VCAL 2017

There have been many great achievements from the VCAL students of 2017. Students in the Year 11 and 12 levels have worked very hard to develop and improve skills required to prepare themselves for further studies, trade opportunities and the workforce. Students have challenged themselves and stepped out of their comfort zones on many occasions in an effort to improve their skills and prepare themselves for the world post Secondary School. Examples of such skills are literacy and numeracy skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, problem solving, conflict resolution, communication skills, working within a budget, planning and goal setting.

VCAL students have carried out various projects through the year to both develop their own skills but also to help contribute to building and strengthening connections with the community and engaging students and parents. Some examples of these projects are:

Peer Support Program –Students were intensively trained over 4 days to prepare them to step into leadership roles, working with the Year 7 students at Melton Secondary College. During Term 1 VCAL students delivered classroom activities to Year 7 students in an effort to teach the students about resilience and how to improve it. They also ran various lunchtime activities, activities during Harmony Day and organised and held a picnic with various team building activities at Brimbank Park in Keilor. The PSP was effective in teaching resilience, however even more beneficial in building relationships within the school and community.
Homelessness Project – After learning about Homelessness and its impacts within Melbourne, students sought ideas which they could run to help raise awareness to the issue and possibly help contribute to raising funds or goods to help people in need. Some successful projects were;

A staff car wash where students signed up teachers who wished to get their cars washed for an $8 fee. In excess of $350 was raised to create hampers for homeless.
A bake sale where students cooked a multitude of cupcakes and brownies and sold them at the school for a gold coin donation. In excess of $300 was raised to create hampers for the homeless.
A ‘Sleep in at Melton Secondary’ was organised, inspired from the ‘Sleep in at the G’ where students from Year 7 were invited to sleep in at the school to experience (to an extent) how homeless people have to live. As part of the night, a speaker from the Salvation Army came in and gave a brief presentation about homelessness in the Melton region, and the students watched ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ which is a story about a father and his son who are homeless and their struggle to get out of it.
School Fair. Once again the MSC Fair was a whole lot of laughs with students given the opportunity to throw wet sponges and cream plates at teachers, dance with music and win various prizes. This has been deisgned and planned by VCAL students to engage students, build relationships with their teachers and raise money to be donated for a great cause.

Landscaping/Construction Project – 11A worked extremely well together as a team to complete a number of construction projects to help improve the aesthetic appearance of the school as well as provide areas where students can spend time to help build relationships and enjoy their time with others. They completed a bench seated area and vertical garden cube. They worked hard through numerous barriers such as weather, time constraints, budget and policies to ensure their projects were complete within their goals set. They were involved in all aspects of the project from brainstorming any ideas and researching and planning on how it’s done. They had to source materials and apply for any resources required. Bunnings Melton were extremely supportive in donating tools and giving discounts on materials. They also learnt skills in building, brick laying and gardening.

Pacifika Week – A week organised by VCAL students, was a massive success with students from Year 7 – 12 coming together to share their cultures within the school. This was a first for Melton Secondary College with students working tirelessly for months, after school and during lunchtimes in preparation for it. The week involved a performance in front of Years 7 -10 students and parents from the community. The groups represented were Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii and Tonga. The students represented their culture with pride and put on a performance that gave goose bumps and had the attention of all. Special thanks goes out to Tina David and Mareta Simanu Sapolu, for their assistance with the preparation for the performance. The other big event was an Umu, a traditional Samoan method of cooking on hot rocks. This was a great day, both for the those who had never heard of it before, as well as teaching and strengthening culture for those Samoans involved. The food was delicious and we thank the Faoagali family for their involvement as it would not have happened without them.
Horticulture and Food Technology – This was the first year that VCAL students have been able to choose a VCE subject within their program and there was a great response from it. Within Food Technology class students participated in cooking once a week, practicing skills to cook a variety of foods from around the world, some are design your own pie and pavolva. During Horticulture students were able to plan and design a production garden. This enabled them to learn about production horticulture and complete a business plan for their vegetable gardens. They also constructed some raised garden beds and built a greenhouse to grow plants in. They potted a range of plants and planted them in a variety of gardens beds in the horticulture area.

Not only have the students developed vital skills that they will use in the future, but they have shown great enthusiasm and have gone above and beyond expected behaviours. Students have spent their own money on bricks and sourced bricks on their weekends, have given up lunchtimes and after school hours to work on their project, students were in school till 5 pm on the last day of term 3 practicing for their multicultural performance and others in the same afternoon came in at 5.30 to drop off materials for their Umu, students slept over night at the school to raise awareness of homelessness, came in during holidays to organise their project.

VCAL has progressed with leaps and bounds during 2017 and we can’t wait to see what next year brings.

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