Every second Friday, the doors of St Joseph's Primary School in Crib Point open to something a little different: a fully student-run cafe, dishing up restaurant-quality meals cooked, plated and served by the school's Year 6 students.
When the Shire visited, guests were treated to a hearty vegetable lasagne followed by a dessert that turned a few heads - homemade honeycomb, made from scratch by the students themselves. Before dessert hit the table, the students explained exactly how it was made, walking guests through the science behind turning sugar and honey into that signature bubbly, crunchy texture. A few well-timed bee jokes had the tables laughing!
That mix of food, learning and a bit of fun is exactly the point. The cafe, which seats around 25 people, welcomes not just school families but the wider Crib Point community. Behind the scenes, students work under the guidance of chef Rick Stubbins and teacher Kerry Colliver, who support them through the processes of planning menus and prepping ingredients to plating up and waiting tables.
The initiative grew out of the school's push to connect classroom learning with real life. For the Year 6 students involved, running the cafe means putting science, literacy, numeracy and health knowledge into practice in a very hands-on way.
For the students, it's clearly more than just a cooking class - it's a chance to own a project from start to finish and share what they've learned with people beyond the classroom.
