The installation of the new Australian Curriculum offers rich possibilities for rethinking English in Australia, and beyond. This paper proposes that rhetoric is usefully drawn into this work of reconceptualisation, as strategically an organising principle for English curriculum theory and practice. It reviews existing work on rhetoric and proposes ways of connecting it with new understandings of textuality and meaning. It thus seeks to bring together rhetoric, history and pedagogy, as crucial considerations for the renewal of English teaching.