​The Year 7/8 Purple Patch commerce students have been investigating the real world consequences of COVID-19 and the subsequent restrictions on Australian businesses. Many industries have taken a major hit especially tourism and our local entrepreneurs and tourist businesses have been greatly impacted. Mark Cuthell from Port Campbell Visitor Information Centre joined our students in a Webex today to discuss the way regional tourism has been affected and how some businesses have pivoted, innovated or forged new partnerships to survive. As local examples Mark cited Great Ocean Ducks collaboration with the Royal Mail in Dunkeld and Forage on the Foreshore’s venture into marketing fresh Port Campbell gnocchi through local stores and the Victorian Country Market website. Students also discussed discretionary income, where Australians traditionally travelled and how businesses could work together to entice visitors to come back to our region. Mark described how a focus of the ‘I am the 12 Apostles Coast and Hinterland’ marketing is not about attracting more visitors but encouraging more visitors to stay longer, travel more widely and do the right thing by our environment. Students were very privileged to see a preview of the new regional tourism promotion titled, “Treasure the land we love”. They were also offered the opportunity to provide feedback on the campaign that has considered two distinct audiences: Visitors who we would like to attract to our region and locals who we would like to feel pride and joy in where they live.

To celebrate their return to school the 1/2C class took a walk around the grounds marveling at the wonderful colours of the autumn leaves in the school grounds. Students then produced these brilliant collages amongst other activities celebrating their reuniting at school and appreciating the changing seasons in familiar grounds. The intention to create an animal or scene using a variety of different autumn leaves also served to reassure students over a bonding experience that the world is a safe, familiar place.

After watching a clip about Kooka Biscuits our Year 9/10 Food Tech Paddock to Plate students were ​issued with a pantry challenge during their ‘iso’ Webex lesson. The clip was titled, “How many jobs does it take to make a biscuit” and briefly described the number of people and businesses that were involved in producing, manufacturing, transporting and retailing Kooka Biscuits. Students were surprised to learn that the economic footprint of the humble biscuit stretched much further than it’s place of origin in Donald, Victoria but included over 300 people on route from farm, mill, factory, transport, warehousing and home delivery. The challenge involved students selecting a packaged item from their pantry in either a packet, box or tin and reading the label to determine it’s origin, description, package size, preservation method, Health Star rating and per 100g how many grams of sugar, fat etc. Students then had to list the ingredients used in that product and all the people or careers that would be involved in it’s production. The final task involved students designing and producing a meal from that pantry staple and including the recipe and a photo of the completed dish. Paddock to Pantry indeed. 

School is back! Today teachers welcomed our Prep, Year 1/2, Year 11 and 12 students back to Timboon P-12 School!  As part of the Step One precautions to stop the spread of COVID -19 students have spent most of Term Two working at home facilitated by Webex sessions with their teachers. It was great for teachers to see classrooms once again filled with the chatter and excitement of students returning to school. An emphasis will be on student well being and re establishing routines so the TAP ‘welcome back’ gift to students in Years Prep - 2 was pencil cases from Dairy Australia. It’s great to see you guys! 

​The “Beneath our Feet” Year 3/4 ‘iso’ science unit continued with some fun activities to reinforce the way the earth’s surface changes over time. Students were encouraged to go for a walk to collect pebbles, leaves, twigs, rocks and flower petals to create a transient mandala with symmetrical circular layers around a central object. In the Layer it Up challenge students designed and cooked a cake that demonstrated the various layers of soil and bedrock around them. Yummo- What a delicious way to learn about soil. 

​The Women in Agri-Tech program is about empowering and inspiring women to participate in the agri-tech industry. Anne Frazer was one of 15 women from across Australia who received a scholarship to participate in the program in 2019 to develop and implement learning modules that were implemented in their classrooms. The purpose of the program was to create female role models in their region so that students can see the opportunities that are available in the agri- tech industry - “You can’t be what you don’t see”. Participants were challenged to describe the Women in Agri-tech experience in one word and came up with the following: empowering, game changer, engaging, pioneering, awe inspiring, purposeful, amazing, innovative, inspiring, thought provoking, eye opening, exciting, refreshing, reassuring and contemporary. Congratulations Anne on encouraging students to engage with examples of current technology and practical tools to help rectify or improve real world problems in agribusinesses.

​​Timboon P-12 School’s 2019 TAP’s On! showcase of the volunteers in our community has been included  in the The Weekly Times’ Heart Volunteer Awards. Under the TAP we constantly strive to forge links in our region and promote community engagement so we were very proud to put a spotlight our community volunteers, past and present, including the local CFA, SES, Port Campbell Surf Life Saving Club and the Ambulance Victoria’s CERTs and ACOs. 

​Our Year 7/8 Purple Power Commerce students have been investigating the impact of COVID -19 and the effect that the ensuing restrictions have had on businesses. A recent Landline program was studied which indicated that fruit and vegetable growers at major market venues have been impacted by the closure of restaurants and dining establishments and that there was initial panic buying of carrots, potatoes and onions. The market businesses have adapted by providing home deliveries with produce boxes and they have noticed an increase in families cooking more which has meant that many can retain their staff. Growers at the Flower market had their businesses disrupted as weddings and events were cancelled with little notice and they were left reeling. An inability to source international flowers has meant that Australian growers have had to provide stock for Mothers’ Day where surprisingly, demand could outstrip supply. Other florists have provided delivery services or left free flowers to bring joy and smiles to people during these difficult times. 

​Our Year 3/4 students have continued their ‘iso’ investigation of “Beneath our Feet” which introduces students to how soils and landscapes change as a result of natural processes and human activity. Weathering and erosion experiments were conducted at home or examples of erosion in the landscape were sought by students which demonstrated the effects of water and wind all around them. A bug hunt was conducted where students counted the health of the soil and the ability it had to contain life and organic matter. Students then learnt that the aborigines were the first people to tend and care for our land by using innovative farming practices such as the use of fire, collecting seed and building fish or eel traps.