Issue 1 2025 - Trades & Training
Trades & Training
Mark Boynton
Trades and Training areas are looking great and have been preparing for the new year well. Some changes in workspaces have enabled us to have a dedicated space for Conservation and Ecosystem Management (CEM). The machine shop area, with mill and lathes, has been further developed to suit the needs of the Design and Technology students.
In Equine, we would like to welcome Rachele Richards who will be working alongside Emily Pagan to support and guide our students through the skills and tasks required to improve and be successful in that area. Rachele brings a high level of knowledge and abilities and demonstrates patience and understanding in the handling of horses. We are very pleased to be able to have her in our team.
Autos
Mr Gladish has been very busy creating and developing new teaching and assessment resources. Our Units of Competency available have been extended to cover some new areas that are valuable to the students hoping to progress into a mechanical trade.
Year 10 students start with the workshop safety training, this enables them to understand the expectations of the workshop environment and what to do if they need to report hazards. They will also move on to their small engine work. In small groups, students will dismantle and rebuild single cylinder engines.
Year 11 students are straight into tasks and the study of vehicle drivelines and cooling systems, we now complete a Unit of Competency specifically about radiators, where students need to be able to successfully remove and replace components of the cooling systems.
Year 12’s are able to make use of the cybertruck built last year for the electrical wiring jobs. This new resource designed by Mr Gladish has many options for installing wiring and lighting systems. This, as well as our project cars, are extensively used for training and assessments.
If you have any cars or motorcycles that are currently unused and are complete, we welcome donations for our project car/motorcycle collection. Please get in touch if you have anything you would consider donating or selling to the Autos program.
CEM
The Yr 10’s, 11’s, & 12’s Conservation and Ecosystem Management students have been exploring the site, identifying change in the landscape due to the seasons, and are also busy doing summer maintenance works in the College’s Wetland. There has been a start to our tree nursery set up. A new shade house is being constructed in the Metals workshop and should be installed sometime very soon. We hope the tree nursery gives an additional focus to the CEM students and enables us to plant and develop tree sites in our local region.
The wetlands project requires the students to complete the following tasks:
Chain sawing banksia branches which have dropped vegetation into the wetter areas.
Cleaning and removing built-up dirt and grime from timber at the Bird Hide and the Ancient Paperbark Wetland boardwalks.
Painting the cleaned timber using enviro-friendly oil, to protect from the elements.
Cutting and painting any woody weeds with herbicide in the re-vegetation area.
Removal of tree guards and stakes from any native plantings in the re-vegetation area, to allow plantings to grow bigger.
Hand-weeding in the re-vegetation area.
Collecting Banksia cones that hold seed for seed extraction.
D and T
Year 11 student projects this term have started and machining equipment is already in action. The Year 11 Drill Vice project initially requires the use of the face mill in our machining area. It’s a simple but impressive process and will leave a great finish on this new project. The drill vices will be fully operational and already look great. This is a new project from Mr Toon and we hope it gives all the students a change to develop some high level skills.
Year 12s are using AutoCAD, Inventor and CNC plasma cutting techniques for designs and layouts for small table legs. This project has run for a few years now and allows students lots of freedom of design in a controlled project, we get excellent results and feedback from this and we are always impressed with the designs.
Equine
The equine area has been very busy in these first weeks of the term, welcoming new horses and students. It’s very pleasing to see the area developing. Our plan over the year is to introduce an additional outdoor exercise and arena space. Over the summer, the farm trainers made a great start for us by clearing some paddock space and we will now have this levelled and prepped for the use as an arena. Thank you to Kevin Marshall and his team for their support with this.
As you may be aware, the equine area is busier than ever before with almost 40% of College students now enrolled in the program. Emily Pagan and Rachele Richards are there as much as possible, however, it is quite clear that the demands of the area are considerable. It’s important to follow and respect the guidelines and rules we have in place.
Please ensure that all Equine students and yourselves are aware of these guidelines and expectations of the equine area, the document you need to guide you is easily accessed from the college website:
www.denmarkag.wa.edu.au/policies-information-and-forms
Whilst most students are following the rules, there are still some who are not following basic expectations; failure to follow the rules will result in your child’s horse being removed from site. We simply cannot risk injury or harm due to students not following basic guidelines. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mark Boynton (Program Coordinator) directly.
Our primary goal is to deliver quality education of the ACMEQU221 Certificate II in Horse Care, we have fantastic resources and a range of quality horses to achieve this. Afterschool and weekend riding is a great addition to the overall experience of attending an Agricultural College, however, if student actions and lack of respect make this too difficult, this may be removed as an option.
Metals
Certificate II in Engineering Pathways is always a popular option and continues to grow. Year 12 students are busily designing and setting up their personal projects which are always impressive. Costs can be high for these but don’t need to be, smaller projects are acceptable as examples for the Carry Out an Engineering Project UoC. We also have some options for students to complete jobs for the school or staff members.
Year 11s are undergoing a refresher in sheet metal fabrication; this is a new plan and we feel it’s important to ensure all students continue to develop measure and marking out skills with a focus on accuracy to achieve great end products. Year 11 Metals students will complete a range of set projects this year and term 4 will open up an opportunity to complete a small personal project or start to plan and prep for the major project in 2026.
Our new students in Year 10 are all required to complete what’s known as prerequisite UoCs first. These cover a range of topics in safety, manual handling and communication, which are all good skills in the workplace. In addition to that, we are undertaking welding training and practice in MIG, TIG and Stick welding.
For projects, they are working on sheet metal fabrication with a focus on accuracy, measurement and using equipment correctly. All new students are also required to undertake workshop inductions, which include demonstrations of using equipment safely and effectively.
In the last few years we have been running a Tuesday Trades Club after school. Unfortunately we will not be running the Trades & Training Club this term. We will reassess the needs for the Club for Term 2 as it’s often a great chance for students to have extra time to complete their projects. Hopefully we can offer this later in the year as projects become more developed.
Mark Boynton
Program Coordinator – Trades and Training
WACOA - Denmark