VATE is a not-for-profit subject association committed to a vision of subject English that is equitable, inclusive, robust, creative, responsive, and critical. Through collaboration and community, VATE serves its members and their students from all sectors and regions across the state of Victoria. VATE exists to support its members at all stages of their English teaching career in the continuous process of renewal necessary to engage with the dynamic nature of both the profession and subject English. Through professional networks, advocacy, research, journals, professional learning, and resources, VATE leads and nurtures a community of teachers of secondary English committed to their students and the advancement of the profession.
External link for Victorian Association for the Teaching of English
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The call for participation for the 2025 ACMI x VATE Middle Years Conference is now open. There are dangerous consequences when we act without facts. We must inspire action over apathy. To read more and express your interest in delivering a workshop at this event, visit: https://lnkd.in/eVtAz-ux
The call for participation for the 2025 ACMI x VATE Middle Years Conference is now open. There are dangerous consequences when we act without facts. We must inspire action over apathy. To read more and express your interest in delivering a workshop at this event, visit: https://lnkd.in/eVtAz-ux
VATE's podcast, YA Book Stack, is back with a new host - the esteemed Karys McEwen. Karys is an author, librarian and bookseller, as well as the Vice President of the Victorian branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia and education advisor for the Melbourne Writers Festival. She is perfectly positioned to bring the best YA reading recommendations to VATE members! In Karys' first episode, she is joined by children's author, Emily Gale, to share reading recommendations (for teachers and students) from their 2024 catalogues. You can listen to YA Book Stack wherever you get your podcasts, or you can stream it from the VATE website: https://lnkd.in/eVnXpdrM
VATE is pleased to share our free teaching and learning resources to support the teaching of First Nations perspectives in the English classroom - available now from our website! You Can Teach That: Teaching First Nations Perspectives is designed to support English teachers to: ⚫️ build their own cultural responsiveness, ⚫️ provide accurate, informed and culturally appropriate context, knowledge, skills, language and pedagogies, ⚫️ reflect on their positionality in the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, ⚫️ consider their own process of decolonisation and how they can adopt a decolonial lens in their work, and ⚫️ engage in the development of their understanding and teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices and perspectives in the English classroom. To date, there are four video interviews and corresponding teaching resources – with the suite to expand in 2025. The interviews are designed to be viewed in any order and the activities contained in the resources are suitable for use in your English department, with your class, or in a moment of quiet reflection. You can view the resources here: https://lnkd.in/eBqrP2pZ The You Can Teach That: Teaching First Nations Perspectives program is funded the the Victorian Department of Education's Strategic Partnerships Program.
There are 8000+ reasons to join VATE in 2025. 2025 membership renewal is now open for current organisational, individual and concession members. We warmly invite new members interested in joining our community of English educators and in order to facilitate connection to VATE, we will have two new membership categories in 2025: 🧩 Schools with fewer than 150 students 🧩 Schools catering for Years 7-10 (where the school concludes at Year 10) All VATE members will receive VATE member communications, and be able to register for events, join our online networks, access resources, read Idiom and Australian Journal of English Education, and so much more! Our 2025 program of events so far includes: 🧩 VCE Englishes Days (13 and 14 February) 🧩 Meet The Assessors for each of the VCE Englishes (20, 25, 27 February and 4 March) 🧩 Writing in the regions for members in Warnnambool, Moe and Shepparton (dates in February, April and July) 🧩 A new Mini Method program to support the teaching of VCE English, Literature and English Language featuring a combination of pre-recorded and live workshops 🧩 And our Middle Years Conference has been confirmed for Friday 9 May at ACMI and will feature Hannah Ferguson, CEO of Cheek Media Co. as our keynote speaker 🧩 Visit https://lnkd.in/eSP4FuU6 for specific registration information. Membership categories, prices and details on how to renew can be found through our website or you can contact the VATE office directly via email or phone for support. Visit https://lnkd.in/eUxiMz4P
A new edition of MIDDLE GROUND is now available for our VATE members to download - just in time for Term Four! Lachlan Whitley's USING SITCOMS IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM is designed to show teachers the ways in which they can bring the likes of Modern Family, Seinfeld, Frasier, The Office, and Kath and Kim, to their students to look at the recent past: the humour, values and family dynamics portrayed in television sitcoms. This resource asks students to compare and contrast life as it is depicted over the decades through television episodes. It encourages classrooms to discuss whose voices have been elevated in these programmes, and whose perspectives are missing or reflected inadequately. To finish, it brings us into the present by asking students to think about how their experiences might be translated into a modern sitcom. This lesson sequence has been mapped to the Victorian and Australian curricula for Year 10 English and includes activities that interrogate culture and belonging, relationships, changing social values, characterisation and tropes of situational television, genre conventions, television production and tracking the ways that television reflects and shapes its context. MIDDLE GROUND is a free VATE member resource. Interstate teaching colleagues who are members of their state/territory ETA can contact their State Delegate or AATE for a copy of the resource to use. MIDDLE GROUND can be downloaded here: https://lnkd.in/dUcx2rzu
The VATE Survey Report on VCE English and EAL Crafting/Creating Texts has now been released and emailed to members. Thank you to all VATE members who participated in this survey. The responses we received with thoughtful, nuanced and detailed; focusing mainly on workload issues, the enactment of the Study Design in schools, and the impact of this on the VCE English staff. The survey consisted of four questions about the Crafting/Creating texts as new Areas of Study in VCE English and an invitation for open comments. The survey report presents an analysis of the responses received, a list of VATE commitments to action, as well as recommendations for others to consider based on our analysis of the data. VATE will direct these to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), the Department of Education, the Victorian Catholic Education Authority, Independent Schools Victoria, the Victorian Principals Association, the Australian Education Union, Vic. Branch, the Independent Education Union Victoria Tasmania, and to all VATE members. We encourage you to share this report with your English faculty and school leadership. You can read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/d3yS5hHf
Registrations are now open for the 2024 VATE State Conference - English at the intersection: Reclaiming our stories taking place at Deakin University Burwood on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 November. We're pleased to announce the full program of keynotes, guest speakers, panels, and workshops for this year's conference available to download from our website: https://lnkd.in/e4Dnp2SS We look forward to welcoming our invited guests: 🌼 Keynote speakers Dr Melitta Hogarth and Larissa McLean Davies from the University of Melbourne, and Billi FitzSimons, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Aus. 🌼 Guest speakers Bebe Oliver, Artistic Director and CEO of Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival, and Associate Professor Carlo Perrotta from the University of Melbourne. 🌼 Authors, essayists, critics, and teachers delivering our Writers Talk Writing masterclasses: Dr Sian Prior ('Shy: A memoir' and 'Childless: A story of freedom and longing'), Preeti Maharaj ('Growing Up Indian in Australia'), Cher Tan ('Peripathetic: Notes on (Un)belonging'), and Ernest Price ('The Pyramid of Needs'). These guests will be joining a program of over 90 workshops - including 30 hybrid workshops for rural, regional, and interstate teaching colleagues. Registrations can be made through the VATE website: https://lnkd.in/eRJ74WJw
Write for Middle Ground: Submissions now open! VATE welcomes proposals from English educators for future editions of Middle Ground – our freely available, dedicated middle years publication for members. The purpose of VATE’s Middle Ground publication is to provide middle years’ teachers (Years 7-10) with access to activities and lesson sequences that can assist with the teaching of English concepts, skills, knowledge, and ideas. Each edition of Middle Ground is mapped to the Victorian and Australian curricula and is supported by extensive support materials including professional reading, media articles, audio visual material, as well as tables, handouts and worksheets. If you have an idea for Middle Ground that you would like to propose, please complete this Google Form: https://lnkd.in/euU22Kwi Prospective writers will be contacted and asked to provide a sample of their lesson planning or resource writing. Questions about this form or about writing for Middle Ground can be directed to VATE's Publications and Communications Officer, Josephine Smith: publications@vate.org.au.
The next edition of VATE's MIDDLE GROUND is out now! Avril Good, experienced English and EAL teacher, helps students to explore the conventions of picture books, developing an understanding of purpose and audience within this text type through her sequence DEVELOPING VISUAL LITERACY AND ANALYSIS USING PICTURE BOOKS. This lesson sequence has been mapped to the Victorian and Australian curricula for Year 8 English and includes exploration of identity, xenophobia, fear, community, change, and belonging alongside activities to build knowledge around text structures and features, literary allusions and symbolism, as well as strategies for planning and designing picture books. MIDDLE GROUND is a free VATE member resource. Interstate teaching colleagues who are members of their state/territory ETA can contact their State Delegate or AATE for a copy of the resource to use. MIDDLE GROUND can be downloaded here: https://lnkd.in/dUcx2rzu