Middle Ground


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. The series title, Middle Ground, is designed to represent a focus on teaching the ideas, skills, concepts, and knowledge of English for fun and in connection with the lives and experiences of middle years students. Inspiration has been taken from the composition of landscape painting. 

How to access the resource

Middle Ground is free for VATE members! Each edition of Middle Ground is available to download here or if you're logged into your VATE account on the website, it can be found in your 'Resources' area - accessible from the top right hand dropdown. 

VATE's Intercultural Connections is a new suite of free member resources that support the delivery of the Intercultural Capability in the English classroom. The IC series will showcase the work of cultural, community and education organisations, making direct links between the online collections and freely available resources, and the ways they could be explored in middle years English. Each edition of Intercultural Connections is available to download here.

Available editions

  • Exploring 'survival' using Alone Australia
  • Teaching consent through literature
  • Developing visual literacy and analysis using picture books
  • Using sitcoms in the English classroom
  • Gallery Walk: Using art to support reading, writing and talking
  • Put engaging learning back in motion: A Year 7 English stop motion unit
  • Poetic landscapes: Exploring local environments through poetry
  • Ghostbusters: Why myths matter
  • Slinging slang in the classroom
  • Who’s afraid of the patriarchy?: Feminist ideas, texts and representations
  • Raising Neurodivergent Voices Through Reading Circles
  • Was and Will Be – Exploring and Embodying First Nations Play Text
  • Pre-reading Contextualisation of First Nations Literature
  • Reading and writing identity through comics
  • Reframing the narrative: An analysis of media, text and film
  • Cultivating an infinite writing mindset

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 form. Any queries, please email Josephine.

Interstate English teachers

Middle Ground is mapped to the Australian curriculum. If you are an English teacher outside of Victoria who would like to access and use Middle Ground, please email your State Delegate with a request for the file or email AATE for more information.

  • New South Wales (ETANSW): email Imelda Judge
  • ACT (ACTATE): email Prue Gill
  • Queensland (ETAQ): email Anne Wood
  • Northern Territory (ETANT): email Cody Clifford
  • Western Australia (ETAWA): email Claire Burton
  • South Australia (SAETA): email Sarah McDonald
  • Tasmania (TATE): email Daniel Howard


The Middle Ground cover artwork was designed by Jess Locke (@jesslockeart).