Primary School workshops
The wonder of nature meets the mechanised 21st Century in one of Story Factory’s most popular workshops. Watch your students take flight as they are immersed in an imaginative coming-of-age story that inspires them to pen the tale of meeting their own fantastical robot bird. Special guest writing techniques in the workshop include onomatopoeia, simile and narrative structure.
Fasten your tricorns and polish your blades. This program will arm every young swashbuckling scallywag with the literary skills they need for a creatively narrated life of sea-faring, kraken-killing and treasure-nicking. Students will craft vivid descriptions, create nuanced characters, and plot persuasive mutinies. So you want to be a pirate? Let's get stAAARRRRRRRRted.
Student imaginations run wild when they learn that there is a hungry monster living under their couch. Armed with the poetic devices of simile and repetition, they will create a narrative poem describing their first encounter with the fearsome creature.
It’s not often you get full permission to lie, but in this playful workshop fibbing is encouraged! Students are introduced to the humorous poem Fried Lies by Harry Laing, an acclaimed children’s writer, poet and comedic performer based in the Southern Tablelands of NSW. After a hilariously dishonest ideation session, students use descriptive imagery and humour to cook up their own tall tales, writing poems inspired by Fried Lies.
Harness the energy and vitality of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists like King Stingray, Zacharaiahah Fielding and Baker Boy to inspire your students to write their own lyrics. This program immerses students in Indigenous cultures and languages from diverse communities around Australia. They will witness Yolŋu Matha and Hip Hop effortlessly fusing together as they explore rhyme, similes and metaphor to share their own experiences and values in forms such as rap and lullabies.
In this program students will delve into letters inspired by the picture book The Day the Crayons Quit. Students will bring objects from their daily lives to life by 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. Secret Life of Stuff is a fun and engaging way to explore character creation!
Stirring a base of inspiration, with a cup of opinions and a pinch of giggles, students explore poems that are both hilarious and informative in this program based on food, glorious food. During these workshops students will practice playful activities using alliteration, similes, rhyming and verb choices as they add their own flavour and spices to food-themed poetry. Students will plan, create and share three poems celebrating their fantastic imaginative food orders.
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 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 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 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.
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 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.
High School workshops
Drawing inspiration from contemporary poet Courtney Peppernell, students will have space to consider their own wellbeing and share their personal recommendations for self care through succinct and reflective poetry.
This workshop offers a chance to slow down and reflect on what self care really means. Students will craft and share a list poem, using language and layout to create a simple yet striking piece that they can then prepare to showcase to the world.
In this 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. Dylan is an artist with disability who creates paintings, drawings, and digital illustrations in an exciting comic book style.
Dylan’s art 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.
Wizards and witches and lizards, oh my! In this program, students will immerse themselves in the joy of fantasy world-building. Students will generate ideas for their own realm and begin to populate it with lore, creatures and characters. Each week, students will have opportunities to use gaming strategies and other constraints to playfully explore the mechanics and conventions of the fantasy genre. At the end of the program students will have the beginnings of a fantastic compendium.
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.
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.
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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