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The search for the 2019 Australian Children's Word of the Year is now on, with the return of the Oxford Children's Word of the Year Writing Competition.

Primary school students from Foundation/Prep to Year 6 are invited to write about a word that best reflects their lives and interests today, whether in the playground or wider community.

Entries close September 20!

Motivate your students to get writing with our Oxford Children's Word of the Year writing tips. This helpful resource, developed in partnership with the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia (PETAA), suggests activities for you to run with your students to inspire creativity in their writing.

Download now
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Looking for the UK Children's Word of the Year? Click here.

Over $6000 worth of prizes to be won!*



This year’s class prize winner will receive:

  • a 12-month subscription to Oxford Reading Buddy
  • an annual PETAA membership
  • an Oxford book voucher
  • a copy of Writing the Future by Kaye Lowe
  • a framed certificate.


Student prize winners in each year level will receive:

  • an Oxford book voucher
  • a copy of Roald Dahl's Rotsome and Repulsant Words
  • a copy of The Roald Dahl Dictionary.

*See terms and conditions

Entering is as easy as 1,2,3!

1. Complete the form below to receive your entry pack.

2. Get your students writing! Entries can be creative or factual, funny or serious.

3. Mail your entries to:
Oxford University Press
GPO Box 2784
Melbourne VIC 3001

This year OUP is partnering with PETAA, the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia.

The first 200 active PETAA members who register their students into the writing competition will receive a free set of Oxford Wordlist 1–100 Flashcards.

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Download Entry Pack.
Simply fill in the form below to download your Children's Word of the Year entry pack.

Looking back



Creativity

OUP ANZ director of School Publishing, Lee Walker, said the strong theme of creativity in this year’s written submissions gave her confidence that this generation of children will have the skills to confront some of the world’s greatest challenges in new ways.

Bravery, pollution, technology and environment were all strong contenders for Word of the Year. To find out what else was topical amongst Australian children, download the 2018 Children's Word of the Year summary report here.



Equality

The word is a result of an Australia-wide writing competition in which students from Grade Prep to Grade 6 submitted a piece of free writing up to 500 words based on a chosen word. The writing could be creative or factual, funny or serious. A judging panel, consisting of academics and experts in children’s English language, evaluated competition entries based on a word’s popularity, use of the word in context, and frequency, to determine the Australian Children’s Word of the Year. Equality was used in the entries to refer to a wide range of issues, including racial, gender, marriage, sporting, pay, disability rights and even sibling equality. It was included in both fictional and non-fiction writing.