Teaching & Learning
It was tremendous to see how the Greater Shepparton community, including our school community, all worked together with the recent outbreak of the three Covid cases in Greater Shepparton. Our staff and students followed all of the Departmental Guidelines around Covid testing and isolating as advised.
As a result, Greater Shepparton Secondary College experienced two school days where the Year 7 students at the McGuire Campus and the Year 8 and Year 10 students at the Mooroopna Campus and Wanganui Campus transitioned to remote learning.
We were so proud of how seamlessly our students transitioned back into remote learning, and it is a credit to all staff at Greater Shepparton Secondary College that we have established such strong remote and face-to-face routines for our students.
Provided below is an outline of some of the partnership initiatives that have taken place at Greater Shepparton Secondary College, and the exciting experiences we have ahead for Term 4 and into 2021.
PARNERSHIPS UPDATE (Mary-Ann Linehan)
It has been a challenging year for our partnerships at GSSC throughout 2020. However, with the assistance of Greater Shepparton Lighthouse Project and GMLLEN we have been able to connect our students to business and industry via virtual presentations. These have included:
Virtual Tours:
- Shepparton Law Courts
- Transport and Logistics
- Jefftomson
Employment Information:
- Advance Fitness
- Fix Muscle
- G V Health
- Skills and attributes needed
- Preparing for work
- Tips and advise
- Trades Pathways
- Labour Market expectations
- Building and construction
- Plumbing and engineering
- Arts
Careers Resource Booklets/ Youth Service Directory/ Beyond School Booklet have been available and established due to support our work connecting with students throughout this year.
Projects
Gen Connect students have been having weekly conversations with Silver Warriers and have been assisting Shepparton Villages and the Shepparton South Rotary club with the establishment of a playground, for the Silver Warriers to enjoy with their families.
Latrobe University and RMIT have been providing students with online mentoring such as the Latrobe BRADFORD Program and supporting our year 12 students. RMIT have been connecting virtually through Business and Art classes.
Our Ganbina students have been experiencing the following:
- Year 7 and 8-Virutal industry tours. Many thanks to Gotafe and industry representatives for your time.
- Year 9 and 10- Virtual Careers and Pathways sessions.
Greater Shepparton City Council “Working for Victoria” positions
Lighthouse Project staff have assisted Year 12 students in registering and applying for “Working for Victoria” jobs , presentations have been made to VCAL and VCE students about the 130 opportunities available.
We have seventeen Year 10-12 students completing school based traineeships and apprenticeships in a variety of industries. Our partnership team work with employers to ensure students are able to combine their school work with their traineeship or apprenticeship. SBAT students complete four days of school and one day of work each week. Examples include:
- Electrical
- Refrigeration
- Agriculture
- Hospitality
- Banking
- Animal studies
- Automotive
- Business Administration
- Engineering
We are very proud that one of our Year 11 students is a finalist in the Victorian school-based traineeship of the year awards.
Year 10 Industry and Enterprise (Careers class) would normally take part in work experience, but unfortunately a number of students were not able to complete this before lock-down. To assist students with their assessments we have organised virtual interview opportunities for students to speak with employers and ask questions about a day in the life/employer expectations/pathways. These include:
- Darryl Twitt
- ANZ Bank
- Foott Waste
- Any time fitness
It is imperative for our staff to understand the industry growth of our region in the next few years.
On November the 12th the Mooroopna staff will be taking part in a Speed Careering event (a little like speed dating). This session will support the new and innovative Year 9 Curriculum that is offered at the Mooroopna Campus.
Leanne Hulm from Grow – Committee for Greater Shepparton will address the staff about the exciting industries coming to our region followed by :
- Fiona Smolenaars- Shepparton Arts Festival
- Shane Sali- Shop 221/Traffic boutique and Shepparton Show Me- Retail, Marketing
- Ingrid Thomas- Teller Collective- Hospitality
- Jeramy Blight- Spiire- Engineering
- Michael Parker- Jeftomson- Apprenticeships
- Patrick Cummins- Shepparton Law Courts- Law/ support services
- Rob Priestly- Gouge- Business
- Jordan and Kerry Anne- Anytime Fitness – Sport and fitness industry
- Peter Hill and Adam Katsoutas- Transport- Transport and Logistics
- Andrew Plunkett and Jason Sheilds- Plunketts Orchards- Agriculture
Lunch times are very busy on both the McGuire and Mooroopna Campuses with Lighthouse Project activities:
- Engage- Mooroopna Campus is sports focused, students take part in netball, football, cricket, soccer, rugby
- Take PART- is a wellbeing Arts focus for the McGuire Campus
These programs have built strong teamwork skills for our students.
The focus is now on linking business and community to our 2021 Curriculum, an example of this is our Year 9 elective AVID- Advance Via Individual Determination. This subject has been selected by students wanting to attend university and fast track year 11 subjects in year 10.
We are currently in discussion with Latrobe University and University of Melbourne about opportunities our students can experience whilst completing AVID.
We have been engaging a variety of businesses with our electives to give students an opportunity to connect with real world experiences of work and look forward to 2021 to hopefully have face2face events, excursions and inclusion in our classes.
Megan Michalaidis
Associate Principal of Teaching & Learning