English

The Writer's Room

Do you love reading and writing short stories and/or poems? This Creative Writing course is designed to take you through developing several key elements of creative writing, such as; setting, narrative and character development, poetic features, as well as developing language and structural features. Several writer’s workshops will focus on different skills, while you are provided time to perfect some of your own writing in a creative environment.  

Power of Persuasion (Analytical Writing)

Do you enjoy writing persuasive pieces, public speaking or debating? Are you interested in pursuing a career in journalism? This course is designed to extend your persuasive skills, in both writing and speaking, exploring key elements of media texts (online and print), news reports, debating, oral presentations and developing appropriate language features. You will engage in writing workshops that evolve your skills while you develop your voice on current issues in the media, creating an article for a student-run newspaper or zine. 

Maths

Year 10 Maths Support – Maths Methods

Year 10 Mathematics Support (General) is designed for students who would like additional support to develop the skills that are required for success in Year 10 General Mathematics. Typical learning activities will include the completion of: skill sheets; textbook exercises; problem-solving tasks, practice topic tests; practice examinations; and reflection tasks. Students will be assessed on their participation during in-class activities, collaboration with other students, as well as their reasoning and reflection skills.

Year 10 Maths Support – General Maths

Year 10 Mathematics Support (Methods) is designed for students who would like additional support to develop the skills that are required for success in Year 10 Mathematical Methods. Typical learning activities will include the completion of: skill sheets; textbook exercises; problem-solving tasks, practice topic tests; practice examinations; and reflection tasks. Students will be assessed on their participation during in-class activities, collaboration with other students, as well as their reasoning and reflection skills.

Language

Conversational Italian - Listening and Speaking

Students will hone in on their conversational and listening skills, using a range of Italian authentic text types such as songs, blogs, films, ads, YouTube clips, dialogues and instructional models. This elective will be based on designing specific activities, to boost students’ confidence and model the techniques required for success in the listening and speaking sections of the Year 10 and VCE exams. These techniques will also assist students when communicating in authentic, real-life situations. We will also provide techniques for differentiation in ‘speaking skills’, which will be explicitly taught to equip our students and assist them in putting together a ‘tool kit’ of various skills and repair strategies.

The long term data/feedback from VCAA and the VCE Chief Examiner indicates that it is critical for students to work on building a skill set that enables them to have a customised, methodical approach to listening activities and a higher level of authentic participation and resilience in speaking activities. This extra time for listening and speaking is in line with the extensive research that suggests that regular exposure to and practice using the target language, is an enormous advantage in language acquisition. This hands-on, skill-building, workshop-style mini method (with a central focus on Italian language immersion) would certainly extend and enhance students’ speaking and listening skills in Italian as well as set them up for greater success in VCE. 

Science

STEM

STEM is about the skills required to learn science, technology and mathematics, and how engineering and design processes are used to achieve an outcome.  Students need to identify a problem. They then create possible solutions to that problem, which can be tested. The skills are inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning. Students would be asked to design, build, test and re-design if necessary a solution to a problem. Presentation of a folio that shows the process from design to product creation and reflection.

Humanities

Entrepreneurship: Mini Business

In this unit, students focus on the value of enterprising and entrepreneurial behaviour to start and run a small business. Students will explore a number of topics that relate directly to commercial situations in everyday life including types of business ownership, structure, franchises, developing a business plan, marketing, location factors, ABN and business name registration.

Physical Geography and Sustainable Tourism - Sun, Surf and Sand

This unit is an in-depth study of coastal landscapes that incorporates both the study of Geography and Tourism. Students will examine coastal landscapes in both an Australian and a global context. What are the major challenges to the sustainability of coastal landscapes? How do people perceive and respond to these challenges? How has a holiday of sun, surf and sand impacted these delicate landscapes? Can you make a change today to protect our world in the future?

Health and Physical Education

Exercise Science

The course offers an introduction to the basics of VCE Physical Education. The practical component links theoretical content with activities whereby students review and analyse peer results and individual performance.

This subject will look at the human body from a physical activity and fitness perspective. It will investigate how the body changes and develops in response to physical activity. Students will explore Physical Education topics such as body systems (muscular, circulatory, respiratory and skeletal systems), acute responses to physical activity, the national physical activity guidelines, the social-ecological model and physical activity measurement tools. It would suit students who are interested in a future career pathway in health science, sports science, human movement, teaching, health promotion, nutrition or as a dietitian.

Inside Health

This subject is designed to prepare students for VCE Health and Human Development. The course will look at the human body from a health perspective. It will investigate how the body changes and develops as it moves through the different stages of the lifespan. It will look at Health topics such as human development, nutrition, agencies involved in health promotion and specific health issues throughout the lifespan. It would suit students who are interested in a future career pathway in health science, sports science, human movement, teaching, health promotion, nutrition or as a dietitian.

Arts

Visual Arts Folio Preparation

An advanced skills course for students who are intending to take either Studio Arts or Visual Communications in Year 11. It will cover; extension drawing, exploring a variety of media and writing for visual arts.

Media Extension

An advanced skills course for students who are intending to take Media in Year 11. It will build sound and vision editing skills, camera and light production techniques and scriptwriting techniques. It will also cover writing for film and discuss the way filmmakers and photographers create meaning for audiences.