The English Extension 2 course, which begins in Term 4 of Year 11 and is completed by the August of Year 12, enables students who have an interest in reading and writing to craft language and refine their personal voice in critical and creative ways. The course involves the composition of an extended piece of text – usually in written form and approximately 6000 words in length – that stems from a particular personal interest or passion the student may have. The course involves a number of stages. These include the investigation and research stage, the drafting stage, the revising stage, and finally the editing for publication stage. Students currently in Years 7-10 could be thinking very seriously about the idea of undertaking this very special English course and preparing by reading a wide range of good quality literature. 

Over the years, students have created Major Works composed in a variety of forms. These have included short stories, essays, poetry anthologies and play scripts. One student decided to create a film which was a very clever satire on schools. I recall that this film scored very highly with a mark of 49/50 and the composer went on to become a film director of note. Another student had her play performed by Sydney’s Riverside Theatre and I was privileged to be in attendance on the opening night. Another, who was particularly interested in nineteenth century literature, wrote a wonderful short story in the style and authorial context of the Brontë sisters. She achieved full marks for her outstanding composition. Another student who loved the novel The Great Gatsby, felt strongly about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of one of the book’s characters - Daisy Buchanan. The student’s Major Work consisted of a collection of letters written by the fictional character Daisy challenging her unsympathetic portrayal. Yet another student who was enthusiastic about the writings of Oscar Wilde wrote a powerful essay entitled Will the Real Oscar Wilde Please Stand? She painstakingly researched the different biographical accounts of Wilde’s life – spanning one hundred and thirty years of literary criticism – and managed to capture her own version of this larger-than-life Irish writer. 

Some English Extension 2 Major Works have focused on world events and explored insights into the human condition associated with such significant incidents. These have included the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the 1991 volcanic eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines, and the 2015 execution of two young Australians in Indonesia for drug smuggling. This last piece of work, which focused on the deaths of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, achieved for Rainier Reyes the award of third place in the State and a perfect score of 50/50. Other projects have dealt with subjects such as dementia, identity, the impact of industrialisation, and artistic creativity. One of my favourite Extension 2 projects concerned the life of the German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for participating in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler. Pierre Lingat wrote a short story from the point of view of Bonhoeffer’s prison guard some fifty years after his execution. This fictional account left me in absolute awe of the incredible power of storytelling.

This brings me to Emma Jones’ 2020 composition Hidden. As I stated last week, this creative nonfiction piece was selected by NESA for inclusion in the anthology of outstanding works from the 2020 cohort of Extension 2 submissions. I have included below the anthology’s ‘Notes from the Author’. 

‘The opportunity to compose a six-thousand-word piece could not arise at a more apt time in a young person’s life, a time when students are negotiating the difficult border between adolescence and adulthood. In hindsight, I firmly believe that English Extension 2 has enabled me to confidently cross this border by inciting deep personal reflection, something seldom found in a world where self-actualisation and self-absorption are erroneously portrayed as bound together. 

As a non-linear, often erratic creative process, the English Extension 2 course demanded of me a certain kind of discipline, in which I not only needed to concentrate for extended periods, but was also forced to stretch the imagination to its empathic limits. To produce original writing of quality, alongside reading widely and sourcing worthy material, I have learnt that there needs to be a deep attunement to the world around and within you. This means giving credence to the ‘life’ of unexpected things – animals, objects, nature, vague feelings or half- understood thoughts – and embedding these voices into the world you create. Creative writing is thus a simultaneously inward and outward-looking process, prompting us to recognise the interweaved nature of individual lives and those of other people and landscapes. 

Personally experiencing the surrender that is brought about by artistic composition guided me to my work’s central concept. To write well, we require empathy. Therefore, to better understand ourselves through creative writing is to listen and learn about other people and things. Consequently, my title Hidden has come to represent the self-forgetfulness paradoxically inherent in realising the shape of one’s own life. Writing enables us to effectively grapple with this paradox by illuminating our world while recognising the inexhaustible meaning of our condition. 

Undertaking the Extension 2 course, by allowing me to experience the everlasting potential of language, has provided me with a unique means through which I can examine notions of identity and come to a graceful acceptance of my own inherent opacity. The completion of the course has thus urged me to more greatly value simplicity, humility and empathy.’ 

Emma Jones