Faculty News -

Humanities

Humanities

Given the much-referenced challenges of the last two years, there was so much to celebrate in our Humanities students’ achievements in their VCE examinations. The VCE History Revolutions results, in terms of the number of ‘40 plus’ scores (representing the top 9% of students in the state) were once more ranked in the top five in Victoria, and one of our VCE Geography students, Cameron McEwan, attained one of the College’s two ‘perfect’ study scores of 50! Indeed, all three Humanities subjects were ranked in the top 11 in the state for 40+s, meaning that Mazenod was the only school in the entire state to be in the top 12 for the number of 40+ scores in all three VCE Humanities subjects: History Revolutions, Global Politics & Geography. Furthermore, our Global Politics 40+ scores ranked Mazenod the highest of the Catholic boys’ schools in the state, and one of our VCE History Revolutions classes achieved the highest median study score in the entire College (a 38.5 raw median study score). Alongside Cameron’s outstanding result in Geography (Mr Adrian de Fanti’s third 50 in four years!), particular congratulations should be extended to Jerome Lawrence for being the College’s top scorer in VCE History Revolutions, and to Mateo Acosta Fernandez, who was our top scorer in VCE Global Politics. Such feats evince the skill and dedication of the teaching staff throughout the Humanities faculty, coupled with the very impressive efforts of our talented students.

The College Dux for 2021, James Russell, achieved his highest VTAC score in VCE History Revolutions whilst in Year 11, and was part of the highly successful History Enhancement program that was championed in The Age. The History Enhancement program begins in Year 7 and focuses on stretching our most able and passionate historians so that they can begin their VCE History study in Year 10. The Year 7 and 8 classes, led by Mr Joe Moore and Mr Noel McGarry, have already commenced, alongside our Year 9 Enhancement elective class taught by Mr Mal Spasic, with the intention that many of these Year 9 students will apply to take accelerated VCE History next year. 

Given the recent announcement by the VCAA that Victorian senior secondary students will this year have their literacy skills measured against new standards in a reformed GAT, there is all the more reason for students to undertake at least one VCE Humanities study to augment their literacy skills. Indeed, research carried out last year by the College showed that Humanities students, on average, outperformed non-Humanities students in their VCE English course, and for all but two years, this difference was statistically significant.

At the time of writing, the news is dominated by the conflict in Ukraine and its broader geopolitical ramifications. Such is the protean nature of international relations that much of what has been playing out is directly relevant to the VCE Global Politics course. Indeed, students in the last week have been analysing differing citations of the United Nations Charter by the belligerents, assessing the impact of the proposed International Criminal Court investigation, and evaluating the power and effectiveness of the United Nations to achieve its core aims. I fear later in the year, the Year 12s will also be studying the resultant refugee crisis as part of their Unit 4 study on People Movement. 

Finally, the faculty is delighted to formally welcome Mr Nick Redfern to our teaching team. As an experienced and highly successful senior Commerce teacher, he is already proving to be a much-valued member of our Year 7 History teaching team.

Mr Nick Young

Head of Humanities