Principal's Report

Term 2 update

There are a couple of truths about the terms in Victorian schools - they're usually 10 weeks in length; and Term 2 is the busiest. This year we have a nine week Term 2 which means a busy term has been even busier than normal! All students have been busy across this term completing their Key Learning Tasks and our Year 10 and 11 students have busily been preparing for their exams which began last Friday. 

At Coburg High we don't believe that students can only experience either high academic achievement or high levels of wellbeing, rather we believe that resilient students can make growth in their learning if they develop the skills to become resilient when they face obstacles. To encourage students to maintain high expectations of themselves, this year we have introduced a new process for Year 7 to 10 students called 'Academic Referral Notifications'. The data shows that almost 500 additional pieces of work have been submitted following these notifications being received by students and their parents or carers. Many hundred more pieces of work have likely been submitted by students on time due to students wanting to avoid an 'ARN' in the first place. In the vast majority of cases, encouraging students to meet deadlines and submit work that they are proud of is good for academic growth and demonstrates resilience.

As well as completing tasks, students in our younger year levels have recently been involved in excursions for 'Digital Thumbprint' and presentations by John Hendry OAM. John spoke to students about the importance of both relationships and being a 'giver'. He also gave a parent presentation which was warmly received. If you haven't already, I encourage you to take a look at John's website which has many resources which can help students and their parents/carers build quality relationships with one another, with peers and with school staff:

 State Budget announcement

We were very pleased to see Coburg High School's name in the Victorian State Budget, with the government meeting its budget commitment for a $17.8m Technology building. Later this week we aim to appoint architects as Principal Design Consultants for this first stage of the CHS Masterplan (see the last newsletter for more details of the masterplan).

Road Safety (x4)

Compared to many other school's newsletters, my Principal's Report contains many more road safety items - sadly this is a reflection of the very busy roads which encircle our school and which make travelling for the almost 80% of students that make their own way to school potentially danger

1. Coburg High School supports efforts to make the Bell Street Bridge safer for all users, particularly our students who either have to use the bridge to make their way to or from school, or for those who use it to visit friends, family, for recreation, work, public transport or sport. When Merri-bek Council counted the number of pedestrians who used the bridge, they found that the highest usage across the day was weekday afternoons, on the northern side of the bridge - we likely think this is 'the 7-11 effect'. The reality is that this piece of infrastructure is not fit for pedestrians or bicyclists (the pedestrian path on the southern side is less than a metre wide). I encourage you to support the work of Safe Access over Bell Street for Everyone (SABBE) and join the over 1800 people who have signed their petition. 

2. Another key piece of infrastructure which is also not fit for purpose is Murray Road. This road is four lanes wide and has very narrow pedestrian paths, particularly around Coburg Lake. There are limited pedestrian crossing locations and there have been several near misses on this busy 60 km/h road. Former Coburg High School Council President and Chair of our Walking & Riding Council sub-committee Cate Hall has organised a public meeting in a couple of weeks' time with the details below:

3. School Captain Josh recently spoke to Merri-bek Council regarding their draft budget. We have been pushing since last year for a wombat crossing at the busy entrance to our school. 

We are hopeful that Council will complete planning for this work in the 2023-24 financial year and can allocate funds to construction shortly thereafter.

4. The CHS Walking & Riding Sub Committee has been busy highlighting the dangers faced by our vulnerable road users for a parliamentary committee inquiry. Big thanks to Jane Holroyd who wrote Coburg High's detailed submission with help from Josh, Cate and me.

Career opportunities

During the last week of the April holidays Year 12 student Laurie N attended a University of Tasmania marine biology course which had been publicised in the CHS Careers newsletter. He was chosen as one of 24 students from all over the country to stay on Maria Island off the east coast of Tasmania for four days, where they surveyed fish, infauna, zooplankton and rockpools. It was a great way for Laurie to experience first-hand a university research project, seminars and to present his findings back at the university in Hobart. "The highlight for me was seeing a draughtboard shark for the first time"

Over this week our Year 11 VCE Vocational Major students are completing Structured Workplace Learning - nine days in their chosen vocation to get a sense of what working in this field is like. From Friday of this week, our Year 10 students will be undertaking five days of Work Experience to also gain exposure to the world of employment and future career paths.

Performing Arts events

Over the last fortnight we have been treated to four outstanding events in the Space - VCE Dance Night, VCE Music Night, the Year 9/10 Music Night and the lunchtime Coburg's Got Talent. You can see there was not enough 'Space' for some of these events!

A big thanks to our amazingly talented and dedicated Performing Arts and Instrumental Music staff for nurturing the very creative Coburg community. 

Brent Houghton

Principal