Faculty News

I am mindful that students and their families are currently in the process of making their subject selection choices for 2024. The Humanities Faculty offers three subjects: History, Politics and Geography. History is a core subject until Year 10, while both Politics and Geography are available as electives from Year 9. History is no longer mandatory in Year 10 – in an effort to create more optionality and flexibility in Year 10 pathways, all students will now simply have to select to take at least one Humanities elective instead. VCE ‘Australian and Global Politics’ has also been streamlined by the VCAA to become simply ‘VCE Politics’ for Year 11s taking the subject next year. It should also be stressed that there is no need to have studied either Geography or Politics previously, even for VCE study. 

It was recently announced that last year’s College Captain, Nathanial Louey, has won the

Top All-Round VCE High Achiever Premier’s Award for his outstanding performance in achieving five VCE study scores above 45. Nathanial is one of only 24 students across the entire state to achieve this, and two of these scores were in VCE Global Politics and 

VCE History Revolutions, where he attained a 46 in both. Indeed, he is the second ever Mazenod student to win this prestigious accolade; the first, Sam Warner, also attained 45+ scores in History Revolutions and Global Politics. We congratulate Nathanial on this superb accomplishment and wish him every success in his future studies. 

Nathanial came through the History Enhancement Program, and the program continued to deliver in terms of VCE outcomes for our students last year. The VCE median study score of our Year 11s taking VCE History Revolutions was a quite exceptional 41, though what was just as pleasing was that the Year 12 students also punched well above expectations. The median study score of the three VCE Humanities subjects combined was 36, and such results are reflective of both the diligence and talent of our young men combined with the passionate and skilled guidance of our Humanities teachers. 

We are keenly awaiting the results of several academic competitions that younger Humanities students have recently entered. Our Year 8 Enhancement History students, taught by Mr Joe Moore, took part in the Australian History Competition, where they were assessed on a range of historical skills. The Year 11 VCE Politics students, taught by me, recently submitted their entries for the Victorian Parliament Prize, whereby students had to submit a 90-second Member’s Statement video on an issue they feel passionate about.

Planning is also now well under way for several out-of-classroom excursions: our VCE

Geographers, led by Mr Pearson, will investigate the impacts of the Moto Grand Prix on Phillip Island in October, whilst our VCE Historians will soon be heading to The National Vietnam Veterans Museum to augment their learning of Australia’s role in the Vietnam/Second Indochina War.

Finally, I would like to formally extend a very warm welcome to the faculty to Ms Anneke Stracke, who joined our teaching team at the beginning of the year as a History and Politics teacher. Her strong passion for archaeology and ancient history, coupled with her engaging lesson designs, have already received positive feedback from her junior classes.

Nick Young

Humanities Coordinator