​The Year 5/6B's Hy-Line Brown commercial pullets are now penned at the Royal Melbourne Show Schools Poultry Competition all ready for judging. The Year 5/6 students have cared for the chickens as classroom pets and were delivered to the Show for presentation and judging of the birds and their egg laying ability with students’ project worksheets supporting the School’s entry. Fingers crossed!

The Year 8 Science classes’ term long investigation of cheese and dairy has almost concluded but to truly test their understanding of all things dairy, the students just HAD to sample a delicious delight from Timboon Fine Ice Cream. The TAP was able to provide a cone or flavoured cup of ice cream for the students who then heard from owner, Caroline Simmons, about the evolution of the business and the flavour range. Caroline shared business, marketing and product development tips while the students taste tested cones from the product range. Thanks Caroline.  ​

So what did we get up to last week at the Maths & Science @ Work program?
See below to find out more about the amazing workshops local businesses held for the 170 students! 
Another huge thank you to the following businesses; Camperdown Compost, Deakin University, Corangamite Shire Council, Fonterra, Warrnambool Hydraulics, FSR Equip, Lochard Energy, MaxCare, Precision Agriculture, Ridley Stockfeeds, Roberts Builders Pty Ltd, Southern Land Bovine Services, South West Skills and Jobs Centre,South West Academy of Sport, South West TAFE, The Midfield Group, Total Livestock Genetics, WestVic Dairy.
And to the staff and students from the following school's for participating; Cobden Technical School, Terang College, Timboon P12 School, and Colac Secondary College. Of course, thank you again to the DemoDairy Foundation for your ongoing generous support. We look forward to an even more successful day next year!

The School Kitchen Garden, used by our Year 9/10 Aghort students to grow produce for the Food TEch kitchen in first semester was originally funded through a Corangamite Shire’s Sustainability Grant and built by the Year 9/10 2022 Step Up team. The VCE Vocational Major (VM) students have taken ownership of it through their Personal Development Skills (PDS) class and established it as a community garden for everyone. This term they have been fortunate enough to work with The Place of Wonder and REAL Pizza and Pasta owner, Kylie Treble, to learn how to share and practice sustainable growing in their community garden. Kylie helped the students sort the compost bins and set up a garden bed to sow sunflowers, black chia, Wombok and coriander seeds. In subsequent weeks, Kylie and the students have created their own dirt on the ground in front of the beds using the lasagna method adding compost, grass, leaves, dirt, cardboard and bark in layers so they have a ratio of 25% nitrogen and 75% carbon. The students are very grateful to Kylie for her time each Friday to educate them on the benefits, both physical and environmental, of growing a sustainable garden.

Our annual Cheese Appreciation night is a highlight of our term long investigation of cheesemaking  showcasing the learnings of our Year 8 Science students including posters and cartons about the cheese making process and milk solids analysis. Students and parents viewed the advertisements produced by students while their cheese was judged in a blind taste test by Simon Schulz and Hila Perry from Schulz Organic Dairy who were impressed with the consistent texture and taste of the final product. Our judges first tested the aroma of the cheese, the shape of the brined cheese wheel, the appearance of the cheese whilst cut checking for consistency and finally, the taste and flavour. Media judges, Leah Champion and Robyn Vale had a difficult time determining the winner of the advertisement challenge as there were many ads which delivered clear and concise messages about dairy. The winning 8A ad was produced by Ruby and Claire with Indiana and Isla as runners up while 8B’s Sylvia and Bridie won the competition for their class with Toby and Harvey as runners up. After the cheese judging Simon Schulz commended the students on the quality of their cheese and the cheese making process. ‘Cameron the Camembert’ was the name of the winning cheese by Claire and Ruby from 8A, with Marcus and Roxana’s ‘Mr Freckle’ pronounced the runner up. ‘The Stripey Cow’ was the best cheese in 8B produced by Ruby and Riley with ‘Bartholomew’ produced by Boady and Mitchell as the runner up. Thank you to Rebecca Pedersen from Saputo for proving cheese sample hampers and bucket hats from Saputo whilst our runners up prizes included ice cream vouchers from Timboon Fine Ice Cream. Congratulations to Mrs Maxwell, Mrs Watson and Fiona Allen who coordinated the evening and to everyone who attended who helped us celebrate all things cheese!

As part of their Civics and Citizenship, unit the Year 5/6 students are learning about laws, what laws affect them and different types of laws in our community so we invited Leading Constables, John Keats and Brooke Pollack, Youth Engagement Officers with Victoria Police, to describe the role of police in enforcing laws. Brooke and John asked students to consider the different roles of police and outlined how they determine if a crime has been committed, how they gather evidence, arrest an offender and take a case to court. They described how crime scenes are investigated to gather eight characteristics of evidence to proceed to court including fingerprints, shoe evidence, footage from CCTV cameras or body worn cameras and witness statements. Students learnt that strict procedures have to be followed whereby potential offenders are arrested, cautioned and have their rights, including to attempt to communicate with a friend or legal practitioner, explained to them. Offenders are then searched, transported to the police station and interviewed in a recorded session and either reprimanded, released or released on summons to appear in court where a brief of evidence is prepared by police prosecutors. Students learnt about the differences between indicatable offences such as crimes including theft, assault, or serious crimes and summary offences like speeding, littering, failure to wear seatbelts or helmets while riding on the road. Thanks John and Brooke for an engaging session on what happens if laws are broken and how police work to keep our community safe.  

​Continuing our career exploration facilitated by the Neil Porter Legacy, several of our female students in Years 9 - 12 recently attended an open day at the Iona Gas Plant. Originally perceived as a male career pathway, our students explored the site and learnt about the variety of career opportunities available in this innovative and interesting workplace. The Iona Gas Storage Facility, operated by Lochard Energy, opened its doors to 70 female Year 9 – 12 students from 5 schools. Many Lochard staff were on hand to speak to the students about their careers, the roles they do, their education, career pathways and answered any questions. ⁠Students heard from operators, a reservoir engineer, the chief executive officer, planning and execution manager, head of operations, shift supervisor, production technician, thermographer and many other interesting employees!⁠ Ricky Leonard, Steve van der Starre, and the Lochard team put so much planning and preparation into the day with staff travelling from Melbourne to attend, several employees attending on their day off, speakers with animations to show the gas storage process, and many other brilliant initiatives that made the day so valuable for the students and teachers in attendance. On top of that, they provided lunch for everyone!⁠ The students toured the facility and learnt how the gas is stored underground in rocks. They also and saw compressors with 6,500 horsepower which keeps the gas underground, or are used to ship the gas around Australia.⁠ Thank-you to the Iona staff for putting on such a great day!⁠ Further open days for all students will be hosted in the future to let students know more about the various career options in our area.

Year 5/6B’s show chooks have started to lay eggs! We have been given the opportunity to care for five chooks as part of the Royal Melbourne Show’s School Poultry Competition. The chooks will be judged on their size, appearance and the eggs they lay. The chooks are on a very strict diet as the food must be weighed as part of the competition and we are recording the weekly weight gain of the poultry. We have been learning what we can feed them and what can just be a treat so please do not feed the birds before talking to us. Our friendly, but shy birds have different coloured bands on their legs to help identify them and, once used to their names, we are training them to come when they are called, how cool is that! So we welcome Queen Pecksalot, Little Jonny, KFC, Chirp,and T-Rex to our School community. 

Today our Year 7 students joined their peers from Cobden Technical School, Terang College and Colac Secondary College for the 2023 Maths & Science @ Work Expo. Students were able to participate in a range of hands on tasks whilst exploring the world of work and occupations as they investigated the various Maths and Science skills involved in a diverse collection of professions. Presenters and guests included; Deakin University: Occupational Therapy and Medicine, Ridleys, Roberts Builders, South West Academy of Sport, Deakin University:Engineering, Total Livestock Genetics, Precision Agriculture, Hairdressing, Deakin University:Psychology, Southern Land Bovine Services, FSR Equip and Warrnambool Hydraulics, Fonterra, South West Skills and Job Centre, WestVic Dairy, Maxcare, Lochard Energy, Corangamite Shire Council, Camperdown Compost and The Midfield Group.  Thank you to all of our presenters, Matt and Ruby from the Neil Porter Legacy, DemoDAIRY Foundation for supporting the event and Cobden Technical school for hosting us, a real eye opener!