VCE/VM

Invitation to ABC Q&A 19 July 2023

Congratulations to Ms Gachon and members of the student leadership team Raegan Carter, Stephen Burton, Markus To, Mei Hurley, Ethan Hewitt and Amy Parcell who were invited to attend a special Q&A digital episode on education.

Amy also had her question selected to ask the panel.

VCE/VM - World Skills and the Victorian Careers Expo 2023

On Thursday 17 August, students from the VCE VM class attended the World Skills and the Victorian Careers Expo 2023 with their teachers Ms Jenner and Ms Dwyer.

The Expo was tailored to students interested in pursuing a career in industry and provided them with the opportunity to speak to education providers and to see trades in action. In addition, the students went to a seminar to help them develop their understanding of interviews and what to expect.

VM Greenlink

What actually happens in the group?

We talk about the impacts associated with how social media ‘expects’ our bodies to look
We learn how to respond when people make comments about your body or other people’s bodies
We challenge negative thoughts you may be having about our body
We celebrate what makes you, you and learn to embrace your unique qualities
We discuss how to push back on the media and society’s expectations
Verbal, written and behavioural exercises that help you challenge what you think the ‘perfect body’ is.
hat went well:
Learning how to plant different plants went well. (Ethan D.)
The systems they have in place to grow plants from seeds to tube stock is very good and efficient, what also worked well was the drawn-up plan they had where all the plants go. (Ethan S.)
I think what worked well was working in small groups, so we could easily get advice when needed. (Rory)
Things that worked well at Greenlink were that the volunteers were inviting and welcoming which made it easy to work with them. (Lucas)
I think the teamwork between me, Rory, and Phillip worked well as we all got along well and worked with each other. (Tate)
I liked how my group worked together to complete the set task. We were able to work efficiently in the short amount of time that we had and found that the time went by quickly. (Geena)
First off it was nice to see my old primary school arts teacher volunteering at the nursery, being able to work with her was great since we were able to have some great chats about school and primary school. I really enjoyed trying to get all the plants and weeds out of the ground even though Geena was able to get the plants out faster than I could ‘cause she’s got big muscles. It was upsetting not being able to plant anything as we were not allowed to in the spot where me and Geena was, but instead of that we went straight to mulching, making the ground look pretty and neat. (Carrie)
It was kind of relaxing doing the gardening and felt good (Harvey)
I enjoyed that people come together to help the cause and not mess around and actually try to make a difference, while connecting with the people that help there and the knowledge they have. (Logan)
I think that working in small groups worked well so everyone got a crack at helping out. (Aiden)
Splitting up and working in groups divided the work up well and got what we needed to get done in fun groups with our mates. (Will)
I really loved to do the chores of moving around in the garden, a nice change of pace from sitting at tables in front of a computer or worksheet all day. I enjoyed digging up some of the plants to get rid of the weeds in between then separating the plants into smaller chunks to spread around the pond (Danish)

Advice for future volunteers:

Some advice I would give to future student volunteers would be to help each other and to learn something about volunteering and gardening.
Advice for Greenlink or other groups of students that are working together in the future would be to keep an open mind about the people you are working with so that you can make connections with them.
I would say all the volunteers are very welcoming, and instead of doing a tour at the end of the day, I would have much rather have done it in the beginning.
Advice I would give to Greenlink is to alternate the students’ tasks throughout the day and advice I would give to students is to have an open mind while volunteering.
All of the volunteers are very nice and explain things very well and know what they are doing.
I would recommend students consider volunteering as it is a good form to communicate with others and to get outside and be active. Plus, volunteering looks good on resumes.
Make sure to listen and cooperate with the volunteers to understand what they’re saying and so you don’t stuff anything up since that could muck up everything.
The advice I would give to another student is that it’s a good way to learn about the environment.
Talk with the people at Greenlink to understand more about what they’re doing and how it helps the ecosystem in that area.
Greenlink could prepare a little more beforehand with all the tools set out and better communication with each other.
I think Greenlink did a really good job of dividing up the groups and work. Some advice I’d give to students would be to come in the correct work gear because it is a lot of hands-on work and you do get dirty.
For students, bring your own gloves, the school gloves can feel itchy at times which can get annoying. Don't bring your favourite shirts/pants or whatever you plan on wearing to do gardening in. It’s going to get really dirty, really quick.