Cosgrove High - Newsletter 7

Principal Report

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Term 3 has delivered several exciting challenges for our community which we have successfully navigated to be well prepared for the beginning of Term 4. Adapting to the many changes and implications of our redevelopment has been a strong focus for the school this term and I commend all members of our school community the way this has been done. Term 4 will see us operate in a slightly different context with access to the school changed for students, staff and community members. We will be launching our new branding next term and marketing material that will align with the new feel for the school and start of a new chapter on the redevelopment journey. More information on our redevelopment is contained within this newsletter.

As highlighted through our social media pages, we have experienced great sporting success in a number of areas this term in netball and football. Many opportunities have been provided outside of the classroom to extend the learning of our students through events such as Tournament of Minds, chess tournaments, class excursions, work experience and work exposure opportunities as well as more recently our rewards based excursions for students across the school who have shown exceptional behaviour and achievement this term.

This week we welcomed to the school well over 100 parents to our Term 3 Learning Conversations with teachers as we discussed student progress and ways to support our students to continue to grow both socially and academically during Term 4.

Term 4 represents an exciting time for students as we begin to undertake transition processes ahead of 2024. Our Year 10 students have many opportunities to celebrate and acknowledge their four years of high school as they head towards the end of year Presentation Day assembly and the Year 10 Celebration Evening. We will welcome our new Grade 7 cohort into the school for a Taster Day whilst our Year 9 students will get to experience college life by attending Claremont College for their own Taster Day. Year 10 into 11 enrolment and transition processes will continue to be a key part of student’s activity in Term 4 and our Year 9 students start to consider student leadership positions for the upcoming year. Exciting times indeed.

We continue to work hard on our improvement journey implementing a number of strategies and processes across the school to support our student’s wellbeing. We have seen us record our lowest suspensions at Cosgrove in the last 5 Terms since Term 2 2022 which is a significant achievement and allows us to focus more strongly on teaching and learning.

Through our work on the Student Engagement project across the Derwent Collective we have seen a significant improvement in our Grade 8 and Grade 10 students’ engagement with school and an improvement in our school attendance since the beginning of Term 1. This is in part due to the quality of teacher and student relationships as well as the number of support, intervention and work exposure opportunities we are providing for students. We continue to work in partnership with our Grade 7 and 9 students to ensure we are meeting student needs through a variety of strategic initiatives.

I hope that all staff and students enjoy a well-deserved holiday and I look forward to seeing everyone back and refreshed and ready for Term 4.

Anthony Coe
Principal

Redevolpment Update

We are excited to share with you the progress and updates on the Cosgrove High School $20 million revitalisation project. Throughout Term 3 there have been significant work undertaken to continually prepare for the major works set to begin in 2024. As previously communicated, the project will provide a high-quality mix of new facilities for our Years 7 to 12 students. With education and wellbeing being a key focus, new spaces such as outdoor learning areas, performing arts space, hospitality training wing and cultural centre are among the exciting new elements that will be delivered. These works will see us in a better position to support contemporary teaching and learning for our current learners, as well as future generations of Cosgrove students.

Demolition of some of the existing infrastructure is required in readiness for construction works to begin on the site in early 2024. The demolition is scheduled to occur in Term 4 this year and be completed before the start of school next year.

We have successfully adapted to the various needs of the school to ensure we retain all of our functions moving forward as we relocated out of existing buildings ahead of the demolition. This has been significant work and we are proud of our students who have managed disruptions and change extremely well during this time.

Phase 1 - Fibre Backbone Cabling Works & School Administration Works has been completed and as such there are changes to some of the ways Parents/Carers and the community will now access the school and some of the location of key aspects of the school have changed temporarily.

Phase 2 - Early Demolition (16 October – 22 December 2023)
The administration, leadership and reception area have been moved to the side wing of the building, which is the area facing the front car park parallel to Main Road. The entrance to this wing can be accessed via the pedestrian path. The administration will be located here until the revitalisation is completed. New signage will be installed to assist with direction towards the new admin area.

All parents, community members and students needing to sign in and out will now access this new administration area.

Parents/Carers will use the usual vehicle access and the pick-up/drop-off area will be retained. This means that vehicles can enter via Gate 1 and exit via Gate 2. Gate 1 will be a shared entry site with building contractors for the demolition.

The contractors’ vehicle access and site compound will be located to the area in front of the current administration building where the construction zone will be located. Throughout this time, the contractor will be focused on minimising disruption for our school community and nearby businesses and residents. 

Phase 3-Main Construction Works (January 2024 – July 2025)
With great excitement and anticipation the main construction works will be undertaken in the area of the demolition to build the new facilities throughout 2024. There will be disruption to the school during this time and again we will communicate the implications and the way the school will function during this time as we prepare for an exciting new look and feel and stage of the Cosgrove High School journey.

For more information on the master plan and general project details, I encourage you to visit www.decyp.tas.gov.au/project/cosgrove-high-school/

I want to thank you all in advance for your understanding and support during this time of transition at Cosgrove and I will continue to provide you with updates as the project progresses.

Year 7

Tournament of Minds Team

Congratulations to our Tournament of Minds team who competed on Saturday 9 September 2023.
Weeks of planning and preparation went into the 10 minute presentation; including the successful launch and flight of Bird 2.0.Judges in the spontaneous section congratulated the students on their enthusiasm, humour and great teamwork.

Well done!

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Chess Tournament

Congratulations to our Chess Team who came third at the Interschools Tournament at St Virgil’s on Wednesday 20 September 2023.

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Maths Relay

Well done to these enthusiastic Year 7 students who competed in the Maths Association of Tasmania Maths Relay at Rosny College on Sunday morning. They had an exciting and stressful 45 minutes to complete 20 questions. Top marks for their fast running, great teamwork and creativity.

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Assembly Certificate Term 3

Congratulations to all our Certificate recipients.

PREFECTS ACCOLADE JUNIOR: Sher
PREFECTS ACCOLADE SENIOR: Tristan

Beacon Foundation Polish Day

Students in Years Nine and Ten were able to participate in the Beacon Foundation Polish day.

The day was based around careers in the areas of hospitality and tourism. Students participated in workshops throughout the day looking at the various roles, skills and opportunities within these industries.

Students really enjoyed the opportunity to connect with career mentors from different companies. Thank you to Nancy from Li-ve, Paul from the Great Lakes hotel, Anna from the Federal Group and both Renee and Amanda from Mystate Bank Arena - your advice, guidance and expertise was much appreciated.
Thank you to the Beacon Foundation staff for providing such an informative day!

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Year 8

Foods

Grade 8 foods class have been busy planning their Japanese recipes to enter in the Tasmanian Hospitality Association Term 3 cooking competition. The students have learnt about different Japanese ingredients and then discussed how we could use some of our favourite foods and create a Japanese inspired recipe. Students worked hard to develop their recipes and did a brilliant job cooking and presenting them in our 60-minute lesson.

Some of the dishes entered miso glazed salmon with a soba noodle salad, karage chicken, Japanese fried rice, fluffy cloud pancakes, salmon sushi bowl, yakitori chicken and crispy panko crumbed chicken with rice and salad.

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 Term 3

Grade 8 have consolidated their good efforts from Term 2 with continued focus on positive learning in class. English classes have used their literary study of Boy Overboard as a prompt for their poetry; Maths has been all about Probability and Statistics; In Science they have been researching how microscopes can be used to look at different cell types; and the Vikings have raided the classroom during History.

                Students have continued to learn a variety of new skills through the engagement programs: learning how to make barista style coffee; how you can use 4 basic ingredients in the kitchen to make a plethora of baked goods; the benefits of art for helping with regulation and expressing creativity.

              To finish the term we had students from the art groups head to the museum, participate in dojo reward excursions, and finally a large group headed to the movies as reward for their excellent behaviour this year.

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Year 9

Learning in Year Nine

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Year Nine have had a term full of learning and opportunities. Students have studied the text Romeo and Juliet in English, looking at the characters and plot. The focus has been on whether or not the play is more about love or hate. Students practised using quotations form the play to help support their analysis of the themes. Their knowledge of the play, themes and their interpretations helped them to create a concept poster which demonstrated understanding. Students have enjoyed studying the text, particularly relating to the problems the characters faced which are still relevant today.

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Statistics and data have been the focus for students within Maths. Being able to read a range of statistics, data and interpreting what these show us about different trends is a life long skill which students have been practising this term.

The Black Wars is a significant period of Tasmanian history which students have focused on this term within History. We recapped the motivations of people coming to Australia, the effects that colonisation had on the landscapes, groups of people and the way of life. Students were able to use their chronological order skills to timeline the events, we analysed a range of primary and secondary sources and also were able to use their judgement to say how reliable a source was. A key focus of the term was looking at significant people and how they were impacted by the Black Line and the resistance from First Nations people.

In our daily wellbeing lessons, we have had the focus on resilience; how to become more resilient to the challenges we face each day. We demonstrated great resilience this term as we moved into our new learning areas, students stayed focused on their learning during this time and have shown great respect for their new learning environments.

As well as learning within the classroom, Year Nine students have been able to participate in TAFE Drysdale courses, a reward excursion to Bounce, Netball rosters and basketball games. These have been building students’ confidence and also encouraging them to work outside their comfort zones, build connections with peers and learn skills which they can use outside of school.

A busy, successful term – well done Year Nine students! 

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