Outside the Classroom

Geography

Year 11 Geography class recently travelled to Anglesea to undertake fieldwork investigating the sustainability of tourism in the area. At Point Roadknight they heard about the impacts of rising sea levels along the Surf Coast, and management work being undertaken, from two Conservation workers from the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority.  They then visited the Anglesea Community House, where Michael Varney, a local minister and affordable activist, talked about the shortage of affordable housing in the area. After that, they conducted surveys of local residents and business owners about their experiences with seasonal tourism. We finished off the day looking at management techniques around the Caravan Park, and assessing the health of the neighbouring estuary.  It was a busy day, and luckily the sun came out, and we got to experience the beauty of Anglesea while gathering excellent data for our fieldwork reports.

Fiona Taylor

Library

October saw the Library buzzing with the excitement of a Retro Gaming exhibition courtesy of Year 12s Hugo and Joseph. As well as classic memorabilia on display, there were consoles through the ages set up for students (and staff!) to battle it out in such classics as Mario Bros and Duck Hunt. 

October also means Halloween, and although a little different in the library this year it was still pretty spooky in here! We hosted the Trivia Master Halloween edition, congratulations to our winner Rose P, and also to runner up Liam C who was a close second.

A huge shout out to all of our amazing students (and teachers) who dressed up for the day, you looked amazing. A special mention to Musty A for his great work setting up the library for the day.

The Librarian..?

Merri-bek libraries recently held a short story writing competition with the theme being ‘My Dream Pet’ and our very own Ada H from year 10 won her age group category. Congratulations Ada, your story was touching and your talent as an author is inspiring. This is one very proud librarian. May you go far in your writing career.

Dianna Jarnet

Coburg Primary School Art Show

Once again CHS students were thrilled to participate at the biennial Coburg Primary School Arts Show. The CPS Arts Show is an exciting event that showcases student artwork as well as musical performances, this year with the theme of 'Dreamscape'. It was an absolute joy to see the fantastic work at CPS, including neon-lit Surrealist inspired bird drawings and sculptures, a recreation of the Coburg drive-in cinema and a brightly lit handmade Bunjil. A wonderful group of CHS students volunteered their time and talents by holding arts and crafts, and baked goods stalls, as well as busking and performing for their local community. It's such a pleasure to watch our students as positive ambassadors of our school. Thank you to all of the students involved and thank you to Scott Dixon who helped to supervise our students on the day. Congratulations in particular to teachers at CPS, Nib and Dane, who organise the event.  

Kate Lennon, Visual Arts Teacher

Having a stall with my friends at the Coburg Primary School art show was a wonderful experience. There were so many friendly and enthusiastic people there. As an art lover, looking at others' works and stalls was fun and inspiring. Having a stall was a great way to showcase my art and have people appreciate it. This was a huge boost of confidence for someone with little experience. It was also a great way to spend time with my friends, as we did the stall together. Overall, I had an amazing time and so did everyone I knew that went.

Maggie M 7A

On the 10th of October Coburg High Students ran stalls and busked at the Coburg Primary Arts Show. The stallholders sold a range of handmade products including baked goods, scrunchies and cards. I sold scrunchies, beeswax candles and lemonade, which were very popular! It was a very fun experience, and a successful event. It was great to have the opportunity to be entrepreneurial and make some money, plus there was some awesome singing entertaining us. Thanks so much to Nib from Coburg Primary School and Kate from CHS for organising it! 

Annie J 11A

Interschool Sport

Intermediate Girls Basketball

On Wednesday the 16th of October, our Intermediate Girls Basketball Team competed in the Regional Round Robin Tournament at Coburg Stadium. The team competed against Aitken College, St.Helena Secondary College and Brunswick Secondary College. Unfortunately we did not manage to win any of our games, however the girls displayed exemplary sportspersonship and competed fiercely. 

Below are some thoughts from some of the team members after reflecting on this sporting experience.

I enjoyed playing with my team, as well as having fun playing against my friends from other schools. Laura

The day turned out to be a blast and the team connected really well and we created a positive fun and hardworking team! Go Coburg! India

It was really fun to miss a day of school. I enjoyed playing with and against my mates. Thanks Kylie, and Mia for making this possible. Charlotte

It was really interesting watching all of the other schools play and super fun being able to verse them. Samira

I had a great day with my friends and team-mates and enjoyed playing. Thanks a lot to Kylie and Chelsea for the great coaching and team spirit. Lyric

Kylie Saccone

Year 8 Cricket

The twelve-over format of the regional cricket competition saw Coburg High play three back-to-back matches against skilled opponents Gladstone Park, Diamond Valley and Brunswick Secondary. Despite fielding only 10 players, Coburg High showed the resilience and patience to secure two victories out of the three games. In one innings, Coburg High managed to score over 140 runs - a monumental effort considering the twelve over format. Through win and loss, the players represented their school with the highest levels of integrity and excellence. Thank you to all the players, families, officials and staff for their contributions to a fantastic day.

Julian Barker

Junior Girls Volleyball

Year 7 and 8 girls headed to Pascoe Vale Girls College on Wednesday 16th October for their volleyball tournaments. The year 7 girls competed in 4 games throughout the day, winning their first game. They fell short in their next two matches, but bounced back to finish off strong with a win and take home 2nd place overall! Led by the sensational serving of Siri and positive encouragement from Florence. 

A solid team effort. The year 8 B team only got better as the day went on. A couple of outstanding serve streaks from Alex and some excellent returns by Dusty and Lara. 5 games in total, winning enough games to secure 3rd place overall! Some of the best sportsmanship I’ve seen amongst a team - having each other’s backs in each and every point. Last but not least, the year 8 A team looked nothing short of professional! You wouldn’t think they’ve only spent 2 weeks training! An outstanding team effort to go UNDEFEATED in their 5 games, only dropping the 1 set in their final game (we’ll put that down to fatigue). The girls move on to the next round on October 29th! Well done and good luck. 

Junior Boys Volleyball

Our Year 7 Boys team aren't progressing to the next round, but were great sports all day and had a good laugh!

Brooke Wilson

Year 7 Girls Basketball

The Year 7 Girls Basketball team had a great day out for the Northern Metro Regional Finals. We lost to St Helena and Gladstone Park, but finished our 3 game series with a clear win against Melbourne Girls College. Throughout the tournament, Lirrah, Lara, Ilhan, Maggie, Lola, Rayanne, Siri and Elsa grew in their teamwork and on field leadership skills. They played with integrity throughout and were a joy to coach. Well done girls and good luck in Year 8 basketball!

Melanie Buscema-Moore

Year 7 Boys Basketball

On Thursday the 31st of October, our Year 7 Boys Basketball Team competed in the Regional Round Robin Tournament at Coburg Basketball Stadium. 

The team played Gladstone Park Secondary College in the first game and won convincingly 51 to 16. In the second round Coburg defeated Diamond Valley Secondary College in a tremendous battle coming out the victors, 35 to 29. Our third match of the day was against Brunswick Secondary College, where unfortunately we just fell short and lost 47 to 53. 

At the end of the Round robin there were three teams on equal points, based on percentage Coburg finished second in Pool 1 and were unable to progress to the grand final against the winners of Pool 2. It was an absolutely heartbreaking result for the team…

We just want to congratulate all of the boys for playing amazing basketball and persisting throughout a really tough tournament. We fell short to Brunswick only by a couple of points largely due to fatigue. But the boys' love for basketball was not enough. We have loved coaching you all and building relationships, we can’t wait for next year to coach you boys again. 

Remember every setback is a setup for a comeback!

Matteo and Ben

Special thanks to Ben and Matteo for dedicating their time throughout the entire semester supporting and developing the boys in weekly training sessions. A massive shout out also to Finn and Ilya for volunteering to score throughout the tournament. 

Kylie Saccone 

Handball

Our year 7-10 boys represented CHS at the Merri-bek division handball competition at Coburg Stadium. We had five teams head out, showcasing their skills, leadership and teamwork. All teams played with great determination, resilience and sportsmanship. 

A big shout out to our year 7 A team who placed second in the competition, falling just short with a loss against Ilim in their final match. Our Intermediate A team also placed second, fighting hard in the grand final to just fall short in the last remaining minutes of the game.

A great way to finish off interschool sport for the year, well done!

Mia Haas, Sport Technician

Year 8 Boys Basketball

After last year’s appearance at Regionals, hard fought but not getting the results they wanted, the Year 8 Boys came back with a vengeance this year. 

Coburg High was placed into Pool 1, facing some tough schools such as St Helena, Gladstone Park and Brunswick.

Game one was up against Gladstone Park, where the boys started the first half hot leading the team at half time. Coming out of that team huddle, Gladstone Park drove a comeback that put our Coburg boys on the ropes. The pressure was immense, however it did not falter the efforts of the Year 8’s strong defence and offensive talent. With a display of resilience and determination, Coburg secured the win against Gladstone Park by 10 points.

Game two, the nerves kicked in for the Year 8’s. They saw their next opponent was St Helena, a school they remember all too well by losing by 20 points last year. During our huddle, the nerves stopped. Eyes were sharpened, muscles tensing, and motivation increasing with only one intention: To win the game. All eyes were on this game by other schools and parents. Coburg started the game hot. Physicality is a strength of our boys and was displayed by all on the court. They crashed the boards and would not let a single rebound get into the hands of the towering St Helena team, which gave Coburg the edge and increased our lead into half time. In the second half, things turned up even more. All of our players became more physical on the offensive end, driving onto the bigs of St Helena, drawing fouls and making buckets. The stadium was filled with the roars of all wearing Coburg uniform - especially from Jacob H and Massimo P who were hot in the final minutes. Coburg got their revenge and took the second win by 20 points.

Game three, we saw the boys take on Brunswick secondary. With the momentum from last game, the boys looked primed and ready to go. However, Brunswick put up a fight and gave our Coburg boys a challenge. However with teamwork and sheer determination to not see a loss, it was a tight game and led to a draw where Coburg hit two clutch free throws. The win was not secured, but our Grand Final matchup was. 

This was the final game of the day, victory here meant that Coburg would be heading to state. The matchup against Preston was balanced, both teams had amazing scorers, playmakers and defenders. This game was fought until the very last second and leads were changing almost every two minutes. Coburg, nearly to the end of line, unfortunately fell short by two points and Preston moved forward into the State Tournament (congratulations to Preston and all the best for them in the coming tournament). For our Year 8 boys, we were seen as the underdogs but played like the favourites to win it all. It was a message to the other schools that we are not notorious for only winning Division tournaments, we are built for the bigger stages with brighter lights and can make it to the State level. It was a fantastic effort by all, especially from Coach Mat M and Ahmad S who supported our Year 8’s and kept their heads in the game. 

Chris Sanding