"Lili Wilkinson visited Smithfield State High School on Friday August the 12th. She worked with a group of 25 self-selected year 8s who were enthusiastic about improving their creative writing skills. Lili spent the day helping the students develop characters, using a range of enjoyable activities. By the end of the day, the students had a full story written and were proud to showcase their work.
Teacher Katrina Williams attended the workshop and was excited to learn some new creative writing strategies we can adopt for use in our classrooms. The workshop was well-received by all and we would love to invite Lili back to the school next year.
Thanks to the BLA for the support for this valuable opportunity for our regional students."
Fiona Bell
Head of Department English
Smithfield State High School
"Milly spoke in two 40-minute sessions to two of our current Year 10 classes with about 35 students in total hearing Milly talk about her experiences. It was especially insightful as the students were at the time going through the process of choosing their senior subjects. She was able to give them some valuable advice about her personal life experiences, careers, and the importance of looking after their mental health. At question time, the students' showed their engagement, with quite a few wanting answers ranging from how people were feeling, what sort of money can be made from personal branding, what qualities make good employees, what is the hardest thing about being a business leader etc.
Thanks to the Business Liaison Association, a very fortunate number of Innisfail State College students had the opportunity to engage with inspirational guest speaker Milly Bannister. As a young entrepreneur, Educator, and founder Milly presented to the students on Social Media Entrepreneurship and Personal Branding. ISC Business, Accounting and Mathematics students were motivated by Milly's journey through life. Teachers were amazed at how the students genuinely engaged with the forum. Many students commented about the terrific value of having such a world renown communications specialist with over 160 000 followers visit their class as a mentor. I extend a special thankyou to Mrs Yvonne Meyer for her organisation of this highly beneficial visit."
Kind regards
Yvonne Meyer
Innisfail State College
Students from Mareeba State High School pictured with Lili Wilkinson
Twenty eight students from Years 7 to 10 at Cairns State High School participated in a full day creative writing workshop with award winning YA author, Lili Wilkinson. Lili shared her experiences as a writer and the publishing process and then engaged the students in several creative writing activities. The students thoroughly enjoyed working with Lili and reported that the scaffolding she provided for creating a character was extremely useful for future writing projects. The students were inspired to write for an extended period of time with many of them indicating that they are keen to continue working on their piece of writing. The final session of the day focused on creating endings and editing your writing.
A special morning tea and lunch was enjoyed by all the participants including 1 English teacher who found the workshop to be very worthwhile professional development. The teacher involved will share her learnings at the next English faculty meeting so that all students can access new ideas for developing their creative writing skills.
Cairns State High School would like to thank the Business Liaison Association for its ongoing support of this valuable learning extension opportunity.
Lyndell Sellars
Head of Learning Resources
Cairns State High School
Students from Cairns State High School pictured with Lili Wilkinson