This syllabus is designed for students who are continuing with their learning of French as a foreign language after Year 8. The aim is to develop an ability to use the language effectively for purposes of practical communication. The course is based on the linked language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, and these are built on as learners progress through their studies.

The syllabus also aims to offer insights into the culture and civilisation of countries where French is spoken, thus encouraging positive attitudes towards language learning and towards speakers of foreign languages.

This syllabus is designed for students who are continuing with their learning of German as a foreign language after Year 8. The aim is to develop an ability to use the language effectively for purposes of practical communication. The course is based on the linked language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, and these are built on as learners’ progress through their studies.

The syllabus also aims to offer insights into the culture and civilisation of countries where German is spoken, thus encouraging positive attitudes towards language learning and towards speakers of foreign languages.

This course is a pathway to Chinese Language, Culture and Society in VCE.

The course focuses on developing the basic skills of speaking, listening, reading (mostly characters, some pinyin) and writing (both characters and pinyin) in the Chinese (Mandarin) language.

It enables students to consolidate their previous learning and extends their knowledge in the following topic areas: school life, and school subjects; large numbers; holidays, including Chinese festivals; asking and giving directions; shopping; health and visiting the doctor; and daily activities.

The course provides students with the ability to: take part in conversations, read and write an expanded number of characters, commit material to memory, recognise and understand more principles of the language, and engage in some self-directed learning.  

This course is a pathway to Chinese Second Language in VCE.

The course focuses on further developing the skills of speaking, listening, reading (characters) and writing (mostly characters) in the Chinese (Mandarin) language.

It enables students to consolidate their previous learning and extends their knowledge in the following topic areas: school holidays; celebrating Chinese New Year; asking and giving directions, large numbers; travelling by bus; shopping; eating at a Chinese restaurant; Chinese currency; health issues and seeing a doctor; making a choice; watching television; going to a movie, watching a sports match.

The course provides students with the ability to take part in conversations, commit material to memory, extract and apply grammatical principles and engage in self-directed learning.  

This is an advanced level course in Chinese. It is intended for those students who have some knowledge of the language. It is a pathway to Chinese Second Language Advanced in VCE. 

The course uses a communicative approach.

Listening, speaking, reading and writing skills were developed in the following areas:shopping; asking directions; celebrating Chinese New Year; seeing a doctor; eating at a Chinese restaurant; entertainment programmes.

Students were encouraged to participate in role play and to write a diary, note and letter in Chinese. Characters were widely used in this course. Students were also introduced to aspects of Chinese culture.

The Year 9 Latin course is designed to build on students’ skills to translate, and communicate an understanding of, the Latin language; and to develop an awareness of the historical context of Ancient Rome.
The course assumes that students understand the present indicative tense and the first three declensions. It introduces all remaining indicative tenses of all conjugations, active and passive; the present active participle and perfect passive participle; the fourth and fifth declensions; comparison of adjectives and adverbs; numerals; additional pronouns; common uses of the ablative; expressions of time and place; and further work on relative clauses.

The course is set in the narrative of Horace going to Rome to the school of Orbilius, studying under the rhetor Heliodorus and then at the Academy in Athens, and concluding with the murder of Cicero, the father of Horace’s friend Marcus. Students investigate elements of Roman civilisation, developing a picture of Rome in the first century BC, and acquiring some understanding of the cultural context in which Latin was used.

In Call of Duty students are introduced to the concept of democracy with specific reference to aspects of Australia's political system.  In doing so, students examine the importance of the Commonwealth Constitution including features of Australia's democracy such as representative government, the structure and role of parliament, responsible government and the separation of powers.  Students examine the election process for the lower house (preferential system of voting) and the role of key political parties and minor parties in contemporary Australian society.

Students will also study specific political parties found within Australia in conjunction with their core policies and the demographics they represent.

Students will focus more on Australia’s legal system, especially the role of the courts. This can be combined with previous content based around Australia’s constitution and democratic powers to further understand the court hierarchy. Students will focus on multiple levels of Government and the essential services they provide.

In Understanding Commerce students are exposed to a range of financial decisions that are made by young people while they are in school and in the years that follow.  They explore a range of mobile phone contracts in order to gain skills in comparing legal obligations and making safe financial decisions.  Students learn to prepare and analyse a personal budget.  

Through their study of Understanding Commerce students gain an understanding of the ways in which businesses act in order to attract spending by teenagers.  They also study the impact of these financial decisions on their standard of living in both the short term and the long term.  Students build skills in decision making through the completion of detailed cost-benefit analyses.

Lastly students take a preliminary look at market-based economics, understanding key terms, the concepts of supply and demand as well as the four key economic resources. Students will further explore how consumers make decisions in terms of needs and wants, opportunity cost and a general focus on the true cost of living. This will also allow a deeper look into cost-benefit analysis and SWOT analysis.

This course focuses on introducing students to the use of the digital SLR camera. Students will investigate and try different techniques and procedures, informed by an understanding of the materials, techniques and conventions of photography.

The course provides students with the skills to build a portfolio of work representing and resolving ideas and interests and the ability to reflect on the meaning and significance of their own practice.

In this subject students will learn how to produce visual design solutions. They will explore the work of Graphic Designers as visual problem solvers and learn the technical, creative and conceptual skills required to complete such work. The range of fields explored includes corporate identity, book and magazine layout, advertising, branding, packaging, web design, way-finding and exhibition design.

This unit is useful preparation for VCE Visual Communication Design.

This course focuses on the making of Artworks in various media and the technologies behind their construction as well as the social and commercial aspects of the Visual Arts.

Students will develop knowledge, understanding and skills to make artworks using selected techniques, technologies and processes to explore personal representation of a theme, concept or subject matter. By selecting, testing and experimenting with materials, techniques, technologies and processes to synthesise an idea, students develop their concepts into appropriate representations.

It enables students to develop critical and creative thinking, not only in aesthetic conventions but also social, historical, cultural conventions through Visual Arts activities. This unit is a foundation study for Studio Arts in Year 10 and helpful practise for making VCE portfolio.

The course provides students with analytical skills responding to the cultural, social and ethical aspects in art, experience in documenting concepts and processes through a visual diary/folio and an awareness of different art practices and styles.

Design and Technology is a fast-changing subject and students need to be skilled and confident in working with laser cutters, 3D printers and other CAD CAM equipment.This course will provide an opportunity for students to develop their passions and interest in the subject.

Students will experience taking an idea through the complete design cycle: inquiry and analysis, developing an idea, creating a solution, and evaluating their design. The Emerging Technologies course brings the technologies of the 21st century into unison with long established models and systems.

This course focuses on the investigation, design, production and evaluation of a basic timber furniture product.

It enables students to explore and gain further understanding of design and technology through the investigation of aesthetics, construction methods and functionality of a product to meet a design brief.

The course provides students with skills in design methods, CAD software and workshop production using safe and effective materials processing with tools and equipment.

Year 9 Drama is offered in Semester One and Semester Two. Students choosing to do Drama just need to select it as a subject and they will be allocated into one of the courses. While students who choose Drama at Year 9 don't get to select their preference for Semester 1 or Semester 2, they will be allocated one of the courses that fit their timetable. In both courses, students will develop key skills in both Drama and Theatre Studies. They will create devised performances and perform sections of scripted plays. They will attend live theatre performances and each Semester offering includes an exciting theatre program, these being the 'Year 9 Inter-School Drama Program' and the 'Malthouse Theatre's Suitcase Series'. 

Semester One: 
In Semester One, students participate in the 'Year 9 Inter-School Drama Program' which runs for most of the Semester. Students work as a class to devise a piece of theatre that is based on a prescribed topic. Last year, the topic was 'The Rise of Artificial Intelligence'. Students participate in workshop days with other schools participating in the program. At the end of the course, students will present their performance to students from other schools who are also participating in the program. The class will also attend and analyse professional theatre performances. 

Semester Two: 
In Semester Two, students participate in the Malthouse Theatre's 'Suitcase Series' program. This program runs for the duration of the semester. Students receive a professional script and work together to devise a whole-class performance that uses that script as a stimulus. The script always centres around the theme of Climate Change and students develop skills in acting as well as design roles. The class will also attend and analyse professional theatre performances. 

Across both courses, students develop key skills in acting, performance making, devised theatre, scripted theatre, design roles such as direction, lighting, costume and set and learn to critically analyse their own work and that of professional companies.

This hands-on course gives the boys the opportunity to learn about cooking, both in a theoretical and practical setting. In theory sessions, the boys first gain knowledge about hygiene and safety, then build upon those skills to produce healthy and fresh dishes in the practical kitchen.

Food preparation methods, techniques presentation are explored throughout the course and a cooking journal is built-up. During the course, topics such as cooking terminology, sensory evaluation and purchasing seasonal produce are delivered.

A project on the food groups using the Australian guidelines healthy eating is included. This course will give the students a better understanding of the healthy food choices that are available and the confidence to cook for life.

This course focuses on allowing students to 'get under the bonnet' of personal computers.

It enables students to explore and gain further understanding of information and technologies by introducing students to computer components and terminology, how to install and configure both hardware and software with a view to performing upgrades, and common system maintenance.

The course is aimed at students who want to know more about the mechanics of putting together their own desktop computer. No prior knowledge or experience is expected and there are many practical '' sessions.

The course provides students with skills to identify, assemble and maintain common PC hardware.

'This course focuses on students designing and prototyping their own physical computing ‘dream gadget’, based around Arduino microcontrollers.

It enables students to explore and gain further understanding of the principles of design, basic electronics and simple circuit diagrams, but the main focus is on practical building of microcontroller-based gadgets or more complex devices like autonomous vehicles and wearable computers. Programming concepts are covered (like loops and arrays) to better understand how to interface hardware and software for physical computing applications.

The course will provide students with valuable experiences in understanding physical computing and how many common electronic devices with which they interact in their daily lives are constructed and programmed.

An aptitude for programming is recommended.

This course provides excellent preparation for 'The Internet of Things' elective in Year 10 as well as VCE Systems Engineering or any of the VCE Applied Computing courses.

This course focuses on introducing or extending students who are interested in learning how to program both applications and games. Students who are new to programming learn programming basics through a series of tasks in the Microsoft Small Basic programming language before moving on to extended projects. More experienced programmers may elect to study a new language of their own choosing or extend their knowledge and skills in an existing language through a project negotiated with their teacher.

The course enables students to explore and gain further understanding of problem analysis and analytical thinking through the investigation of common programming structures and methods of solving problems as well as how to design usable interfaces.

The course provides students with an understanding of the use of variables, loops, conditional statements and arrays. Students will also be taught how to document and test their programs. It provides a good basis for students interested in studying VCE Software Development.

This course is also run at Year 10.

This course will enable students to explore and gain further understanding of key compositional techniques as well as the role of technology in music composition. The course will provide students with the requisite skills to explore digital music composition involving audio loops, MIDI sequencing, and audio recording. Students will understand the capabilities of technology in composition whilst exploring different techniques used by composers.

They will understand the role of technology in music and its associated industries and key elements of a variety of musical styles through compositional tasks.

Students focus on aspects of music including solo and group performance techniques, aural and musicianship studies, arranging and composition, as well analysis and historical investigation of a variety of music styles.

Through class workshops, performances and self-critique, students will develop solo and group repertoire and performance techniques on their chosen instrument/s or sound source. Ear training and aural exercises will progress skills and enhance instrumental studies. Students are provided with several performance opportunities throughout the study, including group presentations, as well as accompanied and unaccompanied solo works.

English

This course is taught over two years as a blended study that focuses on the acquisition of skills requisite for VCE English by instructing students in general English and the Cambridge English Literature curricula. These courses enable students to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the function of language as a persuasive device and to study texts analytical, contextual and critical presentations. The students explore a range of literary genres such as novels, plays and poems as well as non-fiction media, to further their understanding of the ideas and concerns presented in language and literature. The courses provide students with an ability to write responses in prescribed formats and to present their views in both spoken and written forms. The courses also assist students to develop the use of appropriate meta-language to analyse texts and to respond to them in a range of styles. Performance in these courses is assessed by prescribed short and extended essay responses, oral presentations and formal internally assessed end of semester examinations. Towards the end of Year 9 students will be invited to select their preferred course focus for Year 10; either the general English course or the Cambridge English Literature course (applications will be finalized in early Term 4 following the completion of an analysis task under test conditions). Students who select Cambridge English Literature  will be expected to sit a formal externally assessed examination program at the conclusion of Year 10. Both the general English course and the Cambridge Literature course lead to VCE English and VCE Literature in Year 11.

The Year 9 Core Geography course Australia in a Globalised World follows the requirements of the Australian National Curriculum for Geography. The course is divided into two units. In the first unit, students study Biomes and food security, and in the second unit, they look at the Geographies of interconnections.

In the first unit of work students study the distribution and characteristics of biomes as regions with distinctive climates, soils, vegetation and productivity. Also, they will investigate:

• The human alteration of biomes to produce food, industrial materials and fibres and the environmental effects of these alterations.
• The environmental, economic and technological factors that influence crop yields in Australia and across the world.
• The challenges to food production, including land and water degradation, shortage of fresh water, competing land uses and climate change for Australia and other areas of the world.
• Finally, they look at the capacity of the World’s environments to sustainably feed the projected future population to achieve food security for Australia and the world.

In the second unit students study the perceptions people have of place and how this influences their connections to different places. Also, they will investigate:
• The way transportation and information and communication technologies are used to connect people to services, information and people in other places.
• The ways that places and people are interconnected with other places through trade in goods and services, at all scales.
• The effects of the production and consumption of goods on places and environments throughout the world and including a country in North East Asia.
• Finally, they investigate the effects of people’s travel, recreational, cultural or leisure choices on places and the implications for the future of these places.

The Year 9 Core History course focuses on the main ideas which shaped the Australian national identity between 1750 and the 1920s, and the events which formed our perception of ourselves and our place in the world. Students study the discovery of Australia, and the responses of the people who inhabited Australia during the time the first Europeans arrived. The students will analyse and research debates in Australian History such as: Was the contact between Europeans and Aborigines an invasion or a settlement? Was Eureka a riot or a revolution? Were the dreams of nationalism and egalitarianism fulfilled after Federation? How did the Anzac legend develop? What was the wartime experience of Trinity Old Boys in the Great War? 

The course will enable students to understand historical concepts, use historical terms, develop research skills, analyse and use historical sources and understand different historical interpretations.

Students will build on their historical skills and knowledge from previous History courses and further develop higher order historical thinking and skills.

Year 9 Standard Mathematics provides students with the essential skills and knowledge in the broad areas of Number + Algebra, Measurement + Geometry and Probability + Statistics. The course develops general numeracy skills as well as the fundamentals upon which more specific applications in mathematics are built.

The curriculum focuses on developing increasingly sophisticated and refined mathematical understanding, fluency, logical reasoning, analytical thought and problem-solving skills. Students will work with routine and unfamiliar problems to gain confidence in key mathematical areas so that they can create, interpret, investigate and communicate using mathematics.

Major topics include: Number and financial mathematics, Linear and simultaneous equations, Pythagoras’ theorem and trigonometry, Linear relations, Measurement, Indices and surds, Geometry and Quadratics equations and graphs.

Digital technologies including dynamic geometry, spreadsheets and calculators will be used for mathematical exploration. All students will sit the Australian Mathematics Competition in Term 3.

Year 9 Enrichment Mathematics provides students with the advanced skills and knowledge in the broad areas of Number + Algebra, Measurement + Geometry and Probability + Statistics. The course develops high level numeracy skills as well as the fundamentals upon which more specific applications in mathematics are built.

The curriculum focuses on developing sophisticated and refined mathematical understanding, fluency, logical reasoning, analytical thought and problem-solving skills. Students will work with both routine and challenging problem-solving tasks to gain confidence in key mathematical areas so that they can create, interpret, investigate and communicate using mathematics.

Major topics include: Number and financial mathematics, Linear and simultaneous equations, Pythagoras’ theorem and trigonometry, Linear relations, Measurement, Indices and surds, Geometry and Quadratics equations and graphs.

Digital technologies including dynamic geometry, spreadsheets and calculators will be used for mathematical exploration. All students will sit the Australian Mathematics Competition in Term 3.

This course is designed to further the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that students have established in personal development during previous years. It enables students to consolidate their existing experiences and introduce age appropriate material relevant to the broadening horizons of year 9s. This course encourages students to explore and gain further understanding of issues including adolescent health, personal identity, social and emotional intelligence, substance use, masculinity and sexuality.

In addition, the course is designed to relate the students' current understanding to their own values and includes both moral and legal perspectives. Performance in this course is assessed by short comprehension and written responses to video material, a student's factual understanding of the topics covered as well as his considered participation in class discussions and activities.

This course focuses on the fundamental principles and skills of invasion games, net/wall games, target games and striking/fielding games.  

This will enable students to further develop teamwork and individual motor skills obtained from previous years. Students will continue to improve fitness levels of aerobic capacity, strength, flexibility, co-ordination and muscular endurance. Whilst developing a positive attitude to physical education and health.

The course will provide students with exposure to a range of sports and activities selected from; swimming, hockey, cricket, European handball, water polo, AFL, minor games, Touch football, basketball, volleyball, bat tennis, table tennis, lacrosse, golf, badminton, softball and tennis. This will increase the awareness of recreational and leisure activities available to students in post-school life.

Throughout Year 9 Religious Education, students begin with an exploration the work of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings; in this unit they examine the different styles in Tolkien’s writing and how they influenced Tolkien’s understanding of the Christian faith. Students then study the historically significant figure, William Wilberforce. They engage in reading and viewing historical sources of information, with a key focus on how his Christian faith shaped the personal life and abolitionist work of William Wilberforce. Looking to the contemporary world around them, student participate in a unit of work about the intersection of science and faith. These two frameworks are often presented as opposing and incompatible views for understanding and explaining life, meaning and purpose. Students seek to appreciate the kinds of questions and answers the two frameworks address, to see if the two can coexist. Finally, students investigate how money leads to both poverty and wealth. Students pursue answers through research and discussion to difficult questions, such as, “What our place is in the world? What is our responsibility? and what can we do to make a difference?” This unit leads and students towards and prepares them for participation in the Year 10 Ethics curriculum.

In this subject students learn to explain the concept of energy conservation and model energy transfer and transformation within systems. They analyse how biological systems function and respond to external changes with reference to the interdependencies between individual components, energy transfers and flows of matter. They explain how similarities in the chemical behaviour of elements and their compounds and their atomic structures are represented in the way the periodic table has been constructed. They explain global features and events in terms of geological processes and timescales, and describe and analyse interactions and cycles within and between Earth’s spheres. They use the concepts of voltage and current to explain the operation of electric circuits and use a field model to explain interactions between magnets.

Students develop questions and hypotheses that can be investigated using a range of inquiry skills. They independently design and improve appropriate methods of investigation including the control and accurate measurement of variables and systematic collection of data. They construct evidence-based arguments and use appropriate scientific language, representations and balanced chemical equations when communicating their findings and ideas for specific purposes.