It’s every budding writer, and English Extension 2 student’s dream: a one-on-one mentor to provide support and academic focus throughout Year 12 in the seismic task to produce a substantial and impactful major work.  

Be it the syllabus’s obligatory eight-minute film, 5000 word critical response or 6000 word piece of fiction, Newington’s program of individualised mentorship for Year 12 English Extension 2 students is an exceptional offering, says English teacher, Mr Kirk Ng. 

‘You get very few opportunities in a school setting as a young person to benefit from such a professional and structured academic arrangement where you work with a singular mentor over 12 months.’ 

Mr Ng is one of Newington’s expert English Extension 2 teachers and mentors. He works alongside Mr David Conway, Head of English and Dr Michael  Marokakis, Director of Teaching and Learning.  

‘For our Year 12 English Extension 2 students to learn how to engage and perform on such an adroit and organised mentoring platform, and for Newington College to nurture and prioritise those professional relationships, is an outstanding feature of the College.’ 

This year, 14 Newington students studied HSC English Extension 2. In August after nine months work, students submitted their major work projects to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) for marking. It was the College’s largest ever cohort, until next year when 18 students are enrolled. 

Says Mr Conway, ‘the best students in the state do English Extension 2. Historically that amounts to approximately 1500 students right around NSW who are the crème de la crème of the subject of English.’  

Outstanding English Extension 2 major works were nominated by NESA in August for possible inclusion in its Young Writers Showcase, with a final shortlist of approximately 20 students later announced.  

This year, three recently graduated Year 12 Newington students, Stylianos V, Harry B and Henry R.S had English Extension 2 major works nominated. Henry R.S’s work, a short story of jazz fusion prose which draws on the early life of jazz musician Ray Charles, was later selected to appear in the showcase at the Sydney Writers Festival next year. 

An avid musician and jazz fan, Henry says the idea for his project, A New Kind of Walk, came about after exploring the idea of the discovery of the human voice through jazz.  

‘The reason Ray Charles became such an interesting and inspiring character for me to explore this narrative through was his ability to overcome adversity,’ says Henry.  

‘He was a blind, African American orphan growing up in America’s south in the 1940s, yet he managed to build a completely new genre of music that changed today’s musical landscape.’ 

Mr Ng was Henry’s English Extension 2 teacher and mentor. 

‘My role with Henry and all the other Year 12 English Extension 2 students I mentored is to help them find their inspirations for their major works. 

 ‘Our early conversations are, ‘What do you like? When you think about the things that represent your life or the fundamental aspects which make you who you are, what are they?’  

‘I am always really keen on making sure our students arrive at ideas that represent their own personal interests and will motivate them for 12 months on their major work which I believe should always be a passion project on something they truly love.’ 

Henry says he is thrilled to be included in the Young Writers Showcase 2025 and acknowledges the role Mr Ng and the Newington English Department had in this terrific achievement. 

‘It’s an incredible full stop to the hard work and dedication that’s been put into the piece with the unwavering guidance and support of Mr Ng,’ Henry says. 

‘I never really set out to explore the path of writing, but I am now excited to see where writing can take me.’ 

Below is an extract from Henry’s work, A New Kind of Walk, selected for the Young Writers Showcase which will be celebrated at the Sydney Writers Festival in May 2025.

Jacksonville 

I am spoken in many ways in the city I watch over –  

in Phoenix things stay straight –  

people tell stories of me through an acoustic guitar and clean voice –  

I hate it. 

In the navy base, the Asiatic sailors speak in licks that I can’t understand.  

So it is in La Villa where I stay,  

I watch from the sky and the rafters,  

from the puddle of whisky and blood on the floor of the Ritz and from the darkest shadows in West Bay Street –  

never East –  

never North –  

just the West Bay Street.  

They know how to speak of me, speak to me the way I like.  

Every apartment.  

Every house.

On the corner of West David and Adams,  

outside the pawn shop where an old man with a trumpet screams my name with a blind intelligence that the North couldn’t dream of.  

The streets stay alive in the parts I am spoken,

but I am missing something, 

Need someone new to speak to.