TAS/VET News

The TAS/VET faculty have been very busy during Term 1. Our Year 12 classes have been working on their major projects during Term 1.  The 12 ITT class have been working with Miss Reynen, they have started their practical projects and the students have also started work on their written folios.  The Year 12 Society and Culture class are in the process of conducting and finalising their various primary research methods for their Personal Interest Projects and will be starting to write their Central Material for these from the beginning of Term 2. There are some fantastic topics and I am confident that the students will continue to produce some excellent work. 

The 12SDD class and Mrs Hogan have completed the first part of their Major Project, the designing and planning to create a program based on a board game for a specific group in Python. The next stage will be the implementation of the code to create an executable file. All major projects need to be at the 90% completion stage by the end of Term 2.

Year 12 Hospitality are in the process of working on the theoretical components of Clusters E & F. The students are designing Business plans for a Hospitality establishment. To date there have been some outstanding Business plans written by our students. At present, Year 12 Hospitality are preparing a range of delicious Café Breakfast Meals. So far, the students have made Scrambled Eggs with Chorizo Sausage, Waffles, Crunchy Topped Apple and Cinnamon Breakfast Muffins, Eggs Benedict and Ricotta Pancakes with Honeycomb Yoghurt, Bananas and Maple Syrup!

Year 12 Hospitality Breakfast Delights!

Year 12 Hospitality Cluster D Practicals: Summer Salad with Orange Vinaigrette, Steak Sandwich and Fruitie Smoothie and Pulled Chicken Tacos.   

Mrs Kostalas and Year 12 Retail Services have been very busy this term with visual merchandising. The students have produced some beautiful displays outside the library including one for Valentine’s Day and also one for Easter.

This term Year 12 Engineering Studies and Miss Reynen have continued to work really well and have completed their topic on personal and public transport task, particularly concentrating on bicycles.                                                                                   

I must commend our Year 11 classes on the way they have approached their work this term.  Year 11 classes have settled into their senior years very well. The Year 11 Society and Culture class have produced outstanding assessment tasks and have just submitted a Mini PIP on their chosen culture. I am so proud of their efforts! 

Mr Ashby’s Year 11 ITT have also been working very well and they have just completed their first Assessment task which was constructing a drawer that will be used in their vanity units. They have been learning about safety in the workshop and learning how to use the power tools correctly.

Year 11 ITT Vanity Unit Drawers

The 11SDD class and Mrs Hogan have started the course learning about Hardware & Software and Social & Ethical Issues. They have also been learning skills in writing algorithms and coding in python. They have completed their first assessment task, creating an interactive presentation on a computer system showing their design skills in designing a User Interface. Miss Reynen’s Year 11 Engineering Studies class have had an excellent start to their Stage 6 course and have embraced the rigour of Engineering Studies focusing on the Fundamentals of Engineering. Mrs Julia Kostalas and Year 11 Retail Services have been working very hard to complete their first Cluster Task. 

Year 12 Primary Industry students have attended their first work placements at businesses around the coast including Avocado farms, the Reptile Park, Riding for the Disabled, Narara Valley Nursery, Green Point Vets and the Primary Industries research centre. All students have received good reports from their supervisors!

The Year 11 Primary Industries class have settled well into farm life, completing their tractor training, hatching their first chicks and harvesting an impressive crop of pumpkins. The two Year 11 Hospitality classes are also working very well. They are working collaboratively as teams and they are producing some outstanding work as well as having a lot of fun! They have just completed their first Cluster Task and I must congratulate them on the level of diligence many of the students have displayed by submitting their first task.  They have been learning new skills and each week the students have progressed with more involved practical lessons.  In one of their practical lessons, the students made pasta from scratch and then served this with a tomato and basil sauce.   

Year 11 Hospitality

Stage 6 Primary Industries

Year 12  at Work Placement          

Year 11 Primary Industries at the Farm

Stage 5 Hospitality

Stage 5 Hospitality and Mrs Ofahengaue are enjoying their course and all are working extremely well as a team in the kitchen. Stage 5 Hospitality are working on their first Cluster Task demonstrating their skills and knowledge in safe food handling and work safety. Hopefully they will finish the unit this term and move on to Cluster B where students will learn how to make a variety of espresso coffees. The students are all embracing this VET course and particularly enjoy the practical component.

Stage 5 Food Technology

Mrs McTeigue’s Stage 5 100-hour Food Technology class have been completing some amazing work! This term they have been working on the unit Food in Australia. They have been experimenting with various Indigenous foods plus preparing and learning about the Multicultural foods in Australia. The class are an absolute delight to be with. They work and support each other in every lesson!

Year 10 Food Technology     

Mrs DeKalb’s Year 10 Food Technology class have been working on the unit Special Needs this term. They have explored a variety of foods for the different life stages and also food that is needed for different groups in society.                   

 iSTEM

iSTEM has continued to be a very popular elective choice in TAS. In 2022 we have 2 classes of iSTEM in Stage 5. Mrs DeKalb and Miss Reynen have been working on various activities this term to engage our students. Year 9 iSTEM welcomed our wonderful IBM P-TECH Industry Mentors to Henry Kendall High School. 

Our students had an awesome first P-TECH Mentoring session with mentors who have volunteered their time to our students. The cohort had so much fun getting to know our exceptional mentors who will provide our students with diverse career backgrounds and transition to work information. 

Thank you Ms DeKalb (Year 9 iSTEM Teacher) for her wonderful support and Annabel Leete, IBM P-TECH Liaison Officer for her organisation of the mentoring program. Also, a huge thank you to Mrs Jay Blue for coordinating this wonderful initiative for our students!

We are looking forward to the range of opportunities our students will be afforded by participating in the IBM P-TECH Program this year. 

Year 10 iSTEM are focusing on CAD and CAM designs and are now designing Pots for Succulent Plants with an architectural flair that will be 3D printed. 

Plant Pot Design using a CAD program and the stages of printing to the finished product. 

Designed by Joshua Novosel - Year 10

Year 9 iSTEM & PTECH 

- Mentoring Session

Our junior classes are all buzzing!! Our Year 7 and 8 classes are also totally immersed in their learning, and it is an absolute delight to visit the classes and see so much learning and fun being had by both the students and the teachers! The design briefs are varied and depend on what strand of Stage 4 Technology Mandatory is being studied. These range from some delicious food products, wood projects, textiles and learning about coding. The Year 7 Digital Technologies classes have been learning about Software Design with Block Based Coding with Scratch and they will be creating a game as part of their project. In Materials Technology Textiles the students have been learning how to safely use the sewing machines and then they will be constructing a patchwork tote bag.

The Year 8 Digital Technologies classes have been learning about Software Design,  the skills of algorithms and text-based coding. Their project will be extending their skills in block-based coding. The Year 7 Agriculture and Food Technologies classes have been having a lot of fun learning how to cook and playing with the baby chicks! They have also been busy creating Food Blogs with Mrs Hogan! Next term we will be down on the farm planting herbs and vegetables to use in our practical lessons! 

Stage 4 Technology Mandatory

Materials Technologies -Textiles 

Agriculture and Food Technologies

Materials Technology -Timber

Mobile Toys

Year 8 Technology Mandatory - Digital Technologies 

A sample of their amazing work!!

     Scratch Game by

Ben Edwards-McCallan - 8TEC1

This year we welcomed Mr Neal Ashby to our faculty and he has been working with the students in the timber workshop, the students have been learning how to safely and correctly use tools in the workshop and how to use the lathe to produce their projects.

Year 7 Making Chocolate Easter Nests

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the teachers in the TAS/VET Faculty for their hard work and dedication this term and for providing our students with such wonderful learning experiences. We are all looking forward to a totally amazing Term 2 and on behalf of the TAS/VET Faculty I would like to wish our students and their families a safe, peaceful Easter and a wonderfully relaxing holiday.

Mrs Caroline McTeigue

Head TeacherTAS/VET