TAS/VET News

Term 3 has been an extremely busy term in the TAS/VET faculty. The Year 12 Industrial Technology Timber and the two Year 12 Society and Culture classes have completed and submitted their major projects and their Personal Interest Projects and all of the projects have now been marked by NESA. Our Year 12 classes have completed their studies and I would like to thank the TAS/VET staff for their continued hard work and their dedication shown towards their student in preparing them for their HSC exams in Term 4. I am sure the hard work of our students will be rewarded in December when the HSC results are released. The Year 12 Hospitality and Retail Services students who have successfully completed their competencies have achieved either a Certificate of Attainment or their Certificate II in Hospitality Food and Beverage. Our Year 11 students have completed their Year 11 courses and have just completed their final exams. I must congratulate all of our Year 11 students on their diligence and their efforts leading up to the exams.

The Year 11 Hospitality students have been very busy working on their Cluster C and designing tour plans based on various tourist attractions around Australia. Our Year 11 Hospitality students have completed their Work Placements this term and we have received outstanding feedback about our students from their employers about their fantastic work ethic. Many of our students have been successful in securing part time employment opportunities from their host employers.

The Year 11 Retail Services class have been busy working on Cluster B, Customer Service and Cluster C, Are You Being Served? They have been learning about the visual merchandising methods that retailers use to promote and sell their products. We had some very willing models who looked very professional in their poses! The Stage 5 Hospitality class and Mr Allen are currently working on their Cluster B. Due to Covid 19 restrictions the serving aspect of this task has had to be modified, instead of serving to other classes and staff the class will be taking turns to serve and then provide feedback to each other. It is wonderful to see how adaptable our students are in completing this task under the current circumstances.

All of our classes have been engaged in many different activities throughout the term. There is always an array of tantalising aromas wafting from our kitchens ranging from our Stage 4 Technology Mandatory classes through to our Stage 6 classes. Our workshops downstairs are always a hive of activity and many functional and beautiful pieces of furniture and projects have been designed and produced by our students. Our Stage 5 Food Technology and Timber classes have produced outstanding work. The class have been working on the unit Food Product Development. The students have been designing and developing scone-based products ranging from Blueberry and Lemon Scrolls to Fried Pork Dumplings. Part of the design brief included the students distributing questionnaires to evaluate sensory testing of their products.

The Year 9 IST class and Mrs Hogan have finished working on HTML and creating their own webpages. They are currently studying Artificial Intelligence and programming Chat Bots!

The Year 10 IST class have finished working on Artificial Intelligence and are now creating their own games or interactive spreadsheets in excel. They are currently studying Digital Media and are creating their short films in their chosen groups!

Our 200-hour iSTEM class and Miss Reynen have been very busy with various projects. A highlight this term was their involvement with IBM and the P Tech program. This has been a wonderful opportunity for our students who have now had 2 sessions with their mentors, this is very exciting and the students are thoroughly enjoying this program!

Both the Stage 5 100-hour and 200-hour iSTEM classes are currently working on a program called "Abandon or Adapt". Their driving question is "Should humanity abandon Earth or stay and adapt to climate change?". The students must create an innovative solution which would enable humanity to abandon or adapt, depending on their recommendation. They have been conducting a number of experiments and research to develop a solution. Students are starting to develop a range of creative solutions. Stay tuned for their final results!

The Year 8 STEM classes are working on a rotation. This is so the students can experience a range of different activities throughout the year. Miss Hammond’s classes have been using an online and interactive program to learn about the current issue with plastic pollution in our oceans. The final 3 weeks of this topic has seen the students working in small groups to create a small prototype of an item that could be used to collect micro-plastics currently floating all through our oceans. The groups have come up with some great ideas!

Mr Guyot’s Year 8 STEM classes have been applying their newly developed understanding of aerodynamic principles to the physical construction of balsa wood free flight gliders of various designs. They had to assemble the glider using common engineering concepts such as centre of lift, centre of gravity, drag reduction, wing dihedral, and horizontal and vertical stabilisation. After a short confirmational test flight, the students and Mr Guyot ventured down to the oval where almost all of the aircraft flew beautifully. The students will be able to take their aircraft home at the end of the term!

Mrs Hogan and her Stage 4 Digital Technology class have been having a lot of fun with our Edison Robots. The robots will be programmed to explore a fictional planet.

Our Year 11 Hospitality students are to be congratulated on the outstanding catering for the Year 12 Graduation, the food was carefully prepared and beautifully presented in single served boxes due to the current Covid 19 requirements. Their assortment of sandwiches, wraps and a variety of sweet items looked absolutely amazing! The Year 11 Hospitality students were very professional in their serving and they ensured that everyone had a beautiful morning tea.

This term we were all eagerly waiting for the birth of Mr & Mrs Allen’s baby. In August our faculty were very excited to be able to welcome a new baby. Mr Blake Allen and his wife Alana welcomed their first-born child, a beautiful bouncing baby boy named Link! He is absolutely divine!! It has brought us all so much happiness and we are loving looking at his photos and watching him grow and develop each day.

On behalf of the TAS/VET faculty I would like to thank all parents and caregivers for your continuing support and we wish all of our families a safe and relaxing holiday.

Mrs Caroline McTeigue

Head Teacher TAS/VET