​This term’s staff noticeboard is based on the TAP update delivered to staff at the end of Term 2 describing the creation and history of the TAP and the myriad of ways it can help teachers engage and inspire students, cross curriculum, P-12. This was also an acknowledgement of the many plates that teachers are spinning, but it was also an opportunity to highlight the physical, financial, mental and emotional stress that many farmers and providers are experiencing during the driest 26 months ever recorded in Southwest Victoria. Teachers were made aware of the costs of imported feed with the usual 40% of purchased fodder replaced by 100% of the stock’s diet with fodder stockpiles dwindled, and in many cases, between 15-20% of local herds sold to fully feed the remaining animals. Environmentally, Scotts Creek is barren and empty and the flow on effect for regional businesses is becoming apparent with local car sales down 13.5% and some specialty shops closing ot opening for restricted hours. Staff were encouraged to support local families, to be aware of the the students in their care and the situation many regional towns and local families are finding themselves in. The presentation concluded with a mini celebration of our wonderful community of educators who help enlighten and inspire our students. Now, how can we help spin those plates?! 

A highlight of the TAP is its ability to ‘tap’ into the expertise and experience available in our local community. To this end, as our Year 8 Science classes have been learning about the digestive system as part of their investigation of body systems, we invited Erin Gardner from The Vet Group to describe and contrast the difference between a cow and human stomach and their respective structures. Erin explained that cows, like most ruminants, have four stomachs that each play a role enabling cows to ruminate and regurgitate previously consumed feed and chew it further to help it ferment and be absorbed. Cows can bite a mouthful of grass a second - swallow it straight away and keep eating so students were not surprised to learn that they can then spend 10 hours a day ruminating to absorb and process all that feed! Students learned that the four chambers, the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum, varied in function and structure and helped move the cow’s feed through the digestive system. Then, armed with gloves, students examined four stomach examples and had to indicate what each chamber was, where it was placed in a cow digestive system and which stomach was the most similar to ours. Various types of cow feeds and their importance in a balanced diet were discussed and students could look at samples of various stock feeds including silage, hay, grain, almond hulls, cotton seed and pine kernel extract (PKE). Erin clarified that calves’ stomachs are initially like humans and only the abomasum is functional as milk bypasses the rumen when they are on a milk only diet. Definitely something to ruminate on!!

We are incredibly proud of our long involvement with the Cows Create Careers (CCC) project that was originally created by JayDee Events to inspire the next generation of dairy industry professionals and more importantly, provide some great, hands on science skills for students and teacher resources supported by our amazing community. We proudly announce that once again, Timboon P-12 Year 7 Science students are amongst the state winners and congratulate, Lyla and Sophie as well as  Charlotte who won part of the Spot Survey Competition. Twenty one years later, CCC has evolved from the initial 141 students from 9 schools to 11,872 students from 212 schools in 2024. Thank you to JayDee, the incredible sponsors and our industry mentors including Peter, Sam, Max and Zoe for helping bring real world science and careers into our classroom

​Our VCE Health students are exploring an Indigenous perspective of the healthcare system and we were fortunate that Katina Walsh, the Indigenous Liaison Officer with Timboon and District Heathcare Service, (TDHS), was able to contextualise and describe the challenges and opportunities available to First Nations Australians. Katina explained that Indigenous peoples’ physical, mental, family, community and Country were all linked, if any of it is unwell, then I am unwell. As First Nations people are connected holistically to Country, Australia’s history of colonisation that resulted in stolen generations, genocide and slavery, has occasioned the need heal the community to stop the cycles of trauma and rebuild trust. Coming from a deficit story, Katina believes it is important to break down barriers and demonstrate the pride and resilience that comes from belonging to the oldest living culture in the world. Traditionally, bush medicine and bush doctors or traditional healers worked in community and now indigenous health is focusing on rebuilding trust with aboriginal health practitioners meeting with patients before their story is relayed to GP in an environment that feels welcoming and safe. Katina outlined the 5 disease groups that caused the most burden among Indigenous Australians including mental and substance use disorders, injuries (including suicide), cardiovascular disease, cancer and musculoskeletal conditions. She stressed the importance of a strength based approach to Indigenous health and being proactive in advocating for health promotion programs that have succeeded within the First Nations population. 

​As the Year 5/6 Science students have been investigating extreme weather conditions and how the impacts of natural disasters can be reduced by human action or technician innovations, we welcomed CFA volunteers to describe and contrast the fatal 1983 Ash Wednesday fires and the 2018 St Patrick’s Day fires. Clyde Bassett (Timboon CFA) outlined the weather conditions, point of origin, fire fighting procedures, wind change and fatal consequences that were experienced during the Ash Wednesday fires. Students heard how the community rallied after the event to support those impacted and Katy Millard (Port Campbell CFA) and Daryl Spence (Timboon CFA) described the improvements that were made to fire trucks, fire fighting uniforms, communications and warning systems. The current Year 5/6 students learnt that the 2017 Year 5/6 student cohort had made up fire evacuation plans with their families, produced posters and introduced bushfire awareness to their peers at TAP’s On! 2017 with the Timboon CFA. Our guests and students recalled climatic conditions lead to the 2018 St Patrick’s Day fires in our region only 4 months later. They described the causes, use of the Vic Emergency App, the role of the CFA and the community response to the natural disaster which included community meetings, informal BBQs, Blazeaid volunteers, donations of food, clothing and money. Due to the extended dry season and the impacts of climate change, we heard that the fire season was no longer restricted to summer and that local crews had been fighting fires as recently as last week. Students had the opportunity to try on the fire fighting gear, examine scrapbooks and newspaper articles describing the events and trial the Mount Warrnambool fire tower map or the fire access drill kit, graciously provided by John Mahony (Allansford CFA). These students will be tasked to develop a fire and evacuation plan with their families and have already created pillowcases as part of the Red Cross Pillowcase Project in readiness for the 2025/6 fire season. 

The Year 7 Science students are investigating the earth, sun, moon and traditional seasons so we invited Leanne Sumner from Cooriejong into the classroom to describe the way local indigenous people traditionally interpreted and relied on the changing seasons. Beginning with a welcoming chant, Leanne introduced the students to a leaf ceremony as her thanks for coming to Timboon P-12 School as a student herself. She explained that from a Gunditjmara perspective, everything is connected in the aboriginal world with the sky a reflection of the land including seasonal observations such as the behaviours of animals or growth of plants. The Budj Bim story was shared that recalled seasonal time keeping, the engineering capacity of indigenous people and their regard for country as a living being. Students learnt of the link between various star clusters that signified when it was time to harvest eels, emu eggs or collect medicinal orchids etc. Sacred stone sites in the landscape at Lake Bolac and Wurdi Yourang are linked to the rotation of the sun and earth and, at 11,000 years old, are the world’s oldest observatories. Leanne outlined indigenous people’s understanding of equinoxes, solistices, weather knowledge and the range of seasons including the 6 seasons of the Gunditjmara, the 7 Kulin seasons, 2 from Northern Australia and compared them with the 4 European seasons. She left students with an intriguing challenge, do we decide seasons by dates or from the signals from our environment?

​Our Year 1/2 Science students are investigating how we take care of Earth’s water, land and air by recycling, reducing and reusing materials to conserve Earth’s resources.  To enhance their understanding of this vital topic, we invited Corangamite Shire’s Prue Liddy, the Climate Change and Emissions Reduction Officer and Chandi Sharma, the Wate and Circular Economy Officer into our science room to further explore waste and recycling. Prue described the various bins used for different types of rubbish including red for general rubbish that goes into landfill, the green FOGO bin for food and garden organics that is turned into compost, the yellow recycling bin and the purple bin that collects glass that is sorted, cleaned and turned into something new. Chandi then challenged the students to sort out a range of items into various bins while Prue had students searching for an assortment of recyclable goods with a waste scavenger hunt. There were lots of laughs and discussions as students determined what-went-where! A great activity, thanks Prue and Chandi

​It’s always wonderful when we welcome ex students back into the classroom to describe what they have done since they left school as part of our Year 11 Career awareness program. Darcy Tribe was no exception as he candidly recalled his time at Timboon P-12 School with fondness and outlined the decisions behind some of his study, career, volunteerism, travel and life choices during that period. During Year 11 he knew he was interested in trades but completed VCE to keep doors open in the future. Deferring Engineering at Deakin, Darcy undertook a Cert11 in Electrotechnology (Pre Apprenticeship) and commenced electrical work experience with Hickey Electrical where he was eventually offered an apprenticeship in 2017. Working as a regional electrician has meant that he has had the opportunity to work in domestic, commercial, industrial and renewables with various paths available including data and communications, TV, instrumentation and generators. Darcy had a break from his trade and worked as a Parks Victoria Ranger Field Services officer and as a paid life guard with Life Saving Victoria to try something new. He credits a long involvement in the Port Campbell Life Saving Club with helping develop his personality, confidence, physical / mental health and challenging himself in a supportive environment eventually assuming the Club Captain role. Active volunteerism also included roles in the Port Campbell CERT and CFA and Life Saving Victoria. Darcy stressed the importance of connecting with community, being proactive to give yourself options, using initiative and surrounding yourself with good people and mentors. He concluded with a quote from Winston Churchill, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”.

As the Year 7 Science unit, Cows Create Careers draws to a close, we accepted Max Bond’s invitation to visit Coorieridge Farms, the dairy operation that he runs with his parents Adrian and Vicki. The Bonds milk 430 Friesian cows that calve twice a year, in February, then May-June through a 24 stand double up herringbone dairy. The prolonged dry season has meant that the Bonds have used their reserve of 3,500 silage rolls and, as grass is still scarce, they are feeding supplements including almond hulls, wheaten hay, vetch and maize silage with 8kg of grain supplemented per day in the dairy. At the calf shed, the students could see the individual head bales used to feed and manage the calves and the ID tag system that records and identifies the calves’ dam and sire. Recalling Zoe’s advice re healthy calves, the class could see that the calves’ eyes, ears, joints, navals, tails, bedding, and food / water looked good and it was obvious that the calves were very healthy. Max described the technology used on farm including cow collars, mastitis detectors, pendulum gates, copper sulphate footmats, feedout wagon, telehandler, genomic testing of the calves and the introduction of a new water app that records leaks or broken troughs. Thanks Max for allowing us to see a commercial calf rearing operation at your stunning family farm! 

​The Year 7 Economoics students are investigating financial planning and budgeting so we invited CBA Agribusiness banker, Chris Jeffries, into the classroom to describes the sorts of products and services that bankers can provide to their customers to help them save to achieve their financial goals. Chris described growing up in New Zealand, not as a maths whiz, but he enjoyed economics so he completed a Economics / Finance Degree at university and a Post Grad in Rural Studies. After working as a Commercial Banking graduate for ASB, he and his family emigrated to Australia where he works in his current role with a portfolio of clients in rural industries with who can borrow between $1-50 million dollars. As an agribusiness banker, he has a responsibility to help customers determine how much they can borrow and repay the bank whilst achieving their financial goals. The class completed a task to determine the sorts of products available including a debit / credit card, checking account, on-line banking, money transfer, bill payment service, savings account etc. Banking tips, lost credit / debit cards, scams and the power of compounding interest were discussed and the class had to determine the various uses for transaction accounts, savings accounts and mobile banking. Chris left the students with the advice that ‘the best time to start saving was yesterday, the second best is today’.