English
Language and text shape our understanding of ourselves and our world. This allows us to relate with others, and contributes to our intellectual, social and emotional development. In English, students study language in its various textual forms, which develop in complexity, to understand how meaning is shaped, conveyed, interpreted, and reflected.
Students engage with literature from Australia, including the rich voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and from across the world. These texts communicate in distinctive ways and are shaped by lived experiences, knowledge, cultures, and connections. By exploring historic and contemporary texts, representative of a range of cultural and social perspectives, students broaden their experiences and become empowered to express their identities, personal values and ethics.
Students build on their foundational literacy skills from K-6. This enables them to learn about and control language in a range of increasingly sophisticated contexts.
Through interrelated practices and experiences in understanding and creating texts, students learn about the power, purpose, value and art of English. The development of these interconnected skills and understandings supports students to become confident communicators, critical and imaginative thinkers, and informed and active participants in society.
Year 7 English
TERM ONE: YOUTH AND POWERFUL VOICES
Students will develop an awareness of how an engaging writing voice can be used to effectively communicate ideas that are important to young people. Focusing on memoirs and performance poetry, this program supports students to appreciate the connection between style and a strong personal voice. Students then compose with an awareness of audience, purpose and context in order to have a powerful impact on their audience.
TERM TWO: SEEING THROUGH A TEXT
Students will explore how visual texts are constructed to position the reader. They will investigate how the codes and conventions of visual texts are used to communicate ideas, issues and experiences. Students then respond analytically and creatively to a range of visual forms, exploring and experimenting with the unique suggestive power of visual forms.
TERM THREE: ESCAPE INTO THE WORLD OF A NOVEL
Students will explore the worlds created within quality prose fiction to expand their personal responses and experiences of reading. They will investigate how emotional and intellectual responses to an author’s use of narrative, genre and characterisation shape understanding of worlds of fiction and connections to the wider world. They then express their understanding both creatively and analytically.
TERM FOUR: “SPEAK THE SPEECH” – DRAMA AND FILM STUDY
Students will develop their understanding of how spoken word texts provoke a dynamic interaction between composer and responder. Students will trace the evolution of the spoken word from traditional forms of oracy to a contemporary culture of multimodal texts. Students will experiment with writing and delivering a range of spoken forms to deepen their understanding of the reciprocal relationship between composer and responder.
Year 8 English
TERM ONE: KNOWING THE RULES AND HOW TO BREAK THEM
Students will develop an understanding of the ways composers use and experiment with the textual forms and features of poetry to express ideas and position readers. They will explore how intertextuality with older texts and traditions can enrich meaning. They transfer these understandings to their own poetic compositions, engaging with and subverting poetic forms and features in purposeful ways. Students will compose creatively and analytically using the recursive writing process to communicate with clarity and for effect.
TERM TWO: TRANSPORT ME TO THE REAL
Students will develop an understanding of the ways composers use and experiment with the textual forms and features of poetry to express ideas and position readers. They will explore how intertextuality with older texts and traditions can enrich meaning. They transfer these understandings to their own poetic compositions, engaging with and subverting poetic forms and features in purposeful ways. Students will compose creatively and analytically using the recursive writing process to communicate with clarity and for effect.
TERM THREE: “PAGE TO STAGE” – NOVEL AND DRAMA STUDY
Students will explore the ways in which a written text can be brought to life on the stage. They will explore the way representation in drama can challenge or reaffirm the values and ideas present in an original text. They will examine how a composer’s perspectives can be represented in a performed piece, expanding their understanding of the power of live performance. They then experiment with writing for the stage in order to engage and impact the audience.
TERM FOUR: THE CAMERA NEVER LIES
Students will develop an understanding of the ways viewers of film are emotionally positioned to respond. They will expand their understanding of what it means to examine a visual text through a critical lens. Students will consider the ways that film can be used as a medium to share cultural expression and tell different stories. They will demonstrate this understanding through creative, informative and analytical spoken and written responses.
Year 9 English
TERM ONE: REPRESENTATION OF LIFE EXPERIENCES
Students will deepen their understanding of how language forms and features are used in narrative. They will compose an imaginative response that represents a thematic concern. This imaginative piece could use hybrid forms of narrative. Students will experiment with narrative code and convention. This will help them to craft their ideas with the intention of positioning their audience.
TERM TWO: SHINING A NEW (STAGE) LIGHT
Students will deepen their understanding of how a composer’s context shapes their perspectives and representations. Through engaging with a drama text, students will evaluate how and why drama is a compelling way to represent ideas, experiences and stories. Students will interpret the perspectives presented through the drama script and analyse how the playwright communicates powerful ideas.
TERM THREE: POETIC PURPOSE
Students will develop their appreciation of how poetry allows composers to experiment with language, form and style for a specific purpose and audience. Students will study a collection of poems by Aboriginal poets and analyse the way the texts affirm or challenge diverse and complex perspectives and experiences. They will evaluate how poetry prompts responders to reflect, make connections and expand their understanding of others and the world.
TERM FOUR: EXPLORING THE SPECULATIVE
Students will develop their appreciation of how poetry allows composers to experiment with language, form and style for a specific purpose and audience. Students will study a collection of poems by Aboriginal poets and analyse the way the texts affirm or challenge diverse and complex perspectives and experiences. They will evaluate how poetry prompts responders to reflect, make connections and expand their understanding of others and the world.
Year 10 English
TERM ONE TO TWO: NOVEL VOICES
Students engage with a novel to explore how authors use narrative conventions to represent ideas and shape meaning. As they study the teacher-selected novel, students deepen their understanding of how elements of prose fiction and point of view can be used to influence a reader’s response to the text. Students will explore how characters in texts can be lifelike constructions with whom an audience can establish intellectual and emotional connections.
TERM TWO – THREE: RESHAPING THE WORLD
Students will explore a collection of poems from the Romantic era which reflect the values and concerns of that period. Throughout their study, students will consider the enduring and universal power of poetry to connect with new audiences in different contexts. Students will gain a deep appreciation of how the aesthetic qualities and stylistic features of Romantic poetry can represent larger ideas and philosophies.
TERM THREE – FOUR: SHAKESPEARE RETOLD
Students will engage in a study of a Shakespearean play and a modern film adaptation to examine the meaningful connections made between the texts. During their study of a Shakespearean play, students analyse how characters are constructed to develop an appreciation of the universality of Shakespeare’s characters. As students examine the modern adaptation of the play, they will consider how a composer’s contextual, creative and unconscious influences might impact their interpretation of and response to the text. Students will write discursively in response to the universal appeal of Shakespeare’s characters.
EMBEDDED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR: THE WRITE WAY
Students will engage in a study to develop their writing skills, explicitly developing skills in creative, discursive and persuasive writing forms. Students will draw on knowledge developed throughout their junior schooling to develop character, setting, theme and point of view within their own writing. They will engage with a range of short text extracts to model effective writing skills and to guide them in their own compositions.
| Stage Six English | |
| Advanced English |
ADVANCED ENGLISH English Advanced 11–12 provides students the opportunity to refine their understanding of the dynamic relationship between language, texts and meaning through critical study, and the skillful and creative use of language forms, language features, and structures of texts composed for different purposes in a range of contexts. Students develop the knowledge to question, reconsider and refine meaning through language, and to reflect on their own processes of responding, composing and learning. Year 11 · Reading to Write: Transition to English Advanced · Narratives that shape our world · Critical study of Literature Year 12 · Texts and human experiences · Textual conversations · Critical study of Literature · The craft of writing |
| Standard English |
STANDARD ENGLISH English Standard 11–12 provides students with the opportunity to analyse, study and enjoy a breadth and variety of English texts, in order to become confident and effective communicators. Students develop the knowledge to analyse, reconsider and refine meaning, and to reflect on their own processes of responding, composing and learning. Year 11 · Reading to write: Transition to English Standard · Contemporary possibilities · Close study of literature Year 12 · Texts and human experiences · Language, identity and culture · Close study of literature · The craft of writing |
| English Studies |
ENGLISH STUDIES English Studies 11–12 provides students the opportunity to explore the ideas, values, language forms, features and structures of texts from a range of contexts. Through responding to and composing texts, students strengthen their ability to access and comprehend information, assess its reliability and synthesise the knowledge gained from a range of sources for a variety of purposes. Year 11 · Reading to write: Transition to English Studies · Elective focus areas Year 12 · Narrative and human experiences · Writing for purpose Elective focus areas |
Renaissance Reading
Here at Blayney High School, we aim to improve students reading and comprehension skills, while fostering a love for reading.
We have students participate in Renaissance Reading. An online program that assesses a student’s reading ability, determines a level for books they should be accessing and tracks their reading progress. Through this program, we have seen students make significant improvements in their abilities and find a genuine passion for reading that extends to their study of English.
At the beginning of each Semester, students will complete the STAR reading assessment that will determine their Zone for the next two terms. Books in the library are identified into Zones using stickers. A Zone is determined by the difficulty of the language/words in the text, not by the length or subject matter of a text.
As students complete their reading, they complete a quiz on the text and gain points for their reading. This is rewarded through school merits and invitations to participate in reward excursions.
Our new Junior English syllabus requires all students to engage in the independent reading of texts, and to demonstrate their understanding of material. As a result, we are introducing all juniors to Reading Journals, which they will complete once a fortnight based on their reading. These entries will be checked and monitored as part of our assessment of students. These entries will be completed during the Renaissance Reading lesson in the library, where students will also be able to borrow new texts and complete quizzes.
Every English lesson begins with 10 minutes silent reading. Students are expected to have their books for each lesson. As with other equipment requirements, there will be signature consequences for students who repeatedly do not bring their book to class to read. During this time, students may be asked to read aloud one-on-one with the teacher or SLSO. To support the reading completed in class, it is expected that students are completing 15-20 minutes reading per day at home. This can be completed independently, or your child can read with you. With the increasing popularity of Audiobooks, you may also use this tool to support your child’s reading.
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