English Domain

Welcome to the exciting world of English!

I would like to extend a warm welcome to a number of new teachers who have joined our College community and the Year 7 students who have bustled through the corridors of the Bluff Road Campus with infectious enthusiasm.

Students at Sandringham College have numerous opportunities to enhance and nurture their creative and oratorical skills throughout the year. Designed to improve the literacy skills of students, The Reading Program at Year 7 and Year 8 has reignited a passion within students for a range of genres, while offering a viable escape into fictional worlds.

In nurturing our students’ creative aspirations, we offer them various opportunities to foster and inspire their literacy skills, by encouraging them to enter creative writing competitions throughout the year.

The first competition for Term 1 is centred on ‘LOVE. What does it mean to you?’

Entries must be 100 words or less.

There are two categories:

Years 7-9 and Years 10-12.

Entries close April 7th, 2023. 

A link to the website is included: https://littlestoriesbigideas.com.au/entry-form/

In terms of enhancing their oratorical skills, students have an opportunity to participate in the Debating Club on Bluff Road. Likewise, students on both Campuses have an opportunity to participate in the Premier National Public Speaking Competition, Rostrum Voice of Youth.

A contestant must present to an audience: 

A prepared speech, from a choice of the nationally listed topics. 

Juniors 6 minutes - Years 7-9   

Seniors 8 minutes - Years 10-12

In addition to the prepared speech, students will be expected to present a 3 minute short-notice speech, from three topics.

 Entries are open.

 Metropolitan entries close Friday, 12 May 2023

TOPICS for 2023 Prepared Speech

Junior                                                    

A change worth making                        

Harmony                                                    

Opportunity knocks                                  

A gift that keeps giving                            

Behind the lens

Senior

Voice for the voiceless

Rite of passage

Shifting gears

Lost in translation

Diamond in the rough

Entry to the competition is online at https://voy.rostrum.com.au/

Our Senior students have the opportunity to participate in the VCAA Plain English Speaking Award (PESA) This public-speaking competition for students aged 15-18 years, provides an excellent opportunity for students to build self-confidence and extend their skills in oral communication, speech writing and research. Participants will deliver a prepared speech of 6 minutes on a topic of their choice. Apart from the prepared speech, they will present an impromptu speech of 3 minutes.

Students must express their interest to Peta Prokopos as soon as possible.

Finally, the College invites High Ability students in Years 7 & 8 to participate in the Masterclass Program.

The English Masterclass at Sandringham College seeks to build skill and strengthen knowledge through student-led inquiry practices. This is tailored to raising literacy, teaching creative thinking skills, providing student choice and engagement for our high ability students. This has been a highly successful initiative at the college, encouraging students to create multi-modal presentations in a thriving collaborative environment.

The English department looks forward to working closely with all students, while nurturing their creative and critical skills.

Teaching & Learning – Literacy

Literacy in 2023 is focusing on building upon the foundations set up in previous years. The Reading Program is new and improved at Year 7 and 8, and already we have seen a vast increase in the number of books borrowed by students. Our attempts to build a culture of students reading for pleasure is starting to bear fruit, though it is certainly early days. From a teaching perspective, we have introduced a marking guide which has a spin on traditional marking (teacher corrects) by placing the responsibility back on the student (teacher identifies; student corrects). We believe that, over time, this will result in students becoming more aware of any mistakes they might make in their writing and be more confident and competent in fixing them. Behind the scenes, literacy tutoring and the Advance program continue to support students in bridging reading and writing gaps, with results in last year’s NAPLAN reading indicating that Sandringham performs well at supporting students with literacy needs. As a final note, NAPLAN has been moved up to March this year. Please check Compass as any necessary information will be sent out to parents and students there. 

Thanks for reading! For a quick fun activity, consider taking this opportunity to check in with your family members about the books they are reading. Often the best books are ones recommended to us by those who know us best. 

Denholm Pickering

Learning Specialist - Literacy