English

The English classrooms provide a focused environment for personal and academic growth and enable students to share their understandings and insights into a variety of literary and non-literary texts.  The dedicated English teachers have a broad range of experiences, interests and skills which contribute to a multi-textured exposure to learning opportunities.  There is a deliberate balance across traditional, classic texts including the works of Shakespeare such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado About Nothing, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, and the poetry of Pablo Neruda, Maya Angelou and Kath Walker, as well as more contemporary texts in both print and visual form.

Skills in analytical and creative responses are built within each year level across a variety of genres and modes. Canterbury students produce an impressive range of assessment items, such as biographies, multimodal presentations, short stories, reflective journals, analytical expositions, letters, proposals, blogs and book trailers. With a deliberate focus on refining literacy skills, they explore the art of persuasion, communicating for a public audience and developing imaginative expression in both written and oral contexts.

Additionally, students are encouraged to explore a range of media in supporting their ideas through digital presentations. In addition to the many visual and print texts, students are also encouraged to be producers of their own texts and they build a repertoire of personal responses, such as humorous anecdotes, journal reflections, creative narratives and passionate speeches advocating for change.  Canterbury students build personal confidence skills as well as global awareness and empathy.

Embedded within the rich curriculum is a very deliberate and explicit focus on literacy.  Students are prepared with a clear foundation of skills for internal assessment as well as external NAPLAN testing through a regime of diagnostic and formative assessments which track development of strengths and enable pathways for interventions in learning. Literacy skills are reinforced in both formal and informal interactions and supported through access to additional tutorials for all year levels.

At Canterbury there is a full suite of English options to engage students at all levels of their academic development and areas of interest enabling options for future pathways to be determined and focused on their individual needs. In Years 7-9, the focus is predominantly on building foundational skills of the Australian Curriculum to prepare students for the challenges ahead. From Year 10 students are able to specialise into a pathway of their choice.

Within the classroom, the multi-faceted teaching approach incorporates a blend of collaborative group work, explicit instruction, and independent focus.  This variety of approaches develops a range of additional skills in cooperation and compassion, resilience, and critical and creative thinking. Students and teachers work together to enhance their learning and share their understandings with their peers.

Canterbury students are prepared for a world beyond the classroom as engaged and interested participants in a modern world, shaped and informed by literary appreciation and are able to articulate understandings with clarity and astute insight.