Teaching Tip: Cross Curricular Initiatives

Name:

Jenny Cook

Economy:

Australia

School:

Moriah College

Subject:

Life Skills

Tip:

After learning about a project called ‘Serving Up Success’ from a school in the United States which was a Life Skills curriculum project based around students running a small café business, we decided to embark upon a similar initiative at our college.

The project was initially aimed at our students with special educational needs who were already following a Life Skills Curriculum.

The students were introduced to the idea of creating and running their own small business as a way to incorporate all of their life Skills Curriculum subjects. It was important that the students had an active part in the entire process and that they had ownership.

The students and staff involved embarked upon the project with enthusiasm. They began doing research on Café’s in the local community and gathered information on everything from menus, logos, advertising, job roles, budgeting, stock ordering, café layout and décor.

The students created a wish list and were able to identify a room which would eventually become their café. All of their teachers became involved and the Café became a cross curricular theme. The lessons covered a wide range of activities including:

Financial Literacy:

• Budgets
• Ordering 
• Stock replenishment 
• Banking 
• Using money 
• Working out change 
• Profit and loss
• Using spreadsheets

Work Related Curriculum:

• Research - electronic and manual, customer service surveys
• Running a business – work ethic and responsibilities
• Specific job roles
• Work rosters and duty rosters
• Applications and interview techniques
• Resumes
• Advertising and promotion
• Charity and sponsorship

Food Technology:

• Occupational Health and Safety requirements
• Hygiene and food safety
• Food preparation and packaging
• Observing Kosher food preparation requirements

Literacy:

• Menus
• Advertising campaigns
• Resumes and application forms
• Taking orders- waitressing
• Letter writing

Visual Arts and Computing:

• Producing artworks for the café
• Menus
• Logo
• Posters and flyers

Music:

• Design and production of music to be played in the café

PDHPE

• Healthy lifestyles – diets for health

Science:

• Environmental issues related to the café- sensible packaging, water use, sustainability etc.

We were lucky enough to receive a generous donation of a small coffee machine from a local businessman and managed to make a small weekly profit.

Following another donation of a commercial coffee machine the students were able to gain social skills and peer support through completing a professional Barista course earlier this year, which some of their mainstream peers were invited to attend. The cafe initially opened to staff and parents for a day each term and now is running two or three times a week.

This enterprise has been most valuable in bringing together staff, students and the community allowing the students to take ownership of their learning in a practical, meaningful way.