North Sydney Girls High School
Contexts
- School
North Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective high school. Our students represent the top 2% of the state in terms of academic ability. The school is ranked second in the Higher School Certificate results.
The school population is 922 students. There is a ceiling of 150 students in Years 7-10 and approximately 160 in Year 11 and Year 12.
77% are NESB (Non English Speaking Background) students (709 of the 922). There are 46 different languages spoken. The predominant language backgrounds are Chinese / Cantonese / Mandarin. Our Year 7 population is drawn from 60 different primary schools.
- Faculty
The English faculty has 12 staff and includes drama teaching and some history.
Most teachers have over 10-20 years teaching experience. There is currently one second year and one third year teacher.
In the junior school there are 5 classes with 30 in each. In the senior school all students do Advanced English. There are 7-8 classes of approximately 24 each.
In 2003 115 students are doing HSC Extension 1. There are 6-7 classes. 47 students completed Extension 2 English. There were 3 classes. There are 130 Preliminary Extension students.
Project team
- Head teacher: June Vickers
- Class teacher: Natina Eggleton (3rd year teaching)
- Class teacher: Chrisanthi Giacoumakis (2nd year teaching)
Focus
Each of the units has suggestions for additional content, however the units themselves are not prescriptive, so that teachers may select activities to suit their context. Some of the unit activities may well constitute additional content to an easier unit. We used units of work that were already used and assumed many other schools also used, so that the content might be incorporated into other schools' existing units as their additional content. We chose an introduction to Shakespeare because of the mandatory inclusion of Shakespeare in Stage 5 and picture books and film study because of the relatively recent emphasis on visual literacy and their inclusion in the essential content for Stage 4 and 5 texts.
Highlights of project
The main highlight was the opportunity for a team of staff to work together in the creative process, and the sharing of teaching and learning ideas. The allocation of a budget also was an added incentive that made working together affordable and possible.
The process was invaluable to the development of our faculty's understanding of the new syllabus because it gave an opportunity for us to engage more meaningfully with the outcomes and content. It meant we worked closely with the syllabus and its outcomes and that the units of work developed demonstrated links between outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment. In addition to the collegial circumstances, the project provided and opportunity to reflect on our current teaching practices.
The time taken to map the dimensions and the elements of the Quality Teaching discussion paper was also invaluable to both our faculty programming and the whole school programming of new junior syllabuses.
Materials
The Introduction to Shakespeare unit is designed to give Year 7 students an experience of the culturally significant works of William Shakespeare.
The Stage 4 film unit focuses on Shrek.
The Stage 4 Picture books unit looks at picture books as texts for teaching visual literacy.
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