Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning

New VCAL Mascot arrives!

A message from our beloved Mrs Dubocanin:

“I’d love to inform you of the safe arrival of our baby boy, Noah Christopher Veselin Dubocanin, born on Wednesday 6/6/18 at 8:33am. He weighs a healthy 4.015kg (8lb 13oz) and is 55cm long. Everything went smoothly and we’re both doing very well.”

Congratulations Suzie!

Biggest Morning Tea with a Twist & Senior Expo

Senior VCAL students showed off their Personal Development Studies Unit 1 assessment on Tuesday 12th June in an impressive exhibition of ideas about social justice. All students needed to include relevant and engaging information of a challenging theme that included an interactive element. The Year 9 and CONNECT students filtered through the doors and were blown away by the effort and thought that went in to the stalls. The VCAL staff were particularly proud of all those who attended and created a stall for the Expo. Watching some of the students try to walk a line with TAC approved Beer Goggles on was particularly entertaining! However, the messages of the stalls were not lost and we hope all those who attended took something educational away with them.

While the Senior students were setting up for their Expo, the Foundation students were helping to put together a catering bonanza for our Biggest Morning Tea with a Twist. VCAL has taken over raising funds via the Biggest Morning Tea for the Cancer Council in the past few years, but this year the date flew by us. We decided to put our own twist on the day by running it alongside the Expo for our staff. Foundation students collated over 80 plates of yummy food and Michel’s Patisserie donated two lovely cakes to be raffled off. Mr Hackett and Mr Johnson-Turner were the lucky winners of the delicious cakes!

Thank you must go to Mrs Kenny for organising the bakery treats and to Mrs Hadfield for our beautiful wintry soup. A huge thank you and congratulations also goes out to all students who took part, set up, cleaned up and attended.

We managed to raise $200 for the Cancer Council for our combined efforts. Hooray!

Projects Galore!

We have two major projects happening at the moment on campus at McClelland College. The first one is the creation of an outdoor classroom on the north facing side of the VCAL MAX. The Parks and Gardens students have designed, organised and created a levelled balcony for our students to complete practical work in the glorious all day sunshine. It has been fantastic to see these students embrace the physical challenge and mix concrete, move soil, build retaining walls, level the crushed rock and organise all of the resources. Great work so far team and we hope to see the finished product before Term 3!

The other major project is the creation of our VCAL Salon! Foundation students have been tearing apart the old VCAFE bathroom to get it ready to design a new salon space for our Hair and Beauty students to practice their wares. Students were ripping up tiles, destroying concrete barriers, moving furniture and taking off toilet doors in an effort to open up the space and get our imaginations working on design ideas. Great work to everyone involved!

VCAL Game Show “The Generation Game”

Over the term, Foundations students have been investigating stress and how it has changed over time for each generation. We investigated world events, popular music, movies, celebrities, work characteristics and personality traits. To show off their skills and learnings, they decided to host a game show called “The Generation Game”. Baby Boomers (Mrs Kenny and “Nan” McNair), Generation X’ers (Mrs Fox and Mr Richardson Rowly), Generation Y’ers (Mr Hackett and Ms Harry) and Generation Z’ers (Liam Baumann and Jaidyn Davis) battled out a fun filled contest to prove their intellect and determine which generation is the best overall. The girls on the analog scoreboard worked overtime to keep up with the results and Liam and Jaidyn in the Creation Station managed the technology brilliantly. Ike remained calm whilst the contestants used his buzzer system and the crowd were on the edge of their seats right up to the last question. But……who won?

Generation Y!!! Ms Harry and Mr Hackett just beat the students’ generation (Z) by two points to be crowned inaugural winners. Well done!

A huge congratulations to the VCAL Foundation students for organising, setting up and packing up the event and for running the VCAFE to make hot drinks for our contestants.

Karingal Heights PS Update

Intermediate students have visited KHPS six times this term (three each) to undertake classroom assistance and further creation of the Chill Out Space. One of the classes were lucky enough to have beautiful weather and were able to complete the base coat of the space and begin the coloured detail. The other group were not so lucky and were stuck indoors for two visits, helping in classrooms and creating displays for our Senior Expo. We hope to complete the painting and the Noughts & Crosses game this term. Next term, the Year 12’s will complete the coloured design and the flooring with the Year 11’s completing the benches and garden in Term 4. We are still on the lookout for the polished tiles in the picture, if you know of any going!

Careers Expo

On May 22nd, our Year 12 and Year 10 students visited Hastings Hub for the 2018 Careers Expo run by the FMPLLEN. Our students spent a drizzly morning traversing the stalls and taking in information by those represented. A huge thank you to Jackie Woods for helping to organise and promote the event and to Brandon Downward for making the local paper!

Catch up sessions

After the holidays, we will be running Attendance/Academic Catch Up Sessions each week. If your student is away from school for a day, they will be required to attend these sessions. If they fall behind in their work, they will be required to attend. The sessions will be posted on Compass and you will be able to track them from your mobile or PC.

Upcoming Dates

29th June – End of Term 2 (Start of Holidays!)

30th July – VCAL Course Counselling

4th September – Student Progress Meetings

Love and Learning,

The (tired, but still standing!) VCAL Team