ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

This year has seen some change in the English faculty. At the end of Term One we fare-welled Thomas Newton as he took his career to another stage with his appointment as DRS at Villa Maria College. During his time at St Thomas’ Tom was an inspirational and devoted teacher of English, History and Religious Education while setting a splendid example of sartorial elegance at all times (those pastel colours!) We wish him well and know that he will make a significant contribution to life at Villa. His leaving brought Thomas Tennent and Old Boy Chris Leader into the Faculty and they have each brought a fresh approach and enthusiasm to their classes which we have all appreciated.

2017 has been another busy year for English teachers with most of us enrolling and completing the Mindlab postgraduate course. We spent a good deal of time sharing our thoughts and insights and we have all once again realised the tendency to leave work till the last minute before the deadline is not solely a teenage habit!

We have also had several discussions about the major changes scheduled for the Year 9 Curriculum in 2018 when the English curriculum will be delivered as part of the Humanities Connected topic along with Social Sciences and Religious Education. This obviously requires a complete change of mindset from the traditional delivery of each curriculum area in separate or siloed subjects. Part of the challenge is that this is completely new territory for all of us and as there really are no templates to follow from other schools we are having to make a “leap of faith”. Planning is well underway for this first year and we are looking forward to a totally new approach which should eliminate the repetition of tasks and approaches across curriculum areas which has so bedevilled the middle school for so long.

Another exciting change is the introduction of “Selected” topics where teachers offer semester options in which they have specialist knowledge. Margaret Guerin is building on a unit of work devised this year to offer a course called “Superheroes”. Some very inventive work was completed this year in this unit which inspired her to offer this topic. Students were able to select from a variety of tasks to follow their own interests and special abilities in their creation of a new superhero. They used a variety of genres and methods including Minecraft, online comic creators such as storyboardthat.com and various movie editing programs. Boys spent time creating masks, cartoon strips, writing and performing raps, writing scripts and plot lines, designing merchandise to support their superhero as well as designing suitable transportation.

One example of student expertise is the short film made by Mitchell Barrett’s group in 9JO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjgdn_cgRQE&t=3s .

We are all looking forward to the proposed reinstatement of a Library facility as all teachers have been concerned about the loss of a “book-rich” environment which research tells us is so important for enriching literacy skills. Here’s to another exciting and challenging year in 2018!