Pennant Hills High School

Responsibility Integrity Achievement

Telephone02 9473 5000

Emailpennanthil-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.

Year 7 2021 student Olivia was shortlisted in the Poem Forest Competition. Olivia is one of only three Year 7 students from across Australia who placed in the final of this competition.

Olivia's piece was written after the Muogamarra Excursion, where she found inspiration for the native and natural imagery that feature in her outstanding poem. 

This is my home - by Olivia

This is my home

Where the sky meets the land

Blackened by fires

Scorched by the flames.

 

This is my home

Where the bush meets the water

Sprouting new shoots

A flurry of life.

 

This is my home

Where the cliff-tops touch the sky  

Stories are painted

Old times remembered.

 

This is my home

Where the animals roam free

Foraging and resting

The silence is deafening.

 

This is my home

Where the old meets the new

Wherever the light touches

A beautiful sight to see.

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.

Year 11 2021 student Angus had great success in the Kids Writing Competition run by Better Read Than Dead Bookshop.

Required to write on the theme of red, Angus wrote a short story A Colour with Many Meanings, which combines discursive writing with a short narrative in which a young man is forced to confront serious youth issues. His work has been published in print in a collection titled Colours Red. 

Below is an excerpt from his story:

The colour red. A bright, vibrant, happy colour. It catches the eye, it helps paint the sky a myriad of colours in the mornings and the evenings, turning it from a deep blue into a wild, vivid display. 

And yet, it is also the colour of danger, of pain, of blood. 

Animals coloured red are displaying that they are poisonous, or venomous, or dangerous in other ways. Red animals keep other animals away. 

Red plants, however, attract animals. Red flowers attract birds, which unknowingly collect the pollen from the flower, and fly away, spreading it far and wide so that a new generation of plants may take root and rise up from the soil. 

Red is a symbol of happiness, a symbol of beauty, a symbol of danger, of pain and blood, a deterrent, and an attraction.