TOM HAYES
By TOM HAYES
SEVEN students from the Berry Street School were presented with their Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) on the afternoon of Thursday, December 1. Berry Street School is a specialist independent school that supports students ranging from Year 7 to 12. Their vision caters for students with learning difficulties, which may not be looked after in mainstream schools, giving them a focused learning environment for a high-quality education. Berry Street VCAL co-ordinator, Max Affleck, believes that the school offers a lot of different pathways. “The program we run here is pretty unique, where we offer a very high ratio of staff to students,” Mr Affleck said. “A reason why I love working here is we get to know our students really well. “(We) understand what students like, what they don’t like, what their interests are … that kind of intimacy lets us tailor the program.” Mr Affleck believes Berry Street students face multiple barriers, but the level of persistence they show shines further. “There’s lots of barriers that I think students face … whether that’s things going on in their personal lives, the opportunities that are available to them, their own diagnoses or mental health challenges,” Mr Affleck said. “With every student, especially with our graduates, is there’s an incredible amount of persistence that they bring.” Berry Street offers a ‘Pathways Program’, which is run one day of the week, allowing students to work on life skills and their career plans. Here they can prepare CVs, practise interviews and learn day-to-day skills that aren’t taught within mainstream curriculum. Mr Affleck explained that the VCAL certificate was focussed on applied learning; after graduation from Berry Street, students can explore further learning at TAFE. While at TAFE, Berry Street continues to guide students, as certain TAFE classes consist of Berry Street students. However from next year, students will be blending into TAFE classes with mainstream students. Berry Street 2022 VCAL graduate, Shemika Hoskinson, believes that her VCAL certificate will open many doors into her preferred career-path. When asked what she would like to use her VCAL certificate for, Shemika said, “It’s a mixture between defence force … and agriculture”. Another VCAL graduate from Berry Street, Thistle Kolek, said that the freedom of receiving her VCAL certificate is “really awesome”. “Now getting a VCAL pass opens us to more career paths, like TAFE, (that has) all different careers,” Thistle said. “I’m using (my certificate) to do a Cert 4 in agriculture in TAFE next year, so that’s to get me into farming.” Both Shemika and Thistle learnt valuable life lessons while attending Berry Street School. “Respect for others and their needs,” Shemika suggested. “We are all the same, but in unique ways,” Thistle said. Good-luck to all of the graduates on their future careers, after receiving their VCAL certificate.
