy ideas and write them down.”

The 17 Gold Award recipients’ entries will be published alongside the works of the 32 other students who received Silver and Bronze Awards, in The Best of WriteOn 2019.

Gold Award winners