Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) President, Tom Alegounarias announced today the 2016 Gold award winners of the BOSTES annual youngest writer competition – WriteOn.

WriteOn is for NSW students in Years 1 to 6 and aims to encourage the development of creative writing skills.

To enter, students are required to write a short piece of up to 500 words on a photograph selected by BOSTES – this year it was a black and white photo of a group of children walking on a brick wall outside an old timber and joinery factory.

This year 397 entries were received with a panel of primary school teachers selecting 18 Gold, 18 Silver and 18 Bronze award winners chosen from each stage.

“Developing literacy and writing skills is central to the NSW school curriculum, and WriteOn for primary school students builds these skills plus a love of writing from an early age.

“Young as they are, the Gold award winners are now published authors, and as they continue their schooling I trust and hope they will keep writing.

“WriteOn, like the HSC showcases for exemplary student achievement, are both celebrations of excellence and great learning opportunities for all students.

“The outstanding entries are published in the annual BOSTES WriteOn anthology which is a fantastic opportunity for any young author.

“I would like to congratulate these talented young writers who have benefited from great teachers with classroom content grounded in our quality NSW syllabuses and the support of their parents,” Mr Alegounarias said.

For more information visit http://writeon.bos.nsw.edu.au/awards.html

The Gold award winners recognised at a special event hosted by the State Library of NSW were:

STAGE 1 – Years K-2 

 
STAGE 2 – Years 3-4

 
STAGE 3 – Years 5-6