Kilbreda College and St Patrick’s Primary School Community Partnership

Throughout Semester 1, the Kilbreda College Year 11 VCE VM students partnered with Prep students from St Patrick’s Primary School in a heart-warming community partnership focused on cross-age tutoring.

This project enables the Kilbreda students to develop leadership, communication and mentoring skills, while the young Preps gain confidence and social skills through meaningful one-on-one interactions. A particular focus was on helping the younger students develop their conversation abilities, with Kilbreda students modelling active listening, clear speech and positive interaction.

The experience not only strengthened literacy and language development for the Preps but also fostered a sense of responsibility and purpose in the older students. Each session enabled the Year 11 students to facilitate activities that complemented the learning that had taken place in the Prep classroom.

Student Reflection

Year 12 VCE VM – Food Handling Course

On Monday 2 June, the Year 12 VCE VM class participated in a Food Handling course where 14 students learned everything you need to know about working in a commercial-grade kitchen. 

A food handling course teaches you how to safely work with food in places like cafés, restaurants and kitchens. It’s all about making sure the food you serve won’t make anyone sick. You learn about food hygiene, how to avoid cross-contamination, how to clean and sanitise surfaces and how to store food correctly. The course also covers the “temperature danger zone” and how to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold to stop bacteria from growing. 

We also learned about personal hygiene, like tying back long hair, not wearing jewellery, and staying home if you’re sick. The course teaches you about allergens and how to stop allergic reactions by preventing cross-contact. There’s also information about reading food labels, understanding use-by and best-before dates, and what to do if there’s a food safety incident.

In our practical activity, we cooked chicken fajitas. One student acted as the food safety supervisor and checked that we followed all of the safety steps. They made sure we washed our hands, used the correct chopping boards, cooked the chicken to the right temperature and cleaned up properly.

Completing this course helped us see how the food handling rules are applied in real kitchens. We were given all the right tools and information to ensure that when we work in a facility, we are capable of safely handling food for our customers and clients. 

Lily Proudfoot Napier

Year 12: VCE VM Leader

Jennifer Gamble

Learning Leader: Applied Learning