Unit 1 and 2 Subject Offerings

Choosing Your Subjects.

All Year 11 subjects in Semester One are Unit 1, Semester Two subjects are Unit 2. When you are choosing your subjects, you should aim to complete Unit 1 and 2 of your subjects, however, if a subject is not right for you, you can change in Unit 2.
You need to choose 6 subjects (12 units) for the year.
Vocational Education and Training subjects have (VET) in their title, with a fuller description in the VET Subjects section.

NOTE: All subject titles are a live web link to the full curriculum study design on the VCAA website, which will open in a new tab.

Subjects marked with an * can be chosen by year 10 students (subject to course counselling recommendations).

Step 1: Choose your English

You MUST complete an English subject. You can choose to do English or Literature – or you can do both. If you are unsure, talk to your English teacher.

ENGLISH:

Unit 1

Focus: reading and responding to texts analytically and creatively.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Reading and creating texts
Analysing and presenting argument

Unit 2

Focus: comparing the presentation of ideas, issues and themes in texts.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Reading and comparing texts
Analysing and presenting argument

LITERATURE:

Unit 1: Approaches to Literature

Focus: The ways in which the interaction between text and reader create meaning.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Reading practices
Ideas and concerns in texts

Unit 2: Context and Connections

Focus: The ways literary texts connect with each other and with the world.

AREAS OF STUDY:

The text, the reader, and their contexts
Exploring connections between texts

There are no ‘rules’ about what you have to choose as your remaining 4 subjects.

BUT – If you want to do a University course, you MUST check any prerequisites that you will need.

Step 2: Choose your Mathematics:

You don’t have to do a mathematics subject – but it is highly recommended that you do! If you are unsure, talk to your mathematics teacher.

Focus: Foundation Mathematics Units 1 and 2 provides for the continuing mathematical development of students entering VCE who do not intend to undertake Units 3 and 4 studies in VCE Mathematics in the following year. In Foundation Mathematics, there is a strong emphasis on the use of mathematics in practical contexts encountered in everyday life in the community, at work and at study.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Space, shape, and design
Patterns and number
Data
Measurement

FURTHER MATHEMATICS:

Unit 1 & 2

Focus: Further Mathematics provides for different combinations of student interests and preparation for study of VCE Further Mathematics at the Unit 3 and 4 level.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Algebra and structure
Arithmetic and number
Geometry, measurement and trigonometry
Graphs of linear and non-linear relations
Statistics

MATHEMATICAL METHODS:

Unit 1 & 2:

Focus: Mathematical Methods Units 1 and 2 provides an introductory study of simple elementary functions of a single real variable, algebra, calculus, probability and statistics and their applications in a variety of practical and theoretical contexts. It is designed as preparation for Mathematical Methods Units 3 and 4 and includes assumed knowledge and skills for these units. The foci of Units 1 and 2 are the study of simple algebraic functions and the study of simple transcendental functions along with the calculus of simple algebraic functions, respectively.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Functions and graphs
Algebra
Calculus
Probability and statistics

SPECIALIST MATHEMATICS:

(must be done in conjunction with Mathematical Methods)

Unit 1 & 2:

Focus: Specialist Mathematics Units 1 and 2 provide a course of study for students who wish to undertake an in-depth study of mathematics, with an emphasis on concepts, skills and processes related to mathematical structure, modelling, problem solving and reasoning. This study has a focus on interest in the discipline of mathematics in its own right and investigation of a broad range of applications, as well as development of a sound background for further studies in mathematics and mathematics related fields. It is designed as preparation for Mathematical Methods Units 3 and 4 and Specialist Mathematics Units 3 and 4 and includes assumed knowledge and skills for these units.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Arithmetic and number
Geometry, measurements and trigonometry
Graphs of linear and non-linear relations
Algebra and structure
Transformations, trigonometry and matrices
Discrete mathematics
Statistics

Step 3: Choose the rest of your subjects:

Remember - There are no ‘rules’ about what you have to choose as your remaining subjects.

BUT – If you want to do a University course, you MUST check any prerequisites that you will need.

Following, you will find the other Unit 1 & 2 subjects offered at Red Cliffs Secondary College next year, listed in alphabetical order. Remember – you can only do a total of 6 subjects, so if you have chosen English and Further Mathematics (for example), you can only pick 4 more.

ACCOUNTING:

Unit 1: Establishing and operating a service business

Focus: Establishment of small business and the accounting and financial management of the business.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Going into business
Recording financial data and reporting financial information

Unit 2: Accounting for a trading business

Focus: Accounting for a sole proprietor of a single activity tracking business.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Recording financial data and reporting financial information
ICT in accounting
Evaluation of business performance

APPLIED FASHION DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY:

CERTIFICATE II (VET)

This Nationally Accredited Certificate provides students with the knowledge and skills to enhance their employment prospects in the fashion design and textile production industries. Students develop skills used in the design and production of garments and millinery, as well as in the development of unique fashion and textile designs.

This is a two year VCE program and will potentially contribute to your ATAR at the end of Year 12.

Please see full details in the VET Subjects Section.

* BIOLOGY:

Unit 1: How do living things stay alive?

Focus: The cell as the structural and functional unit of life, from the single celled to the multicellular organism, and the requirements for sustaining cellular processes in terms of inputs and outputs.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How do organisms function?
How do living systems sustain life?
Practical investigation

Unit 2: How is continuity of life maintained?

Focus: Cell reproduction and the transmission of biological information from generation to generation.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How does reproduction maintain the continuity of life?
How is inheritance explained?
Investigation of an issue

BUSINESS:

CERTIFICATE II (VET)

This Nationally Accredited Certificate provide students with the knowledge, skills and competency that will enhance their training and employment prospects within a broad range of business and industry settings. It will enable participants to gain a recognised credential and make an informed choice of vocation or career path.

This is a two year VCE program and will potentially contribute to your ATAR at the end of Year 12.

Please see full details in the VET Subjects Section.

* BUSINESS MANAGEMENT:

Unit 1: Planning a business

Focus: Factors affecting business ideas; internal and external environments within which businesses operate; effect of environments on planning a business.

AREAS OF STUDY:

The business idea
External environment
Internal environment

Unit 2: Establishing a business

Focus: The establishment phase of the life of a business.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Legal requirements and financial considerations
Marketing a business
Staffing a business

CHEMISTRY:

Unit 1: How can the diversity of materials be explained?

Focus: The chemical properties of a range of materials from metals and salts, to polymers and nanomaterial.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How can knowledge of elements explain the properties of matter?
How can the versatility of non-metals be explained?
Research investigation

Unit 2: What makes water such a unique chemical?

Focus: The chemical and physical properties of water, the reactions that occur in water, and various methods of water analysis.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How do substances interact with water?
How are substances in water measured and analysed?
Practical investigation

* DANCE:

Unit 1: Dance

Focus: Exploring the potential of the body as an instrument of expression

AREAS OF STUDY:

Dance perspectives
Choreography and performance
Dance technique and performance
Awareness and maintenance of the dancer’s body

Unit 2: Dance

Focus: Expanding students’ personal movement, vocabulary and choreographic skills through the exploration of the elements of movement: time, space, and energy and the study of form.

AREAS OF STUDY

Dance perspectives
Choreography, performance, and dance-making analysis
Dance technique, performance and dance analysis

* FOOD STUDIES:

Unit 1: Food origins

Focus: Food from historical and cultural perspectives

AREAS OF STUDY:

Food around the world
Food in Australia

Unit 2: Food makers

Focus: Food systems in contemporary Australia

AREAS OF STUDY:

Food industries
Food in the home

* HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT:

Unit 1: Understanding health and wellbeing

Focus: Health and wellbeing as concepts with varied and evolving perspectives and definitions.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Health perspectives and influences
Health and nutrition
Youth health and wellbeing

Unit 2: Managing health and development

Focus: Transitions in health, wellbeing, and development, from lifespan and societal perspectives.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Developmental transitions
Healthcare in Australia

* HISTORY - TWENTIETH CENTURY:

Unit 1: Twentieth Century History 1918-1939

Focus: The nature of political, social, and cultural change in the period between the world wars.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Ideology and conflict
Social and cultural change

Unit 2: Twentieth Century History 1945-2000

Focus: The nature and impact of the cold war and challenges to existing political, economic and social arrangements in the 2nd half of the twentieth century.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Competing ideologies
Challenge and change

HOSPITALITY (KITCHEN OPERATIONS):

CERTIFICATE II (VET)

This Nationally Accredited Certificate provides students with an overview of the dynamic hospitality industry. The basic knowledge and skills developed in the fully functioning kitchen focuses on preparing, cooking and plating food, during completion of this course you will receive a Food Handlers Certificate.

This is a two year VCE program and will potentially contribute to your ATAR at the end of Year 12.

Please see full details in the VET Subjects Section.

INFORMATION, DIGITAL MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY:

CERTIFICATE II (VET)

CERTIFICATE III (PARTIAL COMPLETION) (VET)

This Nationally Accredited Certificate provides students with the knowledge, skills and competency that will enhance their training and employment prospects in the information and communications technology and related industries.

This is a two year VCE program and will potentially contribute to your ATAR at the end of Year 12.

Please see full details in the VET Subjects Section.

LABORATORY SKILLS (2) - CERTIFICATE III (VET)

This Nationally Accredited Certificate provides students with the knowledge, skills, and competency that will enhance their employment prospects in the laboratory operations industries. It will also enable participants to gain a recognised credential and to make an informed choice of vocation or career path.

This is a two year VCE program and will potentially contribute to your ATAR at the end of Year 12.

Please see full details in the VET Subjects Section

* LEGAL STUDIES:

Unit 1: Guilt and Liability

Focus: Understanding legal foundations, such as the different types and sources of law and the existence of a court hierarchy in Victoria.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Legal Foundations
The presumption of innocence
Civil liability

Unit 2: Sanctions, remedies and rights

Focus: The enforcement of criminal law and civil law, the methods and institutions that may be used to determine a criminal case or resolve a civil dispute, and the purpose and types of sanctions and remedies and their effectiveness.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Sanctions
Remedies
Rights

* MEDIA:

Unit 1: Media forms, representations and Australian stories

Focus: Developing an understanding of audiences and the core concepts underpinning the construction of representations and memory, and different media forms.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Media representations
Media forms in production
Australian stories

Unit 2: Narrative across media forms

Focus: Developing an understanding of the concept of narrative in media products and forms in different concepts.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Narrative style and genre
Narratives in production
Media and change

* MUSIC PERFORMANCE:

Unit 1: Music Performance

Focus: The development of students’ performance and musicianship skills to present performances of selected group and solo music works using one or more instruments.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Performance
Preparing for performance
Music language

Unit 2: Music Performance

Focus: Building performance and musicianship skills.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Performance
Preparing for performance
Music language
Organisation of sound

MUSIC INDUSTRY:

CERTIFICATE III (VET)

This Nationally Accredited Certificate provides students with the knowledge, skills, and competency that will enhance their employment prospects in the music and creative arts industries. It will also enable participants to gain a recognised credential and to make an informed choice of vocation or career path.

This is a two year VCE program and will potentially contribute to your ATAR at the end of Year 12.

Please see full details in the VET Subjects Section.

* PHYSICAL EDUCATION:

Unit 1: The human body in motion

Focus: How the musculoskeletal and cardio-respiratory systems work together to produce movement.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How does the musculoskeletal system work to produce movements?
How does the cardio-respiratory system function at rest and during physical activity?

Unit 2: Physical activity, sport and society

Focus: Understanding physical activity, sport and society from a participant perspective.

AREAS OF STUDY:

What are the relationships between physical activity, sport, health and society?
What are the contemporary issues associated with physical activity and sport?

PHYSICS:

Unit 1: What ideas explain the physical world?

Focus: How physics explain phenomena, at various scales, which are not always visible to the unaided human eye.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How can thermal effects be explained?
How do electric circuits work?
What is matter and how is it formed?

Unit 2: What do experiments reveal about the physical world?

Focus: The power of experiments in developing models and theories.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How can motion be described and explained?
Options
Practical Investigation

* PRODUCT DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY: TEXTILES or WOOD:

Unit 1: Sustainable product redevelopment

Focus: Analysis, modification, and improvement of a product design with consideration of sustainability.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Sustainable redevelopment of a product
Producing and evaluating a redeveloped product

Unit 2: Collaborative design

Focus: Factors including end-user/s’ needs and wants; function, purpose, and context for product design; aesthetics; materials and sustainability; and the impact of these factors on a design solution.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Designing with a team
Producing and evaluating within a team

* PSYCHOLOGY:

Unit 1: How are behaviours and mental processes shaped?

Focus: The structure and functioning of the human brain and the role it plays in the overall functioning of the human nervous system.

AREAS OF STUDY:

How does the brain function?
What influences psychological development?
Student-directed research investigation

Unit 2: How do external factors influence behaviour and mental processes?

Focus: How perception of stimuli enables a person to interact with the world around them and how their perception of stimuli can be distorted.

AREAS OF STUDY:

What influences a person’s perception of the world?
How are people influenced to behave in particular ways?
Student-directed practical investigation

* SOCIOLOGY:

Unit 1: Youth and family

Focus: Exploring the social category of youth and the social institution of family in Australian and other societies.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Category and experience of youth
The family

Unit 2: Social norms: breaking the code

Focus: Exploring the concepts of deviance and crime.

AREAS OF STUDY:

What is normal and deviant behaviour in society and who decides?
Why do people commit crimes in society?

* STUDIO ARTS:

Unit 1: Studio Inspiration and techniques

Focus: Developing an individual understanding of the stages of studio practice, and how to explore, develop, refine, resolve, and present artworks.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Researching and recording ideas
Studio practice
Interpreting art ideas and uses of materials and techniques

Unit 2: Studio exploration and concepts

Focus: Establishing and using a studio practice to produce artwork.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Exploration of studio practice and development of artworks
Ideas and styles in artworks

* THEATRE STUDIES:

Unit 1: Pre-modern theatre styles and conventions

Focus: In VCE Theatre Studies, students interpret scripts from the pre-modern era to the present day and produce theatre for audiences.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Theatre styles and scripts from the pre-modern era
Interpret and present theatre works
Analyse theatre works

Unit 2: Studio exploration and concepts

Focus: In VCE Theatre Studies, students interpret scripts from the modern era to the present day and produce theatre for audiences.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Theatre styles and scripts from the modern era
Interpret and present theatre works
Analyse professional theatre works

* VISUAL COMMUNICATION AND DESIGN:

Unit 1: Introduction to visual communication and design

Focus: Visual language to communicate messages, ideas, and concepts; and the stages of the design process: research, generation of ideas; development of concepts; and refinement of visual communication.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Drawing as a means of communicating
Design elements and design principles
Visual communications in context

Unit 2: Applications of visual communication within design fields

Focus: Application of visual communication design knowledge, design thinking, and drawing methods to create visual communications to meet specific purposes in designated design fields.

AREAS OF STUDY:

Technical drawing in context
Type and imagery
Applying the design process

VCAL

A VCAL program must be designed to meet the VCAL course requirements, ensuring that the curriculum selected is consistent with the purpose statement of the curriculum strand at the award level. Each student is enrolled in a program that includes curriculum from each of the following strands:

Literacy and Numeracy Skills
Industry Specific Skills
Work Related Skills
Personal Development Skills.

To be awarded a VCAL qualification, students must successfully complete a program that contains a minimum of 10 credits. A credit is gained for successful completion of a unit of study. A unit of study can be:

one VCAL unit
one VCE unit
90 hours of completed VET modules or units of competence and/or FE modules.

A student’s VCAL program must include:

a minimum of two VCAL units
at least one Literacy unit*
at least one Numeracy unit*
at least one unit from the Industry Specific Skills strand. (At the VCAL Intermediate and Senior levels, the learning program must also include accredited VET curriculum components to the value of a minimum of one credit in the Industry Specific Skills strand.)
at least one unit from the Work Related Skills strand
at least one unit from the Personal Development Skills strand
six credits at the VCAL level attempted (Foundation, Intermediate or Senior) or above. One of these credits must be for Literacy and one must be for Personal Development Skills.

*If using VCAL units to meet the eligibility requirements of the literacy component of the VCAL Literacy and Numeracy Skills Strand, the Reading and Writing unit must be completed at the award level or above. If using VCAL units to meet the eligibility requirements of the numeracy component of the VCAL Literacy and Numeracy Skills Strand, a Unit 1 numeracy unit must be completed.

Students may carry credit forward from the previous award level into the level in which they are currently enrolled. However, credits allocated at Foundation level (VCAL Foundation units, VET and FE units at Level 1) cannot contribute to the Senior Level.

One credit is awarded on successful completion of 90 nominal hours of accredited VET curriculum.

The VCAL program may also contain curriculum components drawn from VCE studies and FE accredited curriculum. One credit is awarded on successful completion of 90 nominal hours of accredited FE/VET curriculum, or on successful completion of a VCE unit.