On Wednesday 24 April the Year 12 ATAR English students participated in an incursion to assist them with exam preparation. We welcomed guest speaker Leanne Bondin who is an experienced ATAR teacher, WACE marker and author to the school to speak to the students specifically about preparing for the responding section of the exam. She also gave some insight into the moderation and scaling process. The students were given specific examples and study tips to assist in their preparation to understand course concepts and how to revise their studied texts.

The Year 10 English cohort have been studying Shakespearean sonnets. In class, they comprehended Sonnet 18, 141 and 147. To develop their understanding and engagement, the AE class competed in a treasure hunt around the school. In teams, they solved multiple clues embedded within sonnets. They had to decode the meaning for finding a location and password. During the treasure hunt, they visited Ms George at the front office, Ms Clues at the library, and Ms Wilkinson in her class. All the students were courteous and competed in good spirit. All the teams successfully completed the hunt within one lesson. Congratulations to the winning team of Charlotte Feltham, Isabella Coatsworth, Audrey Coetzee, Elouise Crum and Alisa Ovcharenko. 

To compliment the Shakespeare study happening in the classroom, a group of Year 10 students recently had the opportunity to attend a performance of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at the Heath Ledger Theatre in Northbridge. The play was performed by the Bell Shakespeare Company. It was an excellent opportunity to see how a play is staged and the students were able to observe the effect of theatrical elements such as lighting, set design, music and costume in action. During the play it was clear why Shakespearean plays were once such a major form of entertainment in Elizabethan and Jacobean times, as characters like Bottom had the audience laughing so hard that some of them cried! There was no shortage of applause, laughter and jeering from the audience at different parts in the play.

The Year 11 Literature class have been studying Australian prose and Greek theatre this term. They have explored the representation of place and people in Henry Lawson's 'The Drover's Wife' and Craig Silvey's 'Jasper Jones'. Students have developed their critical terminology, using a post-colonial lens to explore the ongoing impact of colonisation in these texts. They also produced their own creative writing that encapsulated their connection with the Australian landscape. Students have been immersed in the context and conventions of Greek theatre in their study of Sophocles' 'Oedipus Rex'.