English

Junior English

During the month of August, Year 7-9 students were lucky enough to have visits from celebrated authors, Tristan Bancks and Robert Newton. These events were jointly organised by the English and Resource Centre Learning Areas.

Tristan Bancks, author of teen fiction books such as ‘Two Wolves’ and ‘The Fall’, spoke to the Year 7 and Year 8 cohorts separately. He entertained his audiences of students and teachers with stories from his own life that became inspiration for his writing. He also shared advice and insight on the writing and reading processes.

Selected students from Year 7-9 were lucky enough to attend a writing workshop later that day with Tristan and learned about, and discussed, aspects of crime writing from an expert.

Lastly, later in August, the Year 9 students had a presentation by Robert Newton. Having already read his novel, ‘Runner’ as part of the curriculum in the previous year, they enjoyed hearing from him about his latest novel, ‘Mr Romanov’s Garden in the Sky’ which they are currently reading as part of the RAD program. Robert engaged his audience of students and teachers alike with his relatable stories and motivating wisdom and advice on reading and writing.

We hope that these author visits have engaged students more in reading activities and appreciation by seeing the processes of reading and writing from two authors’ perspectives.

Senior English

Comparative analysis of texts is the current focus in our Senior English classes. Year 10 students have returned to regular classes following their adventures on Work Experience, Camp and Retreat. They have begun to work on comparative analysis by considering the perspectives on war, remembrance, racism and cultural identity that underpin the short stories in the anthology ‘Stack of Stories’ selected for this assessment.

In Year 11, students are pondering the darkness in the heart of humankind as explored by William Golding in the classic and ever relevant ‘Lord of the Flies’. They will be contrasting this with the more hopeful outlook presented in ‘The Hunger Games’ as embodied by heroic characters like Katniss Everdeen who is ever willing to prove that courage, goodness and compassion can survive even in the most brutal of circumstances.

Year 12 students have been preparing for their final English SAC to be completed in early September. This assessment task requires the students to compare the ideas, themes and issues of two texts: ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller and ‘Year of Wonders’ by Geraldine Brooks. To assist them in gaining further insight into these complex stories, the students recently enjoyed a live theatre performance of key scenes from each text, beautifully staged and performed by The Complete Works Theatre Company. They were a wonderful audience who was not only captivated by the action on stage but also very engaged in the discussion with the performers following the play. Students asked thoughtful questions such as: ‘Is Abigail a villain or a victim?’ and ‘Why does ‘The Crucible’ begin and end with weeping?’  ‘What leads to the paranoia of the Salem authorities?’ Definitely questions worth considering in their SAC and final English examination and a positive indication of students’ engagement with these texts.