MURRABIT Group School student Lyla Morton says “you need to fertilize your dreams to make them grow”.
Lyla, 12, and her Grade 5/6 classmates recently took part in a free course offered by Australian education website Upschool, called Write a Book to Change the World, which makes them published authors.
The students learnt how to write, illustrate and publish a book under the direction of Upschool co-founder Gavin McCormack.
While all students published fantastic books, Lyla’s entry, I’ll Help You, was so good Mr McCormack decided he would use it share in his teachings to 3000 Afghan girls.
“We learnt how to improve our writing each week through our teacher Gavin’s advice and worked on becoming great authors,” Lyla said.
“I’m honoured to be able to teach others how to be helpful and was grateful when Upschool chose to share my book.”
School principal Gabriele Hogg was incredibly proud when she found out Lyla’s book would be getting such high recognition.
“It warmed my heart and filled me with pride when Gavin chose her book to share,” she said.
Ms Hogg is also very thankful for the opportunity the course had given her students and recommended other schools got involved.
“I am so grateful for the time and professional resources that the Upschool team have created, enabling our students to be immersed in purposeful learning opportunities through literacy, technology, arts and wellbeing curriculum,” she said.
“The students were thrilled they produced such beautiful books to share with the world and raise funds to help others.
“It is a wonderful program and I’d highly recommend it to all other schools.”
The course is a fully resourced unit of work with tutorials, learning tools and content that enables children to construct and publish their books onto a global digital library for anyone to read.
The company has also partnered with charities to ensure when a physical copy of the book is printed, shipped and delivered to the purchaser, a donation is made to a charity of the child’s choosing.
Mr McCormack said the course helps children believe their learning is important.
“To make learning purposeful and meaningful, we need to give children the feeling that they have somehow made the world a better place through the work they have done and, through our unique system, our members can do just that,” he said.
Upschool general manager Jake Davies reiterated those thoughts.
“By providing quality learning experiences focused on the interests and preferences of learners, Upschool’s students are more engaged and invested in the outcomes of their work,” he said.
“When children are excited about and interested in their learning, incredible magic happens.”
