Committee For Lorne: Cherie Osta Awarded VCAL Teacher of the Year 2017

A huge congratulations to Cherie Osta who has been honoured with the 2017 VCAL Teacher of the Year Award!

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) is a hands-on senior secondary certificate of education that provides students with practical work-related experience, and develops literacy, numeracy, and personal skills. The certificate is a pathway to many careers and educational opportunities. VCAL students have gone on to start small businesses or pursue further study at TAFE or university.

The VCAL Achievement Awards celebrate outstanding achievements of young people who participate and complete a VCAL qualification. The awards also recognise the contribution and achievement of VCAL teachers and partner organisations in the development and delivery of innovative VCAL programs. The winners of the VCAL Achievement Awards were announced at a function held at Deakin Edge, Federation Square in Melbourne on April 27. Geoff Bird, a fellow VCAL and VCE teacher at our school, nominated Cherie Osta for the award and Cherie was selected as the winner of the VCAL Teacher of the Year award from all of the nominations received from across the state.

Cherie is an extremely committed and motivated teacher for our college developing meaningful and practical projects in collaboration with our students and the community. Many people know about Cherie’s creative and connected work at our school, but people may not know that Cherie also puts in many hours mentoring and supporting other schools.

Cherie individually delivered and co-delivered many professional development sessions for educators in 2017, including:

• The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s VCAL showcase in Horsham and Mildura, where Cherie and the Lorne VCAL team shared strategies and practices that have worked to engage students and support VCAL programs
• The Victorian Applied Learning Association’s VCAL Induction Day, where Cherie showed teachers new to VCAL how to devise and track integrated programs and document quality assurance, and
• The Victorian Applied Learning Association’s masterclasses in Melbourne, which linked staff and student passions and skills to project design so that strands of learning could be integrated and tracked efficiently.

The awards are a real celebration of the successful implementation of the original vision of the VCAL. The students, schools and their community partners are living examples of excellence in applied learning. They demonstrate that we can and must find diverse ways of challenging, extending and promoting learning for the full range of young people. It was just wonderful listening to the successful and diverse learning journeys facilitated by educators for some of the state’s top VCAL students.

Cherie certainly embodies this spirit! She works with energy and commitment to find new ways every year to engage and challenge our VCAL learners along with her wonderful team including Geoff Bird, Jace Healey and Linda Davies. We are very fortunate as a College to have such wonderfully caring and dedicated teachers; congratulations, Cherie!