English Faculty 2021

2021 has been busy for the teachers in the English Faculty. The year started with the news that Paul McCarthy would be leaving to take up a position at Christ’s College working with International students. Paul had given great service to St Thomas’ teaching English at all levels from Year 9 to Year 12. His background in ESOL teaching gave his students a solid foundation in the basics of reading and writing. He was also a valued colleague who contributed a great deal to our discussions and deliberations over the years. Although we will miss his wisdom and insights we wish him well in this latest step in his career.

Paul’s departure saw the arrival of Kathryn Morgan a very experienced teacher. She has brought a great depth of valuable knowledge to our meetings – not least her expertise in using the PaCT assessment tool!

The major concern for this year at school has been for the wellbeing/hauora of the school community and the English Faculty has been playing its part. We have responded to student voice and adjusted units of work and topics. One particular example was the new unit of work in Year 10 on Protests. This received very favourable response from the boys who appreciated the fact that all the work was based on real-life situations and issues. One recurring comment was “I never knew that..”

We have continued to offer a wide variety of ways for student work to be submitted for assessment to suit different styles of learning and used a range of presentation methods to engage our classes.

In senior classes we have continued to give extensive feedback to assist students and been as flexible as possible with due dates to limit pressure on students. This became even more important when we were put into lockdown again in Term Three. We found that classes responded well to shorter meetings and small group check-ins. This year the lockdown came at a more difficult time in the NCEA year and we are aware that some students are feeling pressure to complete the standards they need so we continue to be as understanding as possible.

For the first time this year Levels Two and Three will be doing their externally-assessed examinations digitally and we are confident this will be a positive change.

We look forward in 2022 to the upcoming changes at Level One where we plan to offer semester options that will be highly engaging while still allowing students to achieve the required number of credits. The following year will see the complete overhaul of Level One, once again based on the needs and interests of our students. At levels Two and Three we will offer thematically-based options to challenge and engage our students.

The last two years have been challenging for the country and we look forward to a more settled year in 2022