Our Narrative Writing Competition Winners 2026

What a competition. Our 2026 Narrative Writing Competition winners and runners-up are extraordinary and we’re so excited to share their stories with you.

Our competition was part of this year’s National Simultaneous Storytime celebration. Over 200 classes joined us for the live brainstorming lesson back in May, where we planned and plotted stories together inspired by Luna Roo the Kangaroo Baller.

Then teachers across Australia and New Zealand took the ideas back to their classrooms where their students wrote their stories.

How it all started: our NSS live lesson

It started, as all great writing should, with an exemplar. We read Luna Roo the Kangaroo Baller together and spotted the elements that make a story work: the Sizzling Start, characters, problems and Exciting Ending. We looked at Luna Roo plotted on the Narrative Story Graph to see how it all fits together to create a great story.

Then came the bit that always sparks the best writing: connecting it to real life. We asked students to think of a time they overcame a challenge – when something was hard, scary or just didn’t go to plan, but they pushed through.

Three minutes. Ten ideas. Here’s a glimpse of what real Year 1 to 6 students came back with:

Then we asked students to develop their favourite idea further by coming up with problems to help them build the pebble, rock, boulder of their story. Here are some ideas they shared:

We brainstormed characters, pushing past the obvious to think outside the box. Some of the ideas made us chuckle.

(Yes, really. And no, we wouldn’t have it any other way.)

Each class picked their strongest problems and favourite character, plotted them on the Narrative Story Graph before coming up with a Sizzling Start and an Exciting Ending to complete their plans. Here are some of the Sizzling Starts that were shared:

“It was a lovely morning… WHAT! WHY AM I GOING TO A NEW SCHOOL!”

“Ouch! My head got stuck.”

“MMM, I think the engine is broken on the boat and there’s a storm rolling in!”

“Toodaloo,” I said.

“Ckckck, chchch” The plane shudders, coughs and splutters. “AHHHHH!” yells the pilot.

Oh No! My bike only has two wheels!

This is what think first, write second looks like in action. Students walked out of the lesson with a plan and ideas they were excited to write about. No blank-page panic.

Try this lesson with your class

And the winners are …

We had 219 wonderful entries to choose from and we thoroughly enjoyed reading all the inspiring stories of resilience. With the help of our new AI-powered assessment tool, we shortlisted entries before picking a winner and a runner-up in each year level. Congratulations to these sensational Seven Steppers:

Year 1 winners

🏆 Winner: Uzair, Australian Islamic College – Kewdale Campus

🥈 Runner-up: Taaliah, Australian Islamic College – Kewdale Campus

Year 2 winners

🏆 Winner: Jack, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School – Pinjarra

🥈 Runner-up: Amelia, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School – Pinjarra

Year 3 winners

🏆 Winner: Zeenat, Playford College

🥈 Runner-up: Amara, Playford College

Year 4 winners

🏆 Winner: Josh, Merimbula Public School

🥈 Runner-up: Aiden P, Christway College – Wyndham

💡 Most unique idea: Aiden M, Christway College – Wyndham

Year 5 winners

🏆 Winner: Niamh, Canberra Girls Grammar School

🥈 Runner-up: Amy, Canberra Girls Grammar School

⭐ Highly Commended for creativity: Mary, Canberra Girls Grammar School

Year 6 winners

🏆 Winner: Makai, Merimbula Public School

🥈 Runner-up: Ali, Playford College

⭐ Highly Commended for descriptive language: Sajede, Playford College

🏫 School with the most entries

A huge well done to Christway College Wyndham, who entered more student stories than any other school. Your whole school’s commitment to giving every student a voice is exactly what we love to see.

A thank-you to every student

Every student who took part deserves recognition for putting pen to paper, having a go and sharing their voice. We’d love teachers to download our participation certificate and share it with your class.

Download the participation certificate

It’s for everyone who joined the live lesson, not just competition entrants – every student who brainstormed with us is a part of NSS 2026.

How the stories were assessed

Every entry was assessed by our AI-powered writing assessment tool against the Seven Steps and NAPLAN rubrics. Every student got their own personalised glow and grow feedback, automatically. And our team had the joy of reading the entries to validate the AI results. 

It was great to see all the different stories that were inspired by Luna Roo. From starting a new school to scary rollercoasters, from sporting showdowns to intergalactic adventures, no challenge was too big.

Here’s a look at what the tool reveals when it analyses a piece of student writing: See the example

For our Seven Steps members, this kind of assessment comes with every annual membership. It turns marking from a weekend job into an upload and review that gives you a class report pinpointing exactly what to teach next.

Find out more about Seven Steps memberships

Want to teach narrative writing with your class?

Our NSS lesson pack is free to download. It includes the slides, planning resources and a real student example to inspire your students, so you can run the brainstorming lesson with your class anytime.

Download the free narrative writing lesson pack

Other free resources we think you’ll love:

Narrative writing examples
Narrative writing prompts
Narrative writing lesson plans