From the Head of Humanities

This is my first year as Head of Humanities, so it has been an exciting, but busy start to the year. The transition into my role of Head of Faculty has been made much easier by the highly capable team of teachers that I work with. Each teacher brings their own specialist approach to the teaching of the broad range of subjects that make up the Faculty. I am fortunate to work with such a committed and professional team of teachers. The Humanities department has welcomed several new staff in 2018, as Mrs Katrina Davey and Ms Ingrid Hildebrand take maternity leave. I welcome to our team, new teachers Ms Kate Fitzgerald, who is teaching VCE Business Management and Accounting, Ms Anna Curnow who teaches VCE Global Politics, History Revolutions and Legal Studies, Miss Claire Martin teaching Year 10 History and Humanities and Ms Louise Adams who is teaching Humanities.

The Humanities faculty has commenced the School year with a strong focus upon skill development, explicit learning intentions and assessment for learning through the development of success criteria.

The Year 7 Humanities cohort have been busy exploring St Catherine’s past by spending time with the School’s Archivist, Ms Melissa Campbell, while the Year 10 History classes have moved to a style of assessment that will prepare them for the rigors of VCE, as well as the ability to complete School Assessed Coursework under strict time constraints.

The Year 8 Humanities classes are studying Environments and Landscapes with a focus on coastal systems. To facilitate student understanding of the processes that operate in coastal environments and the negative and positive impacts of their use, each class has been on a Geography fieldwork excursion to St Kilda Beach. The Year 9 Humanities classes will head off on their first fieldwork excursion for Geography in early Term 2 to support their learning of the geographies of interconnections

In 2018, VCE Legal Studies has been added to the extensive suite of VCE subjects offered by the Humanities Faculty. This subject has been enthusiastically embraced by students in Years 10 and 11, who have been busy studying Legal Foundations including, the relationship between the parliament and the courts, as well as the sources and types of laws.

Each year the Humanities Faculty supports St Catherine’s students to compete in nationally recognised Geography and History competitions and this year I have been extremely pleased with the number of students who have entered to compete in the 2018 Geography competition in May. An invitation will be sent to students in the coming weeks to request their interest in participating in the Australian History competition in Term 2.

I would like to convey my gratitude to all of the hardworking Humanities staff for their support in ensuring the start of the 2018 has run smoothly.

Mrs Tracey McCallum, Head of Humanities