Held in conjunction with RURBAN, Assumption College hosted a fine dining experience in their recently opened Neale Daniher Community and Sports Pavilion.
Capturing the essence of its purpose, the Community Pavilion hosted the gathering of Old Collegians and community alike. It was led by Assumption’s very own culinary award-winning Alumni who worked alongside current Hospitality students to deliver a fine dining culinary experience.
Now working as a chef at one of Gambero Rosso’s Top Italian restaurants of 2022, Trattoria Emilia, Luke Barany graduated from Assumption College in 2017 and commenced his cooking apprenticeship with Seymour’s Winery Kitchen. After travelling through Italy early in his career, Luke has firsthand experience with authentic ingredients and techniques of Italian cuisine and showcased these in his RURBAN fine-dining menu.
On Tuesday, 11 October, St Monica’s College hosted the WorldSkills Melbourne East Regional VETiS Commercial Cookery Competition. Four students from Eltham High School were welcomed into the College to compete alongside Olivia Zakkour and Anusha Joshi of Year 11.
Competitors presented their contemporary interpretations of an afternoon tea, using a defined range of ingredients, tools and cookery skills. The quality of food produced and the level of dedication displayed by all students was beyond impressive.
Results:
1st Olivia Zakkour - St Monica’s College
2nd Ruby Dawes – Eltham High School
3rd Lilly Harrison – Eltham High School
Olivia will represent St Monica's College and Victoria at the WorldSkills National Competition held in Melbourne in 2023. We wish Olivia all the best at the next stage and look forward to hearing how she goes. Stay tuned for what happens!
WorldSkills competitions provide friendly, competitive environments that encourage students to pursue excellence in their chosen area of study against their peers from across the state. Providing opportunities for young people to step outside their comfort zone and take safe, rewarding risks is always a worthwhile enterprise.
Congratulations to all of the students who competed; you should be very proud of yourselves. Keep following your dreams!
We love sharing stories about ‘Schools doing great things’, and today we are congratulating Year 12 student, Ropa Nyandoro from Applecross High School, currently completing her Certificate II in Hospitality. We are thrilled to announce that Ropa won first prize competing in Hospitality Group Training’s Taste of the Future competition!
The competition involved 8 other top state finalists, where students had to create their own dish using a key ingredient, corn-fed chicken breast fillet off the bone with a wing drumette still attached. Students had a set time frame in which to prepare their dishes, under the watchful eye of three top Chefs in WA. The judges then tasted each dish and determined the winner to be Ropa.
Most of the finalists come from a Trade Training Centre where they receive extra assistance, and we share Ropa’s excitement in winning this fantastic competition.
As the winner of the Taste of the Future competition, Ropa will receive:
Last year, Ropa was also a successful applicant who gained seven days of work experience at The Crown, Perth. Ropa worked in kitchen operations at a range of restaurants at The Crown, including Modo Mio, The Epicurean, The Atrium, Market and Co, The Merrywell and Bistro Guillaume.
Her lasting impression opened the door to an interview for a full-time apprenticeship at The Crown, which she conquered!
Ropa’s apprenticeship will commence the second week of the school holidays and has spent the past week completing her remaining units in her Certificate II in Hospitality so that she can leave school with this qualification in hand.
Again, a big congratulations to Ropa and we wish you the very best in your journey in hospitality. Special thanks to Hospitality trainers Jacqui Snyder and Kerriann Henderson for training and supporting Ropa for this competition. We are thrilled to hear about your exceptional achievement and wish you all the best on your hospitality journey.
Our Fourth Schools Doing Great Things story is cooking up a storm!
The Murray River Culinary Challenge is an Industry standard cooking competition for secondary school students enrolled in Vocational Education Training (VET). The competition spans the Murray River District and involves schools from Echuca, Shepperton Swan Hill, Wangaratta and Wodonga.
The three-tiered competition enables school-level students to compete individually to vie for a spot in the regional final. The top scoring two students from each school a paired to compete in the regional final, and the top-scoring team progress to the grand final. The menus at each level become progressively more difficult and are designed for students to demonstrate their skills learnt during their hospitality training. Top industry representatives judge the competition from the regions that donate their time and expertise.
The Murray River Culinary Challenge Cooking Competition has been running for 15 years, beginning in 2006 and is respected in Hospitality Industry along the Murray river district towns. Ultimately, the students benefit from gaining employment with Industry connections.
The competition has returned after several years of interruptions due to Covid.
The Regional Competition was held on Wednesday, 17th August, at Bendigo TAFE Echuca Campus. The Echuca college team trained by Rick Smolenaars were the winners on the day. They will now earn the right to compete in the grand final in the last week of Term 3.
Echuca College has won the right for the first time to represent at the Grand final since the competition began.
Thank you for sharing such great news, Echuca College! We can’t wait to hear how you go in the Grand Final and wish you successful creations in the kitchen. Good luck!
Today we talk about some creative planning around involvement within the Community. Epping Secondary College’s students completing their CHC22015 Certificate II in Community Services had a wonderful idea to engage with Vinnies in South Morang. The aim was to cover all things relating to:
Antionette Rehak coordinated with Vinnies 4-5 students on a Wednesday over a few weeks to provide a streamlined approach and everyone gaining experience at the store. Duties involved, unpacking stock, merchandising, customer interaction, multitasking, and communication.
The students gained so much from the experience and had a taste of what community work is. The enthusiasm was high, and great feedback was received about the students. What an efficient way to get hands-on experience working with diverse people, along with interacting effectively with others in the workplace.
Bundle this together with giving back to the community creates a true gem.
There were even opportunities for the students to return to Vinnies for further experience, which was a bonus.
Thank you, Antionette, for sharing such a positive story about your community journey and I am sure it has inspired other Secondary Schools delivering CHC22015 Certificate II in Community Services, to brainstorm some creative ideas.
The second “Schools doing great things" feature story is all about Kurnai College and the sports carnival organised by their 1st year Sport and Rec students.
Getting into the community spirit, Kurnai College created a Sports Day/Carnival for Gormandale Primary School. Supported by the 2nd year Sport and Rec students who also attended, the day was as successful as it could be. So much effort, thought, and planning went into the event, from scheduling, organising ribbons for all the students, and arranging medallions for the winners.
Events included a sack race, sprint, long-distance run, discus, long jump and a water balloon throw, stations were constructed and in operation, and the organisers all had name tags. The Kurnai College students demonstrated true leadership skills, motivated others, displayed positive attitudes, and created significant encouragement from their participants.
Visitors aren’t present often, so this was an iconic, exciting day for the Primary School students. The BBQ was a winner in itself! Who doesn’t like a sausage in bread with an enormous amount of tomato sauce? The Kurnai students all received a thank you card from Gormandale Primary, which was well received and tugged at the heartstrings.
Following the sports carnival organised by Kurnai College, Gormandale Primary had their Interschool Sports day a few days later. Gormandale Primary’s performance in previous interschool sports days hasn’t been up in the top 5. Until now…
The students were prepped, ready, and rearing to go. And that is what they did. They came second and were absolutely thrilled with their achievements: something worth celebrating and a fantastic outcome.
The next thing to conquer is the triple jump, so no doubt Kurnai will be involved with prepping them for this next challenge.
Andrea and Candy, your support and direction provided to your students, are evident in the outcome. Congratulations on an inspirational story and creating such an impact on your student’s development whilst supporting your community.
We love sharing stories about ‘Schools doing great things’, and this event we are showcasing is all about putting on the hat of creativity. St Stephen’s School Carramar catered for the senior drama production ‘Letters to Lindy’ and mastered a menu based on the bush setting using a variety of native spices.
The menu consisted of kangaroo sausage rolls, saltbush chook skewers, white kunzea damper with bush tomato relish, strawberry gum cheesecake and lemon myrtle shortbread.
This was a valuable and most enjoyable learning experience for students getting exposure to native spices as well as putting hospitality skills into practice before and on the night. A great success for all the students involved, who were able to gain hands on experience and put on a delicious spread appreciated by all.
Thank you to St Stephen’s School Carramar for sharing such a great example of how you can be creative, have fun and deliver a successful outcome.
