After two years of interrupted schooling, social lives and life in general, we are looking at re engaging and inspiring our Year 9/10 students to once again, or maybe for the first time, take on an active role in volunteering in our community. We invited six community members into the classroom and the Year 9/10 students had to determine, just by looking at them, who volunteered as a parkrun Event Director, Birregurra lunch volunteer, HDLN garden hand, football trainer, Country Fire Authority (CFA) member, wildlife carer, Ambulance Community Officer (ACO), or Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) member. Students only guessed two of the eight volunteer roles correctly! Our guests then collected a piece of their volunteer gear out of a box and we welcomed Timboon parkrun Event Director, Dean Whitehead, Birregurra lunch volunteer and HDLN garden hand, Bernie Conron, Timboon Football Club player and volunteer, Nathan Gillingham, Port Campbell Fire Brigade captain, Katy Millard, owner and operator of Possum Place Wildlife Shelter, Suzanne Hughes and Simpson CERT / Timboon ACO, Bree Jones. Our panellists then answered a range of questions, indicating their day job, volunteer role, what was involved, why they joined up, what training they received, interesting stories, why they volunteer and why their partners say they volunteer? 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. This week Anne Rosolin, the creator of Great Ocean Road Cordial Syrups (GORCS), spoke to our VCE Business Management class about how to execute an internal and external business plan for a new business. After describing her own career path as a hospitality student, chef for 10 years then dairyfarmer for 27 years, Anne explained that the cordial syrups were originally part of a farm visit operation and had morphed into a business in their own right. She recommended that it was important to update your computer skills, and investigate local laws to obtain the correct permits, to work within regulations, establish who your potential competitors and or business partners are, to investigate advertising and project your running costs. Anne reinforced the importance of doing extensive research, seeking advice from people already in the hospitality business, professionals, Shire officers and having an unbiased taste test team who would give you honest feedback on your product. After asking students to complete a SWOT of GORCS the students sampled Anne’s cordial syrups originally created from her Grandmother’s recipe. Our VCE class then described their business ideas to Anne which included a swim school, some content creators, a tech building design service, music festival, website, cards and hobbies store, breakfast / lunch bar, sports store, nail salon and branded clothes range. What a creative, entrepreneurial group of students, definitely watch this space! This term our Year 8 Science classes are studying the science of cheesemaking including chemistry, food science, scientific processes, and researching aspects of the Australian dairy industry while they wait for their Camembert cheeses to mature. Julian Benson, from Apostle Whey Cheese, was invited into the classroom to describe the business’ 42 year residency in Gallum Road and how the Apostle Whey concept was inspired by a Landline story. He outlined the necessary planning and training prior to the new business commencing, the types of cheese produced and the production methods used. The pathway of milk from the dairy through pasteurization and then made into cheese or bottled for milk was detailed with similarities in the production methods used for the students’ Camembert. Julian described the thought processes involved in marketing their products with a none to subtle connection to our region to remind tourists of their adventures with the lesson concluding with students sampling some Loch Ard Gorgeous Camembert. Thanks Julian! Following on from the informative session with the Year 7/8 Humanities ‘Community Projects’ elective students and Timboon Lions, David Gamble and Ray Smith, Ray invited Ms Wakefield to Power Creek to discuss the student group being involved in redeveloping part of the Reserve. The Power Creek Committee had recently cleaned and weeded the south side of Power Creek between the Lolly Shop and the bridge and suggested that the class may like to take some responsibility or ownership for designing and replanting that part of the Reserve. An onsite meeting was held with Peter Pope, Robert Marr, Alan Kerr, Ray Smith, Ms Wakefield and Andrea Vallance to scope the area determine a plan to involve students in the redesign and planting of the Creek area later this term. What a great community project to be involved in! As part of our Year 8 science investigations of milk and cheese our students were challenged to compare the information on the back of a milk carton with their own results in class. The students had to separate out the milk solids (fat and protein) by heating the milk from the whey and compare that with the mass of milk solids listed on the rear of the nutritional information panel on the milk carton. The results were compared and if the results varied the students had to justify their results and describe the appearance of the curds and whey. The Year 7-9 Step Up Program has been an excellent way for students to build strong relationships with classmates and a good connection to Timboon P-12 School this year. The focus has been on upskilling students with a hands on approach to learning and demonstrating that these skills can be utilized to aid our community. Previously our students have built new seating for the school grounds and for the Rail Trail but now, as a TAP community connection, they are building a school kitchen garden. The funds for the garden were secured by Denise Murray through the Corangamite Shire Environmental Grant program that is designed to support organisations to undertake environmental and sustainability projects in the Corangamite Shire. The Kids in the Garden – Kitchen Garden upgrade will be a cross curricular P-12 asset and will include raised garden beds in a fenced garden area that can be accessed by our whole school community. Keep watching this space for updates. Apart from big Paddock to Plate operations our Year 3/4 students learnt that there are smaller businesses that cover the whole Paddock to Plate experience in their own right. The classes were introduced with a local business, Childers Cove Cheese Company, by watching an imovie featuring goat farmer and cheesemaker, Bernie Drake. Bernie described how goats are milked, explained the differences between goats and cows and demonstrated how the Cheese Company produces Sea Spray, a fetta style cheese, at their local processing site. As a consequence of their enquiries this term, the students are very familiar with the Paddock to Plate journey of milk as a raw product through a processing plant and they could see that the processes were similar to a large processor, like Bega, but just on a much smaller scale. During a second video Bernie described the type of goats milked, the products in their range and where their goods are sold. He demonstrated how easy it was to make ricotta cheese in your own kitchen using milk and vinegar. Our fortunate students were able to sample Greek fetta from our local supermarket and Bernie generously supplied some Golden Dunes, a semi hard cheese, Rock Pool, a Danish style Fetta with herbs and Seaweed Rolling Breaker, with seaweed in it. Students were initially very wary of the seaweed cheese, but this turned out to be their favourite – who knew! "After watching videos about making goats cheese, we tried some. They were Rock Pool feta style, Seaweed cream cheese and Golden Dunes hard cheese. I did not like the cheese but other people in my class did. I liked Rock Pool, it was personally my favourite. I think it tasted like garlic bread. It was good in my opinion. I did not like the first one". - Hunter The secondary Re-gen Tuesdays group has informed all primary students of their composting project. The small team of students, with the guidance of Kylie Treble, ran a Kahoot for the Year 5-6s and an outdoor education session for the younger ones. All classrooms have a small food scrap bin for collecting items that can be composted in our developing vegetable gardens. This is a great initiative to come from this student group to us. To celebrate and share Science Week in regional Victoria, Jeremy Lee from ABC Radio contacted our cheese maker extraordinaire, Nigel Mottram, to discuss our Year 8 Camembert cheese making unit. Nigel outlined the origins of the TAP cornerstone unit to Jeremy and explained that the term long unit was supported by local cheesemakers, Julian Benson from Apostle Whey Cheese and Simon Schulz from Schulz Organic Dairy. Year 8 student, Zane Potter, contributed to the conversation and commented on the satisfaction of seeing the liquid milk become cheese and emphasized the importance of working in a bacteria free environment and the relevance of sanitizing everything. The Cheese Appreciation night was described with students and parents welcomed to watch the students’ marketing projects promoting the dairy industry, cheese or milk and judged before the winning cheese in the blind tasting event was showcased and announced. Check it out - https://www.abc.net.au/southwestvic/programs/breakfast/breakfast/14022874 (2.09.13 – 2.15.47) What would we know? As teachers, we can sometimes feel this attitude emanating from students. Andrew Berry was one of those students, when he attended Timboon P-12 School. However, today he returned to the school to speak with Year 10 Health and Career students about the need to make the most of the opportunities of their time here. Andrew described himself as a ‘shithead’ at school, as he hated school and had no respect for his teachers. He even had a bet with his Maths teacher, who told him that he would fail his Maths’ exam. Andrew scored 97% and won $ 100. However, his overall Year 12 school results meant that Andrew continued to work at Ritchies in Timboon. He worked at Thomas catering and his parents managed to persuade him to get a certificate in retail. Whilst Andrew learned to talk with customers, he was not passionate about the industry. Later, Andrew worked as a concreter, where he and his workmates worked hard and played hard. He then joined Genetics Australia as a herd test manager AI-ing and freezebranding cattle. He loved his experience playing footy with the Timboon Demons and gained respect for those in the team, who made sure that he was ‘kept in line.’ Andrew volunteered as part of the Port Campbell CERT and enjoyed working in that team environment as he enjoyed helping people. Sadly, the day he found his true vocation was Boxing Day eleven years ago, when a young woman suffered a cardiac arrest after an asthma attack. The team worked on her for 2 ½ hours but sadly, she could not be saved. It was the turning point for Andrew. He decided to become an ‘ambo.’ He later told the deceased woman’s mother that trying to save her daughter was the catalyst for his decision and she found some comfort knowing that his decision might serve as her daughter’s legacy. Andrew was offered support in his studies, by his wife Melissa. Finally, he had met his arch-nemesis – a teacher! Andrew studied with Flinders University 14 hours a day online – he even took a course about writing essays and studying. Just as well a teacher was at home ‘to bite him in the bum!’ Andrew gained practical experience in Geelong, which meant that Melissa looked after their young family during the week. He was doing all this for them, his family – and for others. Today, he is an integral part of our community, ensuring our safety. Andrew told our Year 10 students: “You don’t need to be the best student, just do your best.” - Katherine Fox & Fiona Mackenzie, Year 10 Health & Careers’ teachers |
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