Secondary News

Year 8 - Careers Workshop 

Year 8 recently had the opportunity to engage in a careers workshop run by presenters Lauren and Shayne from the Country University Centre. The one-hour workshop helped to expose students to various career opportunities so they could begin thinking about their interests and career ideas before choosing electives for Year 9. They reflected on skills that are transferable across various careers and discussed multiple career pathways available to them.

Stage 4 Debating 

Debate 1: 

In Week 10, our Stage 4 debating team participated in their first round of debating as a team. They spent the term researching and preparing for their debate against Holy Trinity, another Armidale Catholic School. The topic was ‘The voting age should be lowered to 16’ and the team was arguing the negative.

Workplace Skills 

In Week 10, the Workplace Skills class did an excursion around the Moree town centre. On this excursion, they had chosen approximately 10 businesses to visit and evaluate the customer service at each of those businesses. We had our ‘business meeting’ at 61 Balo for the last approximately 20 minutes of the excursion, during which students filled in their booklet on the customer service experience at local businesses and discussed which were the best and why. This was a fun way to evaluate local customer service.

Year 9 Workplace Skills - EFTPOS Machines 

Year 9 Workplace Skills students and some Year 9 Drama students have volunteered to work at the ‘snack’ canteen during the Athletics carnival. In preparation, they created a roster to share the responsibilities and were taught how to use the EFTPOS machine by Mr Stewart. Mr Stewart also talked to them about taking cash payments and how to make sure that you give your customers accurate change. Thanks, Mr Stewart, for the lesson!

Year 10 Work Placement 

Xavier has been working at FMBC for work experience. He’s thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and the people he’s worked for have given very positive feedback on his engagement and help. He has served on the front desk, answered phones, and unpacked freight each day. He showed me the process for unpacking freight, which includes taking the tax invoice out of the box, checking that each item on the invoice is in the box, ticking it off, and then putting it on shelves as part of their stock.

Charlie has been working with Statewide Aviation this week. Today, in the photos, he is replacing windows on an Ag plane. He is doing both windows, and the new windows are tinted. Apart from replacing windows, he’s also serviced a plane, replacing the air filter, and serviced a prop, which includes greasing and painting. 

Shae is working with Gwydir Mobile Children’s Service for Week 11 of Term 2. She has expressed an interest in doing childcare after Year 10, so this is a great opportunity to experience that type of workplace. I visited Shae at Ashley, where that morning they had a Teddy Bear’s picnic. Shae’s favourite part of work experience so far is supervising and playing with the children on the playground. 

Beau is doing work experience with Agristorage throughout Week 11 of Term 2. This is a great opportunity for Beau to get experience in the workforce. So far this week, Beau has operated some machinery (Bobcat and JCB Telehandler) under the supervision of experienced people and has helped with grinding and building a shed. 

Charlie has been doing work experience at RDO Equipment throughout Week 11 of Term 2. RDO is impressed with Charlie’s work ethic and attitude. Charlie should be proud of his efforts this week!

Noah has done work experience through Week 10 of Term 2 at Reado’s Butcher. He has been packaging and serving meat for the butcher and enjoyed the experience. 

NAIDOC Week Curry Night

This week, NAIDOC Week was celebrated with the inclusion of a family curry night. It was all hands on deck in the Science lab as Year 10 used their preparation and cooking skills to prepare the curries. On the menu was a hearty beef curry, a flavoursome chicken curry and a delectable sausage curry. Well done Year 10 on your contribution to this community event.