Senior School

Farm Vehicle Safety Training. 

Academy Primary Industries students attended a two day training course last week at the Armidale TAFE Campus. This training will see them gain additional competencies to add to their Certificate II in Agriculture that they will obtain through their Primary Industries subject. ​Students thoroughly enjoyed learning new and perfecting existing skills on both two wheel and four wheel motorbikes.

Students learnt how to conduct pre-start checks and then were allowed to begin training on the bikes. Tasks included emergency stops on both straight and curved courses and manoeuvring around tight courses at slow speeds. Once they had mastered these skills they were let loose on the obstacle course the next day. This course exposed them to riding up and down hills, traversing hills, riding over ground obstacles and rough terrain. The last task was to purposely stall the bike going up a steep hill so that they could learn how to recover it safely by 'waggling' it back down the slope. 

All students gained something from the two days. For Charlie and Vince it was another day out on the bikes refining their skills. Abby and Jamie had had little experience with two wheel bikes, they both gained some great new skills and Jamie became good friends with the clutch and gears concept. 

Investigating Science - Life Skills.

It has been a busy year for students in Investigating Science. We have been learning how to make observations during experiments, and how to make inferences based on our results. We have been learning how to research and find the answers to questions we don’t know, or find interesting.

As a group, we investigated how to make models, and why we use them. We used this knowledge to create a model of our solar system.  We learned about our body systems and how they worked and dissected organs including sheep kidneys, cow hearts and sheep eyeballs.  

We have also been practising our fine motor skills. Micaiah, Olivia and Lauren should be very proud of their achievements in Investigating Science this year.

National Skills Week.

We have had a huge week last week celebrating National Skills Week at Uralla Central School. We started the week inviting Adam Hayes from Gloria Jean’s to talk to Years 9-10 and the senior Hospitality class about owning your own business, personal attributes and skill set he looks for in his employees.

We took delivery of a side of pork from Dale’s Down Town Meats. The Primary Industries and Hospitality students learnt how to break down the side of meat into the main cuts under the guidance of Luke Steward who is one of our School to Work students (who works at Pete’s Mount View Butchery once a week) and Mr Smith. 

On Wednesday we had seven guest speakers representing the three major meat processing businesses in Tamworth. They were Ben Middlebrook, Labour Hire – Farms and Mitch Dening, Labour Hire – Plant from Baiada, Mal Collier, Training Manager from Teys Australia, Joanne Thomas, Human Resource Coordinator from Thomas Foods International, Karly Brogan & Namoi Spark, Training Services NSW and Susi Bell SBAT Coordinator, Department of Education.

Our guest speakers talked about how their industry was expanding and investing in their local food processing plants. They explained why they need such a diverse range of employees from vets, electricians, plumbers, food technologists, trainers, WHS officers through to administration staff. As a result, they were in a position to offer a wide variety of student based trainee and apprenticeships (SBAT), opportunities for students to complete their ‘gap year’ with the processors and finally they discussed cadetships for students wanting to attend university.

Our final group of speakers were two students who were SBAT’s, Karly Brogan and Namoi Spark from Training Services NSW and Susi Bell SBAT Coordinator, Department of Education. They talked about the merits of becoming a SBAT and the opportunities SBAT's have when they are ready to move into full time employment.

The presentation really opened up classroom conversations about the prospects of jobs in the local meat processing industry.

After the meat processing presentation, Middle and Senior school students were invited to partake in eating a pulled pork slider and some delicious crackling.

The 9.5 kg of pork we processed on Monday was turned into pulled pork on Tuesday then served as pulled pork sliders. Both were well received by all who sampled the food from Walcha and Uralla Central students as well as our guest speakers.

Wednesday afternoon saw Year 9 students break down a side of lamb. We were able to work out how much bone, fat to muscle was present and learnt how to bone a lamb.

Thursday morning saw Mr Smith's Middle School elective class watch him demonstrate how to bone a side of lamb. The class then minced the meat.

Friday saw the Year 9 and 10 Food Technology class cook the lamb and potatoes that was used to make 200 Shepard pies.

Year 9/10 Agriculture.

Year 9/10 Agriculture have been looking at the chemical and physical properties of the soils found at school. They have dug 2 small soil pits to examine the horizons in the soil profile. They have conducted numerous pH tests in each horizon to determine potential nutrient restrictions. Soil texture was also tested for each layer in the profile.