Enabling student choice for future success.

Offering an innovative and creative curriculum, the Year 10 programme builds on the skills and knowledge acquired at Timbertop and focuses on fostering the attitudes and attributes that will enable student success in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) and Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE).

The programme provides student choice, in both the core and elective components, ensuring strong learning foundations leading into Years 11 and 12, whilst allowing student exploration of new subjects and alignment with interest areas.

Arts

Description: With a focus on design elements, students are introduced to composition and a variety of ways to manipulate image using the camera, darkroom techniques and new media technologies.

In the practical component, students integrate both black and white and digital photography as well as film in the development of a folio and explore a range of photographic and movie making processes.

In the appreciation component, students develop research and analysis skills with a focus on specific artists and styles studied. They will gain an understanding of issues in relation to the production, distribution and consumption of media products.

Description: The Art-Studio elective focuses on the realisation of creative ideas through the exploration of a broad range of processes.

In the practical component, students explore personal responses to a variety of subject matter across two- and three- dimensional artforms. Students are introduced to a variety of presentation techniques and encouraged to develop imaginative and conceptual responses to selected topics.

In the appreciation component, students investigate historical and contemporary artists from a range of cultural contexts, and further develop their skills in interpreting and analysing artworks.

Description: Visual Communication Design relates to design in the following areas: publishing, advertising, architecture, product design, package and multimedia design. It has practical applications in environmental, industrial and communication design, as well as engineering.

Students explore manual and digital methods to develop and refine presentations and are introduced to the basic vocabulary of visual communication through practical exercises in advertising, typography, layout, rendering and computer work.

Description: Year 10 Drama offers insight into the world of Drama and Theatre Arts. Our introduction to acting skills is complemented by discussions on applied stagecraft, theatre history and play excerpts. Students are involved in theatre games, improvisation and polished improvisation, voice work and movement. Cohesive group work is an objective in the early stages as it fosters confidence, acceptance and experimentation. Concentration on the potential of the individual inside the ensemble evolves into a dramatic production that is performed for a public audience.

Description: Students studying the Music course will work towards consolidating and extending knowledge and skills in music performance (both solo and group), composition, musical rudiments and terminology, and aural skills. It is expected that a student studying the Year 10 Music course will be having private lessons on an instrument/vocal tuition to build on their performance skills.

Description: In the Music Technology course, students are introduced to the concepts of both live and pre-recorded music and sound in a live and post production setting. Using the Ableton Live software package and live sound reinforcement equipment, students will be guided through a range of topics including digital audio editing, audio processors, effects units, equalisers and filters, mixing consoles, microphones and DI’s, connectors and lead types, the physics of sound and OH&S practices. Experience using Digital Audio Workstation software is preferred but not essential.

English

Description: Year 10 English students are asked to create, study and respond critically to spoken, written and visual texts created for a wide range of audiences and purposes. Students explore the conscious decisions that writers and speakers make when constructing texts and consider the impacts of these decisions.

English as an Additional Language: Students undertake the Unit 1 & 2 EAL curriculum alongside Year 11 students. Special attention is paid to students’ communicating effectively in spoken and written English for social and academic purposes. Texts are selected and electives are designed to meet these students’ particular literacy needs and to promote cultural and plurilingual awareness – that is, to build students’ understanding of the cultural conventions of language use in Australia and drawing on their first language and culture to enhance learning.

Description: The Giants of Literature electives are an expansive exploration of the literary canon, equipping students with the cultural capital that will benefit their future studies in English and the Humanities, and, more importantly, make them interesting and popular dinner guests long into the future.

Students will study a breadth of texts across key movements and genres, and invited to question how we should ‘understand’ the literary canon.

Description: In Modern Literature (20th & 21st Centuries), students study a breadth of texts across key movements and genres of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from iconic Modernist writers like W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf, to popular writers of the Cold War period and modern day.

Health and Physical Education

Description: Physical Education – Coaching for Performance examines skill acquisition to qualitatively analyse performance, with exposure to sport specific technology to create feedback and intervention for improvement. Through the coach’s lens, students will be exposed to knowledge in preparedness for gaining qualification in umpiring and coaching. The outline includes an enduring understanding of injury prevention, ethicality of performance enhancement, with an overarching embedment of sports psychology.

Description: Physical Education – Sport Science for Performance is aimed at providing students with both a theoretical and practical insight into the fields of Sport Science such as exercise physiology, biomechanics and sport psychology. Areas studied include ergogenic aids, coaching, musculoskeletal and cardiorespiratory systems, components of fitness, psychological strategies to enhance performance, techniques and strategies to promote recovery and the use of technology in Sport Science.

Humanities

Description: Being Human – How humans understand, believe and act explores a range of alternatives found in religion (why and how we believe), philosophy (why and how we know) and practical ethics (why and how we do) which have been influential in the human search for identity and, ultimately, wisdom. How do we make moral decisions? What traditions, beliefs or codes do we draw on to nurture our private beliefs and our public stances?

Significant use is made of contemporary issues and possible responses to them. Through the contest of ideas, students are exposed to a variety of viewpoints. They also come to appreciate the strengths they bring as legitimate components of a positive moral compass.

This course provides a clear pathway to IB Theory of Knowledge, History, Literature and Texts & Traditions.

Description: Commerce – Entrepreneurship is designed to allow students to pursue opportunities and innovations whilst benefitting from excellent internal and external resources. The course provides students with the skills and knowledge to become an entrepreneurial leader of a new business idea or an integral part of an existing one. Students will learn how to deal with uncertainty, manage innovation and improve the business idea through the application of best practice methods of small business management and new product development.

Description: The Year 10 Commerce course focuses on integrating skills from Legal Studies, Business, Economics, and Accounting across three cross-disciplinary projects: Medicinal Cannabis, COVID-19, and Tourism. Activities and tasks are also shaped around ever-changing events, such as, the COVID-19 pandemic and excursions to the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court. This course is excellent preparation for those students wishing to study VCE and IB Economics, VCE Accounting, VCE Business Management, and VCE Legal Studies.

Description: Students wishing to better understand the factors that impact our environment, will enjoy the Geography – Environmental Change and Management course.  Students explore and visit local coastal environments to learn about the natural and human impacts that effect the coastal areas. Following the coastal study, students explore weather systems, climate change, and focus on responses to climate change on both global and local scales. In keeping with the course’s theme of environmental challenges and the ocean, students complete a study on marine pollution, looking at the causes and solutions to plastics in our oceans.

Description: The Geographies of Human Wellbeing course focuses on investigating global, national and local differences in human wellbeing. There are many factors that impact wellbeing and while income is an important one there are many others. Wellbeing is also impacted by an individual’s perceptions and feelings about how well they are doing in life, contentment with material possessions and having relationships that enable them to achieve their goals. This unit examines these different concepts and measures of human wellbeing, and the causes of global differences in these measures, evaluating the differences from a variety of perspectives.

Description: In the History – Ancient Worlds course, students will explore a number of ancient societies: from Ancient Greece and Rome to Ancient China. Students have the opportunity to study the people, places, leaders, beliefs, and cultures of these ancient worlds through the artefacts that have been left behind and the work of archaeologists. Students will learn how to interpret ancient cultures from a modern perspective, and how to trace links between ancient worlds and the world we live in now.

Description: The History – Big Ideas course explores the period 1300 to 1700 AD, investigating the key ideas and discoveries of the time to identify turning points in human thought and progress. Students will have an opportunity to consider the origins of these big ideas and the impact they had at the time and on our lives today.

Description: In History-The Modern World, students will delve into the exciting period of change from the end of WWI through to the modern world. Investigating two key themes, conflict and protest, students will deepen their capacity to critically analyse historical evidence and form coherent arguments. They will also strengthen their understanding of the key historical concepts of change and continuity, cause and consequence and significance.

Languages

Description:

CHINESE Continuing : designed for second language students who have limited background and are continuing with their learning after Year 9 Chinese. The aim of this course is to provide students with the foundation for their future study of VCE Chinese or IB Chinese B. By the end of the course students will be able to understand and exchange information on the following topics: relatives, extended family and appearance, places of living and the weather, illness and injuries and seeking medical advice, describing simple ailments, studying subject and school facility, hobby and occupation, food and drinking, eating out and shopping, asking and giving directions.

CHINESE Advanced: designed for second language students who have some background and require further development of their skills in order to undertake the study of IB Chinese B or a VCE Chinese or Second Language Advanced. Students will work to consolidate and extend vocabulary on a range of familiar topics, participate in spoken and written exchanges and respond to spoken and written texts in relation to a broad range of topics.

The Chinese course is suitable for students studying Chinese as a second language and who have not attended a school where Chinese is the medium of instruction.

Note: From 2024, VCE Chinese will no longer be available. Learning pathways for Chinese will be through the IB Diploma only.

Description: The French course continues to develop the four macro skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students communicate appropriately in a variety of contexts and use language in familiar situations to influence the listener and negotiate. They read with understanding a variety of short text types, use communication strategies to cope with occasional unfamiliar words and use information from a variety of sources to write four or five paragraphs, adapting their writing to reflect context, purpose and audience.

Description: The German course continues to develop the four macro skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students interact orally in a range of situations and use and adapt models to pass on information to others or in activities. They understand the main ideas in a range of texts and use the information both orally and in writing. They write three or four linked paragraphs for personal, social or information purposes.

Students will need to have completed the accelerated Year 9 German course (or equivalent).

Description: In Japanese, students learn to exchange personal information with greater detail and sophistication, using more complex language in oral and written form. Students read and write using hiragana, katakana and an increasing number of kanji with a focus on consolidating their ability to use all three scripts.

Students will need to have prior learning in Japanese and a good grasp of script.

Mathematics

Description: The Year 10 Mathematics course follows the Victorian Mathematics Curriculum and is organised into three strands: number and algebra; measurement and geometry; and statistics and probability. Students have a choice of two possible courses in Semester 1; Higher Level and Standard Level, dependent on their mathematical ability and previous academic performance. In Semester 2, students have a choice of three possible courses; Standard Level, Standard Level (Algebra) and Higher Level, dependent on academic performance in Semester 1 and prerequisites required for Year 11 courses.

Pathways Wellbeing and Growth Programme

Description: The Pathways programme supports students as they navigate purposeful choices through the Senior School and beyond. Students will participate in a range of group learning experiences that focus on skills for learning, personal wellbeing, career and tertiary pathways and service. In Year 10, there is an emphasis on connecting to Corio and exploring that which is personally meaningful. Students are supported by a Learning Coach who facilitates the identification and pursuit of targets relating to wellbeing, growth and performance. Each term, students will complete Student Action Plans outlining these targets and the steps towards achieving them.

Science and Technologies

Description: The Year 10 Science Course follows the Australian Science Curriculum that is organised into three interrelated strands:

  • Science as a human endeavour: which focuses on the nature and influence of science
  • Science inquiry skills: which focuses on skills essential for working scientifically
  • Science understanding: which focuses on the important science concepts from across different areas of science

Description: The Corio campus is set on approximately 230 hectares of semi-rural land, approximately 23 of which is used as farming land. It is well suited to provide students with an ongoing opportunity to continue with a broad range of agricultural and horticultural studies. Students develop their knowledge and practical skills by their involvement with sheep for wool production, intensive vegetable growing and poultry for egg production.

Description: Design and Technology – Textiles encourages students to develop their skills in the design and manufacture of textile articles and garments using a variety of decorative surface techniques and a combination of hand and machine processes. The surface techniques include printing and painting on fabrics and embroidery and decorative stitching.

Description: In Design and Technology – Resistant Metals, students learn how to design and manufacture a number of products by working with various materials, components, tools and equipment. They learn about technological development and the design principles involved in traditional and modern manufacturing industry. Students acquire skills in the application of a variety of techniques and processes while working with CAD, wood, metal, plastics and computer controlled laser and 3D printers.