English Department 2020

In 2020 last year’s team (Mrs Guerin, Mr Strachan, Mr McCarthy, Mr O’Brien and Mr Lange) were back

and we welcomed the return of Mr Leader in a Year 10 English class and Mrs Lee who rejoined the Year 9 Humanities team. Newcomer Mr Ryan was also added to Year 9 Humanities as was Mr Chen mid-year and Mr Barclay still had oversight of the Humanities’ programme.

The year started as usual with a review of NCEA results and planning sessions for the months ahead. However, whatever plans we had were thrown into disarray as we readied ourselves for what became increasingly clear would be a national lockdown and by March 25 we found ourselves in a new situation of distance teaching and learning dominated by increased use of technology, Teams meetings and an awareness of the need to upskill. Luckily our NCEA classes had all completed the first standard ready for marking and moderation.

Although Lockdown brought with it the added pressure of being on show and performing in an alien environment, staff and students all found advantages. Being able to go out for a walk every day in what turned out to be perfect late summer weather, greater freedom to organise the day to suit the individual’s requirements and of course being able to attend ‘class’ while still in bed!

We were all delighted at the reliability and commitment shown by students who almost without exception engaged with the online sessions and completed set tasks but by mid-May everyone was more than ready for a return to school and the “new normal” of social distancing and continual hand sanitising. Although we have now had an extended period of “safety” we are all aware of the need to be vigilant and this heightened awareness in both staff and students has contributed to the feeling that we will all be very glad when 2020 ends!

Work has continued fine-tuning the Humanities Connected programme and at the end of this the third year since its introduction a detailed review would be valuable. We look forward to Mr Leader’s input.

There has been increased emphasis in Year 10 this year on reading extended texts and this has proved successful with many students, especially as boys can read the novels as books, online and/or listen to them. This may lay a foundation for students to consider the Written Text external or the Personal Response standard in Year 11. This year every student was offered the opportunity to earn NCEA Level One credits when completing and delivering their speeches and several have been successful which gives them a start on the Level One Literacy credits required.

After lockdown, NCEA English classes concentrated on guiding students to completing as many internally-assessed standards as possible to earn a solid base of credits before turning attention to externally-assessed standards. Once the necessary total was reduced in response to the pandemic this became even more important and English credits have contributed to the extremely impressive results St Thomas’ students have achieved in the face of difficult times.

This year has also seen the return of the Library in L Block after too long an absence. The boys have relished the facility (and the comfortable couches) and there is increasing use of the space by classes. However, until there is a commitment to staffing the Library 100% its full potential will not be realised as a valuable support for teaching and learning.