The Regional Engagement Enterprise

It’s been so rewarding seeing our students back into learning from and within our community. Both the Senior and Junior School have been fully immersed in our TREE programs this term. 

Pre Kinder had their first full day at the farm. It was near perfect weather for exploring, painting, digging and making new friends with the pigs, cows and sheep. The creative free play that Windermere allows the children to have is enormously beneficial for their fine and gross motor skills as well as affording them opportunities to practice negotiation, cooperation and testing their own limits in a safe and supportive environment. 

In Week 3, Kindergarten enjoyed their first excursion of the year! The excursion was designed to compliment their science and PDHPE studies linked to living things. Students visited the picturesque Rosedale Farm. Mr Mike Booth provided Kindergarten with an engaging tour, teaching the students about the needs of the various animals that live on the farm including peacocks, ostriches, camels and turkeys! Following the excursion, students will be designing a new shelter for their pig, Lucy. The day continued with a sunny afternoon at Windermere. Students enjoyed listening to stories and exploring the farm. Gerald Power from Indigenous Cultural Adventures joined Kindy and helped students to plant a bush tucka garden, that will provide native foods for years to come.

It was an idyllic end to Term 3 for some passionate artists in Year 5 and 6 who enjoyed a creative afternoon drawing and painting at Windermere Farm. Students were creating an artistic vision for how our farm could be used as a purposeful learning and community gathering space. 

The Cottage Community Garden behind the Choices at Home building in March St, Orange, is a testament to collaborative projects and hard work. Local Council, The Womens’ Shed, LiveBetter, Australian Indigenous Cultural Adventures, Kinross Wolaroi School students, Migrant Support and other community groups all worked together with financial support from local businesses to bring together this beautiful garden, which was officially opened on Thursday. In 2019 Year 9 BeHeard students worked on building the garden beds and painting the space throughout the year and Visual Arts students helped a local artist to paint some of the mural during their Community Projects days at the end of Term 4. 

There is more work to be done and we love building connections with our local community through gardening and making art. 

Catering is one of the great things about hospitality. Due to COVID restrictions there has been limited opportunity for our Hospitality students to get out and run events. Luckily we have an amazing Kitchen Garden that has kept growing and producing throughout! This has meant that, as restrictions relax, our new Year 12 students have been able to cater from the kitchen garden for staff conducting Parent Teacher Interviews this term. 

Boarding, in particular the New House girls have benefitted from the fruits of their labour, by being able to harvest the winter crops that they planted earlier in the year. They spent last weekend in the PLC Veggie plot picking the produce and then got stuck into the garden bed preparation in readiness for this weekend's summer planting. 

Mrs Sue-Ann Gavin

Director of TREE