English

Book Week begins

As part of next week’s Book Week celebrations, the English Department has engaged the talents of four working writers who will deliver seven workshops to our students. Chris Issac from the Black Swan Theatre Company will run a workshop on theatre and scripting. Glen Quartermain, Chief Sports Writer for The West Australian, will talk about writing columns and sports journalism. Authors Casey Mulder and Sophie Minnesale will present on short fiction and novels. 

In keeping with this year’s motto, Read Grow and Inspire, we are extending our Wider Reading Program, with all students in Years 7 to 10 reading for 10 minutes in each lesson throughout the week. 

We have competitions running throughout the week and will conclude with our annual Book Week Fancy Dress Parade for both students and staff. Prizes will be awarded in three categories, Staff, Senior and Middle School. We look forward to seeing what wonderful creative spirit our staff and students will bring to this year’s parade.

Write a Book in a Day

Today we fielded five groups in this year’s Write a Book in a Day competition.

Write a Book in a Day, as the title suggests, challenges students to brainstorm, plan, map, compose, edit, and publish a picture book within an eight-hour period. All of the novels must incorporate prompts provided to them by the contest organisers. For example, the Mind Readers group was required to incorporate a primary character that was a florist, a primary character that was a tennis coach, a non-human character that was a pig, a tennis court setting, the issue of bullying and the words ruby, melts, shiver, tasty and sponge.

As well as providing our students with great team-based creative writing challenge, Write a Book in a Day, also compels each group to raise much-needed funds for the Kid’s Cancer Project, supporting other teens as they struggle with cancer. I am delighted to announce that, as well as creating five wonderful books, our students raised $2320 to support this worthy cause.

ATAR Literature Workshops

Our Year 11 and 12 students participated in two workshops that were run by Lisa Mack, one of our ATAR External Examiners. The creation of these workshops has introduced a stronger follow up to external grading and moderation, allowing examiners and classroom teachers to focus on developing those areas that students perceive as being of greatest need. Our Year 12 ATAR English students will participate in the last of these workshops early next term. 

Rotary Speaking Contest

On Monday 8 August, Fred Keane, our participant in this year’s Rotary Four Way Speaking Contest, won the second of the regional heats. Fred defeated four speakers, with his argument that "Australia Needs to Find a Better Measure of Success". 

Fred convincingly argued that reliance on Gross Domestic Product, has contributed to growing unhappiness and disparity in Australia. Fred has progressed to the State Finals for this competition and will present, at the Mt Lawley Golf Club, on Monday 28 August.

Twelfth Night

On Tuesday night Year 11 students attended the opening of Bell Theatre Company’s adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.  Our attendance at these events provides students with an understanding of theatre that extends beyond the limits of written text. This performance provided us with a wonderful contrast to our earlier excursion to Richard the Third, and certainly inspired our students to attend further excursions. 

Mr Damien Kerrigan

Head of Learning Area - Languages