English News

Year 10 Advanced English

As part of our poetry unit in Advanced English this term, we were lucky enough to have Mr Hamer-Smith and Ms Lindberg — both teachers and poets — visit our class to read some of their poems to us. To have budding Shakespeares in our midst was phenomenal enough, but getting transported into their worlds of families and figurative gardens was on a whole other level. Apart from the amazement I felt having heard their poems, it provided me with the inspiration to write outside of my comfort zone with free-verse poetry and gave me the tools to not only employ stylistic techniques (imagery, extended metaphor etc) in my own writing, but also how to generate ideas when you’ve got a case of writer’s block. I would like to thank them for coming into our class as it has made us feel inspired to learn and create, and I look forward to writing more poems with my newfound knowledge. 

Zach Servadei  

Year 10 

On My Daughter

By Nick Hamer-Smith (Assistant Principal)

On the shore

I am awash in brine and sand,

crust of memories crack on my skin.

The sheet of blue bleeds

orange at the edges

where you float mysteriously,

bobbing above and beneath

but never where I expect.

Not knowing which wave will spit and coil

or if the rip will take you away like so many hours.

If I were a fisherman

I would cast my net

to catch slipping shoals

of your life about to surface.

But I know they would only gasp for air

on the shore.

Onions

By Eleanor Lindberg (English Teacher)

They hang like babies

by twine in a row

layers of tears

wrapped in brown

they are kept for the winter

for the unexpected

they sleep in sheets of dirt

6 feet down

beyond the reach of vision

crying out in silent unison

through white underground highways

growing further

unseen

Daisy’s stand above them

faces to the sun

following the shape of the day

then hard metal plunges

pulling them up

fully formed

Onions keep

in a

cool

dry

place.

Year 7 Book report

Girl Underground by Morris Gleitzsman

Girl Underground is a book about a girl who comes from a rich family of criminals. She goes to an elite private school where she befriends the Prime Minister of Australia’s son. He shares with her the letters he receives from a little boy in an Australian detention center. The letters from the boy recount how badly he and all the other refugees get treated. After reading the letters the girl is motivated to help the little boy and his family get out of the camp. She causes a scene at the White House with the Prime Minister but he still refuses to help saying they are keeping Australian citizens safe by protecting them from terrorists. So the boy and girl make their way to the detention facility and attempt to break them out by digging underground to reach the camp.

I enjoyed this book because it is based on true events and contains a huge amount of important information about Australia’s history. The great thing about this book is that it has a happy ending after many tense events. I wish this book had a little less dialogue and more vivid descriptions to help me visualise better but other than that I thought it was a fabulous book with an important message. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading historical fiction books and learning about Australian history.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Sofia Shiferson 7B