It’s not every day that students get to meet the author of the text they are studying for school, but this is what recently happened to our Year 11 English students.
Neil Grant, an award winning Australian author who wrote The Ink Bridge, was recently a guest presenter in the class’s virtual lesson.
Neil’s story focuses on two mute characters – one Australian and one an Afghani refugee – who find healing, happiness, resolution and most importantly, understanding, through their unlikely meeting in a candle factory.
The book resonated strongly with students and Neil was thrilled to hear all of the fresh ideas and responses to the story from Virtual School Victoria (VSV) students.
‘It was wonderful to see the students asking direct questions and writing in breakout groups in response to Neil’s questions,’ said Melinda Keyte, a Unit 1 English teacher at VSV.
Neil was impressed with the level of discourse in the class, noting that it would not be out of place in a first-year Literature class.
At the conclusion of the seminar, he praised VSV’s work and told the students that ‘VSV students are amazing.’
