Principal's Report
Scholarship Update - Focus on Master Chef
In last week’s newsletter we featured the work of our 2025 Photography Scholarship Team and this week we’d like to give you an update on the Master Chef Scholarship Program.
There was significant interest from students in this scholarship program, leading us to run with 2 groups for 2025 (total of 16 students), one coming together on Wednesday afternoons, the other on Friday afternoons.
The two Master Chef groups, under the guidance of Emily Gilliland, have been cooking something different each week with the students proving themselves to be very capable.
This program is not just about the cooking side of things. Over the past few weeks and months her budding chefs have being learning.
- Food Hygiene – why we need it in the kitchen
- Clean Kitchen Premises
- Knife Skills & Safety, Kitchen Equipment
- Preparing food to meet special dietary requirements
- How to read & write a recipe
Emily also has a focus on being organised in the kitchen, which includes the cleaning upside of things. The kids are certainly stepping up to the mark and are impressing at every turn.
Emily organises a weekly menu which focuses on teaching her budding young chefs the art of creating amazing, yet super easy & tasty dishes that we can all enjoy at school or to take home to show off to their families.
Emily is an advocate for student’s voice with a passion for teaching students the life skill of cooking. At the end of each class, she likes to ask the young chefs what they would like to cook the following week. This enables the students to learn new skills each week, whilst running a program that is designed for them”.
Emily is open for parents/ careers to volunteer their time to come along & participate in special events that may arise in the coming terms.
Like the other scholarship programs, Emily is keeping an eye out for potential excursions. For next term, Emily is exploring an opportunity to visit a working kitchen at Federation University Tafe where they offer Certificate 3 in Commercial Cookery (apprentice chef) along with many more Tafe courses. There also may be the possibility of a celebrate ‘Master Chef’ contestant 2025 season coming and offering their time with the student in a master class ‘how exciting’ so keep your ears to the grown on that one.
Towards the end of the year the Master Chef Scholarship students will join the other 4 scholarship teams for a night of celebration. The Master Chef Team will have an important role on that night, as they will be preparing and serving delicious food.
There is also a plan for the students to compile a Buninyong Primary Schools Master Chef Scholarship Cookbook to sell at the end of the year. This cookbook will be jam packed & feature all our favourite recipes we have made throughout the year & also some of the students’ recipes they like to cook with their families, it is sure going to be tasty.!!!
This is all very exciting. Well done to Emily and the students involved. And of course, a very BIG! thank you to Noel and Pam Coxall, who have made this and the other scholarship programs possible through their generous donation.
An Army of Helpers
At this time each year it can be a challenge to stay on top of the autumn leaves that fall in most areas of the yard. Luckily, there is never a shortage of volunteers keen to use rakes, shovels, brooms, barrows and battery blowers to sort the problem. The leaves don’t go to waste, as they serve as soft fall around the large log near the chook pen.
Photography Scholarship Excursion to the Wildlife Park
Last week I got the opportunity to accompany the photography scholarship team to the Ballarat Wildlife Park. This is such a good environment to practice the art of photographing animals. The kids were excited and took on board the tips shared by Paul (leader of the team) and Zac (photographer at the park). As a result, the kids have taken some amazing shots, which they will be reviewing and editing this week.