Humanities Update 2019
Senior Humanities is a vibrant learning area and our students have had an engaging start to 2019. In our classes, there have been many interesting activities, strong discussions, and challenging assessment tasks.
We are pleased to welcome the return of a number of elective subjects this year; it is fantastic to see our students fascinated by current and historical events that have ties to local and global issues.
Many of our subjects are privileged to have fantastic excursion opportunities – from the historic Bendigo Gold Mine, to the Supreme and County Courts of Melbourne. This allows the students to get a unique – and more interactive – experience of the times, the issues, and the topics that they are studying.
We welcome Unit 1&2 Global Politics this year and students have embraced learning about world politics. Georgie Speed commented, “I have really enjoyed politics so far. We have compared China and Australia’s non-democratic and democratic political systems. It is also very exciting with all the current events about the upcoming Federal election. Definitely enjoying it.”
Ethics and Philosophy is a new elective that has been introduced this year. Catherine Attard reflected on this subject, “in Ethics and Philosophy, all students are welcomed and encouraged to express their thoughts and opinions on daily worldwide ethical issues. It’s great to see how the conversation continues to grow while our perspective on the issues broaden.” Anneliese Van Santvoort also said that “Ethics and Philosophy allows us to investigate present-day issues from political, cultural, and historical areas and listen and talk about everybody’s perspectives to develop practical skills that we can use in society.”
We also welcome back the opportunity for students to study Units 3&4 Accounting in 2019. Alex Foster shared, “my impressions of accounting are that it’s a great subject that I’ve come to enjoy very much, I’m definitely going to try to pursue it as a career. The class for accounting is small which doesn’t seem to impact the discussion of questions and the coursework. The number side of the accounting is my favourite part, knowing that both sides of the accounting equation are equal is such a good feeling.”
One of our guest speakers this year spoke to the students of Running a Small Business. The aim of this presentation was to outline how to run a small business – or in this case, how to run a charity that supports the community. Simon Rowe presented information about the charity “Sleep Bus”. charity brings safe, temporary overnight accommodation to people sleeping rough in Australia. Grace Haering reflected on this presentation; “the speaker for the Sleep Bus business was a very motivational man who was very invested in his business. He helped the class understand some differences – positives and negatives – of running a business as well as the circumstances that a business owner may come across during their journey.”
Maddi Condron attended the United Nations Youth Weekend over the March long weekend. She shared the following observations; “over the March long weekend, I attended the United Nations Youth Victorian State Conference. The theme of this weekend was ‘states in conflict’ which allowed me to delve into topics of war, terrorism, and interstate relationships. As well as this, I was able to represent Russia in the Model UN and explore their interests in war and counter-terrorism efforts. The entire weekend was a fantastic experience that allowed me to meet new and interesting people, and forced me to question my own beliefs and opinions surrounding world politics. If this sounds like something that you would be interested in, please don’t hesitate to come and talk to me about it – or future opportunities for students of all ages!”. Maddi’s email is 11435@Braemar.vic.edu.au
Students in the elective class, History in the Modern World, are studying the topic ‘making a nation’. The class visited the Bendigo Gold Mine and completed a historical tram ride through the city on the 4 April. The visit aimed to develop the students’ understanding of the significant role that gold played in the development of the region and Australia in general. Myles Courtney reflected on this experience; “personally, I consider this excursion to have been an efficacious experience by which myself and other students were able to further our knowledge regarding our current unit, which pertains to the historical socioeconomic development of Australia as a nation. The trip to Bendigo served as a valuable learning experience for us all. On behalf of the students, I would like to extend my kindest regards to those who made the day possible, especially Mr Embury and Ms Hennessy for their guidance on the day.”
The Legal Studies class also enjoyed a successful day on 24 April when they attended the County and Supreme Courts in Melbourne and were able to see the law in action. Students observed a criminal case involving car theft in the County Court, and then listened to evidence relating to a terrorism case in the Supreme Court. Lillian Broome reflected on her day; “my overall impression of the day is that it was a good experience to witness law being practiced first hand. It was good seeing real issues that were actually happening currently within Victoria. It was sometimes hard to pick up on what was going on during some of the cases but it was very interesting to listen and try to get an idea of the situation. The main highlight of the day was just being able to go to the courts and experience what goes on during a criminal case and a civil dispute. Another highlight of the day was going to the Supreme Court and looking at the court rooms and learning about all the roles that everyone in court plays. It surprised me because of how formal it was and how strict the rules were regarding behaviour. From this experience, I have gained a better understanding of how the courts operate and function.”
Upcoming events in Humanities include Law Week (13-19 May) which will involve many interesting and free activities including discussions and debates, free entertainment for the whole family, court open days, tours of key legal sites such as the Old Melbourne Jail, meet legal personal and receive free legal advice. Examples of specific events include ‘Meet Coop – the court support dog’ and ‘You be the Judge’ (an interactive event), which will run on Saturday 18 May. The audience will be given a real case and will decide on a sentence based on this information, and once they’ve reached their decision they get to see how their sentence stacks up with the real result of the case.
The Premiers’ Spirit of the ANZAC competition is now open for entries. The Premier’s Spirit of ANZAC Prize offers 42 students in year 9 and 10 the opportunity to travel on a study tour of Canberra or overseas. Find out more by clicking here (https://www.vic.gov.au/submit-entry-premiers-spirit-anzac-prize). A special congratulations is given to Hannah Lilford who was successful in the 2018 Competition and was awarded the prize which was an overseas tour of Vietnam and Singapore. Hannah entered an essay and chose the second task to further investigate. This task was to “explore or represent the ways that Australia’s involvement in war changed the role of women in Australian society”. Hannah explained the reasons why she chose task two and focused on connecting with two women at the time. Hannah explained that “this particular point of view is often ignored, as the majority of literature about wars focuses on the experiences of the soldiers. While it is important to do this, I believe that our understanding of WW1 can be enhanced by sharing the stories of those who inhabited the home front”.
The Running a small business class is preparing for a very successful week later in the term selling products such as dyed scrunchies, handmade origami, and small Play Doh models. Money raised will be donated to various charities.
Emily McMahon
Humanities Instructional Leader