East Ayr State School

Our Minds are Ignited!
As part of the Burdekin Readers’ and Writers’ Ignite Your Mind Festival East Ayr State School was proud to offer students a chance to engage with two successful published speakers and writers, Michael Gerard Bauer and Jacqueline Harvey. The sessions were organised to entertain, stimulate and inspire a love of reading and writing in our students.
This was Michael Gerard Bauer’s second trip to East Ayr to share anecdotes about the writing of several of his bestsellers including Just a Dog and his ‘laugh out loud’ comedy Don’t Call me Ishmael. Mr Bauer gave students an insight into his childhood and quest to become an author. His presentation shared details of his inspiration for content and how his stories and characters are shaped by his memories. Michael finished his presentation by opening up to questions from our students who wanted guidance so they can be successful on their current written assessment.
After this session Jacqueline Harvey, writer of the bestselling Alice-Miranda and Clementine Rose series, worked with students to polish their creative writing skills through a writer’s workshop. Students were able to work on their writing using valuable feedback to develop their skills as authors. The room was humming with excited and motivated writers as they crafted their own pieces of writing with the advice of Ms Harvey.
Here’s what some of our enthusiastic writers had to say about Jacqueline Harvey’s workshop:

Ashlee: I like listening to how Jacqueline Harvey plans her writing.

Tiana: The workshop was amazing. We learnt so much about using real life to tell stories.

Aria: It was humorous. She talked about underwear!

Sally: Very very good.

Charlie: Brilliant! Magnificent!

Shae & Zennah: I learnt that I could write about my life. We got information about how to be a better writer.

Hunter: If I don’t become a dentist I’d like to become an author. Or write in my spare time. I was impressed by Jacqueline Harvey stories and about how authors can make stories from everyday things and just changing it up to make it more interesting.

Sophia & Kelsey: I liked how Jacqueline Harvey made us want to explain and describe one picture. From one picture I could write a whole paragraph. I love that.

We look forward to seeing what our young authors can produce in the future.

East Ayr State School – 2018