All Story Factory programs align closely with the syllabus to support teachers achieving their goals.
We work with schools in many ways:
- One-off workshops: we’ll visit your class for a two-hour blast of creative writing inspiration at your school or one of our beautifully-designed creative writing centres in Parramatta, Bidwill, or Redfern.
- Term Programs: book us to come to your school. We can work with you to deliver a writing program once a week for a term, or multiple terms.
- Residency Programs: once you’ve tried the above, apply to become a Story Factory Residency School. We’ll commit to working with your students for at least a year, working with multiple classes, to create a culture of writing throughout the school.
Enquire for a free writing workshop series via: info@storyfactory.org.au
One-off workshops
Robot Bird
- Stage 2 and 3
- In person
Do your remember the first time you met your very own Robot Bird? In this two hour workshop students will sketch and create their own fantastical Robot Bird and craft a narrative poem in which they share the tale of their first meeting with this remarkable creature. As they explore this rite of passage students will play with alliteration, adjective choices, onamotopoeia and rhyme.
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Freedom Machines
- Stage 3 and 4
- In person
What is freedom to you? It means different things to different people at different times. What if you could build your very own freedom machine? What would it look like? How would it move? Where would it take you? In this two hour workshop students will explore Kirli Saunders and Matt Ottley’s beautiful picture book, The Incredible Freedom Machines. They will use this as an inspiration to design their own freedom machine. Students will then write a 1 to 2 stanza narrative poem describing their machine and where they would use it to go to feel free.
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An Ounce of Joy
- Stage 4 and 5
- In person
Looking for an opportunity to promote student wellbeing through positive, achievable and supported writing experiences? In this workshop students will ideate and reflect on the things in life that bring them joy and happiness. The mentor text and inspiration for their own short and personal piece of writing will be an Instapoem by acclaimed British-Indian writer and illustrator Nikita Gill This workshop is ideal for reluctant writers.
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Mama’s Onions
- Stage 4 and 5
- In person
The theme for NAIDOC 2026 is Fifty Years of Deadly, which is about celebrating the achievement and legacy of Elders, artists and activists who have built the movement. It highlights community leadership, celebrates survival, and points toward a future shaped by cultural authority and mentorship. In this positive and affirming workshop, students will reflect on the people that act as guides and mentors in their lives, sharing practical skills and valued advice. They will discuss how these small moments of sharing can be metaphors for BIG life lessons. Inspired by the poem “Mama’s Onions” by Wiradjuri artist and poet, Jazz Money, students will then draft, edit and share their own poem celebrating moments of mentorship.
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Reading to Write
- Stage 6
- In person
Looking for practical and engaging ways to enrich your students’ understanding of the relationship between reading and writing? In this two hour workshop students will be exposed to diverse and appealing mentor texts (including contemporary poetry, multimodal and digital texts) and engage in short and achievable activities that build their knowledge of imaginative, discursive and informative writing. This workshop is designed to engage reluctant writers and readers.
This workshop can be run as a class workshop, or as a lecture-style session with an entire stage group. Limited places available.
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Craft of Writing: Discursive Focus
- Stage 6
- In person
Looking for a way to inspire and motivate your Year 12 students as they tackle Module C? In this two hour workshop students will engage with a rich mentor text by a contemporary Afro-American music writer and draft short and achievable responses that accumulate to build a personal and HSC style response for Module C. Students will actively engage in the craft of writing as they learn about and apply the form and language features that empower them to create hybrid pieces of personal writing that utilise elements of informative, persuasive, imaginative and discursive writing. They will respond to unseen stimuli, ideate and reflect on the significance of the past calendar year for them and develop effective strategies for reflecting on their own writing.
This workshop can be run as a class workshop, or as a lecture-style session with an entire stage group. Limited places available.
Enquire Now! Craft of Writing: Imaginative Focus
- Stage 6
- In person
Looking for a way to inspire and motivate your Year 12 students as they tackle Module C? In this two hour workshop students will engage with a rich mentor short story by African-American author Alice Walker and draft short and achievable responses that accumulate to build an HSC style response for Module C. Students will actively engage in the craft of writing as they learn about and apply the form and language features that empower them to create their own imaginative piece with all elements of narrative within the space an exam response. They will respond to unseen stimuli and develop effective strategies for reflecting on their own writing.
This workshop can be run as a class workshop, or as a lecture-style session with an entire stage group. Limited places available.
Enquire Now!Term-long workshops
Matchbox Treasures
- Stage 2
- Term 3, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
Ever thought about how some of the most precious things in the world are small enough to fit inside a matchbox? In this term-long series, inspired by Paul Fleischman and Bargam Ibatouline’s picture book The Matchbox Diaries, students will reflect on matchbox sized objects that are special to them and which hold their stories, hopes and dreams.They will play with figurative language devices to create a series of stanzas that will come together to showcase the enormity of tiny objects which tell big stories.
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Planetology
- Stage 3
- Term 3, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
Planetologists, prepare for lift-off into the outer reaches of the solar system to discover and name a new world! In this program, students engage in deep worldbuilding to invent their planet’s environment, focusing on hyper-detailed descriptions and poetic techniques. They’ll practise character development by creating an alien species, crafting reports and survival-critical care guides. Students will blend informative and imaginative speculative writing to document their exhilarating cosmic encounters.
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Toasts and Roasts
- Stage 4
- Term 3, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
In this eight week long workshop series students will have the opportunity to both vent, roast and complain and to toast, praise, compliment and celebrate! They will create a varied suite of short pieces that may include poetry, short narratives, informative writing and multimodal texts. All this writing, which will include odes and anti-odes, will afford students fun and engaging opportunities to develop ideas, experiment with writing strategies as they let off steam, give sick burns and then take off their hats to their passions and enthusiasms.
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Olfactory
- Stage 5
- Term 3, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
“Smells like teen writing…”
In this workshop series students will be introduced to the features and pleasures of discursive writing by engaging with accessible and provocative texts that inspire a series of short responses about students’ experience of the olfactory world. This series breaks down and chunks discursive writing into achievable and satisfying segments that will be assembled to create a longer personal essay. From surveying their peers as to what is the most pukeworthy smell to developing their very own “personality fragrance” students will develop their writerly voice and share their personal connections to the world of smells, odours and fragrances. Lynx Africa, anyone?
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