ISSUE ONE

Mackillop News

VCAL students take part in National Tree Planting Day

On the 29th of July, on a cloudy Friday morning two of our VCAL classes 12B and 11D headed out to the back of Sunshine Hospital. Our two groups are working together this term as part of our studies in PDS, environment and sustainability unit. We all went and participated in and contributed to our local municipality, Brimbank City Council by planting trees. We were greeted by other volunteers, who were also planting trees, all from various businesses in the local area. A barbeque lunch was provided and there was plenty of food for everyone. We planted over 100 trees behind the Sunshine Hospital, an amazing effort by all the students and teachers.

Explanation of planet Arts National Tree day:

National Tree Day and Schools Tree Day combine to make Australia's Biggest community tree-planting and nature care event. Co-ordinated by Planet Ark and proudly sponsored by Toyota, these are special days for all Australians to help out by planting and loving for native trees and shrubs to improve the area that they live in. Apparently since National Tree day started more then 3 million people have planted 21 million seedlings.

Positive outcomes of the day:

-    Learned new skills

-    Helped the community

-    Finally planted a tree

-    Got fed

-    Met a new buddy

-    Worked as a team

-    Helped the environment

-    Had some fun

 

Evaluation of my involvement during the day:

My involvement was I worked hard and consistently towards

every plant that I planted. I also motivated my group towards

fulfilling what we had to achieve on the day.

 

What would I change and improve next time:

 I wouldn't change anything.

 

By Deng Chien

CAL Week and MacKillop Fundraising!

This week the 29th of August to the 2nd September 2016 has been an outstanding VCAL Week run by the VCAL students.  Each class has undertaken the organising and running of different activities for fundraising over the week.  ·      

The following classes were responsible for the following activities 

  • 12B Smoothies
  • 11D Popcorn
  • 11A Nutella Hot Choc & Donuts
  • 11B Nachos, Henna Stall and Hair Braiding.
  • 12A BBQ
  • 11C Lolly Bags, Drinks, BBQ and Basketball Tournament
  • 11E Games and Competition
  • 12C  Assisted some Year 11 classes with promotion, coordination, scheduling and photos of their activities.

 

Each class has put in a lot of time and effort for this week and it has been a great success with funds raised going to Oznman House to support the work they do with the homeless in Melbourne.  Students should be commended for their hard work and efforts with the work they have done for this week.  We would also like to thank those who helped the students with their activities and the support they gave them.  

2017 School Based Apprenticeships

Our Year 11 students this week attended an assembly which explained to them the different SBAs on offer to them and how to go about organising one.  Many students showed an interest in obtaining an SBA for 2017 and have started the process of applying and preparing themselves for interviews.  It was great to see so many students future planning and working hard to obtain this in a competitive environment.  Thanks to Josie for running the assembly and working with our students to organise this. 

VCAL Environment and Sustainability Projects

Most VCAL students are hard at work on their Environment and Sustainability Projects.  11B are focusing on marine environments and have visited the Melbourne Aquarium and are in the process of installing an aquarium in the VCAL centre.  11A chose endangered species as their topic and visited the Melbourne Zoo to investigate and research their chosen animals, they are participating in an awareness raising campaign to inform people about the risks to these animals.  11E is focusing on Biodiversity building mini biomes and a garden shed to help the horticulture class with storage.  11D are working on composting at the school through researching sustainable practices.  11C are looking at how we interact with our environment and some students from this class will be going to Emmaus Primary School to help them with their vegetable garden and their sports carnival.  All students have been putting in a lot of effort and have been working hard towards their projects.  We are looking forward to celebrating the success of these in the near future.