Principal's Message

Dear parents, caregivers and community members

Welcome to our first newsletter of the term. We are already in Week 4 - can you believe it? There has been so much happening, but it's all starting to heat up now with many more events to come. It's vital you keep your eye on the Term 4 calendar to ensure you know what's happening and when.

What a wonderful 25th Anniversary celebration we had recently. We had so many people attend the ceremony and brave the hot weather. Thank you to those who came along to support this event and celebrate 25 wonderful years of CVPS.

We have also renamed the 'Fitzroy Garden' outside of the Vasse Block, 'Phillippa's Garden' to honour Mrs Berkhout as the longest serving principal of Canning Vale PS. The garden has had a sign installed to commemorate the occasion. Additionally, we have had a bench installed and two beautiful flowering plum trees planted outside M3 in remembrance of Mr Bingham who passed away a couple of years ago. Mr Bingham was a foundation staff member and loved by many. The bench and tress look wonderful in that area and will be a place for people to sit, talk and always remember Mr Bingham.

I was very excited to announce the reopening of the school canteen. Have you seen the new menu? We have some wonderful, freshly cooked food available from the new Canteen management and I'd strongly encourage you to support them by ordering recess and lunch from Lay and her team. The canteen continues to operate on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday each week.

Finally, I'd like to congratulate Ms Stacey Fraser on winning the substantive Visual Arts teacher position at Canning Vale PS. As you'd be aware, Mrs Appleby retired mid-year and Ms Fraser and Mrs Moore have been job sharing and doing a wonderful job running our Visual Arts program ever since. The position was advertised and with a very competitive pool of applicants, Ms Fraser won the position which officially begins in 2020. Congratulations, Ms Fraser and welcome to the CVPS community.

I trust you will all have a wonderful week and I'll see you around the school yard.

Daniel Bergin, PRINCIPAL

Chaplain's Chat

A thought: "Society has gotten to the point where everybody has a Right, but nobody has a Responsibility". Anonymous

With greater emphasis being placed on personal rights in our community, perhaps it’s timely to remind ourselves why the concept of responsibility continues to be a relevant and important part of who we are at Canning Vale Primary School. If resilient children have the ability to respond to situations with independence, problem-solving skills, make strong social connections and have an optimistic “can do” outlook, then it’s fair to say they also have a healthy sense of responsibility. If we as a school community aim to raise resilient children, then perhaps we first need to show them the importance of being responsible.

Responsibility is being accountable for what you do, for your actions and behaviour. It’s also doing the right thing, at the right time so others can trust and depend on you. Why is being responsible so important?

Imagine a picture of a three-legged stool. This is the Responsibility Stool and everyone has one. Let’s now imagine this particular stool belongs to a child. On the seat of this stool are listed the things considered covers what is expected for the responsibility of the child such as self-worth, self-esteem, identity; education (academically, emotionally, socially) and growing to be a functioning adult. Not only are we responsible for aspects of our lives but others can also share that responsibility. Therefore, now imagine each leg of the child’s Responsibility Stool is labelled with those main people in their life responsible for the child:

• Home: Mum, Dad etc
• Child
• School: Teacher, principal, deputies, EA’s, Chaplain etc

EACH leg has a part responsibility toward the whole child’s emotional growth and coping ability. What would happen to the stool if any one of the legs were not doing their part and the child tried to sit on the stool? The answer is obvious. The stool can’t function properly, therefore, the child also can’t function to their full potential which creates and exacerbates anxiety and fear for the child and possible perfectionism and a sense of failure as well.

So now that it’s clear the stool will not be able to function properly and is liable to collapse, it’s time to look at each leg in turn and determine whether they’re demonstrating adequately their portion of responsibility written on the stool seat. This has nothing to do with whether the child “likes” or “dislikes” the person / people but whether they are upholding their part of the child’s overall well-being. By the time you reach the child’s leg it has become undeniably apparent where the lack of responsibility lies.

Tina Lowther, CHAPLAIN

Canning Vale Campus P&C News

WOW – We are in November Already – What an amazing year we have had so far! Please note that Friday 8th of November is CRAZY HAIR DISCO TIME – Tickets are $8 and will go on sale every morning as of Monday Morning 4th of November from 8:15am-8:45am in the canteen area.

There have been lots happening in the P&C over the past few months. Here's just a snippet:

• The P&C have their own FACEBOOK Page – Canning Vale Primary School P&C. Please follow along and invite friends and family of the community to keep up to date with future Fundraising.
• On the last Day of Term 3 the P&C had a fundraising Event – "Wear your favourite Sports Team Merchandise/ Colours". It was great to see all the kids and Teachers having a great time and getting involved in the Fundraising event. We were able to raise $500.00.
• The P&C held a cake stall at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of CVPS on Sunday 27th of October. It was fantastic to see a few hundred people walking around the school to mark this occasion. We would like to thank Teachers and parents that donated yummy treats to our stall. Also, a huge thank you to the Volunteers and a few students that helped to sell all items on the day. We were able to sell most of the left-over items (frozen food, drinks, ice creams) since the closure of the canteen. A MASSIVE THANK YOU to all for your generous donations as we were able to raise $829.25
• Volunteers Needed – Our 2 amazing School Banking Volunteers Kylie and Ping are retiring from their duties as of the end of this year. We are looking for 2 volunteers that can take their place and will be trained by Kylie. School Banking is on a Friday but can be changed to suit new volunteers. Please email Kristy P&C President on president@cvpspc.com if you can volunteer.
• Our Next Meeting (Final meeting for the year) will be in Week 8 - Tuesday 4th December 6:30pm in the School Staff Room

Cristiane Vanderwal, P&C VICE PRESIDENT

Award Winners

Scitech Challenge Excursion

On Monday 21st October, a small group of four students attended the Scitech Challenge. It was a delight to accompany Remy, Annu, Jayden and Eva on the excursion. They were joined by a number of other schools. The set up for the day and the approach was very different to what I have experienced in previous years. The topics were based on Production and Circular Economies. The Canning Vale Primary Team had to participate with other schools to work on a Design Process where they learned how to Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Every section was strictly timed. Our students worked collaboratively as a team and followed all instructions with no problem in completing the tasks. They did a fantastic job. See the attached photos. We did not win a prize as such, but our team enjoyed the experience and how the day was spent. I got them back to school safe. Thanks to the parents concerned for getting their students on time for that special session.