By Alesha Capone
Young Disha has a way with words.
The seven-year-old, who is in grade 2 at Truganina P-9 College, is one of eight winners in the annual Oxford Australian Children’s Word of the Year writing competition.
The competition attracted more than 400 submissions.
The annual event, run by Oxford University Press Australia and New Zealand, invited primary school pupils across the nation to submit a piece of writing, of up to 500 words, about their ‘Word of the Year’.
For her entry, Disha chose the word “adaptability”.
Disha said she chose the word because she has needed to adapt to many different situations in her life, including living in different places.
“I was born in Singapore, then we moved to India, then we moved to Sydney, and now we live in Melbourne,” she said.
Disha said she decided to enter the writing competition after her mother Himathri told her about it.
“At first I was very confused about what to write about, but then I asked my mum if I could write about something in my life,” she said. Disha said she was “very, very excited and happy” to be selected as one of the winners.
She received a certificate and two books, including a dictionary, as a prize.
Disha said reading and writing were her two favourite subjects at school, and that she would like to become a police officer in the future.
