Excellence and awards
Congratulations to winners of VCAL Achievement Awards
On Tuesday 2 May the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) Achievement Awards were held at The Edge, Fed Square. The event celebrates VCAL students, teachers and partners who have excelled during their VCAL program.
Wurundjeri Man Daniel Ross gave an insightful and measured Welcome to Country to start the day. Sue Bell, Executive Director of Senior Secondary Curriculum Reform at the VCAA, emceed the event. Departing VCAA Chair, Chris Wardlaw presented recipients with their trophies and certificates.
This year, there were 46 recipients across 17 categories.
In 2022, VCAL students produced a large-scale festival from Lorne to Cranbourne; led their classmates on expeditions through the bush; and celebrated LGBTIQ+ people with events and a mural at school.
VCAL teachers organised enormously beneficial community partnerships between their students and local businesses, as well as pioneering new approaches to their delivery of VCAL, going above and beyond for their students.
‘At the VCAA we have been incredibly proud of the VCAL certificate – since its inception in 2003 until last year, nearly 395,000 students have had their lives changed by the learning and experiences they have undertaken as part of that certificate,’ noted Sue Bell.
‘There are so many people to thank, and we should just take a moment to think of the remarkable teachers who advocated for this certificate back in 2002, as they saw the needs of the students they were teaching.’
Jason Henderson, Wantirna College recipient of a Senior Work Related Skills award, gave a short speech on behalf of the class of 2022.
‘I chose Wantirna College because they offered VCAL. I was focused on practical studies and saw VCAL as the best pathway to a career,’ said Jason.
‘After work experience and holiday work, I have gone onto full-time employment at the organisation, travelling with the team to rig lighting and sound at venues like Margaret Court Arena, the Big Red Bash at Birdsville, Sandstone Point Hotel Queensland and Red-Hot Summer Tours.’
‘My dream is to work on big shows and festivals and international touring acts as the lighting designer, Doing VCAL in year 11 and 12 has given me some of the best life experiences and prepared me for that future.’
Read more about this year’s recipients on the
VCAL Achievement Awards page.
Top Designs 2023: Annotated folio pages available
This year, a selection of exemplar folio pages is available for each study in Top Designs. The pages have been annotated by the Curriculum Manager and State Reviewer for the study, describing how each assessment criterion has been met.
Annotated folio pages are available for the following studies:
- VCE Media
- VCE Visual Communication Design
- VCE Product Design & Technology
- VCE Systems Engineering
- VCE VET Creative and Digital Media
- VCE VET Engineering Studies
- VCE VET Integrated Technologies
- VCE VET Music (Sound Production)
These digital documents are available on request as a free educational resource. To request, please fill out the
online form.
Top Screen 2023 On Demand
The Top Screen 2023 program is now available to stream on demand via ACMI’s Cinema 3.
Presented as part of the VCE Season of Excellence, Top Screen on Demand lets you view the work and creative processes of Victoria’s next generation of filmmakers from your classroom.
Be moved, inspired and entertained by an eclectic selection of short films made by VCE Media students from 2022. Screenings are open until 31 July 2023 via
ACMI.
Still from
Shift,
a film by Sequoia Pather from Swinburne Senior Secondary College.
Shift is part of the Top Screen 2023 program.
Top Screen 2023 People’s Choice Award winners
The People’s Choice Award winners for Top Screen 2023 have been announced. At the end of each screening in March and April at ACMI, audiences were encouraged to vote for their favourite film. There was a total of 1,166 audience votes throughout the program.
Receiving the highest number of audience votes, the winner of this year’s Top Screen People’s Choice award is Will Calleja from Footscray High School for his film The Trials and Tribulations of Being Jordan. As part of the award, Will receives a Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) Share Pass and a $100 Readings voucher.
The first runner-up is Xaviere Weis from Northcote High School for their music video Sensory Memory. The second runner-up is Emile Feik from University High School for his film Earl Dreams of Apples.
Will’s winning film The Trials and Tribulations of Being Jordan is a teen drama, focusing on a troubled teen making her way through high school. Resenting her current lifestyle, she starts to re-evaluate how she lives her life and deals with social anxiety.
Will Calleja and his teacher
Malcolm Fretz from Footscray High School at the launch of Top Screen 2023 at ACMI. Photo by
Nicole Cleary.
Congratulations to this year’s winners and thank you to MIFF for their generous sponsorship.