We proudly share the 2024 TAP brochure that focuses on 'Valued Volunteering'; celebrating the amazing volunteer spirit so prevalent in our community. We acknowledge that the TAP curriculum is inspired and enriched by the expertise and passion of our TAP Volunteer contributors. The whole premise of the TAP is about ‘TAPping’ into the community and benefitting from the expertise and knowledge of the local community and industries and from the experiences of our local CFA officers, respected farmers, entrepreneurs, food artisans, parkrun officials, innovative agribusiness professionals, government agencies or first responders, to name a few. Thank you to Fiona Mackenzie, the editor of our 2024 TAP newsletter, who documented the TAP journey and Robyn Vale for compiling our TAP data. As always, we would like to acknowledge this support and thank our teachers, students and school families who supported these endeavors and tasks so enthusiastically. The TAP is a real school-community partnership as it would not have existed for over twelve years without the active support of so many in our community. The 2024 TAP newsletter is also attached as a PDF in the "What is TAP?" section of the TAP Blog.

That phrase sums up the TAP in 2024...
Timboon P-12’s TAP community has at its core innovative and creative teachers, who are backed by our supportive industry and community members. In 2024, there were 159 individual community and industry personnel involved in the development and delivery of TAP curriculum and associated teacher PD. This equates to 385 hours, or $17,937* of imputed value for time generously donated to support TAP initiatives. (*Dollar value of unfunded industry time calculated at $46.62/hr.)  Since August 2012 there have been 741 local community members and businesses – farmers and other agriculturalists and horticulturalists – working with beef, dairy, sheep; agricultural service providers from fertilizer contractors to vets, chefs to agricultural research scientists; major dairy processors and artisan food manufacturers; community service providers, and parents generously sharing skills and knowledge with our students and teachers.
We also welcomed community liaison officers, wildlife advocates, historians, park rangers, boutique business owners and an apothecary to name just a few. In 2024 we have added many volunteers from the CFA, SES, ACO / CERT, Port Campbell Life Saving Club members and representatives from groups like Timboon parkrun with our major focus on volunteerism in our community.  We thank you all for your interest and support and here’s to many more TAP endeavours in 2025. 

​Once again, we are proud to celebrate the TAP featured and embedded in cross curricular activities at our P-12 campus and showcased in the pages of our annual school magazine, Baringa. This year the focus was our the school musical Shrek and Friends, so the antics of the Three Little Pigs at TAP’s On! were a feature, as was a range of TAP activities and guests in Science, Digital Technologies, Humanities, Food Tech, the industry / community support of our Breakfast Club and the various year level incursions and excursions from Years P-12. Congratulations Angela, Sarah and team, what a great school memento! 

The Year 3/4 students have been exploring Civics and Citizenship so we thought we’d mess with their heads, in a good way, to challenge their perceptions of volunteerism and the sorts of people who volunteer in a variety of roles. Just like their peers in Year 10, we invited five community members into the classroom and the Year 3/4 students had to determine, just by looking at them, who volunteered as a riding instructor, volunteer firefighter, language teacher, op shop Volunteer, disabled surfing instructor and a volunteer horticulturalist. After hearing about our participants ’day jobs’, students could then change their guesses and identified only one of the six volunteer roles correctly. Our panelists collected a piece of their volunteer gear out of a box and we welcomed Cobden Pony Club riding instructor, Cheryl Miller, Timboon Fire Brigade (CFA) member, Thomas Gaut, Conversational English Workshops facilitator, Annette Vogels, Timboon Op Shop (TOPS) bike repairer, Michael Williams and Disabled Surfers of Australia, surfing instructor, Savannah Beames. There was a spare chair on the panel and we asked the students who could it could possibly belong to and they were surprised, as were her colleagues, that Mrs McMeel volunteers as a horticulturalist at the Werribee Park Historical Orchard. Our panelists then answered a range of questions about their volunteer role, what was involved, why they joined up, what training they received, what surprised them about their role and if they volunteered in other places. The Year 3/4 students were impressed when we asked our panelists to describe how they feel as a volunteer with the following responses: Passionate, Satisfaction, Relieved, Grateful, Inspired and Rewarding. Our guests were then interviewed by the students with many stories shared in small group settings. Thank you to our panellists for their responses, insights and for sharing their experiences with our students, hopefully inspiring them to 'step up' as well.

Seasonally, this term has been interesting for our plantings, but the vegetables sown by our Year 9/10 AgHort students have grown reasonably well despite snail infestations and some late frosts. The beetroot in our garden beds is thriving and we also have lettuce, spring onions, corn (the surviving few), tomatoes and a few random carrots, onions, radish and parsley. This has been a great experience for our 'first time vegie gardener' students, designing the beds, their contents and maintaining the various vegetables. What can we grow next year, maybe something started off in our new greenhouse?!!

Corangamite Shire Mayor, Kate Makin, generously visited the Year 3/4 students to discuss local government and its responsibilities. She shared insights into the projects currently underway in the Corangamite Shire, including the exciting changes to the Port Campbell streetscape, which particularly captivated the students' interest. Kate also highlighted the many services provided by the council, such as libraries and swimming pools. The students learned about the Corangamite Youth Leadership Conference and the vital role young people play in shaping the shire's future. Mayor Makin shared her personal journey, inspiring students to pursue their interests and get involved. She encouraged them to write to her with any questions or ideas they might have, fostering a sense of connection and engagement with their local government. Thanks Kate

As many of our students live and work on farms and we begin to wrap up our Year 9/10 AgHort sessions this year, the students were introduced to the concept that farm safety is everybody’s responsibility and that “It’s not you, until it is”. Andrea Vallance described her three farm safety hats as a farmer, a CERT / ACO and an educator and revisited a presentation given on a VFF podcast and the Cream of the Crop Conference around farm safety and how it applies to different ages and generations. The students developed various rules to keep them safe such as Think before doing, Work areas are made to be used properly, Tell people where you are going, Be aware of your surroundings, Wear a helmet, Don’t muck around, Get the Emergency+ app, Be careful around livestock, Be careful on hills and Watch out for snakes. Ms Moroney introduced a practical first aid session by discussing various farm injuries, how they are caused, how to avoid them, then how to treat a variety of injuries during a tactile prac session with Timboon ACOs Rob Matthews and Bree Jones. Students learnt about; Managing environments, DRABCD (Danger, Response, Airways, Breathing, Compressions, Defib), shock, snake bite, head injury, sprains and fractures, burns and wounds. Hopefully, the lessons from this engaging session won’t be needed in the near future, but these are necessary skills to know. Stay safe everyone.

As our Tasting Timboon term draws to a close, our Year 9/10 Food Tech students thought it was their duty to sample even more produce from the bountiful 12 Apostles Artisan Trail and visited Lynda and Peter Page’s Dairylicious Farm Fudge. Lynda explained that she grew up on a local dairy farm and went to Timboon Consolidated School before branching out as a wedding dress and cake designer and onesie creator before settling into her current role as a confectioner, specializing in fudge. Coming from an inventive family, all of the recipes are created by Lynda with a balance of dairy, sugar and flavours proudly sourced from Otway Pastures, a local dairyfarm, and regional products. The resourceful couple sourced ex dairy agitators to act as fudge stirrers for the 90 minute process that goes into creating each batch of fudge. The Pages produce 4 ton of fudge a year mainly selling through local outlets, their farm shop and on line. Their distinctive resealable packaging depicts the whiteness of milk with a graphic of a Friesian cow against a blue background representing the south west ocean with a map of Australia describing it as an Australian product with creamy caramel fudge being their most popular flavour. Students were treated to a sample paddle of fudge before Lynda showed them the equipment used in their commercial kitchen that was built during COVID restrictions. She left the students with words of wisdom from her father; that they could do things either prop or proper- either propped up or properly. What a great way to wrap up out Tasting Timboon visits... Thanks Lynda and Peter.