ENGLISH

Welcome to Term 2 English community. It has been a positive start to the term in English classes as students have settled back into the school routine. 

It was terrific to engage with families during the recent Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences at the end of Term 1. One of the most common pieces of advice for improvement from English teachers was for students to read for at least 20 minutes a day outside of school. 

Teachers and the helpful staff in the Library can provide students with book recommendations, including non-fiction texts. Reading is one of the simplest and most effective ways of improving comprehension, grammatical and general writing skills. As the old adage goes, “You can’t write what you haven’t read”. See the school’s Library website for text recommendations, book reviews and subscriptions to a range of useful organisations.

I’d now like to hand over to our head of Literature, Shane Papatolicas.

Charlotte Douglas

English KLA Manager

As the amount of students taking Literature is decreasing across Victoria, here at McKinnon our program continues to grow each year. With full classes at both Years 11 and 12, the investment by students in this subject is truly exciting. Having completed Margaret Atwood’s 590 page opus Alias Grace in Term One, our Year 12 class has now moved on to James Baldwin’s masterful philosophical essay on race in America, The Fire Next Time. While Atwood and Baldwin focus on two different forms of oppression (women and race) in two distinct historical periods, the fresh insight and understanding our students bring to the texts reveal both the progress and the continued presence of these social challenges we face today. 

Step into our classroom and you will hear them laugh, argue, speak out, take risks, be vulnerable, and complement one another while engaging in respectful discourse about the texts and some of the world’s most significant concerns. We are constantly bombarded with social media stories about addiction and mindless scrolling, but these students paint a much different picture. They are conscientious, concerned and passionate advocates of critical thinking and change, and I feel lucky to have the opportunity to teach them every day. 

Have a wonderful Term 2 English students, teachers and broader community.

Shane Paptolicas

Head of Literature