Principal & School Captains Reports

Engaging last week of Term 2

It was a very busy last week of Term 2, with the 'Big Week Forward' for Year 10 students, Student Led Conferences and Course Counselling for Year 9s and 10s on the last day of term as well as an exciting day of incursions and excursions for Year 7s and 8s. Thanks to all parents, students and teachers for their support of the Student Led Conferences/Course Counselling Day - we had a much better uptake based on your feedback from last year.

A highlight of the week was the Instrumental Music Concert on the Wednesday - in a very full Space. We have some amazing musicians within our student community, and a big thanks to our exceptional Instrumental Music staff, led by Luke McIvor, and our Performing Arts teachers, who guide and nurture these talents.

See below for photos of the final day Year 7 Incursion with Melbourne Djembe, Year 8 excursions (they had the option to watch a movie or ice skate) and VCE Vocational Major students with a guest speaker Nicholas (former CHS parent):

Architects appointed for Technology building

Further to last month's newsletter report, late in Term 2 Bryant Alsop were appointed the architects for our $17.8m Technology Building. Bryant Alsop were responsible for the Coburg High School Masterplan completed in 2022, which means they already have a strong understanding of the school's needs as we continue to grow.

This announcement begins the Schematic Design stage of the Technology Building, which will take place in the first half of this term. Look out for announcements about how you can be involved as we determine the best types of technology to include in this exciting double storey building, shown as Building 5 below:

Coburg High featured prominently in our local member, Anthony Cianflone's speech about the state budget (from around 2min 39 seconds, see also the end of the video) and in his recent Community Newsletter.

Year 10 Work Experience & Year 11 VCE Vocational Major Structured Workplace Learning

It was fantastic to have our Year 10 and Year 11 VCE VM students undertake work experience and Structured Workplace Learning at the end of last term. We thank the many employers across the northern suburbs and across Melbourne who hosted our students - with very many positive reports as our teachers made contact with students and their employers.

Please see below for a report from Year 10 student, Joshua McDonald, about a very exciting week at the Australian Synchrotron:

Big thanks to our Senior School Team for their work in assisting students in finding places for students to undertake this learning, particularly Christina Scholzhorn (Senior School Administrator), Agnes Fenech (Careers & Pathways Co-ordinator) and Olivia Stray (Vocational Coordinator). 

Theatrette 

My thanks to the Year 11 VCE Vocational Major students for their assistance in improving our Theatrette (further details on the Teaching & Learning page). We can now host a whole year level (on seats) at a time in this space - a great improvement! Many hands certainly did make light(er) work!

2024 Timetable

Thank you to the 127 members of our student and parent communities who contributed their feedback regarding the proposed 2024 timetable. In short:

• Most individuals thought the current timetable should be kept as is, finding it less complicated and easier to remember, especially in terms of period lengths, lunch times, and the end of the day. The current timetable was described as easy to remember and beneficial for students with executive function and attention issues.
• On the other hand, some expressed support for the new timetable, praising the inclusion of more regular home groups on both Mondays and Wednesdays.

As I outlined in the video which I distributed by a Compass post late in Term 2, the change has been precipitated by changes in the industrial environment for 2024, with teachers teaching a maximum of 18.5 hours per week (rather than 19 hours in 2023). This means that for us to financially support all of the programs that we currently run, we need to get as close as possible to the 18.5 hours teaching time, and 60 minute periods do not allow for this. For this reason, and despite the trepidation that was apparent in the parent and student feedback, we will move to the new proposed timetable from 2024.

To accompany the change, we will ensure that we place the lesson times in prominent places in classrooms. To maximise the benefits of having home groups more regularly across the week in smaller bursts outlined above, a Learning Specialist for the new program (with a working title of Coburg Connect) has been appointed for the remainder of 2023 - Jaan Butler. Jaan will coordinate a number of student focus groups in Term 3 as we determine what students would like to see in a refreshed home group program for 2024.

The new structure will also free up some additional time for the introduction of a separate Digitial Technology subject in 2024 - providing more hands on learning for our students. 

Brent Houghton

Principal

Captains Report

Hey Coburg High, it's been an awesome year so far, and we would like to share with you what we’ve been up to in term two! 

We recently presented at another Merri-bek council meeting, to try and get the Urquhart St entrance crossing brought forward in the budget, and hopefully it will be implemented by the end of next year. We have also had many meetings with the student voice council, where we have discussed contemporary issues at CHS, as well as introduced new ideas, and plan fun events like the recent ‘Decades Day’. 

We are thrilled to announce that a long-awaited priority of ours, as your school captains, has finally come to fruition. Our school has introduced a waste sorting system with a three-bin recycling setup. This initiative has been our passion since our election as school captains for the year, and we are delighted to see it become a reality. The three bins will be dedicated to paper and cardboard, general waste, and mixed containers. We encourage every member of our school community to actively participate in this endeavour, as together, we can make a significant impact on our environment. Let's embrace this opportunity to reduce our environmental footprint and create a greener future for Coburg High School.

We recently hosted Coburg’s Got Talent which was a huge success. With too many entries, people had to be shortlisted and they definitely put on a good show! Jenna, Aaron, Justin and EJ judged and The Space was so packed that people had to be turned away. Overall a really good event, won by Namira S for her dancing.

A survey offered by the Department of Education called the ‘Attitudes to School Survey’ was completed by Coburg High students recently. The survey aims to help schools and their staff better understand the majority view of students and how they are feeling about their experience at school. The School Captains and Student Voice Leaders presented slideshows to their peers about the survey as well, and the school will take the results of the survey into consideration.

On Tuesday the 20th of June, the whole school participated in a ‘Decades Day’ dress up which raised money for children’s charity ‘Big Group Hug’. The charity supports children and their families who are in need. It was amazing to see students dressing up in different decades and bringing a gold coin to support the cause!

Please, if you have any changes you’d like to see at the school, or any suggestions at all, feel free to send any of us an email, or ask us outside during recess and lunch. Thanks for a fantastic 1st semester, we can’t wait to see what term 3 has in store for the school. 

Josh R, Tabby B, Ezzat G & Monique C