HoL Programs
HoL Cafe News
Hands On Learning – But First Coffee Café
The café teams have had an amazing start to the year this year and have settled in extremely well. All students have been learning how to run a café by undertaking specialised training off site, preparing food for sale, taking orders from customers, catering for functions and making coffee and other beverages to order.
Barista training was conducted last Monday at Veneziano Roasters in Richmond, where the students learnt texturising milk, extended their coffee grind knowledge and even delved into some latte art with an instructor who was previously third in the world in latte art a few years back. Students later underwent training in coffee tasting in the cupping lab where their nostrils and taste buds were educated to recognise different coffee elements, textures and body.
We have also been looking into the environmental impact cafes and the hospitality industry have on society and have introduced new practices into the café to counteract this. We have recently introduced environmentally friendly take away products from a company called Biopak, where the products are compostable and manufactured from materials sourced from managed plantations.
The coffee take-away cups also have wonderful art designs on them which add a touch of colour to our customers day. Qantas has recently incorporated Biopak products into their business model to assist in reducing over 1,000 single use plastic items in the business operations, greatly reducing their carbon footprint and the cost of disposing of their waste into landfill. We are very excited to be part of the movement in sustainable practices.
Sarah and I are extremely proud of how far the students have come so far this term and we are looking forward to seeing their skills develop further in the future. Well done to all of our team!
Sonia Martinovic
Hello, my name is Nikos and I am in year 8. In 2014, I moved from Greece to Australia because I wanted to learn and communicate with others better. I like Brookside College because it makes me learn and be more positive.
I have been doing the Hands on Learning café since Term 1 of 2019 and I am really enjoying it. Every time I come into the café, I learn something new. Since starting, I have learned how to make coffee shots and talk with my team mates. I now feel more relaxed and have a better understanding about school.
We make different food every week, for example, pasta, soup, lasagne, toasties, and quiches. For dessert, we make vanilla slice, hedgehog, and muffins. My favourite thing to make is coffee and making designs.
On Monday, 6th of May, we went to Barista training in Richmond and we learned how coffee works and how it is made. I learned that it’s not called “Expresso” it’s called “Espresso.” I also learned that some coffee beans come from different countries like mostly Africa, Brazil and many different countries.
By Nikos
HoL Trade
Hand on learning Senior Trade has had a busy start to the year.
So far we have built deck chairs with foot rests made from recycled pallets and a storage shed which was a lot more complicated than we first thought.
This ended up being a great project and learning experience for the HOL students as we needed to figure out and come up with solutions to the shed construction as some parts didn’t fit or match up to the Instruction manual. (Got to love Flat packs!!!)
Junior HOL has also just finish building & painting tool boxes. Each student was responsible in following instructions on how to build their own tool box to use during their time in HOL, once construction was completed students added their own personal designs and they turned out great.
From the
Rob and the Team