Humanities
Department Report
James Parish
As we approach the end of Term 1, our humanities classrooms have developed into productive places of exploration. Across our Junior school we are in the period of learning tasks, with teachers working hard to give insightful and deliberate feedback. I thought I would take this opportunity to overview some of the amazing work happening in our VCE offerings.
Our year 11 modern History course has been exploring the causes of WW2, analysing both the German and Russian contexts. They also stayed back to watch a special screening of Nuremberg (2025) to add depth of understanding their studies. At year 12, we are currently tracking the events of the Russian Revolution, examining its lasting impact on the world.
Our Business Studies students have been examining the business models & types at a year 11 level, which lays the foundation to understanding how to effectively manage a business at a year 12 level.
In Legal Studies, our teachers have been working hard to prepare a range of ways to understand the legal system in action, including the creation of fully run mock trials.
Lastly, in Politics, our year 11s have just finished unpacking the drivers of the rise of extremist ideologies in Australia, before looking globally, specifically at independence movements & the nature of power. This aligns with our year 12s, who have been analysing the human rights crisis in Yemen, as well as its regional and global impacts.
As for our VM VCE stream, we have increased our offerings to account for the needs of the cohorts. This is the first year we have run Industry & Enterprise, as well as Small Business, giving students real world insight on how to to monetise the skills they are developing. At the same time, students are also completing Work Related Skills which develop those employability skills to best support them in their chosen pathways.
Lastly, our Year 10 cohort have been having interviews with our careers team to find out how we can support them in their aspirations for work experience. If you know any of the students going through this process, it’s a great time to check in, provide advice, and generally pester them to follow up on work experience opportunities.