Rex the dog tale a winner

In a small Rockingham classroom a Year 2 student surprised everybody by winning a national award for her writing.

Bungaree Primary School student Pippa Healey was awarded first prize in the Australia-wide Oxford Wordlist Writing Competition.

Her teacher Kate Tsorvas, who entered the class in the competition as a way for students to practise creative writing, said she was excited and proud of Pippa.

“For anyone to be recognised from the whole of Australia is amazing and we’re just a little school in Rockingham,” she said.

“I got an email to say Pippa had won, which was very exciting.

“She is very creative, likes to think outside the box, always puts 100 per cent into her work and loves reading, colouring and creating.”

Eighteen students from Year 1 and 2 at Bungaree PS took part in the competition and could write about anything they wanted.

“We had five characters and a very structured approach for them to understand beginning, middle and end and to use things ... like similes, metaphors, speech marks,” she said.

Pippa said she was excited to win and hoped to become a pet shop keeper when she grows up.

“I choose Rex because I like dogs. I thought dogs like going to the beach and we live near a beach and I had talking sea creatures in my story,” she said.