NBSC Balgowlah Boys Campus

The Boys Campus of the Northern Beaches Secondary College

Telephone02 9949 4200

Emailnbscbalgb-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

English

English study is mandatory in NSW from Kindergarten to Year 12.

In English, students learn about the study and use of the English language in its various textual forms. These encompass spoken, written and visual texts through which meaning is shaped, conveyed, interpreted and reflected. Complexity increases as students progress through their schooling.

Developing proficiency in English enables students to take their place as confident communicators; critical and imaginative thinkers; lifelong learners; and informed, active participants in Australian society. Their understanding of English through knowledge and skills acquisition is essential to their intellectual, social and emotional development.

The study of English should develop a love of literature and learning and be challenging and enjoyable. It develops skills to enable students to experiment with ideas and expression, to become active, independent and lifelong learners, to work with each other and to reflect on their learning.

In Year 11 and 12, the study of English is mandatory. Courses offered include:

  • English Extension 2
  • English Extension 1
  • English Advanced
  • English Standard
  • English Studies
  • English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D)
  • English Life Skills.

"Engaging students in a meaningful process of reflection and analysis as a conduit to a heightened understanding of both themselves and the epistemological and philosophical ambiguities of the human experience."


English
Debate

English


The Balgowlah Boys Campus English curriculum is tailored specifically for boys learning, advocating academic and personal growth through engagement, and embracing empathy, resilience and moral integrity as the defining parameters of personal growth.

 

Tracing the ongoing process of maturation that shapes experience in junior school, Stage 4 - 6 English engages the boys in an evolving process of reflection and analysis, examining the emerging relationship between young men and the world, and encouraging students to participate in a meaningful process of reflection and analysis to facilitate a greater understanding and awareness of themselves and the human experience.

 

Through an ongoing study of seminal literary works across a variety of text types, students engage with the complexities of human relationships, exploring masculinity, conflict, the ontological ambiguities concomitant with our contemporary fascination with the synthetic, as well as the shifting cultural, political and philosophical parameters of morality and ethics.

 

Supplemented by an ongoing and structured study of expression and literary analysis, we aim to develop the students' capacity to identify how ideas and values are explored in texts.

 

Our intention is to encourage not only an ongoing understanding of the relationship between language and meaning, but also an awareness of the way choices, decisions and actions affect their world.

 

In this way, the English curriculum is a study of all men, integral to our personal and collective identity, and fundamental to our understanding of the human condition.

 

 

Core Texts include:

 

Stage 4-5

  • Banjo Patterson; Collected Poems
  • Golding; Lord of the Flies
  • Lee; To Kill a Mockingbird
  • Remarque;All Quiet on the Western Front
  • Shakespeare; Romeo and Juliet
  • Shakespeare; Macbeth
  • Wright (Dir.)/Austen; Pride and Prejudice (2005)

 

 

Stage 6

  • Frost; Collected Poems
  • Huxley; Brave New World
  • Miller; The Crucible
  • Shakespeare; Hamlet
  • Shakespeare; King Lear