VCAL Rural Excursion

Learning about rural enterprise

On Friday 9 August, a very windy and rainy day, the Year 11 VCAL class went on an excursion to two places, a social enterprise in Kyneton and Ms O’Heare’s farm in Pyalong.  We met at school then Mr Bevan drove us up to Kyneton to visit a social enterprise was called Kyneton Social Foundry. It is a not-for-profit organisation, founded by Paul Dettmann and Simon Burnett. Their aim is to mentor, nurture, and impart work-skills and life-skills to people whose opportunities have been limited. The reasoning for going to this place is to see a social enterprise and what they are about and what entrepreneurial skills were needed to set it up, because VCAL students often need to develop entrepreneurial skills to set up their projects. The Social Foundry operates as a full café and gives all the workers there a range of experience in the hospitality industry, and we were served morning tea to sample.

Next, we drove to Ms O’Heare’s farm and luckily by now the rain had stopped. While we were there, we had a look around at the property and saw different kinds of wildlife, including lots of kangaroos. Our main task was to plant 60 trees (Casuarinas) as a small forest to create habitat for birds and shade and shelter for animals. We worked in teams of two and three to do this, then used the tractor and water pumped from the dam to water the trees in. This activity was part of the Precious Plastic project, as they are both about improving the environment, even if it’s only in a small way. After planting and watering the trees, we cooked marshmallows over a fire and went back up to the house and had some late lunch, then returned to school.

Jacqui G for the VCAL Intermediate class