Our café supported by Cert I Hands On Hospitality Students, Tier 2 Barista and 9/10 Catering Classes continues to go from strength to strength.

The cooler mornings mean that hot drinks and coffees are appreciated even more and our students are honing their Barista and Customer Service skills by professionally serving our school community. Our Friday home-made jam donuts and scrolls are proving popular and the café buzzes with hungry students.

Our Hospitality students are working on Workplace Health and Safety, to ensure they are aware of their responsibilities and procedures and legislation to protect them as workers. Our ongoing work with Barista ensures coffee orders are made within industry timeframes- and yes I do get the stopwatch out! 

TIER Barista Basics remains popular and we have added an extra session on a Tuesday morning. This program provides an entry level hands on experience in customer service and espresso coffee making and gives students skills and confidence in these areas.

Our catering students are always busy preparing food and drinks for the canteen, functions, staff and other occasions. Last week we trialled a drop off coffee service to our parents waiting in the pick up zone- we will continue to do this on a Friday. If you are parked in the turning circle look out for our friendly students wearing masks and denim aprons ?

Next Thursday 19^th May we are once again holding an Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea event for school community members. This event is being organised by our Senior Secondary Enterprise at Work students as part of a group assessment task. Unfortunately due to covid restrictions our café will not be open to the public this time but students and staff will be able to participate by ordering platters and buying items from our cake stall. Please send your children to school with some gold coins so they can participate in our event (competitions, cake stalls and more) and raise money for a very worthy cause!

On Tuesday students from the Senior Secondary Hand on Hospitality and 9/10 Catering teams were invited on a tour of Federal Country Club Casino as part of the Beacon Foundation GrIPP. Students were able to view all the working  (and leisure) areas of the Country Club and ask questions of all the staff. Links Buffet was popular as were the very comfortable suites!. The scope of employment opportunities is vast and all areas are in need of quality staff- this tour gave the students much to consider in regards to their own future employment. We will continue to build on these sessions with Federal throughout the year. Thanks to Carmen Gill-PHS, Ebony from Beacon Foundation and Rachel and Audra from Federal Group for showing us around.

Another busy period for The Nest- keep an eye here and on social media for exciting future plans ?

Adrienne McMahon

Cert I Hospitality Trainer, Hospitality and Catering Teacher