Mr John Crooks
Head of Faculty
English

It has been another very busy year in English at Mater Dei. We began the year with attendances by Year Twelve students at the Perth International Arts Festival production, Jandamarra, which afforded them the opportunity to engage with a relevant drama text as performance, and to experience how language and art address issues that affect our Western Australian community directly. Many Year Twelves also attended the English Seminar day at Curtin University midyear. The students were receptive to the advice from academics as to how approach their texts of study, and how best to express their responses to these texts. It has been gratifying for teachers of English to see an increasing awareness, on the part of the Year Twelve cohort generally, of the role language plays in the shaping of community attitudes. This awareness has been evident in classroom discussion, and in the students’ written responses, particularly in many of their final assessments.

Year Ten were privileged to see Macbeth performed at the College in Semester One.

Year Eight students also had the chance to see text production in action in 2008, visiting The West Australian newspaper’s Print Centre in Term Four. This complemented the Year Group’s programmed focus on news texts.

Year Eight, Nine and Ten students competed in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools again this year. Many students achieved outstanding results in the English and Writing competitions respectively, and all participating students are to be congratulated for their efforts.

I have appreciated the work of all the English teachers, a number of whom were new to the College this year, in delivering the nascent Courses of Study. The courses are working well, due in no small part to the efforts of teachers. It is well, too, that the students sustained a focused approach towards the end of Semester Two. Next year brings a new, and in some respects more demanding, examination system for Senior students.

John Crooks
Head of Faculty English

December 2008