Moreton Bay EEC were honoured to host over 60 students from the Wynnum Manly cluster schools in our partnership Young Writers program with popular children's author, Samantha Wheeler and Newstead House. Sam conducts sessions across three days in conjunction with Moreton Bay EEC. Shouting out to Sam's accolades, her book, 'Mister Cassowary', was one of six books (out of 100's) to be shortlisted in the Readings Children's Book Prize 2016; and 'Everything I've Never Said' was listed as a CBCA Notable Book for 2019.
The program, designed to extend and challenge young writers by developing their skills and ability to write, edit and produce creative and engaging texts, was aligned with this year's book week theme 'Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds'. Appropriately, this year students were initially immersed in the charm and history of Newstead House, Brisbane's oldest surviving European home and established in 1846, as a stimulus. Students engaged in museum theatre with the incredibly talented Zoe de Plevitz as Kate Leslie (wife of the original owner Mr Patrick Leslie). Sam built on the students' imagination through a series of workshops, guiding the students' development of their own short stories.
Watch this space as we embark on the editing and publication process to turn these stories into an anthology that the cluster and Wynnum Manly community can be proud of.