Woodland Road Public School

Grow with Love and Learning

Telephone02 4626 2488

Emailwoodlandrd-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Woodies Wrap Up

A wrap up of the latest happenings around our school

Sydney Writers' Festival 2025

writers festival

Here's a Woodies Wrap on the Sydney Writers' Festival 2025:

Written by Phinehas (Year 6)

At the Sydney Writers Festival I found that the most notable authors among them were Joel Mckarrow, Jared Thomas and Katrina Nannestad. Joel Mckarrow was quite hilarious and was quite unafraid to show his emotions. I found much inspiration because I am quite interested in poetry and expressing myself through description.  Then there was Jared Thomas! I found that Uncle Xbox (Jared’s) was quite sad but also reflected on real life. This is also a thing I like to include in my writing because I like to have my stories revolve around real life. Then there was Katrina! She was so inspiring! I really appreciated the way that she could see a war story. So in a nutshell I have to say that it was extremely beneficial and I am really glad that I went! :)

Written by Aldrich (Year 6)

When we went to the Sydney Writers Festival, it was so fun! We managed to meet with so many authors like Terri Libenson, Joel Mckerrow, Katrina Nannestad, Jared Thomas and Jaqueline Harvey. The train ride was so exciting and everyone was getting along. Joel Mckerrow’s entrance was so energetic and everyone cheered! Joel Mckerrow talked about his book “Heist” which was actually based on his adventure in school when he was in year 7. 

When Katrina Nannestad came up it was so loud everybody was cheering. We got so excited when we saw her because we are currently reading her book Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief. After the show, I even managed to get a book signed by Joel Mckerrow! He called me “Aldrich the Stinky”. Overall the Sydney Writers Festival was a blast! I would definitely like to go back again!

Written by Mason (Year 6)

The Sydney Writers’ Festival was  amazing. We got to meet so many authors such as Terri Libenson, Joel Mckerrow, Jacqueline Harvey and Jared Thomas and my favourite definitely Katrina Nannestad. The train ride was definitely a great part of it. Everybody was chatting and having a great time but my favourite was Katrina because we are currently reading her book Rabbit Soldier Angel Thief .  On Thursday last week it was a great day in the city. It was definitely the funnest out of my four times I've been. If I could, I would go again. 

Written by Aya (Year 6)

The Sydney writers festival was amazing. I got to meet multiple authors. First of all we got to meet Joel Mckerrow. Joel Mckerrow was a poet writer. He also made a book called “Heist”. This book is about a group of year 7s stealing year 12s chocolate. He was amazing. Next we listened to Teri Libenson. She was an American author who loved Sydney. She made comics and a series of  a girl named Emmi. She made multiple books and comics. She started off by writing a comic in the newsletter. She was really fun. Next up we listened to Jacqueline Harvey. Jacqueline Harvey spoke about her book called The girl and the ghost. Jaquline Harvey was inspired by just a book signing in Singapore. She got to meet the prince and saw multiple guards. She did multiple books that were all better than each other. I loved her. Next up it was lunch time. We had a 1 hour break to get our books signed. We also got to meet Katrina Nannestad who is the author of multiple books like “We are wolves” and more but I was most excited for the book ‘Rabbit Soldier Angel Thief’ because we are reading it in 5/6BG. It’s an amazing book and I am determined to read the whole book, I got to talk to Katrina Nannestad in person and she was amazing. Next up we got to meet Jared Thomas and he made a book called Uncle Xbox which was.what he focused on talking about for the majority of time he was up on stage. He is an Aboriginal author. Jared Thomas also had a small question session up on stage and someone from our school got to ask a question! Overall I loved the Sydney Writers’ Festival and had a blast throughout the whole day.I hope that everyone that came to the writers festival enjoyed it as much as I did.

You can view the gallery here.

Leadership Camp 2025

camp

Here's a Woodies Wrap on Leadership Camp 2025

Written by Porscha (Year 6)

Leadership is a very important skill to have and I think that camp definitely helped to show me what leadership is really about .

Leadership is something everyone should show and I believe I have developed a much better understanding of leadership. Leadership isn't just about being the boss or to be in control, leadership is about being a true role model and showing people the right way to treat everyone and everything. At camp lots of leadership was shown by everyone and you could just tell how different everyone was acting, for example everyone was including everyone whether boy or girl and everyone was respecting people's boundaries. At camp I also got to know lots of people better and I got the chance to actually sit down with people and just talk to them.

Overall I had an amazing time at camp and have learnt lots about leadership. I believe that the main expectations of a leader are…

Honesty: always telling the truth

Empathy: understanding people's feeling and emotions

Encouragement: encouraging other to keep on trying and not to give up

Communication: letting people talk and always listening to them

And the most important one is always being yourself, don't change yourself for others. If they won't accept you as you are then they are not true leaders because leaders include everyone.

Thank you so much teachers for letting year six go on this amazing journey and helping us understand the true meaning of leadership.

You can view the gallery here