Staff and Student Ventures
Term 4 Give Back projects
As part of our Term 4 Connect theme "Give Back", many groups around the school have embarked on projects that benefit the school and wider community. 💙🎁 Food Tech and Baking students and staff made and packaged delicious Christmas cookies for local Aged Care residents. 🍪✨ Music and VM students took the beautifully packaged cookies to Templestowe Manor to give them to residents and perform a set of Christmas songs and sing-a-long classics. 🎄🎶 It was a joy to see the faces of the residents as the young musos sang. 😊💖
VM Personal Development Skills students wrapped up their year of charity cookups for Carenet with a massive effort of more than 150 serves of spaghetti meatballs. 🍝💪 This year the team has made close to 700 meals for our local community. 🎉💛
Sasha's Entry Connect group chose to create a drought-resistant succulent garden near the canteen. 🌵💧 They weeded, mulched, dug, and planted succulents kindly donated by our school community. 🌱👏 Well done to all students and staff involved in these and other Give Back projects this term. 💙🌟
Do you have an idea for a Give Back project? Contact Ryan at RGR@tc.vic.edu.au ✉️💡
Making a difference with Shark Tank winnings!
Ruffey Park Lake clean up
Last year my group won the TC Shark Tank challenge with our design for a sustainable kerbside drain filter, and we were tasked with creating or arranging something related to our idea using our prize money. 🌱💡 After some brainstorming we settled on taking a minibus to the nearby Ruffey Lake Park to clean up its litter-filled creek, the transport paid for with the prize. 🚌♻️ I was especially happy with this as I walk my dog there daily. 🐶💙 Meg Bailey helped us arrange a meeting with a council member at the park and we scoped out the cleanup area.
With the go-ahead to enter the riverbank area, I designed posters for the event and the available spots filled quickly. 🎨📢 On the day (an inconvenient 32°C), we filed into the minibus and headed to the park, hats on heads and garbage bags at the ready. 🧢🗑️ We met up with the council member and started the brambly, uneven walk down from the footpath to the creek, picking up litter as we went. 🌿🚮 And so, for the next 40 minutes, we traversed our way over reeds and rocks in groups, filling our bags with rubbish the whole way. Returning to our starting point, I was overjoyed to see a large pile of bags stuffed with litter, ready for collection by the council to be properly disposed of. 💪💚 Legs sore but mission complete, we returned to school for some hard-earned icy poles. 🍦😄
Jacob Redhouse
FLE2
300 Blankets- real help for people who need it
The 300 Blankets excursion was two years in the making. ✨🧣 Rishi Ahmed and his team won TC Shark Tank's $500 prize money in 2023. Their idea was an app where homeless people could find services they need in their local community. They were tasked with then choosing a relevant project to spend their winnings on, if not pursuing their actual app idea. Rishi met with me to discuss ideas and we stumbled upon a relatively new charity, 300 Blankets. ❤️🩹 300 Blankets go out onto Melbourne's streets two nights each week with all sorts of items a person might need, from blankets to undies, shaving supplies and dental care.
To volunteer you need to be 16 and so we decided to wait until Rishi was old enough...and finally with a small crew of students (max three students can participate at once so as not to overwhelm people) we met in the CBD at the Pullman Hotel at 7pm. 🌆🧳 It turns out that the Pullman Hotel are a sponsor of the charity and along with sharing their luggage storage facility to ensure easy access for the volunteers they have raising over $300,000 for them! 💙
Peter from 300 Blankets briefed us and we helped fill up some wheelie bags with useful items and then headed off. 🎒 At first it was quiet, and we learnt that recent council mandates had moved a lot of people on from the CBD. "On to where?" we asked... nowhere in particular apparently.
As the light faded, we met our first 'customer'. 🌙 We were encouraged to strike up a conversation and ask if they needed anything. We then rummaged through our bags to find the right sized underwear, a new razor and some deodorant and as the nerves abated, the conversation flowed and we were reminded of our common humanity. Peter told us how important it was to not make people feel invisible. Everyone matters. 💛
Overall, this was an excursion that brought all the good feels as we proudly represented our school and helped out people in need. 🤝✨ Thanks to 300 Blankets and our volunteers, Rishi, Imogen, Millyca, Meg and Ryan. Let's do this one again next year! 🎉
Meg Bailey
Learning Director - Student Agency and Authentic Learning
TC at Career Education Conference
TC’s Careers and Pathways Team were honoured to be invited to present at the Australian Centre for Career Education’s national biennial conference on 2 December on the topic: Rewriting Our Future: Career Planning for the 21st Century.
Careers staff Lou and Kate presented alongside Assistant Principal Darren and 2026 School Captain Delanah, to represent TC's whole school approach to career education and our central vision of empowering students.
All elements of the presentation were very warmly received and we greatly appreciate the hard work of everyone involved. A special congratulations to Delanah, who spoke exceptionally well about her own career and pathway journey at TC.
A big thank you to all the wonderful students who featured in and helped create the video Delanah presented on the day to bring more student voices to the conference.
Louisa Renard
Director of Careers and Pathways
