ENGLISH
English programs at St Vincent's College are consistent with the syllabuses provided by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW. However, with our group of dedicated teachers, we know our programs offer much more than the minimum requirements.
ENGLISH
English programs at St Vincent's College are consistent with the syllabuses provided by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW. However, with our group of dedicated teachers, we know our programs offer much more than the minimum requirements.
The aim of English at St Vincent's College is to inspire a life-long love of literature, reading, writing and communicating. The study of English provides students with exciting opportunities to explore how literature can help us to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us, and learn about experiences beyond our own personal contexts so that they can become engaged, empathetic and active global learners and citizens. Our English programmes align with the rationales and outcomes of the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) syllabuses and are underpinned by the Catholic Christian framework and College’s values, thus supporting students to develop and express a system of personal values.
Our pedagogies focus on fostering students to be creative, critical, collaborative and reflective in their processes of thinking, reading, writing and communicating. Our teaching practices offer choice and a variety of learning activities, allowing opportunities for all students to develop their self-efficacy and maximise their learning potential to become confident, rigorous and independent learners.
The English Department offers a range of enrichment activities for students to further explore their literary interests and capabilities, including the following:
- inviting published authors to speak to and work with students
- annual public speaking, creative writing and poetry competitions
- encouraging student participation in external English competitions, including ICAS competitions
Years 7 - 10 (Stages 4 and 5)
English is a mandatory subject and in Years 7-10 students study a wide range of literature, including classic and contemporary texts representing ideas about different human experiences. They are given opportunities to read and personally respond to texts which explore First Nations, intercultural, gender, youth and environmental perspectives across a variety of text types - these include poetry, speech, film, drama (including Shakespeare), prose fiction, non-fiction and digital/multimodal texts. They develop and hone their skills of analysis and creative
In collaboration with the Library at SVC, our programmes across Stages 4 and 5 provide students with opportunities to read for enjoyment to foster reading as a life-long pursuit.
Years 11 - 12 (Stage 6)
In Years 11 and 12 English continues to be a mandatory subject. The College offers the Standard 2 Unit course and the Advanced 2 Unit Course.
We offer English Extension Courses to students who wish to study three units of English in their Preliminary year and three or four units in their HSC year.
