Principal's Report

Student achievement

Congratulations to Aidan C (Year 7) on achieving a perfect score in the Year 7 & 8 division of the recent Computational & Algorithmic Thinking competition run through the Australian Maths Trust. This is a truly exceptional achievement!

Congratulations to Mia H (Year 9) on being selected to the state 15-and-under girls football team—this is a remarkable achievement and a credit to her amazing talents, commitment and hard work. We wish Mia all the best during the upcoming interstate competition in Tasmania.

Congratulations to numerous students on their remarkable sporting achievements recently, including Kody, Milsy, Peppa, Moudy, Jalal and the Year 7 netball team. The sport section of this newsletter has more details of their sporting success.

I would also like to acknowledge that Emma G (Year 7) is the recipient of a Bronze Award in the English Perfect Championships for answering 2,590 questions, earning 1,111 points, and placing in the top 10% of 65,000 students from around the world in the English competition. Congratulations, Emma. 

A special congratulations to all the students who have recently performed in the Dance & Drama showcase evenings and the two Music concerts.  In the final week of term, the Instrumental Music concert evenings will take place and I encourage students and families to come along to enjoy a fantastic evening of musical performances. 

Opening our new library

At Coburg High School we are passionate about developing a love of reading. We understand the central role that reading has in learning a wide range of subjects at school and in achieving success beyond school. We know the power of books to transform the learning of students because research clearly shows that the more students read, the more they tend to be able to do and achieve. 

Reading is important because it develops our imagination, knowledge, communication skills, and critical thinking skills.  It also helps us to build empathy by entering the social and emotional lives of characters. On top of that, reading allows us to explore ideas, times and lives beyond our own. 

The opening of our contemporary new library will enable students to engage in reading an even wider range of high quality print books and e-books. We look forward to having authors visit our school to speak about the process of writing as well and to excite our students about the latest publications they can explore.  

The library will be officially opened early in term 3 and we look forward to using it as a central location for key services including student wellbeing support, careers guidance, and the IT help desk. It will enable us to store, display and access a range of resources and the library's layout will complement our curriculum priorities. It includes a one-button studio for recording videos as well as a senior study section and spaces for student clubs and interest groups to meet. 

If you are as passionate about reading as we are and want to assist us in creating the next generation of readers, then you may want to contribute to our Library fund. As this is the final month of the financial year, please note that donations to our Library fund will be fully tax deductible. All funds will be used to resource the library and to continue developing a vibrant culture of reading and writing.

Please let us know if you would like to make a donation to the library by contacting accounts@coburg.vic.edu.au or speaking with our business manager, Sally Boyd, on 9353 1700. 

More than just numbers

Mathematics is one of the most powerful tools we have to solve problems. To tackle major problems facing the world, and to navigate our own lives successfully, a solid understanding of mathematics is critical. 

Mathematics has been an integral part of the process of renovating the school over the past year. The architects have used mathematical skills and concepts to create the overall design by using geometry to determine the shape and size of spaces, to maximise the use of each new area and to balance the number and type of designated spaces for different subject areas. They have used maths to plan for traffic flow throughout the school by simulating the predicted the movement of large numbers of students and staff in and around the school. The architects have also taken into account the direction of light into certain spaces at different times of year using mathematics. Several engineers have also been involved in planning the construction work and they have used maths to ensure that building materials are sufficiently strong and stable, that there is an optimal volume of air-flow through vents in rooms, and that temperatures are adjusted for heating and cooling based on changes to the configuration of the new spaces.

Our own IT staff have also drawn on mathematics to determine wi-fi requirements in the newly renovated spaces so that we have the correct number of wireless arrays for the number of students and classes located in the right positions to ensure there is an even coverage.   

The builders themselves have used mathematics throughout their construction work to measure and double-check distances, directions and angles of walls, doors, windows and fixtures as well as the surface areas for carpeting, and they have had to factor in the removal of materials to minimise waste. In addition, the landscape designer has used maths to determine the optimal ratio of trees and shrubs in our newly landscaped courtyard outside Building B.  Of course, all these businesses have also used financial mathematics to budget, calculate their expenses, monitor their cash-flow, and estimate their profit margins for the service they have provided. 

Mathematics is an important part of being an educated person because it can train our minds in understanding and using logic, effectively solving puzzles and problems, and appreciating the fundamental nature of the world. Maths can express the structure of the world in a clear and concise form and often one short equation can be worth a thousand pictures because it can describe something so completely yet so compactly that other descriptions are unnecessarily complicated by comparison.

An example of the way that maths helps us see the patterns underlying nature is fractals, such as those in the images above. Fractal geometry captures some of the beauty and variety of forms found in nature because they show how some laws of nature repeat at different scales, with a piece of the whole often looking like the whole itself. We can see this all around us in the branches of trees, ferns, river deltas and the shapes of mountain ranges, coastlines, clouds, lightning, ice crystals and snow flakes. Even within our own bodies, there are naturally occurring fractals in the design of our veins, arteries, brains, and lungs, which show self-similarity on different size scales. Fractals seem to be nature’s way of optimising the volume and surface area of things by, for example, enhancing the oxygen intake in our lungs, and enabling things to withstand environmental stress by, for example, making trees and plants stronger and more flexible so they can withstand severe winds and storms. 

In addition to the recent Computational & Algorithmic Thinking competition, students will have the opportunity to take part in the annual Australian Mathematics Competition in early term 3 and I urge as many students as possible to consider testing their mettle and their numeracy skills by taking part in that national competition. 

A special visit from our alumni

Recently the Year 8 Drama class were visited by a former student of the school, Mr John Bold, and our students were able to ask John what it was like to be a student at Coburg High School all those years ago. He  shared stories about the school rules, uniform expectations (with girls being expected to wear school hats and gloves and boys expected to wear caps on entering and leaving the school each day) and the segregation of the sexes in classrooms and in the school yard from the 1920s through until the 1950s (with a fence through the school separating girls and boys outside in those days). 

To bring some of Coburg High School's history to life, students have been developing and rehearsing their own drama performances based on John's stories of the lives of past students through TV reports, interviews and re-enactments. Thank you to John Bold and Sarah Kate Hanley for offering this opportunity for our students to connect with an important part of the history of Coburg High School and we look forward to seeing the class performances soon. 

Staffing Updates

We have appointed a new Careers Coordinator, Emma Ford, who is a highly-experienced and highly-qualified careers counsellor. Emma will join our staff from the beginning of next term (and is intending to join part of our course-counselling day for Year 10 students during the final week of this term). We look forward to welcoming Emma to Coburg High School as an invaluable member of the team and an important source of careers guidance and information for our students. 

In addition, we welcome Robbie Preece to our IT department. Robbie joins Ramsey Duncan, our IT manager, on the team and he brings significant experience in IT within schools. Our friendly IT team can be contacted at help@coburg.vic.edu.au or itsupport@coburg.vic.edu.au or over the phone on 9353 1700 and in person during office hours. 

We would like to wish Kate Bradbury the best as she commences maternity leave this week and we welcome Samantha Wike who replaces Kate and will take her Outdoor Education, Physical Education and Health classes from next week onwards. 

I am delighted to report that Paul Arney has had a successful operation and has returned to school in good spirits and in good health. Thank you to families who reached out to Paul with well-wishes. 

Finally, I take this opportunity to inform you that I will be taking a short stint of Long Service Leave for the final two weeks of this term (from next Monday 17 June to Friday, 28 June). 

During my absence, Gary Vella will be Acting Principal at our school. I am confident in the capacity of both Assistant Principals, Gary Vella and Belinda Parini, to provide continuity of leadership and I am sure you will support them both. Please contact either of them with any questions or queries that you would normally address to me. I assure you that the school will continue as usual and work will continue as planned right through to the end of term. I will be back on deck on the first day of next term.

Stewart Milner

Principal

Coburg High School