House Keeping 

Annual Reminders

Coburg High School is fortunate to be located in close proximity to natural and built up environments that are great for extending our learning and applying it in a real world context. To make accessing these resources easier, as well as reduce the need for parents/carers to give consent for each of these local activities, a Local Excursion Consent agreement is signed upon enrolment and continues while the child remains a student at CHS. See below for key information about Local Excursion Consent.

Local excursion consent

Coburg High School may take students outside of school grounds to undertake educational activities in the local area. 

Local excursions are excursions to locations within walking distance of the school and do not involve ‘adventure activities’. These can be on an impromptu, one-off, or recurring basis.

Example activities include walks along the Merri Creek (HPE) or to collect water samples (Science); or photographing the architecture of Pentridge (Visual Art). Both the Swimming Carnival at Coburg Olympic Pool and Athletics Carnival at Coburg Athletics Track are also local excursions.

Local excursion consent means CHS will not seek further consent from you before local excursions take place; however, we will provide advance notice of upcoming planned local excursions via Compass.

School staff will administer first aid or seek medical attention if it is considered reasonably necessary while on the local excursion. Any costs associated with student injury rest with parents/carers unless the Department of Education and Training is liable in negligence (liability is not automatic). The Department of Education and Training does not provide student accident insurance or ambulance cover. Parents may wish to obtain this cover, depending on their health insurance arrangements and any other personal considerations.  

Families understand that:

they need to ensure the school has up-to-date health and contact information about the child, and that the school needs to be informed if this information changes

Local excursions and their details, like other excursions, are visible on Compass

Consent for a local excursion may be withdrawn prior to the day of the excursion by contacting the supervising staff member in writing.

Personal Property

Parents / guardians and students should be aware that personal property brought to school is not covered by the school or Department of Education and Training does not accept any responsibility for any loss or damage.  Personal property is often brought to school by students, staff and visitors.  This can include mobile phones, calculators, toys, sporting equipment and cars parked on school premises.  Students are discouraged from bringing any unnecessary or particularly valuable items to school.

Accident

The Department and school do not provide personal accident insurance or ambulance cover for students. Parents and guardians are generally responsible for paying the cost of medical treatment for injured students, including any transport costs. Student accident insurance / ambulance cover policies are available from some commercial insurers, and can be obtained by parents/guardians for individual students.

Privacy

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to remind yourself of our school’s collection notice, found on our website here. For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

* Amharic

* Arabic

* Dari

* Gujarati

* Mandarin

* Somali

* Sudanese

* Turkish

* Urdu

* Vietnamese.

Photo policy 

Mobile Phones

A reminder that the Department of Education has in place a mobile phone ban that requires students who bring mobiles phones to school to have them switched off and securely put away during school hours.

The department is requiring all schools to ensure this ban is in place and enforced from the start of the 2024 school year.

The ban applies equally to all government schools right across the state.

This helps ensure that school is a learning environment free from unnecessary distractions and disruptions.

By ensuring mobile phones are kept away at recess and lunch times, students can interact with each other face-to-face, without the distractions and social pressures that mobile phones can cause.

We ask for the support of all our families, staff and students in continuing to support the implementation of this policy in our school.

Further information

Exceptions: For a small number of students with particular health needs, an exception to the policy may be granted.

Emergencies: In the event of an emergency or if you need to immediately contact your child, I ask that families contact the school office who will pass on a message as required.

Parent support: The Mobile phones in schools webpage provides links to resources for families to help them balance their children’s time using mobile phones.

School Documentation

To view school documentation such as policies, handbooks and booklists simply click on the Community tab on Compass. 

IT Support

IT support is available to students before school, at recess and lunch, and after school. If you need help with your MacBook please come and visit the team at the IT Office in the bottom of Building B during these times (not during class time) and they'll be happy to help you.

STOPIT service

STOPIT is a Victoria Police text notification service enabling commuters, including school students, to report any form of inappropriate behaviour that makes them feel uncomfortable, frightened or threatened on the public transport network. 

How STOPIT works

The STOPIT service enables commuters to use their mobile phone to promptly, easily and discreetly report inappropriate behaviours. To use the service, commuters simply text ‘STOPIT’ to 0499 455 455. This triggers an automated response that includes a link to where the commuter can provide more details about what’s just happened. When people report these types of inappropriate behaviours, police can investigate and identify offenders to improve safety on public transport for everyone. Parents and carers are encouraged to consider discussing the new service with students who travel on public transport. Students who use mobile phones outside of school hours are encouraged to save the STOPIT number in their mobile phone. Please note, STOPIT is for reporting non-urgent incidents on public transport. Always phone 000 in an emergency. For more information, refer to sexual and anti-social behaviour on public transport on the Victoria Police website.