VET Agriculture students from BSSC and Catherine McCauley College had two special learning assistants over the past couple of weeks: alpacas Alfonso and Tennyson.
After weeks of theory during remote learning, the students were keen to practise their animal husbandry skills and Alfonso and Tennyson were keen to help.
Under the guidance of VET Agriculture teacher, Scott Vaughan, and BSSC Careers Advisor, Rita Soares—who lent the alpacas from her farm—students practised herding, handling, haltering and leading the alpacas, as well as basic health checks such as body score monitoring.
All tasks were performed outdoors at the animal handling facilities of the Trade Training Centre, however, Alfonso and Tennyson couldn’t resist coming into the classroom for a few minutes to revise some of the theory with the students.