
Primary School workshops
In this workshop, students are transformed into guerilla or ‘pop-up’ poets, i.e. poets who publish poems in unexpected and unconventional places to add a bit of magic to peoples’ days! They are supported to write a list poem based on Nikita Gill’s poem ‘An Ounce of Joy’. They're then invited to find the perfect place to hide their poem for someone else to find.
In this workshop students will write snappy short stories, creating their own unique characters during this one- off narrative workshop. Students will attain expert facial recognition skills and a new appreciation for their everyday life as they transform inanimate objects into imaginative characters bursting with personality.
In this one-off workshop, students will explore the vibrant artworks of Amy Claire Mills, a disabled and neurodivergent artist working on Gadigal Land, in Sydney. Inspired by her bold and imaginative textiles and soft sculpture pieces, students will reflect on the kind of soft spaces—safe, welcoming places—they’d love to spend time in.
In this workshop students are introduced to a playful humorous short poem ‘Fried Lies’ by Harry Laing, an acclaimed children’s writer, poet and comedic performer based in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
In this workshop, students are introduced to the fantastical picture book called the Incredible Freedom Machines by Kirli Saunders, a proud Gunai woman with ties to the Yuin, Gundungurra, Gadigal and Biripi peoples, Indigenous to Australia. Students examine their ideas of freedom, and write a one stanza poem about their very own freedom machine. The students explore what their machines look like, how it moves and where it would take them. This workshop produces heart-warming and surprising poetry full of delight and wonder.
This workshop is ideal for a mixed ability classroom.
Students imagine a hungry monster living under their couch and write about their first epic encounter with it as a narrative poem. Students will be guided through key aspects of the form and the use of various poetic devices including repetition and simile.
Calling all young ghost hunters and master storytellers! Students unleash their imagination as they create spooky stories and characters that will give you goosebumps! Students will learn how to build suspense, conjure eerie settings, and bring their characters to life.
In this workshop Story Factory guides students through an exploration of the creative techniques used by cartoonists to anthropomorphise objects and animals. Students will bring objects from their daily lives to life, creating unique characters, imagining daily activities and drafting dialogue. As students work through the writing process they will role-play interviews and create the content for various written texts including letters. A fun, engaging way to explore character creation!
Students explore poetry that is both hilarious and informative on a topic guaranteed to stir inspiration and giggles. During these workshops students will do playful activities with alliteration, similes and rhyming as they add their own flavour to food themed poetry. Students will create three poems celebrating their fantastic imaginative food orders.
In this workshop students will explore the artworks of contemporary Australian artists including Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, using their quirky and colourful sculptures to inspire poetry. Students will learn to unpack and decribe visual art and expand their vocabulary. Students will write their own poems bringing art to life by reimagining the stories and characters behind the works.
Students imagine they have travelled through a vortex and are now trapped inside the world of a retro video game called Video Vortex. They choose their own avatar who progresses through the strange and different levels of this game as they overcome obstacles to “level up” and return home. Students develop skills in sensory writing and focus on world building and narrative structure as they create short episodes/chapters that describe their experiences moving through the game.
In this program students will write news reports of invented traditions celebrated at their own creatively imagined towns. They will be inspired by traditions from far-flung places around the world to create stories, monologues, celebrating town festivities and interviewing imagined residents after a small town incident. Students will develop descriptive writing skills, characterisation and setting creation. Students have the opportunity to write in a news modality, while exercising their creativity and imagination.
Looking to share contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices with your students? Each week students will explore a music video by contemporary Indigenous artists, including Baker Boy and King Stingray, and use their songs as inspiration for their own lyric writing.
They will learn about Indigenous cultures and languages from diverse communities around Australia.
Students will explore rhyme, similes and metaphor as they write lyrics on their own experiences and values in forms such as rap and lullabies.
High School workshops
Welcome to Ghost Stories. In this workshop series students are inspired by spooky poems and stories from around the world and then use their imagination to create their own take on ghost fiction. Over three workshops students learn about the conventions of ghost fiction, exploring character, mood and settings. Students will create spooky pieces of short fiction, listicles and interviews with a ghost that evoke a pleasing terror in their readers.
In this one-off workshop, students will engage with visual artworks by Dylan Mooney, a proud Yuwi man from Mackay, Queensland, with connections to the Torres Strait and South Sea Islands. He is an artist with disability who creates paintings, drawings, and digital illustrations in an exciting comic book style. Dylan’s artwork tells stories about strength, survival, and love. Your students will be excited by contemporary art practice and do a drawing activity exploring symbols before expanding on descriptive language and characterisation. Students will create their own superheroes with a unique and powerful talisman, sharing stories in the form of a short narrative. Students will develop skills to make their writing more personal, inventive and engaging.
In this workshop series students will dig deep into their opinions, creating odes and anti-odes. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the poetic form of the ode, language features and as well as some useful strategies for idea generating using mentor texts.
Students write a creative letter or email of complaint by fictional character with a haunted computer.
In this workshop students will delve into fan fiction, stories written inspired by mish-mashing characters, plotlines and worlds of books, movies, shows and comics that they are fans of.
Students are introduced to InstaPoetry exploring the inventive ways the multimodal nature of Instagram is being used by young poets to share their writing and experiences.
In this workshop series students are introduced to the ideas of protest in art, with specific reference to work of Dhungatti artist, Blak Douglas.
In this series students will plan, write and edit a suite of very short short stories, also known as flash fiction, to be published in a class anthology.
Students are introduced to surrealism in art, exploring prose poetry and mish mash of uncanny objects and creatures. Students explore thrilling strategies for ideating and world-building producing their own genre-bending lyrical fiction sure to give you goosebumps.
Ideal for reluctant writers with an interest in spooky thrillers.
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The children liked to have a place to learn from experienced educators. Our students are home educated and live in regional and rural areas - it was a good opportunity to learn alongside others.
Founder, Home Education Rural and Remote Discussion (HERRD) Goup
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Story Factory Digital showed students how easy writing can be - they enjoyed having prompts to help with their thinking and creativity. They enjoyed that given the same instructions, they all came up with something unique in which they were very proud. The reticent writers had excellent guidance through the process and suddenly felt successful.
Teacher, Thorndon Park Primary School
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We thoroughly enjoyed these sessions. It supplemented our unit on indigenous perspectives very much. The content was perfect. Our students have since been using smilies in their writing as a result of the workshop which has been so lovely to see. We really loved the social story as this helped students who were feeling hesitant to participate - most helpful.
Teacher, St George Preca School