VCAL
Student of the Year
Brooke McCluskey
Congratulations to Brooke McCluskey from all at Shepparton High School. Brooke was presented with the award for the VCAA VCAL Student of the Year in Personal Development Skills at Deakin Edge, Federation Square on Friday 27th April 2018. This is a huge achievement gained for her efforts in Personal Development Skills.
You may ask, what did Brooke do to be awarded such a high honour? Brooke made a choice to get the most out of her education in Years 11 & 12 and built a strong passion to link VCAL studies directly to her intended career pathway.
She was a highly motivated and independent learner who displayed the highest level of commitment to her VCAL and Vocational Educational Training studies in Years 11 and 12. Some of her projects included:
In the VCAL class we discussed literacy and numeracy, as a focus for improvement, being a part of the Shepparton HS improvement plan. Brooke thought that a worthwhile project would be to volunteer at her former primary school to assist in the infant classes. Brooke wrote to the Principal of Bourchier Street PS to get a team of students involved in Prep-2 reading program in 2016. Brooke’s efforts were already nearing Senior PDS in 2016. She played the leading role working with two other students for six weeks, three days per week in the lower primary classrooms.
In 2017 Brooke was involved with the Shepparton Emergency Services Thank You Breakfast. This is a great community service to show the personnel how much students appreciated the great work the services do. Brooke’s team planned all details including booking the venue, organisation and delivery of invitations, menu preparation and purchase of groceries that were inclusive of all multi-cultural and dietary needs.
After the Year 12 students delivered the “Emergency Services Thank You Breakfast,” I was asked by Brooke: “Sir, I want to do something different, something not for the school students, but a project to thank people for what they do to protect us. Can I send some gifts to our soldiers who are on active service overseas?”
This led to what I consider to be the best student driven community project that I have seen in all of my teaching years. There were many issues that caused problems for Brooke and her partner, Ella Bollard, in this project. However, we secured some funding and then the project took off. Brooke searched local stores to find items suitable to send as gifts, but unfortunately the quality and quantities couldn’t be found so she then searched online.
Brooke involved her classmates in writing messages of good will that were attached to the 48 individually wrapped gifts. The gifts were then handed over to the Shepparton RSL Club General Manager, who in turn ensured that the three packaged boxes were sent to Australian Soldiers serving in Afghanistan, East Timor and Iraq.
This project was managed passionately by Brooke and we will ensure that our students continue on in future years in our Personal Development Skills program.
Brooke also pioneered the introduction of Shepparton HS Blood Bank Ambassadors in her first year of VCAL. This initiative has also enabled other students to continue this project.
Brooke’s PDS teacher, Mr John Forde, shared a story about a family friends’ young daughter who had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. The family were doing it tough and had to sell their house to free up funds to assist with medical expenses. Brooke immediately started to promote fundraising for the family. On Market Day at Fairley’s IGA in Shepparton, she rostered students and staff to encourage customers to nominate the family to receive a percentage of the profit, of their purchase. As a result nearly $800 was raised.
Brooke greets everyone with a genuine smile. She is a proactive thinker who thrives on thorough and careful planning, delegating tasks, reviewing progress and doing whatever it takes to ensure a project is completed on time. She has highly developed communication skills and listens to and respects the views of others, endeavouring to ensure that they are included and valued for their efforts.
Brooke has recently accepted a full-time position at Rubicon Systems Australia in Shepparton in an Office Administration role. Brooke will be trained in Human Resources and put through further studies.
Danny Lythgo
VCAL Coordinator