Agriculture News
Greater Shepparton Secondary College
Soil Week Australia Competition:
Each year the Year 9 A Sense of Humus students enter the Soil Week Australia ‘Healthy Soils’ competition. The work the students create for this competition also doubles as a CAT, providing a real-world context for their assessment.
This year’s classes, taught by Vicky Whaley, continued in the steps of their predecessors in previous years.
Congratulations to Dulina Warahenage Don and to Yousif Alkhameesi whose entries received a $50 Gift Card prize.
Dulina created a board game entitled ‘Garden Wars’. The goal of this game is to have players retain and improving soil health by balancing various garden components. Players must keep their soil healthy while sabotaging others’ gardens.
Yousif’s entry began by talking to his father about his childhood. Yousif discovered that when his father was young and they all still lived in Iraq, that he was a forester and spend his days cutting down trees. Yousif wrote a letter to his father about these experiences. Through his project, Yousif was able to make connections between his experiences at school, the work world, and how we can make the world better.
Congratulations!
GSSC Students Shine at the 150th Shepparton Show!
GSSC Agriculture and Horticulture students were involved in many aspects of the 150th Shepparton Show, with their entries and preparations beginning months in advance.
From award-winning flowers and fresh produce to cattle handling, creative displays and agricultural competitions, our students achieved some fantastic results. Congratulations to everyone involved!
Cut Flowers
Using flowers from the Enterprise rooftop garden, along with flowers from home, Year 11 Agriculture and Horticulture students Ashlee Meyer and Daniella Meola achieved the following results:
- 🥇 First place: One Container of Flowers from Your Garden – Ashlee Meyer
- 🥈 Second place: One Container of Flowers from Your Garden – Daniella Meola
- 🥈 Second place: Three Pansies or Violas, Single Staged – Daniella Meola
- 🏆 Champion Cut Flowers Exhibit: Ashlee Meyer, selected from 28 separate classes!
Congratulations, Ashlee and Daniella!
Home-Grown Produce and Eggs
Year 9 A Sense of Humus and Year 11 Agriculture and Horticulture students entered produce grown in the Patch and Enterprise rooftop garden.
First-place results:
- 🥇 Six Green Peas – Caris Macdonald
- 🥇 Three Carrots, Leaves On – Caris Macdonald
- 🥇 Five Stalks of Rainbow Chard – Hudson Simpson
- 🥇 Collection of Herbs – Sophie McRae
- 🥇 Five Stalks of Spinach – Yousif Alkhameesi
- 🥇 Five Stalks of Silverbeet – Zyra Perante
- 🥇 Six Brown Eggs – Alex Bailey, Tarlia Rudge, Annabelle Haughie and Emily Fox
Second-place results:
- 🥈 Six Green Peas – Brooke Fowler and Alex Bailey
- 🥈 One Lettuce, Any Variety – Brodie Moon
- 🥈 Five Stalks of Silverbeet – Phoebe McRae
- 🥈 Three Lemons – Year 9 class
Well done to all students who contributed their home-grown produce!
Dairy Cattle
Students took part in the Dairy Heifer Handling Clinic on the Thursday before the show, developing their skills and confidence in leading and presenting a heifer for inspection.
Congratulations to Sophie Deith, Tarlia Rudge, Maddie Beare, Claudia Hahnel, Ashlee Meyer, Fatima Chaman Ali, Zahra Quarbani, Nazneen Abbasi, Syma Karimi, Fatima Ziraki, Bridget Brown and Hailey Tait for participating.
Two students also competed in the Youth Handler competition on Friday evening:
- 🥇 First place: Tarlia Rudge
- 🥈 Second place: Sophie Deith
A huge congratulations to Tarlia Rudge (Year 10) and Maddie Beare (Year 11), who were part of the dairy show teams, preparing and exhibiting cattle throughout the show. Both students received numerous other awards with their cows and heifers.
Goats
Year 10 student Sophie Deith and Year 7 student Sarah Fox volunteered on Saturday to assist with the goat showing. Both also competed in the Goat Handler class.
- 🥇 First place: Sarah Fox
- 🥈 Second place: Sophie Deith
Fantastic work, girls!
Mini-Horses
Year 10 student Ineke Walsh volunteered her time stewarding in the Mini-Horse ring. Her role involved recording placegetters, carrying ribbons and assisting the judge.
Thank you, Ineke, for your contribution!
Decorated Hay Bales and Scarecrow Display
To celebrate the show's 150th anniversary, students from Years 7–11 participated in the decorated hay bale and scarecrow display, showcasing their creativity and organisational skills.
Well done to:
- Year 7: Hailey Tait and Bridget Brown
- Year 11 VCE Agriculture and Horticulture: Zoe Maksacheff, Jasmin Reddy, Jayda Webber, Brodie Moon, Daniella Meola, Seb Muston, Kailee Wheeler, Ashlee Meyer and Claudia Hahnel
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this special anniversary display!
Crops of the Goulburn Valley Display
As part of the 150th anniversary celebrations, GSSC was invited to prepare a display showcasing crops commonly grown throughout the Goulburn Valley.
A huge thank you to Christopher Brown and Dakoda Ford (Year 12 VCE Agriculture and Horticulture) for sourcing wheat, barley, oats, faba beans, lupins and canola.
We also thank our long-time supporter, Monica Sutherland of Cosgrove, for donating the multi-species cover crop.
Year 10 Agriculture students prepared the information slides accompanying each crop. Well done to everyone involved!
VAS Junior Ambassadors
We are incredibly proud of Maddie Beare and Claudia Hahnel (Year 11) for entering the VAS Junior Ambassador competition.
The competition involved an interview with a judging panel and a speech about agricultural shows in Australia. Contestants were assessed on their community and agricultural show involvement, communication skills, presentation and more.
A special congratulations to Claudia Hahnel, who won the competition! Claudia will now progress to the Regional Finals in early 2028.
Best of luck with the next stage, Claudia!
Congratulations to all our Agriculture and Horticulture students! Your hard work, dedication and enthusiasm were on display throughout the 150th Shepparton Show, and we are incredibly proud of your achievements. 👏
