“Write a Book in a Day” Competition – 28 July

This year Balcatta SHS had four teams of students from Years 7 to 9 enter the “Write a Book in a Day” competition.

Most writers take months or years to write a book, but a very talented group of students from Years 7, 8 and 9, took up the colossal challenge to write a book in a single day! Our diligent and very excited teams began working at 8.00 am, and the last group to finish submitted their picture book 12 hours later.

Students needed to draw on a broad skills set to accomplish such a task. There were intense planning workshops where our writers demonstrated a remarkable ability to share ideas and combine the best of these. The communication needed to work independently yet weave the chapters together was beautiful to behold. The result: four wonderful picture books.

Of course, nothing could have been accomplished without the guidance of Mrs Sookraj, who coordinated the Balcatta assault; Ms Duong, Mr Attey and Mrs Santarelli, who supervised, offered moral support and, more importantly, a constant stream of food.  Many teachers dropped by to see the work in progress and their encouragement was greatly appreciated. Best of all, by being involved, our students raised money for childhood cancer research.

Students raised funds through sponsorships and monies raised were donated to The Kids’ Cancer Project, a national charity with a mission to support scientific research to help children with cancer.  If you would like to support this wonderful cause, you can sponsor a specific student, by clicking on the link and search for them individually (type in Balcatta).  Alternatively, you can sponsor a team by searching for “Balcatta 1” (Year 7/8), “Balcatta 2” (Year 8), “Balcatta 3” Year 9) or “Balcatta 4” (Year 7).

Great job, Balcatta!