A poorly written sentence is a poorly conceived idea; reading is central to conceptualising our world and our place within it.
At Northholm Grammar, the Humanities Department is cultivating a culture of reading and writing excellence through implementing a comprehensive Reading Program. The texts selected for inclusion in the Reading Program for Years 7 to 11 combine simple, predictable, moderately complex and highly complex language features.
The Reading Program’s purpose is to assist students in meeting the requirements of the new NESA syllabus outcomes; however, we hope as a school, it also fosters lifelong readers. Studies show that reading requires high order cognitive engagement which is essential for critical thinking, creativity and reasoning. Without prolonged practice of reading, students are limited in their capacity to cultivate these higher order functions.
We know that wide reading not only enhances general language competence and extends vocabulary growth but also enables students to recognise effective ways to communicate at a sentence and text level. A well-chosen text enables students to study features within and between texts that can enhance their knowledge, understanding and experience of how texts represent the world.
The impact of this philosophy is already evident in our graduates; in 2025, Northholm alumna Isabelle Henderson appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald following her distinctive HSC English Advanced result. Isabelle credited her success to Northholm English teacher Ms Campos, who insisted on depth, rigour and genuine engagement with literature. When studying Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, her teacher warned students not to rely on the Netflix adaptation in place of reading the full 540-page novel. Instead, she challenged them to immerse themselves fully in the text.
“She was a phenomenal teacher … she was always pushing us out of our comfort zone,” Isabelle reflected.
That insistence on sustained reading paid off. Isabelle, like many of her classmates, achieved Band 6 results in English Advances, as well as in English Extension 1 — at a time when the proportion of students scoring above 90% across the state had declined. Northholm students are demonstrating that disciplined reading and expert teaching remain a powerful formula for success.
Teachers know that good readers make effective writers due to their exposure to different sentence types and exemplary linguistic manipulation for meaning and effect. Writing is a timeless skill that has never been more relevant or important than today. In fact, it may be the hardest – but most critical – thing we ask our students to do.
At Northholm, we seek to foster students who are confident in their ability to think and write clearly across all disciplines. Therefore, the correlation between reading, thinking and writing should not be under-valued and can only be achieved through reflective reading.
2025 Graduate Isabelle Henderson
