This term, Year 11 students have been focusing on both creative and formal writing. The finished products were fantastic. Here is a selection of some of the wonderful submissions we received.

Lupins Brush the Edges of the River

Lupins brush the edges of the river

The river we ran around

The river we dove in

The river where we were always together

The river that reminded us of nothing but our youth, our happiness

The river doesn’t speak, neither did you

The river flows, rain or shine, day or night

The river means more to us, when I could still hold you

I miss you, I lost you, I regret nothing, I did nothing, now I am nothing

Hear my cries, guide me through this, through the times I need you so.

In your absence, you’re here with me.

In your absence, your eyes, brown, still here with me, in only my mind.

In your absence - what wouldn’t I give to hold you again, even just to say goodbye?

Time is what I needed, not what I wanted.

Time left me stuck in the now.

Time took away my power, my control, my ability,

Time made me lose you, start to lose myself.

Footfalls down onto the riverbed, a lone set of footsteps form within the broken grey river stones.

Rushing water breaks through the silence.

Silence breaks through the rushing water.

No birds call to one another, sirens of silence,

My ears, bitter cold, play out the sounds of you to fill in the void of unrepairable mental numbness.

Now you’re gone I look to the hills, the valleys we loved, I see them from a new perspective, a new light.

Now you’re gone I realise how lucky I was, how lucky I am now.

Now you’re gone I realise not everything is forever, change is a powerful thing.

Now you’re gone I see the river water, it runs much more clearly than when you were on your last day.

I say goodbye to you now, you wander your own path,

Still with me, watching from above.

Those valleys are your home, they always were,

Those valleys love you, you forever love me,

Those valleys were forged out of power,

Those valleys remind me of the happier times,

Those valleys cradled the rivers, cradled the lupins, held onto the serenity.

Those valleys keep us together, together like the Lupins, the lupins that brush the edges of the river.

Connor Armstrong

Earth, the Sun, and the Animals

The sun rises swiftly over the small, green pastures.

Drowsy animals begin to face towards the vicious ball of fire, towering over them.

They start to scurry across the muddy grounds, over deep holes, and through endless shrubbery.

Looking for precious food, water, and other creatures.

A wilderness full of colour and life, all of them doing their job to feed the great nature.

Strange noises emanate over the hills, uncertainty shakes the land.

Noses in the wind, sensing the feeling of danger, they all quickly run for shelter.

Loud noises roar through the land, filling the creatures with distress.

They peer through their holes, their homes.

Vast empty blackness fills the land as a horrific, orange cloud floods the wilderness, soon

leaving them in the darkness.

Night dawns as the ground smolders, filling the air with smells, unknown, but deadly.

One creature, smaller than a pinecone, scurries out of its hole onto the blackened land.

It looks up, peering at the black sky, looking for the white, blooming moon.

Is it day, or is it night? 

Man has left the ground, black.

Man has left the skys, black.

Man will never learn…

Loud grinding noises, wake up the already shaken wilderness, the creatures of mother nature, covered in a thick blanket of tar.

They look up but see no sun, no light, it's still dark.

Man and their machinery, disturbing the peace of a once known sanctuary.

Combining their efforts, destroying nature's well-built homes.

The creatures feel unsafe, some leave, some stay, and some are captured.

Awkwardly shaped trees seem to protrude from the ground, darkening the sky even more.

The creatures of the wild have had enough.

All of them, conjure into a large group and storm the town at the crack of dawn.

The future seems brighter for them.

But man won't learn.

The creatures, frightened by the tyrant of force, are pushed away, hurt and deceived.

Many are lost to man's great wrath, to destroy all of nature, is to destroy all that lives.

They, the creatures, decide to migrate to wilder lands, away from the monsters.

Man, the monsters, see the sudden retreat of their once thought foe and sees the same light that once brought them together.

The monster's error soon turns into its downfall, as the sun rises up and starts to burn their homes too.

There are no homes,

There is no wilderness,

There is no creature,

There is no man,

There is no earth without nature.

Jaden Lawrence