Ridgley Primary School wins award in lead up to MyState film festival

The competition allowed students to develop a mini-story based on three characters, with the prize being a series of workshops to further progress their stories onto film.

Ridgley Primary School teacher Kacey Corbett said she was "shocked" to hear of the school's success and explained what the students were getting out of the workshop.

"This was the first time we had entered anything like this before," she said.

"To win the competition was really exciting and I think it gave the kids a little bit of hope that our small school can do big things.

"I think it has showed them how to tell a story without necessarily having to write a lot.

"It has been good for our reluctant writers to be able to express their ideas without having to write pages and pages of a big long story.

"What I hope they gain from the experience working with Elli, is that they can get feedback from a professional and they can use it and see if they can improve their craft."

MyState's event and community specialist Jessica Gulliver said there was two parts to the workshop.

"The first part was with the teachers and teaching them how to teach storytelling and this second part is working with the kids and seeing what they have come up with," she said.

"By running these storytelling workshops, you never know, we could inspire someone to be a filmmaker."

The MyState Bank Student Film Festival is now in its 19th year and was created by the bank to celebrate and nurture the creative talents of school and university students across Australia.