In late November, a group of students competed in the Schools Triathlon Challenge. Students nominated for an individual or team event and many of them competed in both. We had several top 5 placings throughout the day and across the grades dominated in various legs of the course with swimming being a particular strength of many.

Congratulations to all competitors and thanks are extended to parents and carers for their support throughout the day.

Wow! Time flies when you are having fun learning about life and living in the world of Agriculture as well as practical applications in the Food and Fibre world.

Senior and Junior Animal and Agriculture classes had a huge two terms – participating in Cows Create Careers, hatching Turkeys, visiting TAFE Freer Farm and more. We have sown and grown crops of brassicas, lettuces, garlic, beetroot, onions, leeks, potatoes, carrots, parsnips and more! We currently have a variety of berries coming on, such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, Josta Berries, Black, Red and White currants. Our fruit trees have been pruned and fruit is forming on the apples, cherries, plums, nashi and lemons. We live in hope for our fig, peaches, mulberries, and pear – but these are relatively new additions, they need a bit of time.

Our main problem this semester has been with our chicken reproduction program. Unfortunately, many of the eggs under our hens were either infertile or did not survive the hatching process. Thankfully, we were able to utilise these clucky hens to assist with raising some of the Turkey poults. We process these poults next year for senior students to engage in an enterprise project using maths and money activities around animal and food production. Thank you to Sharman’s who process and pack our meat as well as pricing it for retail sale, this way students get a real idea of how and why our food costs so much!

We hosted the Youth Leaders Climate Change conference and several other high schools attended – the theme was sustainable food production. This year we processed four pigs and the meat was eaten by students, used in the Home Economics kitchen, donated to a local soup van/dining with Friends charity and given to families in need. We also processed roosters and used these for digestive and reproductive biology and again, the carcasses were used for soups and or roasted for student consumption. We use our eggs in the school kitchen, students are allowed to take eggs home and we do sell some to staff and other community members.

We have two new pigs – Lenore and Lydia, they will be ready to go during the school holidays. I want to thank Bryan for all his work around finding a good pair of piglets and collecting them for the farm, he also transports all our animals to their final destination whether these be calves, pigs or turkeys. Another person who is always happy to help is Dale Burgess, he has children attending BHS and willingly comes to pierce our pigs’ noses. A necessary procedure to ensure the pigs rooting does not damage our soil at the farm.

We were able to host two students in work placements –one day per week each. Again – I thank our volunteers Bryan and Kitty for being the supervising adults on these days. The students were able to complete jobs to keep the farm ticking over – planting seeds, transplanting seedlings, feeding animals, assisting with weeding, pruning, and repairing.

Once again Michael and Sue Chamley supported Cows Creates Careers and provided us with four calves – Bobby, Daisy, Sammy and Twinky. We still have Bobby and Sammy but Daisy and Twinky have gone back to the farm. Sue and Michaels children attended Burnie High School and I always love to see Liam re-connecting and engaging in our BHS learning programs. Thank you, Liam, Michael and Sue!

And of course! The Grade 8 Animal and Agriculture Studies classes completed their learning with the culminating assessment task, "Creating a hamburger" this semester saw a vast improvement on semester 1 efforts and an amazing job completing the requirements, following the instructions and cleaning up. Check out the photos of these burgers!

Sadly, we said goodbye to Francine – she was our Matriarch Alpaca. Francine and Frank blessed us with Fernando (he lives in Camdale now), Florence and Francesca. She was one of the original Alpacas donated to BHS farm (Felicity, Frank, and Francine) in 2013. The students did a power of work creating an appropriate resting spot for her in the orchard, thank you to all involved.

Hands on Learning have had a busy two terms finishing our work at the Emu Valley Rhododendron Gardens, then spending time in the Tarkine, having bushwalks and developing resilience and leadership skills, but always giving their time and effort to their “base camp” – the BHS Farm.

The boys have engaged in many skill development activities – building furniture from scrap timber, cooked many great meals using farm produce, painted the change rooms, created some murals and re-commenced our hydroponics, ready to do more next year. We have lots of fun and few tears and tantrums along the way but it has been a great learning experience as well as providing students the opportunity to come to school and have a day to “re-set” and feel able to complete a full week in a school setting.

Study Hub students have been focusing on biology and botany this term as their applied science activities.

We have studied embryology and development using poultry, watching the series of videos of, "I was born in a glass", about Rambo the chicken and comparing it with our successful poult (turkey babies) hatchings and less than successful chicken hatchings. The discovery of how nature works has been truly engaging and at times stomach churning, when a hen sits on an infertile egg for 21 days. We learned a heap of new and very cool science words as well as their meaning.

Students also germinated seeds and planted lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, and cauliflower. Alongside this we look at seasons, sunlight, and the spheres, as in the northern and southern hemispheres and how and why things grow in different parts of the world. Thank you, Dale Burgess, for your donation of Broccoli seedlings.

We have introduced some “therapy” based animals. These are, Coco and Chanel, aka, Grumpy and Dopey the two blue tongues. They have grown very big this year, it informs students of more nature-based learning from, moulting, poikilothermy (cold blooded animals) to feeding native animals. Along with this, the need for understanding the law relating to keeping “wild” animals (we have a permit). Students love to sit with our lizards and handle them. It has been a great learning Semester in the Study Hub.

Steph Prendergast

Animal and Agriculture Studies, Hands On Learning Teacher

School Holiday Program @ Hive - Eco Friendly Fun

Hive’s latest School Holiday Program is packed full of eco-friendly workshops and activities.

Our artist-in-residence Shani Nottingham, founder of The Bread Tag Project, will be delivering her educational workshops and activity sessions from January 15 to 21.

This program also includes a fantastic line-up of sustainable, waste reduction, and eco-friendly workshops this coming January.

Find a mix of new and loved music, art, and science workshops to inspire and delight.

 Please see our poster or go to  PublicProgram at HIVE Events | Eventbrite for full details and tickets.