NAMBUCCA Heads High School participated in The Kids Cancer Project, Write A Book In A Day on Tuesday 3 August.

The Write A Book In A Day competition is held annually and is open to students in years 5 through 12, there is also an adult writing group category.

The competition began in 2002, with 18 teams participating from across the country.

By 2019 there were 1132 teams participating which raised $475,000, and then in 2020 a record $537,000 was raised for childhood cancer research.

Each team can have up to ten members and once they start writing, have 12 hours to write and illustrate a book from start to finish.

News Of The Area spoke to teacher Sally Richardson about the competition on the morning of writing.

“The students are all sitting around the table, working collaboratively online on a Google document,” she said.

“This has to be uploaded by 6pm tonight.

“There are 7 students participating in total.”

How do the students get their ideas for what to write?

“There are unique parameters set for the story that have to be met,” Ms Richardson explained.

Nambucca Heads High School has taken part in the competition for two years, and Ms Richardson is looking forward to running it again next year.

“It is such a great activity for the students to be involved in.

“They are all so enthusiastic at the moment, working on their individual chapters that will be put together later today and made into a book.

“Students sat down this morning and planned out the book chapter by chapter.

“They worked out the plot line of the narrative, what the big issues will be.

“It is great Project Based Learning.

“The students feel really empowered in their learning, and their ideas can flow.”

News Of The Area asked Ms Richardson how she gathered the group of writers.

“I called for students who were interested, and also approached some students to see if they wanted to take part.

“We gathered enough students for one team, and it would be great to have more teams next year.”

All the completed stories in the competition are included in an Online Library which is shared with hospitals around Australia for families and children undergoing cancer treatment.

At the time of speaking with News Of The Area the writing team at the school had raised $755.

Sponsorship funds that are raised go to The Kids Cancer Project, a national charity that supports childhood cancer research.

Sponsorship remains open until the end of August.

To sponsor the team go to www.writeabookinaday.com.au.

To find out more about The Kids Cancer Project go to www.thekidscancerproject.org.au.

 

By Rachel MCGREGOR-ALLEN