Year 9 Course Information

Year 9 Programs

Year 9 students will participate in the Year 9 Learning Program. This program includes a blend of prescribed and elective options.

The Year 9 Learning Programs prescribed subjects run for the year and electives run for one semester.

Subject Availability

Every effort will be made to place students into their subject choices. However, the availability of subjects offered in the Course Guide will depend on the number of students selecting the subject and staff availability. Subject lines may also impact a students elective choices. In these instances, students will be supported in selecting an alternate subject, if needed.

The College Timetable

The timetable will consist of 5 lessons per day in a 10 day cycle. Each lesson will be 60 minutes.

Year 9 Curriculum Structure Table

The table shows the allocation of the 50 lessons available per cycle for each Year level.

Table 1 displays the lesson allocation per cycle for the Standard Program and Table 2 displays the lesson allocations per cycle for the Project Based Learning Program.

Year 9 Standard Program: Prescribed Studies

Religious Education

Marist-Sion College is inspired by the traditions of the Marist Brothers and the Sisters of Sion in its commitment to providing an education which integrates faith, learning and life in a welcoming community. The College affirms and promotes a Christian philosophy which values a faith-centred approach to life and upholds the uniqueness, integrity and dignity of all those involved in its community life. The Religious Education program is the formal and most obvious means by which this philosophy is passed on to our students and is an integral part of the College curriculum. Our students are invited to put faith into action, value learning for life and flourish as people. Religious Education at Year 9 level is studied in accordance with the Curriculum of the Diocese of Sale.

Students complete an academic program of study, which includes knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith and are assessed on their knowledge of the Units studied. Alongside the academic content, students are also given opportunities to broaden their own faith experience and to experience prayer, liturgy and reflective activities. There are four strands through which content is learned and Religious Education is shared and understood: Triune God, Life and Mission of Jesus, A Sacramental Church, and Christian Life and Catholic Social Teaching.

English

The study of English is central to the learning and development of all young Australians. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens. It is through the study of English that individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them. It helps them become ethical, thoughtful, informed and active members of society. Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They interpret, create, evaluate, discuss and perform a wide range of literary texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These include various types of media texts, including newspapers, film and digital texts, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, dramatic performances and multimodal texts, with themes and issues involving levels of abstraction, higher order reasoning and intertextual references. Students develop a critical understanding of the contemporary media and the differences between media texts.

Health and Physical Education

The Year 9 Health and Physical Education program aims to develop students' knowledge, understanding and skills in order to strengthen their sense of identity and to build and manage satisfying relationships. The program provides opportunities for students to explore and analyse identity, sexuality, various challenges facing youth and risk minimisation strategies. Students will also prepare for their Outdoor Education Camp by exploring the human impact on the environment, learning about first aid and practising various camp skills, such as preparing food on a Trangia and setting up tents. The Health and Physical Education program aims to offer students an experiential curriculum that is contemporary, relevant, challenging, enjoyable and physically active.

Humanities

Geography

The aims of Geography are to ensure that students develop a sense of wonder, curiosity and respect about places, people, cultures and environments throughout the world; a deep geographical knowledge of Australia and the world; and the capacity to be competent, critical and creative users of geographical inquiry methods and skills. Students consider changes in the characteristics of places and the implications of theses changes. They consider significant spatial distributions and patterns and evaluate their understanding of geographical concepts, including place, space and interconnection.

Biomes and Food Security focuses on investigating the role of the biotic environment and its role in food and fibre production. Students examine biomes of the world, their alteration and significance as a source of food and fibre, and the environmental challenges and constraints on expanding food production in the future. Geographies of Interconnections focuses on investigating how people, through their choices and actions, are connected to places throughout the world in a wide variety of ways and how these connections help to make and change places and their environments.

History

In Year 9, students study the making of the modern world from 1750 to 1918. It covers the period of industrialisation and rapid change in the ways people lived, worked and thought, the era of nationalism and imperialism and the colonisation of Australia, which was part of the expansion of European power. This included the eras of the Industrial Revolution, the settlement of the Australian colonies and the moves towards self-government in 1901. The course culminates in a study of World War I (1914-1918), the ‘war to end all wars’.

Mathematics

Students in Year 9 work with Pythagoras’ theorem and trigonometry, number and financial mathematics, linear relations, measurement and geometry, rates and ratios, inequations, indices and surds, statistics and probability. Through the use of an explicit teaching and differential model, the students work through problems based on the topic areas to develop the mathematical proficiency of understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning. All students will develop their independent learning skills and habits including meta-cognition, knowing when and how to request assistance and develop examination techniques.

Science

The Science curriculum provides opportunities for students to develop an understanding of important scientific concepts and processes, the practices used to develop scientific knowledge, the contribution of science to our culture and society and its applications in our lives. The curriculum supports students to develop the scientific knowledge, understandings and skills through their studies of: Biology (analysing how biological systems function and respond to external change), Chemistry (radioactivity explained in terms of atoms and energy change, balancing chemical equations and common chemical reactions), Earth and Space Science (global features and events, geological processes and timescales, analysis of interactions within and between Earth’s spheres), Environmental Science (inter-dependencies within a food web, energy transfers and flow of matter) and Physics (concepts of voltage and current used to explain the operation of electric circuits, and a field model used to explain interactions between magnets).