Coburg High School Newsletter

Principal's Report

Principal's Update

Term 2 Excellence

The breadth of opportunity at Coburg High School is one of its most important strengths.  Over the past few weeks students have been involved in the Year 8 Medieval Day, Year 9 Digital Impact incursion, Business Week, and the completion of projects, artworks and films in the Visual Arts (examples of the creative works of students in our Visual Arts classes are included in this edition of the newsletter).

 

Again this term, many Coburg High School students were involved in the annual Language Perfect Spanish competition and collectively they came first in Victoria again, which is a remarkable achievement. In addition, a range of Coburg High School interschool sport teams have participated in second and third round competitions and several have successfully won through from the divisional round to the regional competitions in term 3. 

 

Recently, we also welcomed two of our nearby primary schools to the school for a range of activities in Science, involving many of the students from our Environmental Leadership Team.

 

I would like to thank the staff who have given their time to the many co-curricular activities that have taken place this term.

 

Music & Performing Arts Concerts

I would especially like to acknowledge and congratulate everyone involved in the semester one Instrumental Music concert earlier this week, the Year 9 & 10 Music concert last week and the Year 9 & 10 Dance & Drama performance the week before for their excellent performances. It has been a busy end of term for our performing arts students and staff and it was so impressive to see their emerging talents, virtuosity and hard work on display.

 

House Talent Show

Congratulations to everyone involved in the House talent show last Friday and special thanks to our student house captains and Lakshmi Sharma for bringing the event to life. For posterity, it is a pleasure to announce that the following students were the winners of the inaugural ‘Coburg High School's Got Talent’ show:

 

1. Alice Boyd & Taylor Formica for their dance performance

2. Amelia Corboy for ‘cracking the whip’

3. Kieffer Baulch for his singing performance

 

From the gold coin donations raised during the event, the house captains have decided to donate the $300 raised towards the Make-a-Wish Foundation. 

 

Facilities and renovations

The timeline for the completion of the most of the work on the 4 new outdoor courts for netball, basketball and tennis is the end of July. The final coating will be applied to the courts when the weather warms up again (likely to be completed during a week in October) but we will be able to begin using the new courts really soon with the next-to-final surface layer and court lines marked. We look forward to officially opening the courts in term 3 (exact date to be announced) and to the restoration of the footpath next to the courts from the drop-off roundabout to the main school buildings, which will make pedestrian and cycling access to the school much more convenient for students.

 

In term 3, the renovations work in Buildings A, B and C will go out to tender and by term 4 a construction company will have been appointed to work with the architects so that renovations to sections of Building A and C can be completed, in a staged way, by the beginning of 2019. The renovations work in Building B (and particularly the creation of the Learning Resource Centre) will take place during terms 1 to 3 next year.

 

Staffing and recruitment update

Lanie Vigneswaran is returning to the UK at the end of this term and consequently Joshua Wolter will take on responsibilities as our curriculum leader for semester two. I would like to extend my thanks to Joshua for taking on this role and to Lanie for her substantial contributions to the staff professional learning program here at Coburg High School and for her leadership of the curriculum structures that we have developed into Years 9 and 10 over the past two years.

 

Debbie Platanas has just been accepted into a program called ‘Pathways at DET’ which involves a transfer in term 3 to the Department of Education central office.  David Snaddon will take on Debbie’s role as the Senior School Leader (for Years 10 & 12) during term 3, in addition to his existing responsibilities as one of our Student Wellbeing Coordinators. 

 

We also wish Esther Holt the very best as she commences maternity leave in term 3. To replace Lanie and Esther, we will welcome two highly experienced new staff to the school: Georgina Strinavic (Science teacher) and Melanie Gaylard (English & Humanities teacher) and I am sure that you will welcome them to our community. 

 

Update on teacher professional development

A significant focus for our teacher professional development so far this year has been on developing an even stronger shared understanding of high quality teaching using the Department of Education’s ‘High Impact Teaching Strategies’ (HITS). Over the past month, all teachers have been involved in lesson observations in groups of three in a range of classes, as part of the next phase of our action research-based staff professional learning program. The lesson observation process is important because it enables us to reflect on effective teaching and learning and to give and receive feedback to further improve student learning. Our most recent curriculum day was focussed on staff collaboratively developing and documenting new curriculum as well as further developing skills in observing each other’s lessons and giving and receiving feedback. The teaching staff at Coburg High School are an especially dynamic, dedicated and reflective team and continually strive to improve the learning experiences and outcomes of students.

 

At Coburg High School, we seek and value student feedback and input in a variety of ways.  In term 3, we will introduce a new feedback survey tool for students to anonymously give feedback to their teachers in some of their classes. The ‘Pivot Feedback Survey’ is fairly quick (about 5 minutes) and easy to use and is based on the High Impact Teaching Strategies and is funded through the Department of Education. This is an additional opportunity for staff to seek and respond to student feedback and it will build on our recent work in teaching teams.

 

We are seeking your feedback on uniform

The uniform sub-committee is conducting a uniform survey for parents and students and this will help inform decision-making about our school uniform for next year. I encourage students and parents to take a few moments to fill out the survey as soon as possible this week. The survey takes no more than 5 minutes to complete: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CHS_uniform_survey_2

 

Looking ahead to term 3

In term 3, we look forward to welcoming back to school the students who have taken part in the Alpine School for Student Leadership this term and we look forward to holding the Student Leadership Camp that is being led by Chloe Tayler and Kate Bradbury.

 

This year over fifty students are involved in the Wakakirri dance project and will be performing the dance that they have scripted, choreographed and rehearsed over the past 4 months, on Thursday 26 July.

 

The SRC (Student Representative Council), led by Imogen Arnol (Year 12), have established ambitious plans for term 3, including the creation of their own student feedback surveys, collaboration on special projects with class captains, ongoing presence and contributions on the School Council, and involvement in forging new school traditions that can connect students across year levels. I look forward to seeing even more of their ideas come to life next term. 

 

Key dates for Year 10 into Year 11 (VCE 2019) Subject Selections

  • Thursday, 19 July (period 5): VCE Subject Expo (for all Year 10 students during period 5)
  • Thursday, 19 July: VCE Information Evening (from 6.00pm for Year 10 Parents; 5.00pm onwards there will be access to the expo area for parents as well)
  • Friday, 20 July: Year 10 into 11 Subject Selection Form will be released to students
  • Friday, 3 August: Year 11 VCE subject selection forms will be due.

Key dates for Year 9 into 10 Subject Selections

  • Tuesday 31 July: Presentation and information to Year 9 students about the Year 10 curriculum handbooks, including the electives and VCE options.
  • Tuesday 14 August: Year 9 into 10 Information Evening for parents (from 6.00pm), including information about the Year 10 electives as well as information about early access to VCE subjects for students in Year 10 in 2019.
  • Friday 17 August: Year 9 into 10 subject selections f