Building on the high school program, and following the new Australian Curriculum, the Senior English Program guides students towards a deeper appreciation of language and texts. It teaches them how to respond to texts and compose their own to show understanding, interpretation, critical analysis and imagination.
The focus is on the ‘how’ and the ‘what’. In writing, for example, the goal is to teach students how to write for a particular audience, in a particular context for a specific purpose. This form (what) covers such things as short stories, descriptions and essays (persuasive, informative, discursive, comparative).
The program uses a multimodal approach. For example, students may learn the skills of narrative writing (as a persona) or a those of a comparative essay after studying William Shakespeare’s play, ‘Macbeth’, using a variety of resources: the original text, a graphic novel, web sites, a film, a theatre excursion and CGI.
As with all other courses, the focus is on providing students with the macro skills (particularly that of writing) that are taught, step by step, using the SSE’s well-proven formula for success.
The Senior English is a mere stepping stone away from the HSC.