Hot air balloon inflates the imagination of St Angela’s students

St Angela's students try to figure out how a hot air balloon landed on their oval

St Angela’s Primary, Castle Hill students arrived at school on 20 August, 2015 to find something unusual.

As part of St Angela’s Writing Festival, a hot air balloon that looked as if it had crashed, was placed on the school oval.

The writing festival encourages all students from Kindergarten to Year 6 to write an informative, persuasive or entertaining piece based on the hot air balloon.

Classes came out to examine the scene and its many artefacts and returned to class to plan and begin their writing.

Principal Tony Calabria said the writing festivals are a great way to stimulate students’ imagination.

‘The students were all curious and had their own ideas about what it was and how it got there,’ Tony said. ‘There was a buzz with plenty of talk in every corner of the playground.’

‘We believe initiatives like the Writing Festival are working to improve learning outcomes and are being reflected in our Naplan results, with 80 percent of our Year 3 students in the top two bands for writing’ he said. ‘This and many other strategies have helped our goal of enhancing the children’s writing.’

All written pieces will be published in a special class display folder to be read by others.

What is inside the top secret box?

Written By

Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese
www.parra.catholic.edu.au

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30 Apr 2026
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Congratulations to the following students who were successfully selected into the CSPD Representative teams to compete at the MacKillop trials this term. Xavier (Year 6) - Football Jamie (Year 6) - Rugby League Owen (Year 5) - Touch Football Jamie and Lachlan (Year 6) - Rugby Union Well done to all the students who trialled for CSPD Representative teams in Football, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Netball, Touch Football and Football. 🏉 🥅 ⚽️ 🏐

29 Apr 2026
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