Students of Eltham East Primary School (EEPS) and St Helena Secondary College have been regular contributors to the SCHOOLS section of CopperLine throughout this year. Our plan is to continue this in 2024, to encourage students from local schools to write and grow into writers themselves. To do so obviously requires a love of words, language and particularly a love of good sentences. This comes through in books on the subject from John Marsden’s: “Everything I know about writing” to Stanley Fish’s: “How to write a sentence – and how to read one”.
And for the budding poets, as they grow up, it’s hard to go past Ed Hirsch’s USA best seller: “How to read a poem and fall in love with poetry”. I suspect that our adult contributors would have heaps more to add. A favourite of mine is Glyn Maxwell’s little book: “On Poetry” – an inspiration.
EEPS Literacy Support Teacher, Angela Lapadula said to us: “Thank you! The students have loved seeing their work published in your newspapers this year and it has helped students write for a purpose and with an audience in mind”.
Magpie As the sunset yawn blasts a beam of silence through the forest, Magpie sits in her blistering nest dusted with a layer of eggs and she settles in for the night. Before she knows it, the sun crawls up to its early morning perch in the sky. New chicks sprout slowly into the wilderness. The chicks are hungry. Starving. Magpie, like any mother, search for food. As her mate looks after the chicks, she sees a tremor in the soil. She dives! Fast! Too fast! The worm slips! She bullets through the air again but misses again. Then finally dinner is prepared. She catches a rich, luscious worm. Back at the nest, she feeds her babies. Their hungry cries have been silenced. Their hungry bellies have been filled. The chicks are safe and warm and comfortable in the nest built by their mother to protect them. Magpie is not Batman. Magpie is not Flash. Magpie is not Spiderman, but Magpie is a true superhero just like all mums are. Owen Hamilton Year 3, EEPS
The Cat and its Demanding Power Oh the cat…the ultimate cat; your superior cat, my adorable cat, our overpowered cat! Wait-who’s cat? They’ll prowl, they’ll meow But what’s the reason for them owning me It’s practically an alternate universe, it makes no sense! I spent hundreds of bucks, hoping for cute kitty lucks But now…NOW I’m stuck with the eternal wrath of their power, draining me by the hour It’s pain only so many people know, and it’s tough to explain But trust me, it’s no comedy show I live in No easy-peasy roller coaster with only one route Scratches and meows, mice and birds found lying around Yet they still wear the golden crown Furnishing, destroyed! Personal space, destroyed! Cat this, cat that! Whatever have I done to earn this? Well, clearly A LOT Our cat? No. Your cat? No. My cat? No. So, who’s cat? … The cats’ cat Fluffy paws, sharpened claws Affection eternal despite the infinite turmoil They own you, they own me And it will NEVER be the other way around… Filippa Nees Year 6
