The English Department

In our English classrooms this term, novels have been consumed and critiqued, films have been viewed and reviewed, creative juices have flowed and speeches have persuaded and informed.

In the senior years our Year 11s and 12s have been discussing key ideas and characters with each other in small Book Clubs, and Year 13s have become the teachers to one another, delivering mini seminars. Our junior classes have delved into various New Zealand novels, and experimented with visual and verbal language features.

Our keen writers have had a couple of great opportunities this term as well. In mid-June, three Year 7 students (Yolanda Liu, Sophie Wagner and Sophie Audeau) were selected to attend an afternoon junior writers’ workshop Capturing Tiny Tales, held at Port Chalmers School. The 30 students from across Dunedin schools thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to explore the creative writing process with talented and energetic writer, Heather McQuillan. The Writing Club also had their own opportunity to participate in a workshop with poet and founder and editor of Starling: Online Literary Journal, Louise Wallace. This was a unique experience for our students as she was able to help outline what makes an effective piece of writing, with the students paying close attention as Starling has an upcoming submission deadline.