Principal's Report

Year 12 Graduation, Final Day & Exams

Tuesday 22nd October was Celebration Day for our Year 12 students. The morning began with breakfast at the Cafe followed by a final assembly in The Space. Then, Year 7-11 students formed a Guard of Honour as students filed out of the school. In the evening, Year 12 students and their families enjoyed the Graduation Evening at the San Remo Ballroom in Northcote. Our special guests included Anthony Cianflone, State MP for Pascoe Vale, former School Council President Cate Hall to present the Community Award named in her honour and Jacqueline Milroy, whose father the Integrity Award is named after. 

In my remarks, I reflected on the fantastic year level, with particular emphasis on our VCE Vocational Major students:  

The Class of 2024 is the fifth cohort of Year 12 students to graduate from ‘this’ version of Coburg High School. Our graduates tonight are helping build a culture of high achievement and setting an example as role models for our younger year levels. It is a special night for the school tonight as we recognise our first VCE Vocational Major students to graduate from Coburg High School. In my three and a half years at the school, it is one thing that I am most proud of to see - Coburg High offering a pathway that allows students who see their future in a vocational field have a place to complete their secondary education at Coburg High School. I want to recognise your VCE VM teachers as well as Vocational Leaders Lydia and Olivia, who have helped form our first graduating VCE VM class. At the same time, you wont see us tonight recognising the VCE VM students as a separate class of students - you are a core part of the Class of 2024 and your certificate doesn’t look any different to anyone else’s - as it should be. 

Peppercorn Taylor finished the night with a beautiful speech (see here for more details), drawing upon the link with the Coburg High of the 1960s, where after an incident at the school her grandfather had to sit his exams separate from his peers. The way in which the Year 12s conducted themselves across this day (and the rest of the year) has ensured there was no need for such sanctions in 2024! 

Huge thanks to the Year 12 team - David Snaddon, Katherine Ryan, Donna O’Shea and Christina Scholzhorn for delivering an exceptional event to celebrate the end of secondary schooling for our Class of 2024.

Since graduation it has been great to see students regularly coming in to work with their teachers and by all reports, completing many practice exams. Unit 3/4 exams finished up earlier this week in Building C, and the 'Giant Wall of Temporary Fencing' will come down shortly. Thanks to Year 8 students, the Year 8 Student Support Team and oval users for their patience in giving up their spaces over the past month or so as well.

Year 11 Camp

On Wednesday 23rd October our Year 11 students headed to The Summit camp in Trafalgar in West Gippsland for their camp. This camp is part of the transition program for students in year 11 going into year 12. Students enjoyed a successful three days of adventure activities. Once again thanks to all staff who headed off on camp to work with our students, led by Year 11 Leader Elle Drake.

Junior Art Show

On Wednesday 20 November we held our Junior Art Show with works displayed from the wide variety of art subjects in Years 7-11. Thanks to the Vis Arts team led by the Arts Leader, Sandra Middleton for putting on this display of our talented students, and to those families who attended.

Please also see a later report for the wonderful Burgfest and the VCE Arts Show.

Merri-bek North Education Plan Launch

On Thursday 24th October Student Voice Leaders Hasti, Sanjay, Astrid and Lily along with our School Council President Nat Abboud and I visited Glenroy College for the launch of the Merri-bek North Education Plan. 

Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, Hon. Ben Carroll, along with representatives from the three other schools, local MPs, Department of Education representatives and staff from Merri-bek Council and the STEM Centre of Excellence were all present.

You can read further details and the plan itself here.

Murray Road Site Walk

Also on Thursday 24th October I joined CHS students (and regular Murray Road pedestrians and public transport users) Henry and Amelia, Cate Hall, representatives from the Department of Transport and Planning and Minister for Roads and Road Safety Melissa Horne’s office, representatives from Barry Beckett Children’s Centre and local MPs Anthony Cianflone (Pascoe Vale) and Nathan Lambert. 

Issues canvassed included dangerous intersections at Elizabeth Street, Connolly Avenue, Outlook Avenue, at the Pool crossing, at Newlands Road and Stockade Avenue (basically all intersections), speeding drivers and the 60 km/h speed limit, and why this section of Murray Road (as compared to parts east and west) is four lanes wide. Henry and Amelia were able to share their experiences of near misses and I added data from our survey earlier in the year, showing more than 300 students cross the road during school afternoons. The school’s rapid growth over less than a decade was also relayed. With future plans for developments of the Coburg North Sports Hub (see below) the need for safety improvements such as those advocated by Safer Walking and Riding for Murray Road such as reversion to two lanes, wider footpaths, a protected bike lane, lower speed limits and buses with a wider span of hours across the week is clear.

Conversations Merri-bek consultations - sporting precincts

Merri-bek City Council is currently undertaking consultation on two sporting precincts nearby to Coburg High School which could see future developments. We encourage you to get involved and put forward your views on these plans.

Coburg North Sports Hub Masterplan (link)

This includes the Harold Stevens Athletics Track, Jackson Reserve, Coburg Basketball Stadium, Coburg Olympic Swimming Pool, Ray Kibby Table Tennis Centre and the surrounding trails and open spaces. CHS uses the athletics track and pool for our annual carnivals and we know that many students and families use all of these facilities outside of school hours. Click on the link to join the conversation - add your thoughts to the interactive map and/or complete the survey - by Sunday November 24 at 8pm.

McDonald Reserve Facility Design Plan (link)

McDonald Reserve is located on the southern boundary of the school. Merri-bek City Council is putting forward a conceptual plan for this space incorporating a new synthetic hockey pitch, additional tennis courts and dedicated pickleball courts, open space and seating to continue to support soccer training and recreation, lighting to suit both hockey and soccer, a new shared tennis and hockey pavilion and storage and upgraded walking trails. At this stage there is no dedicated budget for this project. There is a pop-up at McDonald Reserve planned for this Sunday November 24 between 11am and 2pm - check out the link for more details. Click on the link to join the conversation and complete the survey which is open for next few weeks.

Technology Building progress

The Technology Building is making good progress, with most of that progress so far being understandably, underground! Our timelapse below will be a little more exciting in future months as the structure takes shape! The first concrete pour is expected in December.

Korean delegation visits Coburg High

On Monday 28 October, Coburg High School hosted a delegation of staff from the Gangwon Provincial Office of Education, along with David Moore from the Australian Association for Restorative Justice and John Hendry OAM. Coburg High School has for a long time used restorative justice principles and School Wide Positive Behaviour Support approaches when working with young people, and our Korean guests learnt a lot from their visit to us, led by Assistant Principal Gary Vella.  

Nelson Alexander Scholarship

It was wonderful to recently visit a Bell Primary School assembly in their beautiful new gym alongside Damian from Nelson Alexander. We attended to award the 2024 Nelson Alexander Scholarship to Tia-Lily, for her thoughtful written and video entry on the topic, "Should Australia do more to help other countries around the world or should we focus on issues in our own country?" 

Tia-Lily's prize was a MacBook funded by Nelson Alexander, which she can use over the next six years at Coburg High School! We look forward to Tia-Lily, her Bell Primary peers and all of our future Year 7s joining us on Transition Day on Tuesday December 10.   

Spanish consulate visit

Aisling Ringrose, Head of Languages, Lourdes Garcia Larque, Senior Spanish Teacher and I were pleased to recently welcome Rosa M. Prieto, Counsellor for Education and Andrès Gómez Barba, Education Advisor from the Embassy of Spain in Australia for a visit. We were also joined by Luke Cripps, Principal of Newlands Primary School and Luisa Plata Herron, Spanish Leader at Newlands. We discussed our successful CHS Spanish program and the ways in which we can support students from Newlands and other local primary schools who study Spanish in their transition to CHS. We look forward to further collaboration with both Newlands and the Spanish embassy into 2025.

Conversations Merri-bek consultation - Munro/Harding streets

If you live near or use Harding-Munro Street in Coburg, Council wants to hear your experiences and what improvements you'd like to see. Provide your feedback here - https://conversations.merri-bek.vic.gov.au/improving-harding-munro-street

Harding Street and Munro Street make up a corridor that runs through Central Coburg between Rose Street and the Merri Creek. We know many of our students & families may use this corridor to travel to school, work or other trips.

It provides a great local connection to many essential services such as schools, shops, parks, sporting facilities, Coburg Station, the Upfield Shared User Path and the Merri Creek, and makes up a key section of our bike and walking networks.

Despite its importance for travel in Merri-bek, it is currently difficult to walk or ride a bike safely along or when crossing this street.

Council want to hear your feedback to help develop their plans to ensure changes to the street reflect the needs of our school community.

School Review

Thank you to the two groups of parents, four groups of students and several groups of teachers and Education Support staff who contributed during the fieldwork days of the School Review. The final day is coming up shortly, where the new Strategic Plan for the next four years will take shape. 

One week to go before Coburg on the Green!

Please take the opportunity to enjoy the music of our talented student musicians next Friday 29 November at the Ampitheatre near the Cafe. Tickets can be purchased from Humanitix with full profits going into the school's music program and in particular the opportunity for our students to participate in the Kool Skools program. 

Key details

Date: Friday 29 November

Time: 5pm - 8pm

Food and drinks: Food (sausages, fairy floss etc.) and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) are provided by the Parents and Carers Association. Families can also BYO including picnic food.

Brent Houghton

Principal