ENGLISH

NAPLAN

After a productive Term 1, it’s been a positive start to the term in English classes. Years 7 and 9 students have been busy preparing for next week’s NAPLAN tests. Students and families can learn more about the tests and complete practice tasks through the NAPLAN Public Demonstration Site.

MEDEA - PERFORMANCE 

Year 9 Journalism students are preparing for their excursion to SYN FM, while this week Year 11 English students watched a performance of Euripides’ Ancient Greek play Medea from Complete Works Theatre Company (keep an eye out for the report in the next edition of the newsletter).

WRITING COMPETITIONS

Writer Of The Month continues to build with a huge number of entries already. Students are also encouraged to enter the wide range of writing competitions advertised on the Compass newsfeed. There’s plenty of prizes to be won and they’re a terrific way to practice your skills while having a say on things that matter to you. Talk to your English teacher for more information.

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING

Finally, it was terrific to engage with families during the recent Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences. One of the most common pieces of advice for improvement from English teachers was for students to read for at least 20 minutes a day outside of school. Teachers and the helpful staff in the Library can provide students with book recommendations, including non-fiction texts. Reading is one of the simplest and most effective ways of improving comprehension, grammatical and general writing skills. As the old adage goes, You can’t write what you haven’t read. See the school’s Library website for text recommendations, book reviews and subscriptions to a range of useful organisations.

Happy reading.

Sam Florence

English KLA Manager