VCAL News

It’s been a strange and dynamic term for VCAL students across the state. The restrictions and response to the virus meant that thousands of VCAL students in Victoria lost their workplace jobs linked to their apprenticeships and SWL (Structured Workplace Learning). A lot of McClelland College students lost their work placements and had their SBATs (School Based Apprenticeship and Training) in question due to the pandemic. However, many of our students quickly became essential workers and were at the frontline of the pandemic from the beginning. VCAL students from McClelland worked as plumbers, electricians, retail assistants, carpenters, labourers and even at the racetrack stables. They experienced the supermarket hoarding phase of the virus and the changes in restrictions and workplace conditions. I want to thank them personally and professionally for their work and commitment to out local communities during this time. Since we have come back to school, we have been busy!

So what has been happening?

SENIOR

Mock Interviews: Students had two rounds of mock interviews in the last month. The first was completed remotely via a Google Hangout conference call and the second was held face-to-face in the school conference room. We had guests such as Amadeo Ferra, Jackie Woods, Karin Miller and Jo Kennedy feature in the interviews with the students. It was fantastic to hear such passion and direction from our Senior students and for them to experience one of life’s professional anxieties! We all know that job interviews are difficult and these Senior students tackled them with professionalism and dignity. There will be another round of mock interviews later in the year with tougher panels and more special guests!

Senior Projects: The Senior students have begun identifying and preparing for their Senior Project and Portfolio for Semester 2. The ideas being floated are already impressive and include: the 4th Annual VCAL Car Show, designing and fitting out the new VCAL salon, re-invigorating the MCC amphitheatre, building retaining walls at the school, a fundraising car wash business, installing seating in the new gymnasium, making play-based learning packages for local child-care centres and providing maintenance at Camp Mahaikah. The enthusiasm is fantastic and the underlying tone of the projects is a willingness to help others. We will be able to provide an update of these projects by the next COG.

Celebration Assembly:Senior VCAL students had a special guest turn up to speak to them at their assembly on Thursday. World number one wheelchair tennis player, Paralympic gold medallist and radio/tv personality Dylan Alcott! He spoke professionally and passionately about disability in schools and his quest to make a more inclusive educational system. Jamie Hudson (Y12) bonded with him as Carlton supporters and spoke about the possibility of them making finals (haha!). What a wonderful surprise for a great cohort of students.

INTERMEDIATE

A-Frame Veggie Gardens: Year 11 students have taken a bit longer to settle back in to school after remote learning but have started to show great promise. The recent Practical Day was a huge success and students showed off a wealth of different projects. The Numeracy team brought a great project to the group and this became a focus for the afternoon. The project? Building A-Frame raised vegetable gardens for a nursing home facility in Melbourne. The design process was completed as a numeracy activity and then students got to work on creating the 1.5m frames. The gardens will be completed in the last week of term and then sent to the nursing home facility to be used by the residents. We hope to have pictures to post soon!

Practical Projects Day: Other projects completed on the day were: another bench installed in our new sustainable café, mortaring the door jam entrance to the salon, building a Project Room sign, painting the edges of the salon wall, painting the tool rack in the project room and making the café servery safe and complete. These practical days are a great way for students to apply the theory in class to a practical project. This is essentially what VCAL is all about and we hope to hold many more of these days in the future. Great work!

Celebration Assembly:Year 11 students had a surprise guest drop into their assembly on Thursday afternoon. Keynote speaker, disability activist and all-round legend, Ben Pettingill. He has worked with our students on two occasions this year and wanted to drop in and see how the group were travelling. He is a wonderful role model for our students and are very grateful for his visit. 

FOUNDATION

Park Bench Challenge: Year 10 VCAL students were given a Masterchef-style challenge on Friday afternoon… but with a twist. The two classes were involved in a competition to cement in two park benches in the VCAL North Landing. Both groups had time to plan and resource their projects and then were given one hour to see their plans come to life. V01 (led by Rowly) used long footings and re-bar to make a solid foundation for their park bench. V02 (led by Dave) went for a tried and tested timber baseplate with a wider cement footing. Both groups had their park benches tested for stability, how centred they were and how level they were. The winners on the day were V02! The follow up challenge was to paint two wooden beams in the café and install four herb gardens for the Food Tech rooms. There was a competitive vibe in the room but Rowly’s group just took the prize due to their handiwork with the herb gardens. There will be more challenges set next term, so be ready!

VCAL LEARNING SPACE

VCAL is receiving a much needed refurbishment and facelift over the holiday break. There will be more permanent walls put in place, a meeting room and a VCAL common room. We are thankful that the college is spending money and resources on updating the facilities for our students and future VCAL enrolments. The main payoffs for this refurbishment will be quieter learning spaces, less movement around the MAX, individual study space and a shared common room (staff and students) to enjoy the North-facing view. With this new space will come higher expectations of keeping our orderly environment clean and in good order. The first task for VCAL students is to prepare the space for the big change, including cleaning out all the cupboards, moving the lockers off the walls and centring the furniture so that the builders can input their changes.

It’s things like this that make me grateful for VCAL students and their set of applied skills that can be utilised to assist wider College projects.

Love and Learning,

Dave and the VCAL team.