ENGLISH SCHOLARSHIP

Do you love language, literature and ideas? Do you love to dig deeply into texts, to explore and to challenge? Do texts of all sorts move and matter to you? If so, Scholarship English is for you. You don't have to be an 'Excellence' English student to enjoy and succeed at Scholarship, and Year 12's are very welcome.

Attending the Scholarship English sessions will help with your overall English learning, and it's not necessary to commit to sitting the exam from the outset.

Viktor: I like the way Schol allows me to look through different lenses, you know? Like a post-colonial lens or feminist lens.

Keen students meet in the Library, after school, one day per week (in 2023 that's on a Monday, but this may change). Many students can't attend every session, but you do need to keep up with what's being covered by using our Google Classroom.

Students must also do their own reading and viewing, as well as reading texts we're exploring together. And you can of course expect to complete practice sections of the Scholarship paper during the year, as well as a derived grade exam in Term 3.

Scholarship English is assessed through a three-hour written exam at the end of the year. The exam includes three sections, all of which must be completed:

• Section A: Unfamiliar texts 

• Section B: Responding to literature (choose a genre)

• Section C: Exploring issues in literature (use a range of texts)

Aarnav: Schol gives me the tools to break down the texts I love, not just the ones in class.

Sam: It's good for showing me different types of texts I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise.

You need to:

• enjoy reading and viewing texts

• enjoy thinking about ideas, debating them, and forming compelling arguments in the form of literary essays (albeit with more freedom than that required in NCEA Levels 2 and 3)

• be an independent and motivated student

If you have questions, feel free to get in touch, or just to come along to try a session or two.

Connor: It challenges me to look at new, different texts I wouldn't read otherwise. The concepts explored by the author are much more complex than we can explore in class. I like that there is tea and snacks, even though the choice of biscuits could be better.