Curriculum

Year 11 Semester 1 Academic Awards

In recognition of academic excellence over the first two terms of Year 11, the following students will be presented with their First Place in Course certificate for Semester 1 at a future Year meeting early next term.

2024-25 Stage 5 and Stage 6 Subject Prospectuses and Parent Information Evenings

As per last week’s issue of the Especean, a reminder that at the end of this week, the 2024-25 editions of the Stage 5 and Stage 6 Subject Prospectuses for Years 9 and Year 11 respectively will be posted on the TASS Parent Lounge for parents/carers and the relevant CANVAS year pages for the students.

A thorough and sequential subject selection process is in place and details of this process will be given at the appropriate times. On Tuesday 18 July, an information evening will be held firstly for parents/carers of Year 8 commencing at 6:00 PM and concluding at 6:45 PM and then for parents/carers of Year 10 commencing at 7:00 PM and concluding at 8:30 PM. Both parent/carer information sessions will be held in the College Hall. Students are not required to attend.

Subject information sessions will also be held for Year 10 students in the same week on the mornings of Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 July. An elective subject information morning for Year 8 students will be held on Wednesday 19 July. The purpose of the information evenings and sessions is to complement and clarify the information provided in the subject prospectuses and to provide details of the subject selection process.

Parents/carers of Year 10 boys should note that there will be Parent/Carer-Student/Teacher Subject Selection Interviews on Tuesday 22 August. For the majority of Year 10 boys, these interviews will be optional, however those boys with diverse learning needs or concerns around their ability to self-regulate and engage in their learning may require an interview. The interviews will be held before and after normal timetabled lessons on this day. It will be a normal school day for Year 10.

The Holidays and the Year 12 Trial HSC Examinations

Year 12 students are encouraged to use the upcoming holidays wisely and not to let the time pass without having done substantial preparation for the Trial HSC examinations which begin Monday 31 July, i.e., the third week back next term.

With just under six weeks to the Trial HSC examinations, the following is important information for Year 12 students and their parents/carers:

HSC Examination Marking Feedback and Sample Answers

Marking guidelines and sample answers for most HSC subjects from past examinations are available on the NESA website at:

https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/Understanding-the-curriculum/resources/hsc-exam-papers

Parents/carers of Year 12 ought to know that such resources are available and should encourage their sons to use them as part of their preparation for the Trial and HSC written examinations.

It is important to note that the sample answers provided are not student responses from the examinations nor are they intended to be exemplary or even complete answers or responses. Nonetheless, they are a most valuable resource for HSC students.

NESA publishes this information to assist teachers and students in understanding how the marking guidelines were implemented.

Checking HSC Details via Students Online

Year 12 students and their parents/carers are reminded that NESA’s Students Online facility is the students’ personal source for information about their HSC. It is imperative that every HSC student logs on to Students Online to check their personal details to ensure their name, courses, ATAR eligibility or status, address, email, and phone number are correct.

Change of address, email and phone number may be made in the personal details section of Students Online however, students and parents/carers are reminded that the College must also be informed of such changes. Changes to personal details are made via the Interim College Enrolments Officer, Mrs Michelle Barr, and course changes via the Director of Curriculum, Mr Michael Cutrupi.

Year 12 students ought to note their personal HSC timetable is now available on Students Online, their assessment ranks will be available after the last HSC examination has concluded on Friday 3 November through to Tuesday 29 November and their HSC results will be released on Thursday 14 December 2023.

Michael Cutrupi 

Director of Curriculum

Year 8 Languages Day

Languages Day was a fun-filled day which engaged all Year 8 students in the wonderful language and culture of Italy. Students participated in various activities throughout the day which immersed them into the multiple aspects of the Italian culture and life. There were six activities planned for our day, I Gesti where we spent time learning various gestures that Italians use in their everyday life alongside a very catchy song. 

Our next activity was Scenetta - learning to read a script in Italian and improvising actions to suit the script. Our third activity of the day was Calcio, a four-a-side football competition which involved promotion and relegation through the Champions League, the Premier League, and the Potato League. After that, we assembled in the Robson Auditorium to receive our recess which was an Italian classic known as the zuccherato, a cream-filled doughnut covered in sugar. 

Once when we had demolished our zuccherati, we gathered in the Powell Pavilion to make the pasta type known as orecchiette, ‘little ears.’ We then participated in a competitive game of bocce which enriched students with knowledge in the Italian sport. The final activity involved us taking a tour around Italy using virtual reality headsets. We wrote a postcard to our families recounting the trip in Italian. We received the best Italian lunch which was a delicious pizza margherita. 

To conclude the day, we returned to the Robson Auditorium to watch an Italian movie about a young footballer called Il Campione. After this day had concluded, the Year 8 cohort found themselves more connected to and enriched by the Italian culture and language.

Nicholas Morizzi | Samuel Naccarella 

Year 8 Italian Students

Year 10 Italian Interaction Day

On Monday 19 June, Year 10 Italian students travelled to Cerdon College in Merrylands for a memorable Interaction Day with the Cerdon girls. The morning began with a bus ride to the school, where we got ready to share our Italian skills, hoping to work on them and improve them together. Upon arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the girls and the staff. We started with an introduction activity where we all had our chance to share our names and something that we liked. We also completed a match-up activity as a warm-up. We answered questions in Italian and had to find one of the girls who had similar answers. This was a good way to interact and get to know each other a little bit before starting our 

activities. 

Our first activity was a Trivia game where we all partnered up with the girls to verse each other. We had 20 trivia questions which were asked to us in Italian and were all based on different aspects of Italian culture. Following this, we had recess which was a delicious ciambella alla nutella and juice. At this point many of us were socialising with the girls, asking each other countless questions to get to know each other. 

After recess, we were split up into three groups. We completed a rotation of activities targeting our Italian abilities in an attempt to develop our language skills. One activity called indovina la parola, involved us forming groups of three where one would face the back wall and the others would be given an Italian word on the whiteboard. The person facing away had to guess the word. Students were required to use Italian to describe what the word was without saying it or use gestures in the hope that the person facing away would guess the given word for a point. Another activity was a quick skit where students were given a scenario to act out in Italian. 

Some students spoke about a disaster at a restaurant while others made arrangements to watch a movie. These performances were presented to the whole group at the end of the day with a lot of laughs and prizes awarded. We also played a game of Celebrity Heads which focused on a student asking questions in Italian, in an attempt to guess the correct character. 

In between our activities, we all shared lunch together which was a large slice of pizza and an arancino. These were thoroughly enjoyed by all of us students. 

Towards the end of the day, we helped pack everything up before we said our goodbyes. We thank Ms Fisicaro and the staff at Cerdon College for taking the time to organise the day for us on Monday.  

Christian Angilletta

Year 10 Italian Student 

Ethics Olympiad

In recent weeks, a group of Year 10 and Year 6 students participated in the Ethics Olympiad. This is an international event, hosted online, with schools and judges from across Australia, New Zealand and even as far afield as Canada and India. The competition requires opposing teams of students to analyse and discuss real-life, current ethical issues. While it is competitive, collaboration between the teams is necessary with the aim of getting closer to the truth together. Students must defend the position they think is right while engaging in respectful discourse and considering varied perspectives on the issue.  This year’s senior ethical cases explored the question of mandatory national service, the place of anger in politics and the impact on society of neurotechnology, among others.  While the Junior students’ cases looked at the potential positive impacts of pollution, the use of photoshop in media as a form of deception, and the obligations and loyalty required in friendships.  

The students trained well to prepare themselves and grew in their ethical awareness and ability to think critically.  Alex Spadaccini, Luca Madejski and Alex Cavallo from Year 6 reported that they enjoyed being able to interact with and discuss issues with others.  “St Mark’s School from Western Australia really challenged our thinking”, they said.  “They put forward good statements.  Their clear and concise viewpoints helped to spread the discussion.” The boys worked well as a team, saying they very much enjoyed the experience together, “learning more about ethical issues and how to come to a conclusion”. 

The Year 10 students achieved a very close fourth place and an honourable mention from the judges, with the junior team also receiving an honourable mention. Congratulations to the boys! We look forward to forming a team of Years 7 to 9 students for the Middle School Olympiad later in the year.

Heidi Viney

Learning Enrichment Teacher