Principal's Report

Start of 2023

We've enjoyed a great start to 2023, with students settling into their classes and extra-curricular activities ramping up around the school. We're a big school now - in excess of 1250 students - and we know that for our Year 7s, it can be big jump from a much smaller primary school environment. The Year 7 team and teachers have done a wonderful job in supporting students with this transaition and in turn our Year 7s have made a positive start. As a growing school our staff continues to grow as well, and we are very fortunate to have picked up an excellent bunch of teachers and education support colleagues for 2023 as well:

Welcome to Country & Smoking Ceremony

On Wednesday 1st February we enjoyed a Welcome to Country at the school led by Wurundjeri man Thane Garvey. This was held at lunchtime so any students that wanted to participate could - with several hundred students taking the opportunity to take in the cleansing properties of the eucalyptus to ward off bad spirits. 

Swimming Sports

We were fortunate to have beautiful weather for our annual House Swimming Carnival held at Coburg Outdoor Pool last Tuesday 14 February. There was something for everyone with competitive swimming, as well as novelties, dancing and music, bombing competitions, sausages and veggie burgers! We had a very high attendance rate, with more than 4 out of every 5 students in attendance and in some Year 7 classes there was 100% attendance. I want to thank students and their families for supporting days such as these, which provide the opportunity for students to succeed outside of the classroom and to make healthy connections with peers, their house, school and staff. A big thanks to our staff, in particular our PE team, for their work to bring this big day together. Please see a later report re Swimming Sports as well.

Meet the Teacher evening 

Last Wednesday 15 February we welcomed parents and students to our traditional welcome to our school to get to know our school. This was a great opportunity for families to get to put some faces to names and make connections to ensure we are all working to support the learning and wellbeing of our new students.

Merri-bek North Education Plan

Last year it was announced that Coburg High would be part of the Merri-bek North Education Plan. I have had two meetings now as part of the Merri-bek North Education Plan Strategic Advisory Committee, the most recent of which was on Tuesday 14 February at John Fawkner Secondary College. 

We are in the consultation stage of developing the Education Plan. On Wednesday 15 February, Bec Gray and I ran focus groups with students and staff. Consultation with families and the wider community will happen later this term and early next term. The emphasis at this stage was not about trying to define priorities for the Education Plan, but more seeking information what people liked and saw were areas for improvement for our school. 

STEM Centre of Excellence

One tangible outcome of being part of the Merri-bek North Education Plan is that we have been able to join the other three schools as a partner school in the STEM Centre of Excellence. A group of CHS staff - Belinda Parini (AP for Curriculum, Teaching and Learning), Peta Johnstone (Curriculum Leading Teacher), Selina Dennis (Digital Technologies Leader), Anna Vella (Science Leader), Belinda Pringle (Visual Arts Leader) and I recently visited the STEM Centre of Excellence to see what opportunities there will be for our students. All admission, programs and transport is free for our school. Staff have come together to determine different year level groups to attend and have begun to book excursions for this year, with some students in all year levels likely to attend across the year.

Turkiye and Syria - encourage your support

Please see a later report about our contribution to supporting the peoples of Turkiye and Syria as both staff and students. We encourage you to make a contribution at this tragic time. 

School Council corner

A big thanks to our outgoing parent members Seb, Kulja, Cate and Fiona, student rep Zoe and staff rep Selina for your contribution over this past one, two or many years! Your insights, advocacy and support have been very much appreciated. I reflected at last night's Council meeting how far we had been able to come over the last twelve months, being able to achieve a new Masterplan for the school (which Council has been intimately involved in) leading to the election commitment for a new $17.8m Technology Centre for our school. Much of the credit for this work goes to our outgoing School Council President, Cate Hall, who has been alongside me in all of the visits from politicians over recent times. Councillors thanked Cate for her tireless commitment to the school and its facilities.

The new Council will meet for the first time in March. A Compass newsfeed will come out shortly with the declaration of the poll, as in the end there were the right number of candidates for the number of vacancies. I look forward to introducing the new Council to you in next month's newsletter.

Brent Houghton

Principal