Faculty Report

English

Author Neil Gaiman suggests that “fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.”

On their own quest for the truth, our Year 7 students have embarked on a ‘career’ as professional travel writers. They have been tasked with the job of creating content aimed at a specific audience and through their travel experience, they have been prompted to think critically about each destination, focusing on culture and the environment. Keeping with this theme, our Year 8 students have been provided the opportunity to reflect on our own world and to investigate the complexities of the human experience in the dystopian novel The Giver. In Year 9, students have delved into the nuances of heroism, debating the various attributes of ‘true’ heroism.

In the Senior School, there has been an overriding theme of texts that explore empathy woven through the curriculum. Through To Kill a Mockingbird, the Year 10 students have taken a deep dive into 1930s Southern America, with Harper Lee reminding us that "you never really understand a person... until you climb into [their] skin and walk around in it”. Our Year 11 students, in their study of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, have been analysing the perils of capital punishment in 1959 middle America. Despite the heinous death of the Clutter family “in cold blood”, students are encouraged to question whether “judicial homicide” is an appropriate penalty rather than “pity… [and] mercy”. Finally, the Year 12 students are fast approaching their final assessment task for 2025, investigating the difficulties of living in post-apartheid South Africa, offering the valuable advice that “life is full of pain. Let the pain sharpen you, but don’t hold on to it. Don’t be bitter.” While the texts studied across all year levels may be diverse, the key themes are timeless, exploring the human condition and universal longings across the centuries.

Finally, the Mazenod English faculty bid a fond farewell to Jed Harrington as he jets off to exciting new adventures in South Korea. While we are sad to see him go, we know that we have been changed for good thanks to his years of service as a practitioner of English, driving improved curriculum and resources for all staff and students. We welcome Kelsey Knecht as Head of Junior English, whose boundless enthusiasm and international teaching experience will ensure that Mazenod English students continue to thrive.