Years 11–12 · Applications · The senior stage
Designed to multiply senior exam performance — and to outlast it.
By Year 11 the machinery of strong writing is in place. The senior years draw on one of the oldest ideas in education — the Roman artes liberales, the arts proper to a free person — and put that idea to work in modern form. The reading widens to substantial articles every week on psychology, ethics, civics, decision-making, persuasion, character, and how we live well. The writing concentrates on the central senior craft: one full, planned, revised extended essay every week, on the article just read.
This is exactly what HSC English Advanced, VCE English, IB English Lang & Lit and the essay-based subjects beside them actually assess. The same work that builds the wider mind builds the higher exam mark — 92 weeks of both, in parallel.
Psychology
Decision-making
Ethics
Civics
Behavioural economics
Persuasion
Character & leadership
Science & society
92
substantial articles across two years
92
extended essays — the central senior craft
15
disciplines woven through
Two emphases run in parallel through every week — wisdom & balanced thinking (every article presents its strongest counter-claim alongside the claim itself) and the extended essay (the craft senior English actually assesses). After 92 weeks of both, the habits are reflexive — in the exam hall, in the essay, and beyond.