Secondary Community News 

Lower Secondary (Years 7-8)

This week the year 7/8 students had their travel training program to the ACMI centre in Federation square. Students learned to read train timetables and put this to practice by catching the train to the city. The students demonstrated excellent road safety and being in the community. This term our inquiry topic is What's the Matter. We look forward to putting our scientist hats on and experimenting with different solids, liquids, and gasses. 

Upper Secondary (Years 9-10)

The 9/10 Team had a successful launch of the Hungry Flame café! We want to thank all the staff who ordered our loaded potatoes! Your continued support helps us run our program and allows the students to develop hands-on workplace skills. We had some great feedback and will continue to make changes and improve our business. 

The 9/10s also went on excursions this week. Some students went on a community walk and headed to Sunshine Library. Others went into the city and saw Queen Vic Market and Melbourne Central. 9/10C had a chance to experience the new Monopoly Dreams Exhibit at Melbourne Central, and the students had loads of fun. It’s a fun excursion for schools and families to visit, including games and a 4D moving theatre.

Senior Secondary (VPC/ASDAN)

In ASDAN this week students have been very busy learning how to identify safer strangers in the community. We are learning about being safe and recognising our personal early warning signs that help us identify potentially unsafe situations. 

Students have been enjoying creating, building, dancing, singing and developing their fitness levels during Wednesday electives.

We continue to work well to develop our independent living skills buy making snacks and drinks, purchasing our lunches and navigating the community.

Some of the VPC boys have started working at the Farm at Keilor Park Downs Secondary College. The Farm is unused land that Keilor Park Downs Secondary College has ‘gifted’ to Jackson School to use. Hands- On Learning (HOL) have been converting the unused land into a vegie garden, a chicken enclosure and bird aviary all year. The VPC boys have started working there in term 3 with myself, Bess and Helena and Cam from the HOL program. This is a great opportunity for the older boys to mentor and work with the younger boys in HOL and they have done well at this when the opportunity presents herself. The VPC boys have moved metres of mulch into the veggie garden to lay on the paths to prevent mud build up, which the HOL students raked onto the paths. They have also started work on building a greenhouse and have been cleaning up a grove of She Oaks to make a native garden with an elevated walkway. This is a great project as it enables the older students to mentor the younger students, for them to have a vision of a project to do at the farm and run with it and to create something that will exist long after they have left school. I’m looking forward to seeing how much is accomplished by the VPC boys by the end of the term and how much they grow in the process.

Scalzo Industry Tour

On Tuesday 24th July, VPC students went on an industry tour of Scalzo in Ravenhall, to learn about its food factory operations and employment opportunities. Students saw how food was processed, packaged, boxed up, shrink-wrapped, and placed on pallets, ready for delivery to supermarkets. 

The autonomous forklifts and robotic palletisers were amazing to watch too!

Below are some student comments about their tour:

Matthew – it was cool how the forklifts were robots and no driver was needed

Ben – looks like a great place to work there. Lots of things to do there

Kendra – it was interesting to learn about how they prepare food

Shaun – it was good to see how the robot and machines work together

Sammy – it was a good experience because I learned something new and to see how food was processed

Ruqaiyah – the machines were interesting and the different jobs people do there

Aicha – it was cool to see the machines processing the food and getting free food 

May Jane – Scalzo do a lot food packaging and I enjoyed seeing how the nuts were cooked 

David – it was good to learn about how the machines and forklift worked

Arvin – it was so much fun. I really enjoyed looking at all the food and how they’re put together and getting free food as well. 

Joshua – Scalzo was good and they had wonderful jobs. I enjoyed watching the machines prepare the peanuts.

Amelia – I like seeing the robots