English News

McCarthy’s Year 12 students were well armed for their English HSC Trials through their participation in the first Armidale Catholic Schools English Study Day, hosted by McCarthy. Our English Studies, Standard and Advanced students were joined by their peers from O’Connor Armidale, St Mary’s Gunnedah and emerging students from Holy Trinity Inverell. 

Guest presenter Emily Boscoe from educational publisher Into English guided the students through responses to short answer questions with tips such as looking for the narrative in a poem to how to craft thesis statements with elements that can be transferred across their English modules.

Guest presenters from our own English faculty included Marj Tapp, Tahlia Urquhart, Felicity Sawtell, Geoff Chambers, Carrie Madden and Heather Burke, who delivered workshops on creating characters, sustaining connection with exam questions and sophisticated connection to context. A big thank you to these presenters for their preparation and the sharing of their expertise.

Students also heard from our colleagues in Armidale with O’Connor staff Michael Wooster and Lauren Paterson presenting on how to write conceptually about studied texts. Thanks as well to these presenters and the clarity and relevance of their message.

Students can expect to refer to these lectures in their lessons post-Trials and we encourage them to use this information to support their own study and reach out to their teachers for further support.

Melissa Carr

Leader of Learning - English