On Tuesday of week 2, Year 12 VET Hospitality students visited the NOVOTEL Northbeach in Wollongong for their Student Hospitality Experience (SHE) excursion. This is an annual trip where the students gain valuable insight into the Hospitality sector as a whole.

Students are welcomed by Talent & Culture team (Formerly HR) and given an overview of the hotel, how they market and differentiate themselves from other hotels in the area, but also worldwide.

They then got changed into their Hospitality uniforms and got hands on in the prep kitchen with a session led by their head pastry chef. Students got to taste fresh made ice cream, make three types of ganache balls and see a busy kitchen in action.

We then got to try our hand at mocktail making in the restaurant bar area, something of which the kids very much enjoyed. This session was led by the head beverage manager on the day.

A beautiful alternate selection lunch was provided in the restaurant and then we were given a tour of the hotel from top to bottom. The students saw a top priced ocean view room, the engineering department, laundry rooms, the goods receiving docks, Talent & culture department, Admin, the restaurant and function rooms and finished with a thank you in the meeting rooms.

This excursion provides a valuable learning opportunity for the students as they see the topics we discuss in class in a real life situation which will assist them in answering questions in their upcoming HSC.

Students received such great feedback from the NOVOTEL team and handled themselves in such a professional manner and I thank their parents for allowing me to take them on this excursion.

Emma Kenna

This week our Year 11 students did their first catering events where they got to serve on the Information Night for potential new enrolments for 2022. The students also prepared and served for our Mothers day breakfast on Thursday.

At the Information Night and Mother’s Day breakfast they got some lovely feedback from the prospective new parents and students about the food and lovely, friendly service. 

The Year 9/10 Food Tech classes of Mrs Dalgleish made some fabulous treats for the prospective students to take away with them in a special “Save the Date”(to start next year) pack.

Miss Gill, Ms Garland and Mr Szkwarek were on hand to tell the students about our great VET courses available to them.

The students also helped cater for the Mothers Day breakfast where they prepared croissants, jam and cream & yoghurt fruit cups for the expected 150 people.

From our Hospitality team, we all hope the mum’s and carers had a very happy day on Sunday.

Please have a look at the pictures of our evening.