Term 4 has been an incredibly busy term for the TAS/VET Faculty. Our classrooms have been an absolute hive of activity and the learning experiences that have been provided to our students by their teachers has been nothing short of amazing. I must thank all the TAS/VET teachers for their hard work, dedication and support throughout the year and for the wonderful and meaningful lessons that they deliver each and every day.

Our Year 12 classes for 2024 classes are all working diligently, and they have all embraced their courses. They have at this stage all completed their first assessment task for their HSC year.

All Year 12 students in courses in the TAS Faculty that include a major project now have a Major Work timeline. These are designed to help the students stay on track with their projects. These are signed at regular intervals by the students and teachers. The courses that have externally marked Major Works are IT Timber and Society and Culture.

During this term, the Year 12 SDD and Mrs Hogan have been studying Algorithms and the different Software Development Approaches in Software Design, and their first assessment was an in-class test on Algorithms, helping them to be more efficient in reading and writing them for their HSC exam. The class have also been learning to code in Python - Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). The Year 12 SDD class will need to complete a logbook throughout the process of their Major Project. The Major Project for SDD will be split into two assessments - Part 1 is the planning and defining of their software development and Part 2 is the design and creation of their software game.

Miss Reynen's Year 12 Engineering Studies class have been delving into the fascinating topic of Aeronautical Engineering this term. The students have been learning about and analysing the design and construction of various types of aircraft, including recreational, general aviation, military, spacecraft, agricultural, helicopters, and home-built aircraft.

The Year 12 Society and Culture class have started the compulsory Core unit this term. This involves studying continuity and change in society. The class have also made an excellent start on their Personal Interest Projects. The students have some very interesting topic choices for their projects!

The Year 12 IT Timber students have made an excellent start on their Major Design Projects. They have completed the first 30 pages of their design portfolio and have succeeded in including a Timber Joins Research Board to accompany the portfolio. The students now have a concrete idea in their CAD Modelling plans and are ready to hit the ground running in the workshop upon their return next year!

Timber Joins constructed by the Year 12 ITT students

Our Year 12 students from the 2023 cohort will be celebrating the success of their HSC results, they should all be very proud of their efforts and their hard work during 2023, I am confident they will be rewarded with fantastic results, and we all wish them the very best for their future endeavours.

The Year 11 VET students have now finished their external Work Placement hours organised by The Skilled Engineer, our workplace provider. Congratulations must be given to the number of our Year 11 students who have had very successful experiences during their Work Placement in Term 4. Seven of the sixteen students were offered part time work which is outstanding. The students who were offered part time work were Emily Cui, Charli Close -Dodds, Andrew Grimley, Noah Marcangelo, Polina Penkina, Amber Seymour and Jet Wong. A huge congratulations to all of these students!

Work Placement is a mandatory NESA requirement of all VET courses. Because of this, if any student has missed hours during Work Placement this year there will be an opportunity in Term 1 - 2024 to make up these hours.

The employers and supervisors of the host businesses spoke very highly of our students, I know their teacher Mrs Ofahengaue was extremely proud of her students. The students worked very hard to be part of a team under pressure to complete set tasks within a set time frame. Comments such as “they showed initiative”, “displayed great interpersonal skills”, “showed a willingness to learn new knowledge and skills” were common. These are some very important attributes to have and the students have done themselves, their families and their school proud.

Mrs Ofahenguae and the two Year 11/12 Hospitality classes have been learning how to make a variety of beverages this term including coffees, mocktails and a variety of milkshakes and smoothies. Mrs Ofahengaue and her Hospitality classes have also been busy making Gingerbread Cookies for the SRC Christmas Fete.

Year 12 Hospitality students making Gingerbread Cookies

Hospitality students making a

variety of drinks

Hospitality Students at various

Work Placement venues

The Year 11/12 Retail students have been very busy over the last 2 terms. In Term 3, most undertook Work Placement for the first time, with a few securing part-time jobs from the experience. Recently, during Weeks 6 and 7, students completed their second Work Placement to meet the NESA requirements for a Certificate III in Retail Services. When Mrs Kostalas visited them at Work Placement this term, she noticed that they were all much more relaxed the second time around. Two girls who were placed at Myer, did some excellent displays as part of their visual merchandising team. At the same time the class has been completing their Cluster D Assessment Task, titled ''Working in the Industry''. Finally, the Retail students have also been practising their visual merchandising skills. Any window they produce goes towards their Cluster F Assessment Task. We were particularly impressed with their Bronnie's Op Shop window, which contributed towards our Support Unit at school.

Retail Services Work Placement Students on the job!

Displays the Retail Services produced during Work Placement at Myer

Retail Studies Window Display for Bronnie’s Op Shop.

The Year 10 IST class and Mrs Hogan have studied Digital Media from the middle of Term 3 until Term 4. For this topic, students were to work in groups creating a Digital Media Products for a specific purpose. Students had to work together to create their own specifications and aim for their products. Some of the projects included 3D Printing, Websites, Videos and Promotional Material. It was wonderful to see how the students work together, using the skills they learnt over the two-year course to produce such fantastic products.

Miss Reynen and her students in Year 9/10 iSTEM recently completed their PBL Minor Project: constructing a Mega City. The project was a resounding success. Students were tasked with designing and building an entirely new city, with a focus on making it bushfire proof, flood proof, drought resistant, sustainable, and green. The results were impressive, with the students creating some truly remarkable cities. Congratulations to Year 9 and 10 on a job well done!

Students in the Stage 5 100-hour Timber class have been busy this semester creating their own individual project with only a material restriction when building. Students have shown some promising signs of skills through the design process which they will successfully transition into Stage 6.

Michael James’ project Year 9

Kadin Mitchell’s project Year 10

The Stage 5 Hospitality class have all worked towards achieving their Certificate I in Hospitality this year; this has proven to be a very successful and extremely popular course, with most of the students continuing into Stage 6 in 2024 to complete their Certificate II in Hospitality Food & Beverage. My Stage 5 Hospitality class never cease to amaze me!

They have developed so many skills this year and to say that I am proud of their achievements is an understatement! One of the latest trends at the moment are edible cups, the Stage 5 Hospitality class made some beautiful hot chocolates in these cups and then they were able to eat the cups when they were finished!

Edible Cups

Year 10 have been busy with their taster lessons. In the Hospitality taster lessons the students made a variety of drinks and mocktails. I was also fortunate enough to have the most wonderful Year 10 students for Chef for a Day which was one of their elective days in the program. The students prepared a delicious three course Christmas lunch and left with Rocky Road Christmas Trees!

Appletini Mocktails made by Year 10 students in their

Hospitality Taster Lessons

Chef for a Day

Year 10 Food Technology making Bubble Tea

Stage 5 Food Technology

Halloween Cookies

This Semester, the Year 9 200-hour Food Technology class and Mrs Ofahengaue have studied the Food Product Development unit of work. This unit looks at topics like: - What is food product development, types of food product development, marketing, advertising, target markets, packaging, labelling of food products. Towards the end of the unit the students researched edible packaging and looked at sustainable packaging. Some examples of creations they made were designer popcorn, loaded wedges with a variety of flavours, creating their own Rocky Road, taste testing an edible cup holding hot chocolate.

Year 9 Food Technology in action!

Across all other areas of the faculty the students have been very busy. The Stage 4 Technology Mandatory classes have been studying different strands in Semester 2. This semester the Stage 4 classes have been very busy working on a variety of different units some of the classes have been designing their dream homes using computer programs and some of the students made some miniature furniture, toys and accessories using the 3D printers!

Toys made from the 3D Printer

Miss Reynen and Mr. Kessler’s Year 8 classes have undergone a “class vs class” in Digital Technology this semester for students to design, produce and present their dream house created on Floor Planner. Both classes demonstrated amazing skills and knowledge within the design process and have developed necessary skills including problem solving, sketching and scale modelling. We hope our students had as much fun as the teachers did whilst completing this!

Tycen Bedford’s Dream Home

Henry McGavin’s Dream Home

The Stage 4 Technology Mandatory Digital Technology classes and Mrs Hogan, Miss Reynen, Mrs McTeigue and Mr Kessler have been completing coding their games in Scratch and Python. Students showed off their skills they have learnt this year, in creating some amazing and fun games. To end the term students have been doing Mini Projects varying from coding EV3 robots and making stop motion videos. Other classes have been busy designing and making monsters and the other classes have been in the kitchen!

This Semester, Year 7TEC5 and Mrs Ofahengaue have been working on a unit called My Monster! The students have been learning about the world of Textiles and the Design Process. In this unit of work the students studied Fashion and Textile Designers, surface fabric decoration techniques and how to sew seams to put their Monster Toy together. The students successfully completed their Monster Toy project and were pleased to take their product home. Now they can sew and know more about textiles the students are enthusiastic and motivated to go shopping for some fabric to do some art and craft in the holidays!

Stage 4 Monsters

Stage 4 Halloween Cooking!!

Cooking up a storm in the kitchen

8TEC1 and Mrs Ofahengaue have been working on a unit called Fantastic Food. This semester, Year 8 have been learning about healthy eating and nutrition. The students have made some healthy meals like Cheese and Ham Omelettes, Cheesy stuffed Potatoes and Spaghetti Bolognaise where they have learned about the basic methods of cookery. Now they have learned how to cook basics the students are keen to help with food organisation and preparation at home and try out researched recipes.

8TEC1 in the kitchen

Mr Kessler made a surprise appearance with 8TEC3 in one of their lessons. He taught them how to make some very tasty Christmas treats! We made sure he looked the part and gave him a Chefs jacket and hat! Our wonderful Kitchen Assistant Mrs Rosemary Mathews was also there to help out!

On behalf of the TAS/VET Faculty, we wish all our students and their families a wonderful Christmas and New Year and we look forward to working closely with you in 2024!

Caroline McTeigue

Head Teacher TAS/VET

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