Department News

The Drama Department

Term 2 is shaping up to be a full and busy time for our performers and designers, with preparations for the Sydney Catholic Schools Eisteddfod; Year 12 delving into the Group Performance Major Works; and of course, our Music and Drama Department preparations for our college production of "Shrek: The Musical"!

NIDA performances

A huge congratulations to Sofia C, Taylor C, Freya L, Lulu M and Lucy M, who were selected to perform in a Sydney Catholic Schools collaboration with NIDA and Bell Shakespeare in a brilliant original musical theatre performance adaptation of Shakespeare. These students have been rehearsing since Term 1 to produce a truly engaging and fantastic show; and, alongside 12 other SCS secondary schools, have been  led by a brilliant team of directors, writers, and choreographers. The girls performed from 6th-8th May 2026. Check out this article from Sydney Catholic Schools.

Year 12 

This term, students finally had the chance to begin their Group Performances. They were assigned a group and given the term to devise a piece of totally original theatre from scratch (with a running time of 8-12 minutes). In Week 1, the girls eagerly awaited their groupings; and have already shown autonomy and responsibility in their planning. 

Eisteddfod 

The Eisteddfod is quickly approaching and we have many students involved, from our classes' self-devised assessment performances to the improvisation students who bravely take on the new competition. The Eisteddfod is on the 5th of June (a Pupil Free Day); students will travel to Southern Cross Catholic College in Burwood to compete. 

Shrek: The Musical

Last, BUT certainly not least, our preparations for Shrek: The Musical continue as both the Music and Drama departments work busily. A big thank you to all the staff and students working diligently: our leads, chorus, orchestra, dancers, stage crew, and art club set makers. We ask students and parents to keep an eye on the upcoming weekend rehearsals detailed in the schedule; and look out for tickets coming your way over the next few weeks! Castings for each night will be announced prior to ticket sales. 

Public Show dates: 

• Thursday 2nd July - 7pm
• Friday 3rd July - 7pm
• Saturday 4th July - 7pm

Tayla Whiteman

Teacher in Charge of Drama

The Visual Arts Department

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Albert Einstein

Stage 6 ARTEXPRESS Excursion

Our Stage 6 Visual Arts students traveled to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the ARTEXPRESS exhibition; which is an annual exhibition of high-quality Major Works from the previous Year 12 cohort. It offers students valuable insights and inspiration into the qualities, themes, techniques, and approaches used to create exceptional Bodies of Work, encouraging them in their own Year 11 and 12 art studies.

Students were able to experience artworks in a Gallery setting, view the ARTEXPRESS exhibition, and visit the current installation in the newly opened tank space.

Years 9 & 10 Blooms and Beyond

Year 9 & 10students have been studying ceramic and sculpture artists, exploring how nature is represented in Visual Arts. Students now understand symbolism and how surface decoration, motifs and three-dimensional design convey meaning in an artwork.

Mr Adam Gant

Visual Arts Teacher

Year 7 Self Portraits

Year 7 have produced fabulous self portrait artworks that explore the qualities of mark making, the elements of art, and portrait drawing skills using pencil and a fine liner pen.

Year 8 Collage Creatures

Year 8 have utilised their imagination and creativity in the making of a series of collage creatures. These creatures have been constructed using at least one human, one plant, and one animal element which have been collaged together to create a unified form.

Years 9 & 10 Photography and Digital Media - The Elements of Photography

Students in Years 9 & 10 Photography and Digital Media have been exploring the elements of photography through an exploration of their local environment. Through a series of discovery walks, students explored Randwick and Coogee, recording lines, colours, shapes, textures, patterns, and shadows in their visual environment using their cameras. With a strong focus on composition, students learnt about the processes involved with taking, storing, and organising digital images; and the basics of Adobe Photoshop.

Mr Vince Papa

Visual Arts Teacher

Director of Learning & Innovation

Year 10 Imaginative Worlds

Year 10 Visual Arts have been investigating themes of imagination and photography, while exploring new ways to communicate a narrative through still life objects, composition, and abstraction.

Chloe S:

Ava K:

Year 11 Memento Mori and Vanitas

Year 11 Visual Arts completed their first unit and case study, investigating how artists convey themes of Memento Mori and Vanitas through still life artworks. The students produced fantastic two dimensional artworks using their choice of medium - paint, charcoal, pencil or pastels.

Melissa Nutter

Head of Visual Arts

The English Department

Effective Feedback in English

Research into effective teaching consistently shows that feedback is most powerful when it is timely, specific, and connected to the next stage of learning. Rather than being a final judgement, effective feedback works as part of an ongoing instructional cycle: students attempt a task, receive guidance, refine their understanding, and apply that learning again. 

Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction reinforces this view, emphasising the importance of checking for understanding, correcting errors, guiding practice, and ensuring students are not simply rehearsing misconceptions. In this sense, feedback is not separate from teaching; it is one of the ways learning is made visible and strengthened.

Within English, this is especially significant because students are often working with complex skills: interpretation, argument, expression, structure and voice. Feedback helps students understand not only what to improve, but how to improve it. It may involve refining a thesis, strengthening analysis, clarifying expression, or developing a more deliberate relationship between evidence and idea. When students are given clear, actionable feedback, they are better able to move from general impressions to precise interpretation, and from tentative drafting to confident, independent writing. Effective feedback, therefore, becomes a bridge between instruction and growth.

In English classrooms, one of the most effective ways we support students to engage with feedback is through the use of models and exemplars. Before students are expected to produce an extended response, teachers often model the thinking process behind a strong thesis, topic sentence, analytical paragraph or creative opening. This allows students to see what quality looks like before they attempt the task independently. Feedback is then connected to a clear standard, rather than remaining abstract. For example, students may compare a developing paragraph with a stronger model; and identify how the more effective response integrates evidence, explains technique or sustains a conceptual argument. This helps students understand not only what needs to improve; but how that improvement can be achieved.

Feedback is most powerful when it occurs during the learning process (not only after a final submission). In English, this often happens through conferencing, live marking, teacher questioning, and targeted comments during drafting. As students are forming ideas, teachers can intervene at the point of need: helping them sharpen an argument, clarify expression, select stronger evidence or move from description into analysis. This kind of feedback allows students to make immediate adjustments while the work is still developing. It also encourages students to see writing as a process of refinement: where strong responses are built through revision, rather than produced perfectly on the first attempt.

Students also learn to engage with feedback by reflecting on their own work and the work of others. Peer and self-assessment activities help students become more conscious of the criteria for success. For example, students might use a checklist to identify whether a paragraph has a clear topic sentence, embedded evidence, technique analysis, and a strong link back to the question. They may also read a peer’s response and offer one strength and one specific suggestion for improvement. This process encourages students to become more independent learners because they begin to internalise the qualities of effective writing. Feedback becomes a shared language in the classroom, rather than something that only comes from the teacher.

A key focus in the English KLA is ensuring students do something with the feedback they receive. Rather than simply reading a comment and moving on, students are often asked to revise a section of their work in response to specific guidance. This might involve rewriting a thesis, improving one analytical sentence, adding a stronger explanation of a quotation, or restructuring a paragraph for greater clarity. These small, focused revision tasks help students see feedback as active and achievable. They also build confidence, because students can see a clear before-and-after improvement in their own writing.

Year 10 War Poetry

"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?" 

One of the remarkable legacies of World War I is its poetry. Poets such as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen challenged the rhetoric of their time through capturing the horror and pity of the experiences of soldiers, both on the battlefield and upon their return. Owen’s vivid and moving poetry was studied by Year 10 in their first unit. As a final activity for the unit, 10Eng3 created some Found Poetry using text from Erich Maria Remarque’s novel (All Quiet on the Western Front) and transforming it into a poem. Using images from photos and propaganda posters from WWI they created some evocative poetry of their own - juxtaposing propaganda’s image of war with its horrifying reality. 

What I’m Reading

Thanks to our Year 7-9 students who were keen to share with us what they’re reading! 

Natalia Hennessy

Head of English

The PDHPE Department

Our PDHPE programs are structured to equip students with the essential knowledge, skills, and attitudes for cultivating healthy, safe and active lifestyles.

A cornerstone of our program is Physical Education, a dynamic area designed to promote physical activity, overall health, wellbeing, and fitness. Our curriculum offers a diverse range of activities: including team sports, recreational activities, fitness programs and outdoor experiences. These activities are crucial in developing a variety of physical skills, such as hand-eye coordination, balance, stamina, strength, and flexibility.

Beyond the development of physical capabilities, our Personal Development and Health lessons also play a significant role in supporting mental wellbeing. These classes provide strategies for stress reduction; facilitate the development of positive social connections;  teach resilience strategies and promote ways of keeping safe. We believe in a holistic approach to wellbeing, and our programs are designed to nurture the body and mind of each student.

As we commence Term 2, the PDHPE Department is dedicated to delivering engaging and inclusive lessons for all students. By exposing our students to a wide array of physical activities, we aim to foster a lifelong passion for one or more of these pursuits.

Here's an overview of the practical programs that our students can look forward to in Term 2:

Years 7 & 8

Year 7 and 8 PDHPE students have participated in an Athletics unit to prepare them for the College Athletics Carnival. Students learnt the correct technique for track and field events, including shot put, discus, javelin and high jump. It was great to see students applying these newly acquired skills when competing in events for their houses at the carnival.

Year 7 students will engage in a practical Team Games unit at Paine Reserve, while Year 8 will focus on a Fitness unit where they will engage in various fitness activities, including circuit training and different methods of fitness assessment. These assessments will include the beep test for cardiorespiratory endurance, the Illinois agility test, standing long jump tests for leg power, the sit-and-reach test for flexibility and evaluations of reaction time, strength, speed, balance and coordination. 

By participating in fitness assessments and comparing their results to age-related benchmarks, students can gain valuable insights into their physical capabilities and identify areas for improvement. This process empowers them to set personal fitness goals and work towards achieving them. We hope to inspire a love of fitness in our Year 8 students by the end of Term 2.

Years 9 & 10

Year 9 students will have the opportunity to attend the Heffron Centre for their double PE lessons. This facility features a two court indoor sports hall, which allows our PE staff to run team games such as basketball, slide hockey, indoor futsal and European handball. 

We are excited to continue using this fantastic facility for our Year 9 PE program.

Year 10 will also be heading off campus for their double PE sessions, travelling to the Heffron Park Netball Courts to develop their netball skills.

Years 9 & 10 PASS Elective Courses

Our 200-Hour Year 9 PASS students and Stage 5 100-hour PASS elective students will be participating in a practical unit, 'Recreational Pursuits,' aligning with their classroom unit on 'Lifestyle, Leisure and Recreation'. Students will have the chance to experience a variety of lifelong recreational and leisure activities, such as pilates, table tennis, croquet and tennis. This unit aims to challenge their perceptions regarding the value of leisure and recreational activities as viable and rewarding forms of physical activity.

Our 200-Hour 10 PASS elective students have been introduced to the increasingly popular sport of Pickleball this term. The unit is based on site, teaches students the fundamental techniques of serving, volleying, dinking and footwork. This addition to the PASS curriculum provides students with a fun and engaging way to develop coordination, reaction time and overall fitness and we anticipate seeing some great gameplay as the unit progresses.

Years 11 & 12 PDHPE

Our Year 11 & 12 Health & Movement Science and CAFS students are focusing on preparing for their upcoming assessments.

In Term 2, our PDHPE staff led study workshops for Year 12 CAFS and Health & Movement Science students, where students actively participated in learning activities that reinforced their understanding of the course content. We will continue to do this in Term 2, with further study workshops scheduled. 

We wish all students the best as they study and prepare over the coming weeks.

Representative Dance

On the 11th May, our Representative Dance Team proudly competed at the SCS Schools Dance Eisteddfod with outstanding success. After many weeks of dedication, early morning rehearsals and meticulous preparation, the team delivered two exceptional performances that showcased their technical skill, creativity and teamwork.

We are thrilled to share that the team achieved 1st Place in the Secondary Jazz Dance Ensemble and 2nd Place in the Secondary Hip Hop Ensemble. This is a remarkable achievement and a true reflection of the students’ commitment, passion and hard work.

The Hip Hop performance was also awarded a Standby Ticket for the Eisteddfod Showcase at the Seymour Centre in June, and we eagerly await confirmation to see if our girls will be selected to perform.

A special acknowledgement goes to our dedicated and passionate choreographers, Jessica Powell-Antonini (Jazz) and Emily Smith (Hip Hop), whose expertise, guidance and encouragement coached our girls to this success. 

Congratulations to all of our talented dancers on this fantastic result!

We are also incredibly proud to announce that Year 12 student Yianna K achieved 1st Place in the SCS Open Secondary Hip Hop Dance Solo Section!

This outstanding individual achievement is a testament to Yianna’s talent, dedication and commitment she brings to her craft. Congratulations Yianna!

Vanessa Culhane

Head of PDHPE