Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Sale







The first harvest from the vegie garden took place last week and, first of all, a big "thank you" to Anna, Branka and Veronica for making the project such a success and so worthwhile for their students. The garden has been a talking point among staff, students and visitors alike and has become something of a focal point for the centre. The quality of the produce was much better than we had expected and Patrick the gardener' recommendation to use sheep manure was probably the key.

The four classes involved all enjoyed a stir-fry using Anna's electric wok and the balance of the crop was sold to the students- a variety of vegetables, each bag sold for 50 cents.

Some vegies are not quite ready for harvest (for e.g. broccoli) and once the harvest is complete we will have to make a decision as to whether to sow anything in the hot weather.

Friday, October 19, 2007

King's Park Outing


We had glorious weather for our end of term outing on September 28th. The wildflower festival was excellent and we were entertained by indigenous dancers to mark the end of Mary Crogan's Early Years project. More photos will be posted on the Student Blog soon.

Vegetable Garden



Latest photo. Harvest is next week, followed by sale of vegetables.
Week one has been the usual blurrr of activity, with many jobs having to be done NOW. Some classes are quite small but hopefully there will be top-ups from interviews in the next couple of weeks. The evening classes are enjoying having Chris on-site on both nights- having assistance in the ILC and for asessments will be a real boon. Last Monday I stayed on to show him the ropes and warned him to watch out for students who had no invitation letter and just parked themselves in a class. One lady was very keen to start, saying that her letter was at home. On being told that she would have to go home and try again on Wednesday she managed to explain (mainly using sign language) that her baby had eaten it!

Carmen and Brian had a fantastic holiday in NZ (South Island) and Branka returns from Europe today (Friday) We have delayed the vegetable harvest until her class starts next week. Dubravka spent a blissful week shopping with girlfriends in Melbourne so in the past week we have been treated to a daily fashion parade. Laygon Street shopkeepers are very happy too! Mary Aitken leaves for the UK next Friday so teachers are asked to be particularly careful when checking books and resources out/in. Mary does a great job looking after them but even so we have lost 7 Side by Side books recently, at a cost of $ 32 each. Some resources from literacy kits are also missing.

Susan will be spending part of her time in the Victoria this term helping Maureen with counselling. We have an ex Balga TAFE counsellor, Moya Durack, coming next week to start training with Mary. Moya will be here 3 days per week.