Extension & enrichment

We celebrate the diversity of our girls' talents. We are committed to giving girls opportunities for their individual talents to flourish. In the classroom we use differentiated teaching and learning approaches in all subjects.

Girls are encouraged to participate in the broad range of co-curricular activities available to enhance their talents.

For some girls with specific talents or needs, individual programs are developed. These involve more complex work in the classroom, competitions, or appropriate activities outside Wenona, such as those offered by universities.

Other extension and enrichment initiatives include acceleration in single subjects (girls in Stage 5 may study HSC subjects), team teaching and the Year 8 "connected curriculum" approach.

Identifying girls who will benefit from these programs is a continuous process throughout their time at Wenona.

Debating, public speaking and writing

Debating is an important co-curricular extension for Middle School girls, and they are encouraged to participate. Debating provides a unique opportunity for girls to develop skills in structured argument, reasoning and persuasion. Debating also calls for strong teamwork, listening and research skills. Debaters develop the ability to think critically and articulate their views about philosophical, ethical and moral issues, and current affairs.

Wenona debaters receive ongoing training in debating. Our debaters participate in training days run by World Champion debaters at the University of Sydney. In addition to the ISDA Competition and the SDN Competition, Wenona debaters compete against a variety of schools across the State in debating championships such as the Archdale Competition, the Macquarie Cup and the University of Sydney Union Schools Debating Championship.

Wenona girls are also active participants in public speaking competitions like the Rostrum Voice of Youth and the Sydney Morning Herald Plain English Speaking Award. The culmination of each public speaking season is the Festival of Speech, the AHIGS competition between member schools.

Girls with an interest in writing, either to pursue their own personal long-term projects or generally to improve their written expression skills, are encouraged to enter writing competitions at local, city, state, and national levels. Wenona has its own annual writing competition where prizes are awarded in age groups in the categories of Fiction, Dramatic Scripts, Poetry, and Non-Fiction Essays.