A small Hastings Secondary School made it big over the past month, hitting the top spots in the country’s most prestigious student writing competitions.
Karamu is a Decile 4 state secondary school with around 800 students in Hastings, Hawke’s Bay. Principal Martin O’Grady this year opted to support a ‘Writer in Residence’ programme at the school – and his commitment paid off.
Creative writing achievements for the school for 2010 include the winner and a finalist in the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award, two finalists in the Sunday Star Times short story competition, and a first, second and third in the NZATE creative writing competition.
Writer in Residence was Hawke’s Bay young adult author, Anna Mackenzie.
Anna says the success of the students is in part due to the programme and the focus it allowed on student writing, but also rests on the groundwork laid down over the past few years. “Karamu is particularly strong in the arts. The English department, headed by Jo Morris, is exceptional, and the school’s commitment to encouraging creative writing is impressive. The vitality Jo has brought to the department long-term has built a culture within the school that allowed this programme to thrive.”
“I am extremely proud of the achievements of the 30 students who participated in the Writer in Residence programme. It legitimises principal Martin O’Grady’s decision to support the programme, and gives the students real recognition for the effort they put into this entirely extracurricular activity. I would be very surprised if we don’t see some of these young people go on to further successes within the literary sphere.”
Anna has been teaching creative writing extension programmes for the past five years and is also involved in the NZ Book Council’s Writers in Schools programme. In 2009 she toured the central South Island on the Book Council Words on Wheels Tour.
She has published five novels for young adults including the award winning Sea-wreck Stranger.
Results:
BNZ Katherine Mansfield winner – Brittany Rorrison, yr 12
BNZ Katherine Mansfield finalist – Stephen Clothier, yr 12
Sunday Star Times finalist – Alex Morris, yr 12
Sunday Star Times finalist – Brittany Rorrison, yr 12 (different story to the above)
NZATE Junior creative writing competition – yr 9 1st place, Justin Alsleben
NZATE Junior creative writing competition – yr 9 2nd place, Madeleine Ross
NZATE Junior creative writing competition – yr 10 3rd place, Natasha O’Neill
2 comments:
Go Karamu! That's my old school (-:
Jo Morris is a legend amongst we teachers. She is a can do chick and is actually incredibly qualified having been involved in teaching teachers about media and NCEA. When she speaks, we all sit up and listen.
Now, can I add my own boast?
The results of my own secondary school writing group:
Yin Lin, short-listed (top six) for Sunday Star Times short story competition, Highly Commended in the Haiku section of the NZ Poetry Society’s poetry competition, awarded an NZSA mentorship with the fab Anna Mackenzie, and, three works accepted for publication in Redraft - the publication of the School for Young Writers. Yin, an immigrant from Taiwan, is/was in Y13 (2010)
Then there is Tori Hall (Y8) who won the intermediate section of the Puffin Short Story awards and two others, who were also shortlisted in their respective categories. Emily also in Year 8 and Tiffany Robinson in Y11 (who won a couple of national prizes last year).
And earlier in the year, Shalini Ramarao from Y12 was awarded third place in the Rodney Walsh Ireland essay competition 2010.
My school is lucky that I am there in that, I am looking out for the kids as well as myself. And not just me but the teachers of English as well.
I get writers in. I am a full time teacher at the school and some of the kids, I guess, do not see it as special that I am there but the dedicated writers do and do appreciate my assistance.
Just as it was with the wonderful Ros Ali at Epsom and now at St Cuths, these kids are lucky.
Boy, the students of today are soooo lucky that they have teachers dedicated to offering opportunity to talent. I was never as clever then as they are now.
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