Throughout the year we have had many wonderful displays of talent from our Year 7 boys and it continues to amaze me how diverse the talents are. It was with great pleasure that we were informed during the term Jared Da Silva (Putney) received a Highly Commended award in the prestigious Wright Now! Competition. This competition is sponsored by the Sydney Morning Herald and forms part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival. It attracted over 2000 entries and there were just 74 entries that received a Highly Commended.

Our Head of English, Mr Matt Bentley, explained, “This year the English Department has continued to focus on the importance of the craft of writing as part of the curriculum in the junior years.  Jared wrote his story as a class activity in the fantasy fiction topic for his teacher, Mr Summers”. When Jared found out about the news his response was simply, “I had no idea that it would go that far.”

This is a wonderful achievement for Jared and he certainly deserves our congratulations. His story is a haunting account of a dystopic world and reading it, the skill that Jared has is obvious. He shows an excellent vocabulary, describes the scene with incredible details and I know that within the first two sentences he had captured my interest and never lost it until the end. Well done Jared on a fantastic effort. You can read the story yourself by clicking here.

Photo: Jared Da Silva with his teacher Mr Summers.