ENGLISH
PLAIN ENGLISH SPEAKING AWARDS
Congratulations to Skyla Ruthven of Year 11 who competed in the state final of the prestigious Plain English Speaking Award. Skyla was one of only six students from across the entire state to make the final (and the only student from a government school). The standard of competition was incredibly high, complicated by the shift to presenting online, but Skyla excelled in representing herself and the school with confidence and pride.
You can watch the speeches from Skyla and all finalists here. Well done Skyla.
Skyla’s efforts are an example of the many extra-curricular opportunities available to English students at McKinnon. The English Department has offered many opportunities to advance English skills inclusive of My Brother Jack competition, McKinnon Spelling Bee Championship and of course, Writer Of The Month.
Sam Florence
English Learning Area Manager
YEAR 12 ENGLISH REVISION LECTURES
With the normal stresses of Year 12 already high, compounded by the never before experienced home learning of 2020, I can certainly say that our cohort struggled adapting to the fast paced studying of our final year of VCE.
However, to help ease our worries, as well as improve our writing in the process, the Year 12 English faculty brought about a new initiative of revision lectures - to target the main weaknesses faced in previous years, simplifying and breaking down these concerns for us. Run and planned by our very own teachers, with the inclusion of ex 2019 school captain Xavier Verdnik’s insightful lecture on how to actively improve and revise for the impending end of year exam, we have so far been blessed with four lectures.
With three different essays to tackle on the exam, the teachers have so far broken down planning some tough Rear Window (the 1954 film classic) essay topics, identifying and analysing tone for language analysis - something that we all certainly have a hard time including in our essays, as well as general tips and tricks to get us through the rest of the year, and hopefully help us to achieve some great results come December!
With English a compulsory subject for VCE studies, it is so important that we are continuously motivated to maintain our studies for our SACs throughout the year and be given extra help, even if we don’t realise we need it. As always, with such a wide range of students, all with different levels and abilities, the English team has done an excellent job making sure everyone can gain something from these lectures, as they offer easy to apply techniques and study habits - many of which I certainly never knew about and have already applied to my drafting and studying.
We are so genuinely grateful for all the support we are being shown throughout this final year, especially with COVID still impeding on our studies, and these lectures provided have just reinforced this.
Macy Tofler
Year 12 Student
CONGRATULATIONS to McKinnon’s TOP WRITERS for August & September!
Well done to the many talented students who entered Writer of the Month in August and September.
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO:
AUGUST WINNERS
Alyssa Nikolakopoulos (Year 11I),Kara Sak (Year 11K),Anika Deshmukh (Year 10C),Katy Do (Year 9A), Rowen Hull (Year 9A),Phoebe Rodda (Year 9D),Emily Ellis (Year 7O) andVishaka Venkat (Year 7B).
Arianne Lindsay (Year 12G),Monique Andjelic (Year 11A),Chloe Apps (Year 9O),Shaie Bloom (Year 8B), Arnav Mahajan (Year 8I),Kayla Morgan (Year 8B) andJoe Kee (Year 7C).
These students have won a $50 (Senior School) and $30 (Junior School) voucher from Benn’s Books and gained 50 points for their house. You can read their outstanding pieces on the ‘WOTM’ Google site:
Well done to the many talented students who entered Writer of the Month in August and September.
McKinnon’s 2021 WRITER OF THE YEAR IS ...
Connor Macdougall of Year 12G. A Mammoth congratulations on this impressive achievement, Connor!
In addition to the voucher he received earlier this year, Connor has been awarded a $150 voucher for Benn’s Books. You can read Connor’s outstanding piece, and all of this year’s fantastic monthly winners, on the Writer of the Month google site: WOTM. Connor’s winning piece will also be published, in full, in this year’s THISTLE magazine.
Keep up the wonderful writing McKinnon students; Writer of the Month will return in 2022!
Ms Liz Pentland
Writer of the Month Coordinator