LEARNING
Year 10
Year Ten Curriculum Overview
The College week comprises of 30 periods, with six periods scheduled each day. Classes run for either 50 or 55 minutes.
Year Ten Subjects
All students will study
- Religious Education
- English
- Humanities & Social Sciences (HASS)
- Mathematics
- Science
- Health
- Physical Education
- Two yearlong Elective subjects
Students across all ability levels engage with the same core subjects from the Western Australian Curriculum. However, differentiation may occur in English, Humanities & Social Sciences, Mathematics, and Science where classes may undertake tasks at varying levels of complexity to support diverse learning needs.
Electives
Each elective subject is yearlong, and students can invited to indicate their preferences at the beginning of Term Three. While the College makes every effort to accomodate students’ choices, there may be instances where this is not possible due to timetabling constraints or limited resources.
Music must be selected by students who hold a music scholarship or are involved in the instrumental program.
Mercy Learning Time
All students will study
- Careers
- Mercy Heritage
- Organisation
- Social and Emotional Learning
- Leadership
Homework
Homework provides students with the opportunity to revise concepts, consolidate and reflect on learning, target areas needing support, and prepare for the next day’s lessons. In Year Ten, most students should be completing about two hours of homework or study each day.
Religious Education
Students identify how human desires can lead people to contemplate the meaning and purpose of life. They explore the Judeo-Christian beliefs about God’s original plan for creation and describe how people created in God’s image and likeness can contribute to God’s ongoing work of creation. As part of this learning, students research Christian vocation as a call for spiritual discernment.
Students describe important moments in the Church’s history and the influence they have had on Christian practices. They identify the Holy Spirit as the source of the Church’s growth throughout the world. Through learning about Church structures and teachings, students explore the Church’s ability to engage with and respond to developments and issues in the world. They explain how Church structures and teachings adhere to God’s natural and divine laws and the Catholic principles of decision-making. Students explore the scriptural basis of Church teachings and recall the factors that hinder a person’s ability to follow God’s laws.
Tania Morris
Head of Learning Area
Email: tania.morris@cewa.edu.auScience
In Year Ten, students explore systems at different scales and connect microscopic and macroscopic properties to explain phenomena. They investigate the biological, chemical, geological, and physical evidence for different theories, such as the theories of natural selection and the Big Bang.
Students develop their understanding of atomic theory to comprehend relationships within the periodic table. They learn that motion and forces are interrelated by applying physical laws. They explain the processes that underpin heredity and study the relationships between aspects of the living, physical, and chemical worlds as they apply to systems on a local and global scale. This understanding enables them to predict how changes will affect equilibrium within these systems.
Students use experimentation to isolate relationships between components in systems and explain these relationships through increasingly complex representations. They make predictions and propose explanations, drawing on evidence to support their views while considering other points of view.
Amanda Huke
Head of Learning Area
Email: amanda.huke@cewa.edu.auEnglish
In Year Ten, students interact with peers, teachers, individuals, groups, and community members in a range of face-to-face and virtual environments. They experience learning in familiar and unfamiliar contexts, including local community, vocational, and global contexts.
Students interpret, create, evaluate, discuss, and perform a wide range of literary texts, including media texts, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, dramatic performances, and multimodal texts. These texts have various purposes, including aesthetic, informative, and persuasive. Students develop a critical understanding of contemporary media and the differences between media texts.
Literary texts that support and extend students as independent readers are drawn from diverse genres and involve complex, challenging, and unpredictable plot sequences and hybrid structures that may serve multiple purposes. These texts explore themes of human experience and cultural significance, interpersonal relationships, and ethical and global dilemmas within real-world and fictional settings, representing a variety of perspectives. Informative texts synthesize technical and abstract information about a wide range of specialized topics. Their structures are more complex, including chapters, headings and subheadings, tables of contents, indexes, and glossaries. Language features include successive complex sentences with embedded clauses, a high proportion of unfamiliar and technical vocabulary, figurative and rhetorical language, and dense information supported by various types of graphics and images.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative, and persuasive texts, including narratives, procedures, performances, reports, discussions, literary analyses, transformations of texts, and reviews.
Stan May
Head of Learning Area
Email: stan.may@cewa.edu.auEnglish as an Additional Language or Dialect
English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners are those whose first language is a language or dialect other than Standard Australian English (SAE), which is the variety of spoken and written English used formally in Australian schools. While EAL/D learners bring with them a wealth of knowledge, understandings, and values from their own culture to a classroom, they require additional support to assist them in developing proficiency in SAE.
The EAL/D teaching, learning, and assessment model shows how various building blocks interconnect to scaffold the language teaching process and embed the students’ language development in SAE. With repeated practice, new learning becomes integrated, and language development continues to progress as it becomes more complex.
The English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) Progress Map is the Western Australian planning, monitoring, and assessment tool for all students requiring support in developing Standard Australian English (SAE) who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, whether arriving from overseas or born in Australia, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
The purpose of the EAL/D Progress Map is to:
- describe student progress across listening, speaking, reading, and viewing and writing modes in four phases of schooling – early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence, and late adolescence
- acknowledge the existing language skills and abilities of EAL/D students
- provide an effective and valid means of reporting EAL/D student proficiency in SAE. EAL/D progress Map – Secondary
Stan May
Head of Learning Area
Email: stan.may@cewa.edu.auHumanities and Social Sciences (HASS)
In Year Ten, Humanities and Social Sciences consists of Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business, Geography, and History. Students develop increasing independence in critical thinking and skill application, which includes questioning, researching, analysing, evaluating, communicating, and reflecting. They apply these skills to investigate events, developments, issues, and phenomena, both historical and contemporary.
In Civics and Citizenship, students explore Australia’s roles and responsibilities at a global level and its international legal obligations. They inquire into the values and practices that enable a resilient democracy to be sustained.
In Economics and Business, students are introduced to the concept of economic performance and living standards. They explore the nature of externalities and investigate the role of governments in managing economic performance to improve living standards. They inquire into the ways businesses can manage their workforces to improve productivity.
In Geography, the concepts of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, and change continue to be developed as a way of thinking, through an applied focus on the management of environmental resources and the geography of human wellbeing at the full range of scales, from local to global and in a range of locations.
Students develop their historical understanding through key concepts, including evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance, and contestability. These concepts are investigated within the historical context of the modern world and Australia from 1918 to the present, with an emphasis on Australia in its global context.
Catherine Bagg
Head of Learning Area
Email: catherine.bagg@cewa.edu.auMathematics
The proficiency strands understanding, fluency, problem-solving, and reasoning are an integral part of mathematics content across the three content strands: number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. The proficiencies reinforce the significance of working mathematically within the content and describe how the content is explored or developed. They provide the language to build in the developmental aspects of the learning of mathematics. The achievement standards reflect the content and encompass the proficiencies.
At this year level:
- Understanding includes applying the four operations to algebraic fractions, finding unknowns in formulas after substitution, making the connection between equations of relations and their graphs, comparing simple and compound interest in financial contexts, and determining probabilities of two- and three-step experiments.
- Fluency includes factorising and expanding algebraic expressions, using a range of strategies to solve equations, and using calculations to investigate the shape of data sets.
- Problem-solving includes calculating the surface area and volume of a diverse range of prisms to solve practical problems, finding unknown lengths and angles using applications of trigonometry, using algebraic and graphical techniques to find solutions to simultaneous equations and inequalities, and investigating independence of events.
- Reasoning includes formulating geometric proofs involving congruence and similarity, interpreting and evaluating media statements, and interpreting and comparing data sets.
Melissa Galea
Head of Learning Area
Email: melissa.galea1@cewa.edu.auHealth
In Health, the content provides students with the opportunity to begin to focus on issues that affect the wider community. They study external influences on health decisions and evaluate their impact on personal identity and the health of the broader community. Students continue to develop and refine communication techniques to enhance interactions with others and apply analytical skills to scrutinise health messages in a range of contexts.
Physical Education
In Physical Education, students continue to improve performance, transferring learned specialized movement skills with increasing proficiency and success across a variety of contexts. They use feedback to improve their own and others’ performance with greater consistency and critically evaluate movement responses based on the outcome of previous performances.
Through the application of biomechanical principles to analyze movement, students broaden their understanding of optimal techniques necessary for enhanced athletic performance.
Students self-assess their own and others’ leadership styles and apply problem-solving approaches to motivate participation and contribute to effective team relationships. They are also provided with opportunities to assume direct control of physical activities in coaching, coordinating, or officiating roles.
The Health and Physical Education curriculum provides opportunities for students to develop, enhance, and exhibit attitudes and values that promote a healthy lifestyle.
Katie Crabb
Acting Head of Learning Area
Email: katie.crabb@cewa.edu.auArts
Dance
Year Ten Dance provides a means of increasing fitness, self-esteem, confidence, social awareness, communication, and management skills. Students will continue to extend their use of the elements of dance (BEST) and choreographic processes to expand their choreographic intentions in their choreography. There is a strong focus on production elements where students will need to consider how multimedia, sound effects, lighting, and other elements are integral in creating unique and powerful dance works. Students will have the opportunity to view live or recorded professional performances, where they will analyze the use of the elements of dance, choreographic processes, and design concepts. These are important skills that will prepare students for the Year Eleven and Twelve ATAR and General Dance courses.
In Year Ten Dance, students study a variety of dance genres which include Hip Hop, Contemporary, Jazz, and Musical Theatre. Students will also create their own group compositions inspired by the artworks of Banksy and popular movies. Students are highly encouraged to involve themselves in the extra-curricular opportunities Dance offers, such as Dance Team, Liturgical Dance, Catholic Performing Arts Festival, Annual Dance Showcase, and College Productions.
Drama
In Year Ten Drama, students are given the opportunity to refine their performance skills, critical appreciation, and knowledge of drama. Through a range of specialty workshops, excursions, and rehearsal processes, students will continue to build confidence and refine their vocal and movement skills.
Over the yearlong course, students will focus on playbuilding, script work, and a range of theatre styles such as Absurdist Theatre, Realism, and Verbatim Theatre. Students will continue to explore design roles through workshops that will focus on the technical aspects of sound, lighting, costume, and set design.
Assessments will be based upon performances, extended responses, and critically reviewing live or recorded theatre shows. Through Drama, students will not only gain confidence but also skills to communicate effectively, learn to take risks, and extend their creativity.
Media Production and Analysis
Year Ten Media Production and Analysis introduces students to the ever-changing media landscape, challenging them to be critical participants in both its production and reception. Moving beyond passive consumption, students become critical thinkers and improve their media literacy. Students will explore the Film Noir genre and produce a short film in this style, gaining insights into storytelling, cinematography (with a focus on lighting), and the visual conventions inherent in Film Noir. They will also delve into the codes and conventions of documentary filmmaking and podcasting, understanding how producers influence audiences. Using industry-standard equipment and programs, students will learn how simple choices create engaging and persuasive texts. This highly interactive, relevant, and collaborative class equips students with future-proof skills such as creative thinking, problem-solving, and confident use of technology. Access to the full Adobe suite will facilitate their learning, ensuring they are prepared for Year Eleven and Twelve ATAR and General Media Production and Analysis courses.
Music
In Year Ten Music, students will develop aural and theory skills, examine analyses of music, complete composition-based activities, and participate in solo and ensemble performance opportunities. Students will be exposed to a variety of contemporary music styles and will be encouraged to explore their own musical preferences through the pieces they choose to perform.
The use of technology, which plays an important role in contemporary music, is explored through a major assessment task during which students write and perform their own original piece, which is recorded in a professional recording studio.
Students will be required to specialise in one instrument or voice and complete several solo performance tasks. To participate in Year Ten Music, it is important that students will have completed Year Nine Music and are receiving private instrumental or vocal lessons. This elective is a Minimum Entry Requirement for any student who is considering studying ATAR Music in Year Eleven and Twelve.
Visual Art
Year Ten Visual Art is a hands-on, practical course designed to develop creativity and skills, preparing students for Year Eleven and Twelve ATAR and General Visual Art courses. In this course, students will explore various materials and techniques, creating unique artworks in clay, drawing, painting, and printmaking. Students will have the chance to work on exciting projects like illustrations, lino printing, and painting, further developing and refining their ideas and techniques.
Throughout the year, students will document the design, production, and evaluation processes. Year Ten Visual Art not only enhances students’ artistic skills but also broadens their understanding of how culture, time, and place shape art. Students will explore a range of artistic influences and be encouraged to express their individuality in their work.
The course will expand knowledge of different art styles and practices, enabling students to create a range of 2D and 3D artworks. Students will benefit from full access to the comprehensive Visual Art studios and materials, providing them with an array of visual arts resources. Resolved artworks will be exhibited at the end of the year, showcasing student progress and creativity.
Eleisha Hathaway
Head of Learning Area
Email: eleisha.hathaway@cewa.edu.au
Health and Physical Education
Outdoor Education
The Outdoor Education program aims to provide opportunities for students to develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their relationships with others, and the environment. This is achieved through a variety of activities such as mountain biking, sustainability, fishing, snorkelling, and camp craft skills. The aim is to develop students’ skills for lifelong recreation in the outdoors.
The Year Ten Outdoor Education program focuses on both theory and practical components. Students divide their time throughout the year between classroom-based theory and practical activities. In selecting Outdoor Education, students must be available for lunchtime, before, or after school activities on the day of their scheduled classes. This time is spent increasing the practical component of the course and allowing students to develop the necessary skills to participate in expeditions and camps.
As a large part of the course is water-based, students must be proficient swimmers to select Outdoor Education. Whilst attendance on camps is essential for successful completion of the course, students who do not complete the theoretical assessments in the months leading up to the camp will be ineligible to attend.
The Year Ten Outdoor Education elective is a pathway to the Outdoor Education General course offered in Years Eleven and Twelve.
Physical Education Studies
Physical Education Studies contributes to the development of students’ physical, social, and emotional growth. The Physical Education Studies elective course provides students with opportunities to understand and improve performance through the integration of theoretical concepts and practical activities. Through engagement as performers, leaders, coaches, analysts, and planners of physical activity, students may develop skills that can be utilised in leisure, recreation, education, sport development, youth work, health, and medical fields.
The Year Ten Physical Education Studies elective is a pathway that leads to the Physical Education Studies ATAR and General courses offered in Years Eleven and Twelve.
Soccer
In Year Ten Soccer, students will develop the skills and understanding of ‘the World Game’ through professional coaching from FFA Accredited coaches. The program will develop core and advanced skills, tactics and strategies, injury management, diet and nutrition, fitness, and refereeing skills. Students will be taught the principles of speed, agility, quickness (SAQ), ‘How to Prepare’ and ‘How to Train’.
The Soccer program aims to provide students with an innovative and comprehensive curriculum that empowers players with a vision, inspires them to achieve personal excellence, and delivers success. Students will be streamed to allow them to develop at the appropriate rate. They will also develop organisational, time management, and leadership skills.
Students who select Soccer will require the compulsory uniform, consisting of a training top, shorts and socks (white crew or long blue), available from the Online Uniform Shop. Students will also need to purchase shin pads, runners/trainers, and soccer boots. Lessons are taught on the outdoor soccer pitches, Astroturf pitches, and in the Gym. All students in the Soccer program will be selected to represent the College in a variety of external soccer competitions.
The Year Ten Soccer elective is a pathway to the Certificate II in Sport Coaching (Soccer) in Year Eleven and the Certificate II in Sport and Recreation (Soccer) in Year Twelve.
Katie Crabb
Acting Head of Learning Area
Email: katie.crabb@cewa.edu.au
Technologies
Caring for Children
demanding the ability to provide for a child’s physical, emotional, social, and intellectual needs at various stages of development.
The progression of normal child development will be traced from conception through pregnancy and birth, focusing initially on the developmental stages of the foetus and the birth process.
The needs of infants and young children including bathing, feeding, and changing, as well as immunisation, nutrition, health, safety and the importance of play are explored through a range of practical activities, guest speakers and excursions. Students learn how to budget for a newborn and a child’s first 12 months of life and students will have the opportunity to care for a virtual baby for a 48-hour period in Term Two or Term Three.
This is a great course for students wishing to pursue a career in early childhood teaching, nursing, and childcare, or simply for those who wish to learn the skills they will one day need to become effective parents.
Design & Technology - Fashion
The Design and Technology Fashion course is suitable for students who have had some previous experience in this area and are keen to develop their skills. The course focuses on machine and hand sewing skills and a knowledge of fashion design to create a beach bag, a tote bag, and a variety of simple garments. Topics such as how to take accurate body measurements, how to read a commercial pattern, fashion design, and fashion forecasting are also covered.
Commercial patterns may be provided by the College; however, many students prefer to choose and purchase their own patterns to make clothes and other items that are totally unique. There is, however, an expectation that students provide suitable fabric for their garments.
Design & Technology - Food
In Semester One, students will study food from around the world, in the context of Australia’s multicultural society. A brief history of Australia’s First Nations Peoples food and culture and the subsequent immigration of people from many different countries and cultures is examined, with an emphasis on the food influences and changes which have taken place.
The practical component of the course gives students the opportunity to try a variety of recipes and ingredients from many different countries, two periods per week. Global food trends, such as the growing popularity of food trucks and cultural traditions, are also studied.
In Semester Two, the focus is on the culture of eating out in cafés and restaurants. Students experience all aspects of formal and informal menus, from entrées to coffee making, brunch to desserts, creating a wide range of delicious, modern dishes in their practical lessons. Students will complete a range of practical and written tasks and develop skills in food preparation and presentation through a variety of challenges.
Design & Technology - Metalwork
This practical course is suitable for all students, regardless of whether they have studied metalwork before or not. Students will be encouraged to design and construct practical solutions to realistic design problems, in a workshop environment. They will be given the opportunity to perform a range of machining and fabrication tasks to assist them in devising a suitable practical outcome.
Projects that will be attempted over the production time will include the fabrication of a Dustpan, the design and fabrication of a Desk Organiser, and the fabrication of a Metal Dice. Students that finish ahead of time will be rewarded with a free choice project.
Students will apply a variety of welding skills and techniques commonly used in industry, and they will have the opportunity to use a variety of metalworking tools, lathes, milling machines, and laser cutters.
Design & Technology - Woodwork
In this practical course, students are given the opportunity to design and produce projects using a variety of materials, skills, and techniques commonly used in the woodworking industry. Students can explore the theoretical and practical aspects of the design process to create unique, individual woodwork items using a range of hand skills and machining operations.
Projects that will be attempted over the production time will include the fabrication of a Somu Puzzle, the design and fabrication of a Carry-All (e.g., Ecco box, coffee table, device stand). Students who finish ahead of time will be rewarded with a free choice project.
Students will also develop skills in using a wide range of power tools and machinery, including lathes, a computer numerically controlled (CNC) router, and a laser cutter. No previous experience in woodwork is necessary.
Digital Technology
Digital Technology is an area which is seeing major growth in society. It is estimated that 44% of current Australian jobs will be affected by improvements in software and robotics over the next twenty years. While the content may be challenging at times, it is extremely satisfying and rewarding.
The Year Ten Digital Technology course builds upon the programming and design concepts developed in Year Nine. Students will learn to use the Python language to manipulate data like text and numbers, which in turn will allow students to create programs for anything they desire. Along with the “Design Thinking” methodology used in industry, students will create solutions to solve challenges and student-identified problems. This course prepares students for the ATAR Computer Science courses in Year Eleven and Twelve, or for the AIT general course.
Students who did not study Digital Technology in Year Nine are welcome to choose this elective subject.
STEM
STEM represents Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics, and refers to studies which involve the understanding and practical use of all four areas.
This course would be suitable for students who enjoy STEM subjects individually but wish to learn about topics such as renewable energy in a more comprehensive manner, across each of the STEM areas. This would include students identifying larger societal problems related to these topics; learning about the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics behind the problem and current solutions; and using all four areas to create their own solutions to these problems.
Students will learn how to solder and create objects using 3D-printers as part of their projects throughout this course; as well as undertake a personal project in the STEM fields.
Julien Hunt
Head of Learning Area
Email: julien.hunt@cewa.edu.auEnrolments
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