Truth might be stranger than fiction, but most of the time lying is more fun. In this workshop, students will play around with the truth to compose a short poem made up of false statements designed to amuse the reader...

In this series students will plan, write and edit a suite of very short short stories, also known as flash fiction, that will be published in a class anthology. Flash fiction provides young writers with a short, flexible medium to...

Okay, look, we’re kinda obsessed with stories. Books, movies, tv shows, webcomics, whatever. How do they make such awesome stories? And the CHARACTERS - I want to be their best friend. So sometimes we, kinda, sorta… just write stories...

Students imagine they have travelled through a vortex and are now trapped inside the world of a retro video game called (you guessed it!) Video Vortex. They choose their own avatar who progresses through the strange and different levels of...

Calling all young ghost hunters and master storytellers! Students unleash their imagination as they create spooky stories and characters that will give you goosebumps! Students will learn how to build suspense, conjure eerie settings, and bring their characters to life...

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...

Students imagine a hungry monster living under their couch and write about their first epic encounter with it as a narrative poem. Students will be guided through key aspects of the form and the use of various poetic devices including...

First Nations people have tens of thousands of years of knowledge sharing the unique shapes and stories of the stars visible from this hemisphere. In this workshop series, students will explore the Star Stories of the Dreaming and consider the...

In this workshop students will explore the artworks of artists including Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, using their quirky and colourful pieces to inspire poetry. Students will reimagine the stories and characters behind the works, expanding their vocabulary to bring art to...

Through different workshops week to week, all themed around food, students will be introduced to different literary devices, work with model texts and scaffolds, and bring their own tastes and passions to the table to write a collection of poetry...

In this workshop Story Factory guides students through an exploration of the creative techniques used by cartoonists to anthropomorphise objects and animals. Students will bring objects from their daily lives to life, creating unique characters, imagining daily activities and drafting...

Looking to share contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices with your students? Each week students will explore a track by Indigenous artists and use it as inspiration for their own lyric writing. They will learn about Indigenous cultures and...

Ever heard of Cheese Rolling in Coopers Hill, or Worm Charming in Willaston, or the Wife Carrying Race in Dorking? In this program students act as news reporters, sent to investigate the weird traditions of small towns with odd histories...

Experimenting with style? Considering the audience? Finding it all a little dry? This workshop gives students a chance to practise these specific English skills while engaging in a fun and interactive experience, drawing from two clashing formats - horror movies...

Have you ever had a nightmare you can't quite explain? In this workshop students explore prose poetry and surrealism as they prepare to write their own short horror narrative based on an alien invasion. They learn strategies for ideating and...

Have you ever judged a book by its cover? Ever felt that someone judged you? This workshop gives students an opportunity to look beyond our everyday appearances and imagine other people's experiences. Students will develop a portfolio of writing including...

In this short series students will have the opportunity to both rant and celebrate! Students will learn about the form, language features and history of the ode as well as some useful strategies for idea generating, using mentor texts and...

In this workshop series students are introduced to the ideas of protest of art, with specific reference to work of Blak Douglas. Students will complete writing in various text types, responding to elements in the work of Blak Douglas and...

So, as you may or may have not noticed, InstaPoetry is pretty big. These workshops introduce students to the genre, exploring the inventive ways the multimodal nature of Instagram is being used by young poets. Students will be led through...

The Creative Circle is a new Story Factory initiative aimed at young creators (aged 15-25). Story Factory Parramatta will host a series of events bringing together experienced creators (think artists/writers/filmmakers/musicians) with early career writers and creators. Participants...

Gratitude Banners workshop will create a space in which students will be encouraged to think of the ways they are connected to, and grateful for, the community they live in. In these workshops, students will explore different ways of expressing...

Memory River was a project that combined Indigenous history, stories and art with the voices of young people from Western Sydney. The project took place at The Parramatta Female Factory Institutions Precinct, a location with a long and complex history...

During Term 3 and 4, 2022, students from James Cook Boys Technology High School, Birrong Girls High School and Doonside Technology High School completed Story Factory's Sunset in my Heart program. In this workshop series students created personal essays and fragments that explored...

Art Write Light is a free creative writing project curated by Story Factory, that connects Australian artists with young people in an explosion of creativity over three colourful years. This project creates opportunities for students to creatively respond to the...

CineVerse is a Story Factory Big Project spanning four high schools in Western Sydney, five emerging film-makers, over 80 poems and up to 20 short films. Cinematic in both scope and vision, CineVerse allows teenagers from widespread communities to use the language...

Marvellous Birds is a creative writing and storytelling project for Years 5 and 6 students. It investigated the feathered beauty of some truly incredible birds. Through carefully scaffolded creative writing activities, students explored themes such as community, camaraderie, displacement, environmental change, migration...

In this Story Factory partnership with the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy (NASCA) and the State Library of NSW, students are immersed in a world of books and history. In site visits to the Library, students will create a collection...

A User’s Guide to a Pandemic was an idea that started during the national lockdown in 2020. The idea was simple – that young people needed to write about this. Four writing centres for young people across the country joined together...

The Parramatta Female Factory is an important site in the colourful history of colonial New South Wales. Since 1821 it’s been an orphanage, prison, asylum, medical facility and school. In Art and the Institution, Story Factory has partnered with the...

Writers Teaching Teachers Writing is a special program that allows authors and educators to interact in a way that is meaningful and beneficial to students. The program has two parts, student workshops running over six-seven hours, and teacher workshops running...

In a Flash is a Story Factory project, inviting you, (yes you!) to become a published author. All you have to do is follow the writing challenge instructions and submit your writing!

For thousands of years people have known about the beneficial effects of reading and writing: bibliotherapy. But what about Instagram therapy? And what happens when you combine the two? In a Story Factory Big Project for 2019-20 teenagers are writing...

We’re Writing to Say... is a Story Factory project that aimed to creatively document the lived experience of young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the shared experience of a truly unprecedented year, the project connected young people with...

Have you ever had a nightmare you can't quite explain? In this workshop students explore prose poetry and surrealism as they prepare to write their own short horror narrative based on an alien invasion. They learn strategies for ideating and...

In this one off workshop participants will be inspired by the fascinating tradition of Rorschach inkblots and the possibilities they offer to explore individual perspectives and create rich and playful metaphors and symbols in writing. They will use the award...

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...

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...

So, as you may or may have not noticed, InstaPoetry is pretty big! This workshop introduces students to this rich and exploding new genre, explores the interesting ways its multimodal nature is being used inventively by contemporary poets, and leads...

We know the story of the Gingerbread Man. We know how it ends. But what about how it begins? Students from Willmot Public School (Baran, Lachlan, David and Jonathan) present an unusual take on the classic fable: the first few...

Want to give your reader the ookie spookies? Leave them a bit… freaked out? Then this workshop is perfect for you! Students will aim to develop a short piece of horror prose poetry about an alien invasion in their very...

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...

Come to outer space with us! This term students will use poetic scaffolds and frameworks to write poetry and stories about different aspects of space. Students will practise observation, integrate sensory descriptions, and imagine communications with the outer reaches of...

“Smells like teen writing…” In this workshop series students will learn about features of discursive writing and create a series of short responses or segments that will accumulate to become a personal essay about the olfactory world. From surveying their...

Short genre narratives and monologues "Have you heard this story? It happened to a friend of a friend of mine..." Using Jess Bellamy's script Compass as a starting point, students will imagine their own class trip to the bush. Students...

You are what you eat! In this workshop series students develop and share their personal voice as they build their skills as writers of memoir, short narratives and poetry. Over eight workshops students engage with a delicious and diverse range...

Have you ever wondered about your future, your destiny? Students this term will explore geographical storytelling, character development, narrative obstacles and more as they write an adventure story that allows them to discover who they are, and who they want...

Do you know how toasters work? What about laptops? What about your school bus? Or an ocean liner?! It turns out a lot of the everyday machines we interact with don't run on electricity, or petrol, or microchips - it's...

Everyone has a great story waiting inside of them! Story Factory wants to make yours into a book - we'll help you make all your amazing ideas into a story people can read and talk about and say, "Hey, this...

Year of the Novella is our open programs for High School aged young people who love to write and want to stretch themselves creatively. In weekly writing workshops in the course of a year, students commit to writing a novella...

Year of Poetry is our open programs for High School aged young people who love to write and want to stretch themselves creatively. In weekly writing workshops in the course of a year, students commit to writing a collection of...