As we approach the holidays, a number of year levels across both the junior and senior school have already started working on Unit 2 work. We encourage students ensure they attend as many lessons as possible as the holidays approach.

Year 12 General English students have started their new unit where we they are exploring the classic novel Frankenstein and all of the questions it raises around ambition and morality. To encourage a deep engagement with the text, we pushed all the desks to the side and conducted a Socratic Circle where we responded to complex questions about the story and made connections to society. How do we decide what is right and wrong? Who really is at fault for all of the tragedies in the text? Who is the real monster? Stay tuned to find out!

There are number of extra-curricular opportunities on the horizon for Ripley students including writing competitions and the Reader’s Cup.

Students are encouraged to put their English skills to the test in the first of the writing competitions.  The Literary Competition invites Queensland and Northern Territory students and teachers to share their literary prowess by submitting either poetry, short stories or non-fiction prose.

It is Queensland’s longest running literary competition.

The competition is open to entrants from students (years 5-12) and teachers in Queensland state and independent schools and Northern Territory independent schools.

Competition categories:

• Years 5-6
• Years 7-8
• Years 9-10
• Years 11-12
• Open (Teachers and School Support Staff)

Students can contact Ms Diesing at school or via email for more information.

I would like to thank Ms Marks for her contribution to this edition of the newsletter.