English
English is a compulsory subject at Champion Bay Senior High School. Students studying English at CBSHS are assessed in Writing, Speaking and Listening, Reading and Viewing.
At Champion Bay Senior High School, students have contact time with their English teacher for four hours a week. During this time, students are taught the content of the Australian Curriculum and their literacy is promoted in a variety of ways. Each student is to keep a journal (which is assessed each semester) in which they respond to a variety of texts: discussing both their purpose and the effect of conventions utilised to create the text. We also focus on visual symbolism, investigating how still images, film and symbols give meaning. Each week, English teachers focus on one area of literacy from the Champion Bay Senior High School Planner, e.g. antonyms.
Students facing difficulty in English at Champion Bay Senior High School can utilise a number of services. We have a Reading teacher who offers small group assistance to low/reluctant readers. Students are also placed on an Individual Education Plan by their classroom teacher, scaffolding tasks to ensure progress in literacy skills. We also have streaming in which students are placed in lower or higher ability classes to ensure that maximum progress is made and the lessons being taught to students are of an achievable standard for them.
Students who excel in English are encouraged to further develop their love of language by; attending the Talented Young Writers’ Programme hosted in the school library each term, entering the annual Randolph Stow Writing Competition in the areas of poetry or prose, and also to sit the UNSW English exam where their results are compared nationally to students in a similar age group.