At Geraldton Senior High School, the English team aims to Empower, Educate and Inspire all students. To achieve this outcome, every English teacher prioritises the building of positive relationships where students feel understood, where their strengths are acknowledged and where they feel the teacher cares about their progress and their welfare. In English, students are challenged to think critically about how the world around us works through reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing. English teaches students how to be confident communicators, independent thinkers and informed citizens. The English teacher believes in Success for All Students as we help them navigate an increasingly complex world.
Senior Secondary Courses
Students in Years 11–12 select from three English pathways:
ATAR English
(University-bound students)
The English ATAR course focuses on developing students’ analytical, creative, and critical thinking and communication skills in all language modes, encouraging students to critically engage with texts from their contemporary world, the past, and from Australian and other cultures. Through close study and wide reading, viewing and listening, students develop the ability to analyse and evaluate the purpose, stylistic qualities and conventions of texts and to enjoy creating imaginative, interpretive, persuasive and analytical responses in a range of written, oral, multimodal and digital forms.
General English
(TAFE, training or employment bound students)
The English General course focuses on consolidating and refining the skills and knowledge needed by students to become competent, confident and engaged users of English in everyday, community, social, further education, training and workplace contexts. The course is designed to provide students with the skills to succeed in a wide range of post-secondary pathways by developing their language, literacy and literary skills. Students comprehend, analyse, interpret, evaluate and create analytical, imaginative, interpretive and persuasive texts in a range of written, oral, multimodal and digital forms.
General/Foundation EALD
(Supports Aboriginal students to strengthen Standard Australian English and succeed across learning areas.)
The English as Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) courses are designed for students who speak another language or dialect as their first or ‘home’ language. EAL/D focuses on development of the competent use of Standard Australian English (SAE) in a range of contexts. The EAL/D General course prepares students for a range of post-secondary destinations in further education, training and the workplace. It provides opportunities for students to engage reflectively and critically with a broad range of spoken, written and multimodal texts. Students learn to create, individually and collaboratively, increasingly complex texts for different purposes and audiences in different forms, modes and media.
All courses are supported with tutoring, exam preparation and individualised feedback to ensure every student can achieve their potential.
Years 7-10
The lower school English curriculum is built around three interrelated strands: language, literature and literacy. Together, the strands focus on developing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and strengthen these as needed. In addition, the explicit instruction of meta-language is embedded into all course outlines to prepare them for English in their senior years. Year 7 and 8 classes have been provided with five blocks of English to strengthen and consolidate their literacy skills.
