Authentic learning case study five: Restaurant Breakfast
Subject: Hospitality
Level: 2/3 students
Enterprising attributes: Student directed, using initiative and drive, communicating and receiving ideas and information from a client, matching personal ideals and skills to a specific need and product.

Outline of the unit of work: The unit was about planning and preparing and serving a breakfast menu in an authentic setting to a real audience.

Student outcomes: Students had to work collaboratively in groups, each taking a role. This included Head Chef who oversaw the running of the kitchen, waiters, kitchen hands and coffee makers. The training restaurant was open from 7am to 8.45am for two mornings providing a top class service for the patrons who included parents, grandparents and staff.

Teacher comments: An awesome group of students to work with. A very successful unit of work where the students stepped up and ran a well planned, prepared training restaurant. Before this unit each student had done at least three work placements in local cafes/restaurants. From that experience the students spent four days at CPIT and on their last day prepared and served a three-course meal at Visions restaurant for over 50 guests. The class are now getting ready to prepare and serve finger food for the end of term Musical Concert. After that each student will spend at least three days at the Boyle River Camp being a camp cook for Year 9 classes, which includes lots of practise and training for catering for large numbers and serving healthy foods.

Authentic learning case study two: Lunch in a box
Subject: Hospitality and catering
Year level: 12 & 13
Enterprising attributes: Student directed, collecting, organising and analysing information, using initiative and drive, communicating and receiving ideas, and information from a client ,matching personal ideals and skills to a specific need and product.
Outline of unit of work: Students are required to identify a client who would like to buy a meal specifically designed for their dietary requirements. The meal has to be cafe style, costed, sourced, prepared and presented in a lunch box and delivered to the client at a specific time and date.

Update: Myra Waugh has given her students creative freedom to approach their NCEA assessments in a way which has encouraged innovation, imagination and originality. Her students originally only talked about the boxed lunch they had had to produce for a real client. As the conversation progressed, it became apparent that they had done far more than this. In fact these enterprising students not only cooked breakfast and dinner for real guests but also took on the huge task of cooking for over 60 people during a week long camp. In between creating meals for the public these committed students entered a week long work placement and attended another week of tertiary education at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT)!

Student comments: When asked how this enterprising education differed from ordinary school work they replied that they had learnt to please others, not just themselves; they learnt about the hospitality industry. They also found that learning was more practical, with less writing and consequently “less boring”. These are lessons that aren’t ordinarily found in a secondary school classroom. Their learning was encouraged by the practical element of the program, where students are required to take action for themselves not just sit back and listen to the wise words of their teachers and mentors. The real life element is crucial to their learning and progress too, like one of the students said “We tried harder because it was for real people”. So how did these students find the ECN assessment compared to their usual school assessments? “We weren’t given a set outline, but had to do it ourselves” explained one of the students. So did this have an affect on their motivation to complete the assessments? “Yes, we tried harder”. This intensified effort comes about from an authentic testing situation where the students were actually serving genuine customers.  

ECN projects 2006

There is no free lunch!  Students at Kaiapoi High School run their own community restaurant 'Turning Point' 
Students in Myra Waugh's Hospitality class really learn about the realities of the food industry, deadlines, stress, pressure, high standards and of course fantastic food! Recently students planned, costed, prepared, and served guests in their own restaurant.

Through this authentic learning experience students really understand why they need to have a strong foundation of knowledge on which to base their practice. Myra constantly uses her enterprise skills to extend their boundaries and she is currently purchasing professional uniforms for her students. It requires hard work, organisation and focus, skills Myra's students develop as they gain credits for NCEA.

It was the best $10 lunch without a doubt and the presentation second to none!

School Bands produce, record and sell their own CDs
Music students at Kaiapoi High School have had the opportunity to be both enterprising and entrepreneurial whilst gaining NCEA credits. Under the guidance of their music teacher Jeff Bergman, students have been given the opportunity to plan, produce and market their own CD...not a small undertaking.
The venture has been very successful providing Level 2 Composition students and Level 3 Performance Music students with an authentic learning opportunity. Students have had to take ownership of their own learning and develop alongside their musical expertise, organisational and administrative skills not to mention working as a team. This also involved collaboration with Richard Matla in the art department to achieve a professional cover. The finished product is a high quality CD the whole school community can be proud of.