Our Goals

This term, Year 9 will study the role of poetry as a vehicle for protest in society. Students will consider how form and language have the power to sway or challenge opinion, influence government and politics and incite action. Students will identify the role of poetry or song lyrics as catalysts for resistance and empowerment, examining a variety of poems and song lyrics from different contexts and our contemporary context. 

They will refamiliarise themselves with poetic techniques and poetic forms and how these shape meaning in a text. Students will study a number of set poems and song lyrics which will be examined in the assessment task as well as a selection of poems/song lyrics chosen by their teachers. Students will also develop skills in writing their own poem of protest. 

Students will consider the textual concept of authority. They will consider the authority over a text and how this  interacts with the role of the responder who brings his or her own interpretations onto the text. Students will understand that the authority of a text is often determined by its appropriate style, its reference to accepted experts and its context of publication.

Our Goals

This is a conceptual unit which will investigate the concept of individuals being "caught between worlds”. This concept will be the close study of Ghost Bird by Lisa Fuller as a core text, students will investigate the causes, realities and consequences for individuals who are "caught between worlds”.

The novel follows protagonist Stacey as she grapples with the disappearance of her twin sister, May, and uncovers dark, unsettling truths about her family and community. Stacey's journey reveals the tensions between the modern and the traditional, the spiritual and the tangible, and the cultural clash between Indigenous heritage and contemporary life.

Students will explore how these tensions manifest in Stacey’s life, and in the lives of those around her, as they navigate issues of cultural identity, family ties, and belonging. By closely analysing key passages, characters, motifs and symbols in the novel, students will reflect on their own experiences of being caught between different worlds—whether cultural, familial, or societal—and how these moments shape one's sense of self.

This unit provides an opportunity for students to engage critically with the novel while also reflecting on their own identities and the spaces they inhabit. Through Ghost Bird, they will deepen their understanding of the complexities of cultural duality and the universal human experience of being "caught between worlds."

Our Goals

In this unit, students will explore and analyse Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth,  as a way of appreciating and understanding how theatre presents aspects of human nature.  They will consider the nature and conventions of tragedy, and how the play has been shaped to examine central notions of power and ambition, fate and destiny, loyalty and betrayal, morality and immorality, guilt, the nature of conflict, and the deceptiveness of appearances.  Students will then study an appropriation of Macbeth, exploring how it reflects the universality of Shakespeare's works and the ability of his message to transcend time. 

Our Goals

In this genre study, students build on their understanding of the ways texts reflect the values and attitudes of a society. They explore the conventions of the crime genre and consider how this genre has developed and changed in varying contexts (Victorian England to today). Students compare and contrast the language, structures and content of a range of written, film and media texts to consider the ways texts influence audience response. In applying this knowledge, students will create imaginative texts that integrate their understanding of the conventions, values and attitudes of the genre.

Assessment Tasks