Sacred Heart Primary School students were in awe when well-known Australian children’s author Claire Saxby visited the school and held workshops with each grade recently.
The visit came about as grade three and four students have studied Claire’s work which has been used to improve their writing and literature skills.
Claire held interactive chats with the students that focussed on her inspiration and what her books are based on.
While only grade threes and fours have studied her work, each grade has studied a particular author with the whole school able to have sessions with Claire over the two days with the students loving the sessions.
Year Four students Annabelle Buerckner, Edie Thomson and Abbey Dowling created Cheetah, Honey Bee and Salty this year from Claire’s work and said they will continue writing due to her inspiration.
“She loves doing research and going for walks to get her inspiration,” Annabelle said.
“I am going to keep reading her work.
“She uses invigorating words and we used her stories as inspiration to get a head start on our stories. We loved doing her study unit this year,” Edie added.
“I especially like her because she writes about Australia.
“She usually writes non-fiction narratives but has the facts down the bottom of each page,” Abbey concluded.
“She stays true to the facts and is a good writer. She also has good messages.”
Leader of Learning and head of Literature Kirsten Leary said the change the teachers at Sacred Heart have seen in the students has been fantastic.
“We have seen engagement and motivation levels from students go through the roof,” Mrs Leary said.
“Their love of literature has been amazing and we hope it continues.”