English Department News

The English Department would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to Term 3.

This year is definitely flying by, with so many initiatives already underway with many more planned for the remainder of the year, and into 2024. 

To begin the term, there are a number of competitions that run annually in Victoria, which allow students to showcase their writing abilities across a number of forms.

Please see below some wonderful opportunities students may wish to enter.

Students may even decide to submit a piece they have developed as part of a class activity or assessment, and edit and refine it for grammatical accuracy.

Short Story Competition | A Story in Miniature | VATE

VATE (Victorian Association for the Teaching of English) is excited to launch their 2023 writing competition, A Story in Miniature. Students in Years 7 to 12 are invited to submit a story between 300 and 500 words in length inspired by the writing competition theme:

"Short stories do not say this happened and this happened and this happened. They are a microcosm and a magnification rather than a linear progression." – Isobelle Carmody

Students are encouraged to find inspiration from the miniature stories that make up their daily life – the small interactions and delightful tidbits that make up their day – and transform them, with brevity, into a piece of polished prose.

All information and entry details can be found at: https://www.vate.org.au/story-miniature-2023-writing-competition

My First Speech Competition | Parliament of Australia

Your first speech is a great way to speak about issues you are passionate about. 

Imagine yourself as a newly elected Member of the House of Representatives. Your task is to write a 90-second speech about issues you are passionate about then record yourself presenting the speech on video.

A winner from each year – 10, 11 and 12 – will be invited to Canberra to deliver their speeches live and undertake a program of meetings at Parliament House.

More information can be found at https://www.aph.gov.au/myfirstspeech

It would be great to see Girton Grammar represented in these competitions.

Term 3 Unit Information

The units of work being taught this coming semester are as follows:

Please refer to the relevant Course Page on Astra for assessment and due dates.

The Writing Revolution

This semester, the English Department is also excited to be piloting The Writing Revolution in both Year 7 and Year 11 English. The implementation of this pilot project will help to determine the feasibility of moving forward with this particular literacy approach. 

Mr Bordin and Miss Nelson have been working hard to develop the beginning of the new Year 7 English unit entitled 'Knowing the Media' with a writing revolution approach. This is a build-in rather than a bolt-on approach to the teaching of a unit of work, ensuring students are equipped with sentence- and paragraph-level structures through a contextualised study of the media and advertising. Similarly, Year 11 English students will be exposed to the same approach, but within Unit 2, Area of Study 2 of the Study Design, entitled Exploring Argument. 

We look forward to providing students with transformational learning experiences through the explicit teaching of sentence and paragraph structures. 

Following the pilot implementation, the relevant English teachers and I will analyse the data to determine whether students have grown in their literacy capabilities and have added skills to their ‘toolkit’ to experience success in classwork and assessment moving forward. 

If you would like more information about this approach, please visit: https://www.thewritingrevolution.org/.

English Workshops

Throughout Term 3, the English Department will be running a number of workshops that have been successful in Semester 1 in allowing students to develop and refine their skills in English. Please keep an eye on emails for further information about these sessions.

Mr Troy Edwards

Head of English