Year 10 students do not study history at James Sheahan Catholic High School, however it did not stop them from entering a national history competition this year.
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Nor did it stop year 10 students Owen Hogben and Matthew Brown from earning high distinctions in the competition, along with year 9 students Nicolas Egerton-Warburton, Dominic Gibson and Mitchell McGoldrick.
The students earned the high distinctions with marks of 85 er cent or higher in the Australian History Competition in May and their awards arrived this week.
James Sheahan Catholic High School human society and its environment (HSIE) coordinator Ben Shore said he was pleased with the number of students who took part in the voluntary test and how well they did.
We were happy with the results, both years 9 and 10 were above the national average.
- HSIE coordinator Ben Shore
He said students study history and geography in alternate years with history students studying history in year 9 and geography in year 10, but they can choose their own subjects in senior years.
“There were 28 students all up who volunteered [to take part] as an extra activity,” Mr Shore said.
“We were happy with the results, both years 9 and 10 were above the national average and we are trying to promote history as a subject and develop critical thinking.
“Hopefully it’s something we can do again.
“Our numbers are increasing in year 11 in terms of modern history especially and ancient history we are hoping to grow it.”
Mr Shore said the school regularly has students compete in a national geography competition but this was the first time in four years that the school’s students have sat the history test.
Matthew Brown did not study history this year and was pleased with his result.
“It was as enjoyable as much as a test can be,” Matthew said.
“I was interested in history and wanted to do [modern history] next year.
“It tested us on a lot of stuff we did learn last year but a lot of general knowledge as well that we have heard about such as the moon landing and stuff that happened the year before.”
Fellow year 10 high distinction recipient Owen Hogben said they studied World War I and II, the holocaust and the industrial revolution last year, which helped with the test but he will be focusing on science rather than history when he goes into year 11.