Write For Kindness 

Congratulations to our Write for Kindness storybook winners

Our winning entries for last year's Write for Kindness competition has just been posted on Singapore Kindness Movement's Kindsville website for young children. Scroll down on this link to see it.

Below is the video we made for the end of Lent Term Celebration Assembly.

These clever girls were in great demand this week as they participated in yet another media interview to talk about their success in the Write for Kindness story-writing contest. This time it was with a Straits Times School journalist who conducted an interview with them via Zoom at lunchtime on Tuesday.

The students chatted eloquently about the story-writing and illustrating experience and were confidently able to provide an insight into this collaborative project by answering the following questions:

1. What was the inspiration behind the story?
2. What were some of your memories doing this project?
3. What were some of the challenges you faced?
4. How do you hope your story can impact the community around you?

Below is the finished article published February 1, 2021

Coinciding with this interview, we also heard this week that their earlier interview has been published and can be accessed by scrolling down here.

Normally the students would attend an awards ceremony, but due to COVID this has gone online and can be viewed here.

Lianne Ong, a children’s author and facilitators for the Write for Kindness workshop last year, chatting with our Write or Kindness competition winners via Zoom this week.

Lianne, who is also one of the writers for SKM's online publication, The Pride plans to include a story about their success in this publication.

The students share insights into the writing and illustration process and offered advice for future competition entrants.

Lianne was also interested to hear how the College themes and catch cries proffered to us by our headmaster, Nick Magnus, as his way of inspiring the whole college community to grow into the best possible versions of ourselves, have spurred us to success in this competition. In particular, the way he urges us to join him on the never-ending journey 'from good to great' as well as the aspirational theme he chooses for the college each year which we all use to underpin all we do in that particular 12-month period.

Three years ago, when our theme we 'Be Kind', Graham Wilson, head of the Senior School, sent the details of the Write for KIndness competition to Ruth Taaffe, head of English, and me, asking us to encourage interested writers to enter. That year our students won the consolation prize in the story writing section.

When we entered again last year, our college theme was 'Our Heritage, Our Home' and two of our students took out the prize for the Best Illustration in the poetry section with the environmentally themed poem called 'The Last Straw' about the need to look after the place in which we live.

Our college theme this year is 'Better Together', so having taken out the winning prize in the story writing section this year as well as the consolation prize in the poetry section, we feel that this collaborative achievement not only exemplifies the theme but our incremental success each year mirrors the Dulwich's never-ending journey from good to great.

As a relatively new international school here in Singapore, a country that achieves world-renowned results in the education, business and finance sphere, we are feeling very optimistic and more than a little chuffed by this recent success. We are very proud of the way our students are stepping up to the mark and supporting each other as they mature and develop their skills, understandings andknowledge.

Success in the Write for Kindness Competition

The Singapore Kindness Movement announced this week that not only have Dulwich College (Singapore) clinched the top spot in the national Write for Kindness Competition in the Story-Writing and Illustration category, but also won the Consolation award in the Poetry-Writing and Illustration category.

Congratulation to our winning team of story-writers and illustrators: Charlotte Johnson, Grace Cronin, Camille Cheng, Mana Yamazaki Serena Kwon, as well as or poet and illustrator: Jet Sun and Jessica Zhang, who taken out the Consolation Award.

Our Senior School students were initially motivated to enter this competition a couple of years back when Magnus urged us to embrace the “kindness” theme. Each year we have enjoyed a measure of success and have been invited to attend the annual awards ceremony to receive a prize, trophy, and certificate in the Consolation and Best Illustration category for both the story and poetry writing categories.

Not only is this success an indication of another way in which Dulwich College (Singapore) is making the journey "from good to great", but the teamwork undertaken by these students is certainly a clear example of how we are "better together".

We are excited to know that copies of the student’s picture book It's Not Nice to Be Alone will be put into every preschool in Singapore, and of course, both the poem and picture book will also be available in our College libraries.

Copies of the winning entries:

~ Written by Charlotte Johnson, Grace Cronin and illustrated by Camille Cheng, Mana Yamazaki Serena Kwon

~ Written by Jet Sun and illustrated by Jessica Zhang

About the Write for Kindness Competition

The objectives of this competition are to promote:

• the values of kindness through stories and poems which focus on the theme ‘Bring Joy with Kindness’
• the importance of stories and poems as a means to positively impact pre-schoolers in
  their character development
• story and poetry as creative means of expressing cultural values
• teamwork among students who work together on the stories, poems and illustrations for pre-schoolers

WRITE FOR KINDNESS 2020

We have been invited to again participate in the annual Write for Kindness (WFK) competition, organised by SKM.

Write for Kindness is a national creative-writing competition by the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM). It is a platform for secondary school, junior college, institute, madrasah international school students to promote kindness to the younger audience by creating age-appropriate and culturally relevant children’s stories, through short stories, poetry illustrations. SKM is partnering with the Singapore Book Council for the Write for Kindness workshops, in conjunction with the OPEN: Young Writers Lab.

The objectives of the competition are to promote:

• the value of kindness through stories and poems which focus on the theme ‘Bring Joy with Kindness.’
• the importance of stories and poems as a means to positively impact pre-school children in their character development
• story and poetry as a creative means of expressing cultural values
• among students who work together on the stories, poems illustrations for pre-school children

There are 2 categories for Write for Kindness 2020.

Category 1. Story-Writing & Illustration Competition

The competition is open to all secondary school, junior college, institute, madrasah international school students. Interested schools may gather their students to form teams of five. For detailed rules and regulations, please talk to Hayes.

Category 2. Poetry-Writing & Illustration Competition

The competition is open to all secondary school, junior college, institute, madrasah international school students. Interested schools may gather their students to form teams of two. For detailed rules and regulations, please talk to Hayes

Registration for both competitions is open until 28 February 2020, .

Workshop Dates:
16 March (Poetry-Writing and Illustration) and 19 March & 20 March (Story-Writing and Illustration)
Time: 2.00pm – 5.00pm
Venue: ACC EduHub, 51 Cuppage Road, #03-03, Singapore 229469 (behind Centrepoint)

Slots for Category 1 workshops (Story-Writing and Illustration) are open on a first-come-first-serve basis and will conclude once we have received registrations of a maximum of 122 participants.

Slots for Category 2 workshops (Poetry-Writing and Illustration) are open on a first-come-first-serve basis and will conclude once we have received registrations of a maximum of 52 participants.

Details for the workshops are as follows.

Important Dates to Note

WRITE FOR KINDNESS 2019

A big congratulations to our Write for Kindness participants

The Write For Kindness Competition, which is part of the Singapore Kindness Movement, invites students interested in writing and illustrating for preschoolers to form teams of five (Story-Writing and Illustration) and two (Poetry-Writing and Illustration) and put their creative and artistic ideas on paper to capture the imagination of young children.

Participating teams attend a fun half-day workshop to learn the fundamental skills in writing and illustrating for a younger audience.

Prizes worth up to $250 are up for grabs and winning stories are published for all local preschool and the winning poem is published in the Singapore Kindness Movement's own children's publication for all local primary schools in Singapore

I will be announcing more details and call for all interested students to get involved when I am notified by the after the break.

Congratulations to these clever winners!

Congratulations to Camille Cheng and Skye Young, two of our year 9 students, who represented the College last Friday at Write for Kindness Competition by the Singapore Kindness movement in conjunction with the Singapore Book Council. Their poem 'The Last Straw' won the award for Best Illustration in the poetry and illustration section.

Write for Kindness is a national creative-writing competition organised by the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM), with the Singapore Book Council as our programme partner. It is a platform for secondary, junior college, centralised institute, madrasah and international school students to promote kindness to the younger audience by creating age-appropriate and culturally relevant children’s stories, through short stories, poetry and illustrations.

The objectives of this competition are to promote:

• the values of kindness through stories and poems which focus on the theme ‘Choose to Care. Choose Kindness’.
• the importance of stories and poems as a means to positively impact pre-schoolers in their character development
• story and poetry as creative means of expressing cultural values
• among students who work together on the stories, poems and illustrations for pre-schoolers

Congratulations also to the following students who will also be receiving certificates of participation at our end of term Celebration Assembly which recognise their efforts in contributing to the literary and creative (illustration) aspects of the competition.

• Monique Therese Cheng
• Angeline Guo
• Lucia Tara Stockmann
• Anna Trinh
• Rithika James

WRITE FOR KINDNESS COMPETITION 2018 

A Great Workshop

Nineteen of our senior students went to SCAPE on Friday 16th March to participate in a workshop run by the Singapore-based Write for Kindness movement.

These students, from Years 7-10, are taking part in a competition to create a children's book and were learning skills of writing and illustrating for children at the workshop, which was led by well-known local writers and artists.

Invitation to be involved

We are keen to mentor our interested writers who volunteer to enter this writing competition which fits well into the year's college theme as well as the focus of this morning's Term 2 School Assembly.

Their task: Create a Book for Pre-school children

Theme: Make a Difference.

CATEGORY 1- STORY WRITING PLUS ILLUSTRATION will comprise a TEAM OF 5: WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS

CATEGORY 2- POETRY PLUS ILLUSTRATION will comprise a TEAM OF 2: WRITER PLUS ILLUSTRATOR

WORKSHOP RUN BY LOCAL WRITERS IS FRIDAY MARCH 16TH Check school production and World Scholars Cup commitments! Check with parents that you can go. You may have to find your own way there and home to the workshop.

Final entries to be submitted by school deadline: JUNE 18th

Between the workshop and the final deadline - opportunity to work with members of our Dulwich community who have had pre-school age books published.

Prizes include:

• Having your work published

• Trophies and certificates

• Money

You will find some excellent resources the link below:

https://padlet.com/marygtroche/usefulresources