Outside the Classroom
VCE VM
Structured Workplace Learning
The year 12 and year 11 VCE VM team attended SWL (Structured Workplace Learning) for 2 weeks and gained a lot of experience. The aim of SWL is to gain experience in an industry that is usually in your chosen career pathway. One specific student who is studying fashion styling worked with a fashion stylist and had an amazing time. They worked in the city gaining a client base and networking while filming content for the stylist. They also had days they stayed home, joined meetings and created style boards for specific briefs they were given. They claimed to have a lot of knowledge after doing SWL with the stylist, they also gained experience which showed them their dream job. SWL was a great success for other students also. Here are some of the Year 11's reflections:
Alistair
I spent my time for Structured Workplace Learning at a Childcare centre.
I spent time both with children and as a leader, I got to experience what it was like to become a teacher and saw the efforts that needed to be taken.
Stacey
I spent my time for Structured Workplace Learning at Myer Northland. I learnt how to arrange clothes and clean up clothing areas, unpacking cosmetic storage and putting them in there branding areas. I also did online packaging and helping customers with click and collects. I also handed out perfume testers to people and talking about the perfume which made customers interested and I ended up selling a few perfumes to someone.
Liam
I spent my time for SWL learning how the framing and overall carpentry side of a job site is held. I learnt how flooring is put into place for the second or so story of a building. I originally wanted to go into SWL with an electrician although the employer I had for year 10 work experience although he didn’t have any work for me in the time that SWL was taking place so I just went with my cousin which provided insight towards other trade industries thus giving me a better understanding of what else is available for the future.
Odin
I spent my time for Structured Workplace Learning at the High school basketball network with the owner Mike Torres. We spent our time preparing for big future projects and for the tournament we had a soon. We prepared by going around to the trophy place and the poster place. We also had to run tryouts at Brunswick high school.
Grace
I did my workplace learning at Mitty Nail Salon, it was a very good learning experience for me and I learned a lot about nails as well as customer service skills that I did not already have. One of the values for the salon to be started was for it to be vegan and cruelty free, to create this they made their own nail polish brand. I did lots of cleaning tasks and a lot of time management spent on how to get as many tasks done as possible. I found that a lot of the staff were very lovely and that I could have very helpful conversations about my future and if this industry for me, in conclusion I would definitely go back and would definitely recommend that people go there.
Sausage Sizzle
Congratulations to our Year 11 VCE VM students for putting on a successful sausage sizzle to raise funds for victims of war, and for their work preparing their Community Health and Wellbeing podcast explaining the ins and outs of being a VCE VM student.
Amazing Race
12 VCE VM students got into teams ready to embark on the Amazing Race around the Melbourne CBD.
Ben T, Javier, Hugo & Daniel won fair and square smashing out the 10 stops in less than an hour! In close second place were Genevieve and Alima.
All in all a successful day putting into practice our teamwork and leadership skills!
Lydia Burns, Olivia Stray, & Gary Vella
Chicago
We had an exciting enrichment opportunity for some of our committed Dancers and Singers recently to watch the stage musical 'Chicago' at Her Majesty's Theatre. Filled with important historical dance influences, iconic choreography, exceptional triple threat performances, and a full orchestra on stage, Chicago is the perfect show to inspire our students.
Madison Desiato & Anne Wood
Melbourne Uni Excursion
On Thursday the 13th July, all year 9s students went on an excursion to Melbourne University. They participated in a lecture on memory mnemonics and how to prepare for tests in a lecture theatre on campus, explored the grounds of Melbourne University in a scavenger hunt, and checked out the Not Natural exhibit at the Science Gallery. All students had a fantastic day as part of their careers unit, and the day helped them in answering the question about whether they could see themselves at university in the future.
Samara Harris
Interschool Sport
Cross Country
Our legends representing CHS at regionals for cross country: Rowan L (1st) and Leo E (3rd).
Mia Haas
Netball
Congratulations to our Year 7 & 8 Girls' Netball A teams who were both undefeated at this week's competition. Year 7 girls were led to victory by Year 10 students Eliza and Veronica. Well done teams, we will be cheering you on in the next round!
Brooke Wilson
AFL
Our year 7 boys AFL team were victorious in their win against Glenroy and AIA. They showed great skill and sportsmanship against their opposition. A big thank you to Blake H from year 9 for his coaching expertise. Congrats and good luck at regionals!
Mia Haas
Year 9 Excursion
Recently our Year 9s went on an excursion to Icehouse where they enjoyed ice skating and curling.
Brooke Wilson
Robotics Club
This year students were invited to take part in Robotics Club, which is a club about a bit more than just what the name suggests. In Robotics Club we do more than build different robots, we develop our programming, engineering and problem solving skills. We completed a range of challenges including designing dragster robots and vehicles that climb the highest ramp angle. A group of us also spent a few days sorting pieces and now all the teams know we can build and modify our robots more efficiently.
This year we have moved to four teams:
Year 9: “C4 of Coburg, Crazy Cool Coding Clan of Coburg”
Year 8: “Softwear Squad”
Year 7s: “404 Not Found” and “We <3 52 4f 42 4f 54 53”
We are developing our skills to take part in the First Robotics Competition. We will need to develop a robotic solution for a robotic game board and also identify a real world problem and attempt to develop a solution to this based on this season's theme which appears to be about the ocean.
Hamish L
CHES Expo Excursion
On the Friday of Week 7, a small group of Year 11s and 10s got the chance to learn about CHES (Centre for Higher Education Studies) at a careers expo at the pristine CHES campus in South Yarra. What is CHES? A specialised learning facility which serves as a ‘bridge between schools and universities’, CHES offers a way for VCE and Y10 students to study a range of unique and comprehensive higher-education-studies (HESs) alongside the other subjects studied by a student at their main school. These can be studied on-campus or online. CHES teaches their own subjects including a number of Units 1-4 VCE subjects, many of which are not offered at mainstream schools such as Algorithmics and Extended Investigation; (a personalised research question you choose and work on over the course of the school year), Y10 elective subjects and, most excitingly, early-entry University subjects which can be taken in Y12, contributing to your ATAR and giving you a kick-start in tertiary education! The day: First, we gathered with another 100 or so students from schools around Victoria in the auditorium where CHES’s principal Stewart Milner, who you may remember as Brent’s predecessor, introduced us to CHES and spoke a little bit about the day ahead. Next we listened to a few guest speakers, such as world-renowned sociologists Eva Kyndt and Dan Woodman, who gave really interesting and inspiring presentations about the big-picture of education, careers and life-choices. We then moved on to the main event: After being split into groups, we made our way around the building to visit each of the areas designated to the Universities represented at CHES including Melbourne, RMIT, Monash, ACU, Swinburne, Deakin et al. and CHES’s own HESs, which were run by some of the friendliest and most engaging reps, a few of whom even offered fun puzzles and challenges that gave a sense of the kind of material covered in their subject. (Shout out to the Specialist Maths reps who set a few problems that gave us a run for our money!). But not only did students talk to representatives about possible careers, but also talked to one another, making new connections and learning about education pathways in other schools.
How you can get involved: If you are interested in taking any of the subjects at CHES, head over to the CHES website for more information and speak to your careers counsellor and teachers to see if CHES is right for you.
Joshua M& Timur S (Y11)
Photos - Agnes Fenech
STEM Centre of Excellence
Science
The science museum was a great experience where we got to see heaps of different science exhibits and we got to create a podcast.
Me and my group had a lot of fun recording with the fancy microphones and headphones in little soundproof boxes. Our group did the industrial revolution and climate change and we had heaps of fun talking and laughing about it like we had our own little podcast that people were going to listen to. It was really fun and it was nice to get out of the classroom and do stuff in the university.
Alex M Year 9
Chris Bray
Food Technology
Our Year 10s engaged in the activities at the Stem Centre of Excellence Future Food Program on their excursion.
They had a great day learning about future foods such as insects for protein, and a wide variety of ways to be more sustainable.
A great day had by all!
Olivia Stray
Library News
Well here we are at the midpoint of 2024 and there is always more news to come out of this lovely little library here at CHS.
We had our latest installment of the Library Trivia Master challenge. This month’s theme was in keeping with Pride Month and we have a new winner. Congratulations Alice A! You have won the monthly cafe voucher and are now in the draw for the end of year major library award. YAY! Here are some images of our library, our winner Alice A and a few of the participants.
In other news, our CHS book appeal is going fantastically well. There have been some amazing financial donations to the library fund. I am constantly humbled by the generosity of this Coburg community and thank everyone who has donated from the bottom of my heart. A huge thanks to the Coburg High School Historical Group who, without them, this would not have happened. Thank you so much.
Any financial donation to the library fund is tax deductible so if you are feeling generous and would like to donate to a charity which promotes literacy, donate to CHS Library Fund. Donations are accepted through the Compass portal and over the phone. So let’s get our kids reading and becoming the masters of literature!
Until next time, adieu!
Dianna Jarnet
Dress for Success Day
A couple of weeks ago Coburg High School had a ‘Dress for Success Day’ where students dressed up in costumes based on their future career aspirations. The day was fun, and we got to experience the wide range of imagination with costumes ranging from nurses to soldiers to office workers! It was great to see the whole Coburg High School community get involved.
While deciding the dress-up day the student voice leaders wanted to enforce a gold coin donation towards the Big group Hug. The big group hug offers support to vulnerable children living in crisis by seeking and distributing essential items in times of need. The overall goal of the organisation is to end the cycle of childhood poverty that simply shouldn’t exist in our local neighbourhoods.
With the success of the dress-up day Coburg High School donated $422.55 towards the foundation. The student voice leaders are so happy with this success and hope to have more dress-up days in the future to support important causes!
School Captains
English Team
What are we reading?
Ever wonder what other people are reading or want a recommendation? Here’s some ideas from what Coburg High’s English teachers are currently reading!
Alison Godfrey - I am currently reading the historical fiction novel All That I Am by Anna Funder. It is the story of Ruth, her husband Hans, her cousin Dora, and Dora’s partner Ernst, who are left wing activists in Munich in 1923. The story of their protests, exile, and struggle to warn the world of the evils of Nazism is told by dual narrators. Ruth recounts the story as an older woman from Sydney in 2001 and Ernst tells his perspective from New York in 1939. All of the characters in All That I Am are real people (I think I’m sensing a theme in my reading this year), but Funder has reconstructed their stories with imagined memories and moments.
Melanie Buscema-Moore - I am delving back into YA, and having just finished Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas (engaging but unsettling read) I’m now reading Only a Monster by Melbourne author Vanessa Len. It focuses on Joan, a teen who has just learnt that she’s half-monster and has powers, which isn’t as unsettling for her as discovering that she’s not the hero of her own story, a challenge for someone who has always been a rule follower. Furthermore the hero happens to be the boy she’s liked all summer and he’s been tasked with hunting her down, as well as her family and all the monsters of London. I enjoy the premise but will need to finish the book before deciding if I continue with the series.
Emi Versteegen - I am slowly making my way through a compilation of short stories that fall into the ‘Indigenous speculative fiction’ genre by Mykaela Saunders called Always Will Be. The stories are set in various future versions of the Tweed and celebrate indigenous ways of being, knowing, doing and becoming. They are written with humour and ingenuity and I am really enjoying returning to them when I am done with my other reading. I saw Mykaela speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival and her expression of the way that speculative fiction can be used to enliven indigenous storytelling was really illuminating. Highly recommend!
Lachie Gaylard - I don’t get around to much reading so am often led by others. This book appeared in what seemed like every “best of 2023” list and as a magical realism fanboy, it sounded like it was up my alley. I wasn’t disappointed: it hangs out at the same house in a Massachusetts forest for 400 years and the people, catamounts and bugs that come by/call it home. From enslaved people, American Indians, ghosts, apple farmers, unrequited lovers and naturalists, it’s kaleidoscopic but also very focused. There were several parts where I audibly cheered or gasped or said “whoa”. While it was occasionally a little too clever for its own good, Mason is a qualified psychiatrist and teaches literature at Stanford. I wish I could read it for the first time again and cannot recommend it highly enough.
Mandarin Excursion
A Chinese inventions workshop and Han Dynasty exhibition tour at the Chinese Museum. Students also explored Chinatown completing a scavenger hunt worksheet testing their Mandarin script recognition.
Simone Laiu