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.
BOOK 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.
BOOK NOW!Term-long workshops
Amusement Park Stories
- Stage 2
- Term 4, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
Rides, games and fast food! Welcome to your very own Amusement Park!
In this term-long workshop series, students will design the layout and attractions for a brand new amusement park. They will create a mascot for the park with its own biography and a detailed description of its appearance and personality. Students will also write a short narrative depicting the nightmare of amusement park fast food anthropomorphised into a terrifying (or hilarious) monster! And finally, taking on the guise of different visitors to the amusement park, they will write a series of Whoop (i.e. Yelp) reviews about their day at the amusement park.
NSW English Syllabus Outcomes
- Builds knowledge and use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, and by defining and analysing words (EN2-VOCAB-01)
- Plans, creates and revises written texts for imaginative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience (EN2-CWT-01)
- Identifies and describes how ideas are represented in literature and strategically uses similar representations when creating texts (EN2-UARL-01)
Letter Poems
- Stage 3
- Term 4, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
Bubbles and sky, pebble and river, toes and cold, button and coat, and sea turtle and ocean.
In this term long workshop series students will experiment with hybrid writing and write letter poems which reveal the everyday conversations between “big” and “little” objects in our ecosystem. They will explore award winning writer Joyce Sidman and illustrator Melissa Sweet’s picture book Dear Acorn (Love Oak), learn about the form of the letter and concrete or shape poetry – and employ a range of poetic devices such as personification, metaphor, simile and rhyme schemes.
NSW English Syllabus Outcomes
- Plans, creates and revises written texts for multiple purposes and audiences through selection of text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language (EN3-CWT-01)
- Analyses representations of ideas in literature through narrative, character, imagery, symbol and connotation, and adapts these representations when creating texts (EN3-UARL-01)
- Extends Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, morphological analysis and generating precise definitions for specific contexts (EN3-VOCAB-01)
Ekphrastic
- Stage 4
- Term 4, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
Looking is an act of creativity.
In this term-long workshop series, students discover how looking closely can become a catalyst for creativity. Using contemporary Australian photography, painting and sculpture as inspiration, they will engage with works by artists including Selma Coulthard, Ron Mueck and Vincent Namatjira, exploring the stories, emotions and questions that artworks can provoke as they compose their own ekphrastic writing. Students will transform observation into imagination, crafting original prose, poetry, dialogue and sensory descriptions inspired by artworks. Along the way, discovering that every artwork is an invitation for a fresh perspective and a new story.
NSW English Syllabus Outcomes
- Analyses how meaning is created through the use of and response to language forms, features and structures (EN4-URA-01)
- Identifies and explains ways of valuing texts and the connections between them (EN4-URC-01)
- Creates personal, creative and critical texts for a range of audiences by using linguistic and stylistic conventions of language to express ideas (EN4-ECA-01)
- Uses processes of planning, monitoring, revising and reflecting to support and develop composition of texts (EN4-ECB-01)
Riffing
- Stage 5
- Term 4, 2026 (term-long)
- In person
Sometimes, to find your voice, you have to try on a few first. Slip on a style, check the mirror, see how it fits.
To riff is to borrow a writer’s style, play with it, follow their rhythms, then put your own stink on it.
In this term long series, students will dive into short, distinctive extracts from contemporary writers, identifying what makes each piece tick before experimenting with those techniques in their own writing. Along the way, they’ll expand their range, sharpen their understanding of how style works and discover new possibilities for their own work. By reading closely and writing experimentally, students will also build critical foundations for Stage 6 English, including Reading to Write and The Craft of Writing. Because sometimes the best way to find a voice that is entirely your own is to spend a little time speaking in someone else’s.
NSW English Syllabus Outcomes
- Analyses how meaning is created through the use and interpretation of increasingly complex language forms, features and structures (EN5-URA-01)
- Crafts personal, creative and critical texts for a range of audiences by experimenting with and controlling language forms and features to shape meaning (EN5-ECA-01)
- Uses processes of planning, monitoring, revising and reflecting to purposefully develop and refine composition of texts (EN5-ECB-01)