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Students showcase Yarra Valley gourmet delights

Yarra Valley’s stunning culinary delights were showcased to perfection at a recent Yarra Ranges Linking Learning dinner, thanks to the magnificent master cheffing of four students from Certificate II in Kitchen Operations and their trainer Jeannette.

“Everyone raved about the food, the students were awesome in the way they catered for about 50 people who enjoyed the evening,” said Gus Seremetis, CEO Cire Services.

Students can undertake Certificate II in Kitchen Operations as part of the VET program in VCE. The course,

Linking Learning dinner delights prepared by the students

Linking Learning dinner delights prepared by the students

delivered by Cire Training in conjunction with Upper Yarra Secondary College (UYSC), provides an excellent stepping stone to career prospects in the hospitality industry in the region or much further afield.

The course is. It is based at the Trade Training Centre commercial kitchen at UYSC which offers training for students from the Yarra Valley VET Cluster.

Cire Training has proactively negotiated catering jobs for students so they gain structured workplace experiences with paying customers. Cire school buses are used to help overcome local transport issues, particularly in the evenings.

Linking Learning dinner prepared by Kitchen Operations students

Left to right – Paige, Alice, Jeanette (Trainer), Shae and Lilybeth

After a term’s study for three of the four students, the group presented the wonderful array of Yarra Valley foods (pictured) at the Linking Learning dinner. Ingredients were sourced from Sanders Orchard, Gladysdale and Three Bridges, Victorian Strawberry Fields in Silvan, the Smokery in Lilydale, Yarra Valley Dairy, Yarra Glen and the Flying Apron in Wesburn.

The students will be providing further community support throughout the year with a range of catering jobs which involve cooking, presenting and serving food to support a variety of events. These will include a pop-up café at Chirnside Community Hub on the last Wednesday of the month, community dinners held at the Cire Community School church, Cire Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) at Yarra Junction, and the Biggest Morning Tea  

Make sure you look out for one of these events near you.

If you would like to know more about Cire Training call 1300 835 235

A fresh approach to learning

Cire Children’s Centre has had the pleasure of having the enthusiastic Jo Gaissl attend to assist educators in implementing the Linking Learning program. The Linking Learning program was developed to improve the learning outcomes for Victorian children from birth to 12 years, using song, stories, language and play. This program presented facts about how language can be impacted by a child’s environment.

Did you know that by the age of three, children born into low-income families heard roughly 3 million fewer words than their more affluent peers. With this knowledge knowing that our children could be missing out on vital learning experiences we can aim to improve their future by utilising the tools used in the Linking Learning Program. Check out the video below to see how this program has been of benefit to our community.

Jo Gaissl spent five weeks mentoring Cire educators across our children’s services. During this time Jo helped the educators gain skills in communication methods and refining teaching practices to include additional language development opportunities for the children.

As part of the Linking Learning Program educators were allocated one on one professional mentoring time to further explore language opportunities. These included stories, song, dance, movement and social opportunities.

“It’s a fantastic program! Having been involved in the pilot has demonstrated the need to focus on language development. At Cire we welcome opportunities to further enhance the child’s experience and learning outcomes because education is the key to every child’s future.” Lysa Smart – Centre director, Yarra Junction Childcare

“This program has really opened my eyes to a new understanding of the way we communicate with children and in the ways in which we can extend this in our every day lives. It has given me more confidence and the tools in which I can use to teach language to children.”Claire Savage – educator, Yarra Junction Childcare

This individual focus time was unique as it was tailored to suit each educator. During this time educators had a chance to show their own strengths, discover language learning processes and learn how to use many unknown day-to-day opportunities in a children’s education setting.

Educators were able to then use these professional mentoring times and reflect on their language and planning, celebrate their achievements and consider further exploration and direction in their professional learning, with the aim to implement these tools on a daily basis.

“I’m getting a lot out of the program; it’s really helped me to have a better understanding of linguistic development” Toula – educator, Yarra Junction Childcare

“Jo has helped me to utilise language in addressing and guiding behavior, she brings lots of fresh ideas!” Rebecca – 4 year old kinder teacher, Yarra Junction Childcare

Programs such as this are a wonderful opportunity to discover new language learning processes for the educators to use in their teaching practices.  We would like to thank Jo Gaissl for her hard work with the Linking Learning Program and for giving Cire the opportunity to participate.

If you would like further information on Cire Children’s Centre or our kindergarten program, click here to learn more, or you can contact us to arrange a tour on 1300 835 235