General News
21 October, 2025
Hopetoun P-12 wrap-up – Week 1 Term 4
By the Community Connections Class
Work Experience
In the final week of Term 3, our students of VM, Year 10 and 11’s, completed their highly anticipated week of work experience.
No matter where they were in the state, or what type of work field they were in, all students gained valuable knowledge of what is to come in the workforce and explored some possible ideas of what to pursue for a career in the future.
Ava - For work experience, I went to Apsley Primary School and worked in the Prep to Year 1 classroom for the whole week. While in the classroom, I worked one on one and with small groups of students to complete an activity. On Wednesday the students didn’t do any normal schoolwork as they did activities instead. One of these activities was painting the outside and inside of a cubby house. Then, on Friday, the students had footy colours day where they did footy activities such as a scavenger hunt, a footy game, and then a footy kicking activity. My highlight of the week was probably being able to meet the students and being able to get to know them. Overall, being able to go to the school was a very good experience and I am glad that I was able to attend.
Isabella - For work experience, I went to Ballarat and attended the Veterinary Practice Clinic for a week. I experienced a lot of what goes on in a vet clinic. It was always very busy and there was never nothing to do. I spent a lot of my time watching the vet and vet nurses attend surgery. My highlight was watching the surgery on a female Labrador and seeing the uterus with all these tiny little eggs, that will soon grow to be puppies, that was very interesting to see. Overall, I learnt so much from just watching and asking questions and enjoyed my time with the veterinary staff.
Alynah - For me, work experience was spent at the Mildura Trinity Lutheran College where I learnt how they worked as a religious school. I was placed for the week in the Prep A class and helped students during handwriting time, literacy, maths and science. During literacy, I listened to the students read, and encouraged them to sound out tricky words. For maths, I took a group and helped them to create a data table about their favourite fruits and complete it a few days later. Science for the week was about gravity so Prep A and B joined, and we did some experiments with rocks, paper and a tennis ball. On the last day, both classes got to dress up in sports clothes and create ice-cream sundaes for maths.
Blake - For my work experience, I worked at the local Hopetoun Newsagency, exploring all aspects of retail. I learnt many important things including communication skills, problem solving and using initiative in all different ways. I improved many aspects of my skills, but the main one is communication. When I first started, I was quite nervous talking to people and struggled a small amount, but by the end, I was having a great time making conversation with customers and serving them without problems. I really enjoyed my work experience placement and would consider working somewhere similar in the future.
Leith - Work experience was a substantial opportunity. I got to see what a week of work was like in a teacher's shoes. St Joseph’s Primary School Hopetoun showed me how to teach a variety of students, and I got to work with them independently as well. As it was a local experience, I knew most of the staff and they were very welcoming. Overall, my favourite class to help in and teach was the foundations and one’s students.