Slide 1
HSC English Standard
- 2027–28
- Year 11 Preliminary and Year 12 HSC
- English Standard 11–12 Syllabus (2024)
- Units
- 2 units — Year 11 and Year 12 (Board Developed)
- Exclusions
- English Studies, English Advanced, English EAL/D, English Extension, English Life Skills
- Group
- Common to all students — Studied by every student on the ATAR Pathway
Syllabus in use · Current syllabus (2024)
The Academy teaches the English Standard 11–12 Syllabus (2024), which was implemented for Year 11 from 2026 and is examined for the first time in the 2027 HSC. This is the current syllabus for the Year 11 2027 cohort and replaces the English Standard Stage 6 Syllabus (2017). The number of outcomes has been reduced from 9 to 6, and ‘modules’ are now referred to as ‘focus areas’.
Course description
English Standard is designed for students to increase their expertise in English to enhance their personal, educational, social and vocational lives. The course provides students with a diverse range of literacy skills and the opportunity to analyse, study and enjoy a breadth and variety of English texts to become confident and effective communicators.
English Standard offers a rich language experience reflected through the integrated modes of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and representing.
Course structure
Year 11 Preliminary · 2027
- Reading to Write: Transition to English Standard (common focus area, studied first)
- Additional focus areas, which may include Contemporary Possibilities and Close Study of Literature
Year 12 HSC · 2028
- Texts and Human Experiences (common module, 30 indicative hours)
- Language, Identity and Culture (30 indicative hours)
- Close Study of Literature (30 indicative hours)
- The Craft of Writing (30 indicative hours)
Students who should consider this course
This course suits students who want a broad, practical grounding in English for a wide range of tertiary study and career pathways, and who prefer a more applied approach to text study than English Advanced.
School-based assessment components
| Component | Weighting % |
|---|---|
| Knowledge and understanding of course content | 50 |
| Skills in responding to texts and communication of ideas appropriate to audience, purpose and context across all modes | 50 |
HSC examination
The HSC examination consists of two written papers worth 100 marks in total: Paper 1 (Common Module) and Paper 2 (Modules). Time allowed is 1 hour 30 minutes plus 10 minutes reading time for Paper 1, and 2 hours plus 5 minutes reading time for Paper 2.
Subject presentation
Slide 1 of 10Use ← → keys, or click a slide
Year 10 Subject Selection Kiosk — English Standard 2027–28 (English Department). Two image-only slides omitted.
Text transcript of the slides (8 slides)
Slide 2
NESA Stage 6 English — overview
- Through the study of English in Stage 6, students continue to develop their capacity to understand and use the English language for a variety of purposes and in various textual forms.
- Students engage with and explore a variety of texts that include widely acknowledged quality literature of past and contemporary societies.
- Through responding to and composing both critical and creative texts, students develop an understanding of themselves and of diverse human experiences and cultures.
- Stage 6 English provides opportunities to experiment with ideas and expression, to become innovative, active, independent learners, to collaborate and to reflect on learning.
Slide 3
English Standard — course description
- Provides students, who have a diverse range of literacy skills, with the opportunity to analyse, study and enjoy a breadth and variety of English texts to become confident and effective communicators.
- Offers a rich language experience reflected through the integrated modes of reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and representing.
- Through the course modules, students continue to develop their skills to analyse, reconsider and refine meaning, and to reflect on their own processes of responding, composing and learning.
Slide 4
Purpose
- Designed for all students to increase their expertise in English and consolidate their literacy skills in order to enhance their personal, social, educational and vocational lives.
- Students learn to respond to and compose a wide variety of texts in a range of situations in order to be effective, creative and confident communicators.
Slide 5
Year 11 and 12 — what students learn
- Year 11: content common to English Standard and English Advanced is undertaken through Reading to Write: Transition to Senior English, where students explore texts and consolidate the skills required for senior study.
- Year 11: two additional modules — Close Study of Literature and Contemporary Possibilities — in which students explore and examine texts and analyse aspects of meaning.
- Year 12: the HSC Common Content is one module, Texts and Human Experiences, shared with English Advanced and English Studies, where students analyse and explore texts and apply skills in synthesis.
- Year 12: three additional modules emphasise particular aspects of shaping meaning. Students study, analyse, respond to and compose texts to extend their knowledge, skills and confidence as readers, writers and critical thinkers.
Slide 6
Course requirements
- Across the course students are required to study:
- a range of types of texts inclusive of prose fiction, drama, poetry, nonfiction, film, media and digital texts;
- texts widely regarded as quality literature, including a range of literary texts written about intercultural experiences and the peoples and cultures of Asia;
- a range of Australian texts, including texts by Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander authors and those that give insights into diverse experiences of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples;
- texts with a wide range of cultural, social and gender perspectives.
Slide 7
Year 11 course — required texts
- One complex multimodal or digital text in Module A, Contemporary Possibilities — this may include the study of film.
- One substantial literary print text in Module B — for example prose fiction, drama or a poetry text, which may be a selection of poems from the work of one poet.
- A range of types of texts drawn from prose fiction, drama, poetry, nonfiction, film, media and digital texts.
- A wide range of additional texts and textual forms.
Slide 8
Year 12 course — required texts
- At least three types of prescribed text, one drawn from each of: prose fiction; poetry or drama; film, media or nonfiction texts.
- At least two additional prescribed texts from the list provided in Module C: The Craft of Writing.
- At least one related text in the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences.