24 September 2020

Newsletter Articles

Important Dates

End of Term Assembly Award Winners

Merit Certificates

From the Principal’s Desk

Term 3 is drawing to a close and the prospect of spring and some sunny days is on everyone’s radar. I hope that the final two days of the term are sunny and that our students and staff can have some well-deserved fun together. Our year 10 students will be sleeping overnight in our ESC garden. They have been practising putting up tents. A dinner of freshly made pizzas in our wood-fired oven will be great, followed by a movie at the Carousel cinemas. The team will prepare breakfast for everyone in the school on Friday morning in the rec room. Students will be creating an Aboriginal mural for the rec room as well as doing some laser tag and playing games.

Our years 8 and 9 combined assembly was well attended. The dance performance battle was fantastic as was Kayleb’s closing song. The “Cannington’s got Talent” show is on this Wednesday - I admire so much those students brave enough to get up on stage either to perform or to make announcements. They should be very proud of themselves. Well done to all the merit award winners.

The government consultation on schooling in the Maddington/Cannington areas has closed, and I hope everyone managed to do the survey online. There were several forums, including a board forum and an Aboriginal family yarning. The Minister will look at all the feedback and make her decision about our school, Sevenoaks Senior College, Yule Brook College and Cannington Community College. I will keep you updated via the website and social media once I know anything.

For many of our Pathways and year 12 students, this will be their last newsletter. Unless we have received a letter from parents, they finish the end of week 1 next term - 16th October. Our leavers’ dinner at Brando’s is on Tuesday evening, 20th October and the presentation ceremony will be held on 7th November at Curtin University. I look forward to seeing the students in their gowns and hope to catch with family members as we farewell the students and wish them all the best for their future. We look forward to hearing all about their success next year at our destination morning tea. Many ex-students follow us on social media.

Thanks to all the staff for their efforts this term. I hope everyone in our school community has a safe, relaxing break.

Andrew Wilson

Parent Survey

Thank you to all parents who completed the parent survey. The winner of the $50 Coles Myer voucher is Sema Pars.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Kayleb Dockary who won the “Sevenoaks Got Talent” competition on Wednesday, 16th September with his original song called Covid-19. He competed against twenty other musicians and came away with the first prize of $100! Kayleb wrote his song with his grandfather during lockdown - what a constructive way to spend your time!

Well done Kayleb

Class Updates

7JS

Wow, how quick has this year gone, I can’t believe three terms are almost over. Year seven students have now joined with the other middle school year groups to participate in interest-based options on Wednesday afternoons. The options have included: healthy cooking, AFL, drumbeat, digital art, drawing and painting, card making, Italian language and Minecraft and Scratch.

Friday week 6 was Mr Sands’ favourite day of the year, the Middle School Athletics Carnival which was held at the Ern Clarke Athletics Centre. Our students were terrific, participating with the mainstream students in events such as shot put, discus, long jump, high jump and races for the entire day. The 7JS classroom staff could not be prouder of the effort every student gave participating in the events, doing their best and winning a few ribbons.

We finish off the term with two days of exciting activities, with Thursday and Friday being called ‘Fun Days”.

I hope everyone enjoys the break and stays safe.

Jacob Sands

Edmund and Summer running the 100 metres

7S

Time has gone so quickly this term; it is hard to believe that soon we will be entering the last term of this year. 2020 has been a strange and unusual year with the downside of missing out on a few exciting activities like camps, excursions and market days. Still, at the same time, we have had the opportunity to experience some new things that we would have never thought of before, like distant learning, attending virtual meetings and virtual assembly.

From the start of this term, we have been participating in the Interest-based option classes run on Wednesday afternoons. These classes are run in different classrooms and include groups of students from various classes. The interest-based options include – healthy cooking, AFL, sensory group, drumbeat, digital art, drawing and painting, card making, Italian language and Minecraft and Scratch. We have chosen our favourite option and are thoroughly enjoying these sessions.

Milky fireworks-sensory activity

As part of community service for the Ignite Award, our class has been working on making a PBS (AIR) display for the garden area in front of our classroom using recyclable materials like bottle lids and discarded pieces of wooden planks. We have been working on this project for a few weeks by cautiously gluing the lids on to the letter-shaped wooden pieces making sure that they are glued in the right spot. We are grateful to Mr Arrantash, who helped in cutting the wooden planks into the desired letter shapes for us and Mrs Womersley for painting the lids after we glued them on. The garden looks beautiful with this display, and we are incredibly proud of our work.

In week 6, we had our Middle School Athletics Carnival which was held at the Ern Clarke Athletics Centre. It was a fantastic day, and we were out of the classroom the whole day participating with the mainstream students in events such as shot put, discus, long jump, high jump and races. The weather was fine, and we all had fun participating in the events, doing our best and winning a few ribbons.

After a productive and busy term, we are looking forward to the last two days of this term which are ‘Fun Days”. We are all hoping to have a good time on both these days and then enjoy our well-deserved break.

Wishing everyone a relaxed and restful holiday and hoping to see everyone return for a fresh start to the last term of the year.

Susan Solomon

8M

Well, we can’t believe how quickly this term has passed. It only seems like a couple of weeks ago that we returned to school after the last holidays. We must have worked very hard throughout the term not to have noticed the weeks slipping by so fast.

Our English/PAThS novel with an exceptionally long title, ‘In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson’ by Bette Bao Lord, (what a mouthful!) is almost drawing to a close. The novel has been presented in a very humorous way, exciting none the less, as we have learnt about the Chinese and American culture and how bringing them together can create various challenges. We are starting to understand ‘what lost in translation’ means and that not everything can be taken literally.

Resilience has been a big theme, not only throughout the novel but also as a focus throughout many things we have done this term. This especially was noted at the athletics carnival. Watching the students develop their skills during sports sessions to be able to participate to the best of their abilities on the day was heart-warming; developing attitudes from “I can’t do this!” to “Did you see that Miss? That’s the best I’ve done.”

8S Middle School Athletics Carnival

This term, we started weekly literacy and numeracy groups across the two years 8 classes. For the most part, these have been very successful. Even though the Direct Instruction literacy groups can be a little dry, we are starting to see the progress we are making. Our hard work is paying off. It has also been another opportunity to get to know many more of our peers. Numeracy groups have concentrated on money, time and measurement. We are enjoying the hands-on approach during these sessions whilst consolidating our functional maths skills.

In science, we enjoy participating in experiments. A favourite has been making flying superheroes out of balloons. We measured how far they flew to see who made the best.

By the time this goes to press, we would have performed our top-secret hip hop routine at assembly with the Green Machines (8S) taking on the Blue Bandits (8M). We will leave it up to the people present to decide who are the victors. However, in our eyes, we were all victorious, putting our best foot, not left foot, forward.

Charline Martlew

8S

It is full steam ahead now. The second half of the term felt like things were back in motion for a typical school year. Students are settled and progressing with their learning and demonstrating achievements in many areas.

One highlight of the term was the sports carnival, and all students participated in at least one event. Many participated, without any hesitation, in numerous events. It was a great day of fun, accomplishments and teamwork.

Another highlight was working with Mrs Martlew’s class and rehearsing the “Catfish” routine for the assembly. It was great to learn the performance and compete with the other year eight students in an enjoyable atmosphere. I am sure most of us will never be able to forget the moves.

A special thanks goes to Nurse Amy for her support of our health lessons on Mondays. Students were very mature about the topic and are open to learning more to keep them safe and healthy.

We are looking forward to the last term of the year.

Pat Spadanuda

Enjoying the carnival

9C

Having fun at the athletics carnival

Brendan Cunnane

9W

This term has rushed by! Since our last newsletter, we have continued working towards our individual educational goals.

In science, we have continued to learn about the solar system, with a focus on earth and the moon. We are currently in the process of making papier machè moons in art, we will paint into the various phases that we see, from new moon to old moon. These should be complete by the end of the term.

The garden has continued to flourish, and we recently started planting seedlings for the summer crop. We have tried to grow some from seed, but that hasn’t been very successful. We will purchase seedlings soon. The potatoes are looking healthy, and some of them are creeping up and starting to push through the dirt.

In Aboriginal studies, we have been listening to oral histories on the internet that have Aboriginal people telling their stories. We have made stepping stones to go into the garden, as well as rainbow serpents from salt dough. We are enjoying learning more about the Aboriginal culture and appreciate the effort that Mrs Thompson goes to for us!

In community service, we have finished crushing cans for this term, and have researched different charities. We have decided to donate the funds raised to the RSPCA as all of us love animals and appreciate the work that this charity does to keep animals safe.

We have been learning more about how local businesses work during independent living. We have investigated the different types of shops at our local shopping centre and found out about how some retail businesses are owned by even larger ones or ‘Parent Companies’.

We have continued to learn about how to keep ourselves safe. We have been watching a series of short videos on the website https://www.nsteens.org/ These videos have provided us with some great strategies to ensure that we are safe when interacting with our friends online.

At the end of week 6, we participated in the Middle School Athletics Carnival – special mention must go to Jaxon and Isaac who ran all the running events – 100m, 200m, 400m and 1500m – a huge effort – well done boys!

Year 9 boys

Last Thursday we went on our “Practise Journey for the Duke of Edinburgh Award”. This excursion was planned last year; however, the weather in December was unseasonably hot, and we had to postpone it. We finally got to go and explore the Bibbulmun Track.

We started by visiting the Kalamunda Visitors’ Centre, where we were able to see the sign-in book and the bell that gets rung once a hiker has completed the whole track! We were also able to see how many maps are available for people to take on the Bibbulmun Track if they are planning to hike the entire distance. The Visitors’ Centre also provided us with an unexpected opportunity to look at the art gallery that features local artists! We were amazed to find out how much a piece of art could cost, with the most expensive work on display, for sale for $1850!

We left the Visitors’ Centre and walked back along the road to the Northern Terminus of the Bibbulmun Track. We met Mr Arrantash there, and he talked to us about the different tracks that are available to take – the Mundabiddi Trail for mountain bikes, MundAl for four-wheel drives and Bibbulmun Track for hikers. Mr Arrantash also told us how to identify the difference between jarrah and marri trees by looking at their bark and the nuts that they produce.

At the Northern Terminus

After we finished at the Northern Terminus, we got back in the bus and drove out to Farrell Grove where we went on a bit of a scavenger hunt for supplies to make our “Bug Hotels” next term, while we ate our trail mix. Some of us got to use a long drop toilet for the first time – it made us grateful for the modern amenities that we have access to most of the time! We cooked our noodles on the gas burners and ate them while we socialised with each other. We had a kick of the footy and then packed up the trailer ready for our next stop – Mundaring Weir.

Mundaring Weir looked beautiful. Most of us walked out to the pump house and heard about the history of the Kalgoorlie pipeline from Mr Arrantash. Some of us were a bit hesitant to walk over the dam wall and stayed back and watched from a distance.

We all had a good time and made Mrs Whelan very proud – our behaviour was excellent, and everyone made great choices all day. A special thanks goes to Mr Arrantash for coming and driving the bus for us, as well as providing extra local knowledge to a great day!

The Class of 9W

Crossing the dam wall and learning about the pump house

10H Recreational Pursuits

The year 10 students have enjoyed the Recreation Pursuits Program this term. We have now moved our orienteering activities to Shelley foreshore, where we have been exploring and walking different pathways along the river. This week we took part in a ‘Scavenger Hunt’ where we had to find items from a given list. The most unusual object that the students found was a brightly coloured orange mushroom.

Recreational Pursuits aligns with our current DFES module and is helping the students prepare and develop their outdoor skills. These skills will be demonstrated at the year 10 over-night camp, which is being held in the school garden area next Thursday evening.

Judi Janes

Enjoying Shelly foreshore and the scavenger hunt

10H DFES

The students are taking part in many activities that are preparing them for their over-night DFES camp next Thursday. They will be cooking their dinner and then making breakfast for the entire middle school on Friday morning. They will also take part in different survival skills activities.

Developing outdoor skills

Judi Janes

10LT

Throughout term 3, most of the students in 10LT have participated and completed a Good Sammy Enterprises Ready 4 Work Ready 4 Life Hospitality Industry Course. On Tuesday 15th September Dani Congdon from Good Sammy visited to present the students with their certificates for the completion of the hospitality course.

Students have also taken part in the year 10 community service program. They collected towels, dishwashing liquid, paper towels, laundry powder, sheets and pillowcases for Darling Range Wildlife Shelter (DRWS). Trudy and Michelle, who volunteer at DRWS visited recently, and they shared their experiences of volunteer work, collected the donations and answered students’ questions.

Students have also been busy learning about occupational health and safety at school, at home and in the workplace. These are some things we have learnt about occupational health and safety:

Jenny Lockyer and Carissa Thomas

Meeting Dani and Trudy

Group 1

Hello from Group 1! We are amazed that this term is almost over, how time flies. Each student has shown resilience, persistence and dedication to complete all set work this term. The staff are very proud of all of our students. As things have returned to ‘COVID normal’, we have started going off-site to Pot Black and Zone Bowling for individual games in health and physical education. We also attended a Department of Fire and Emergency Services camp, and some students had the opportunity to participate in the day camp. We engaged in our very first class Webinar about cyber safety. It has been an action-packed term!

We have been learning about many things this term:

• English: Creating posters to promote emotional wellbeing and researching mindfulness, positive thinking and cognitive behavioural therapy
• Maths: Measurement and budgeting
• Health: Learning about and categorising different types of drugs and alcohol. Identifying the long and short term side effects of drug and alcohol use
• ASDAN: Researching and comparing the Act, Belong, Commit and 5 Ways to Wellbeing health campaigns
• Keys for Life: Speed and stopping distances, the complexity of driving, effective communication
• Life Coaching: Creating goal rockets for our semester 2 ITP goals
• DFES Cadets: learning about severe storms and how to prepare for them
• The students are very much looking forward to a well-deserved break so they can come back fresh in term 4 and achieve their goals!

Group 1 Class

Group 2

Students were motivated during the second half of term 3 as some are nearing the end of their schooling year.

During English, the students have been planning, recording and editing their emotional wellbeing video. The students are discussing a range of activities they could do during outdoors, community participation and volunteering opportunities.

Pros and cons of teenagers living in different areas

The students have also completed their last round of OLNA testing.

In Math, the students conducted surveys of their peers on their preferred form of transportation to school and home. They have been analysing the data and creating a simple graph of their choosing to generate the information.

In DFES, the students have been researching how fires occur. They are currently working on designing their fire escape plan for their home. It has been pleasing to see students thinking about the layout of their home and thinking about their exit points.

Mustafa Hussein

DFES Camp 2020

The senior school students took part in the annual overnight camp in Mundaring (Perth Hills Discovery Centre). They had a fantastic opportunity to showcase the skills they have acquired throughout the years.

The students did a fantastic job working as a team and setting up their tents.

Blindfold trail - a crowd favourite! The students worked in pairs safely leading their partner through the trails with zero injuries which was great. It was good to witness students showing resiliency by giving it a go and getting out of their comfort zone.

The students were in charge of their breakfast, making pancakes using portable stove burners.

Finally, the students worked in groups starting up their campfire, which they enjoyed!

Mustafa Hussein

Practising first aid for camp

Group 3

We have had a busy term. All students have completed their ITPs. Each session is vital as it allows all stakeholders to re-focus on essential milestones in each young person’s life.

The students who attended DFES camp enjoyed themselves. The weather was kind, and they had a great camping experience. The day campers assisted with setting up tents, participated in an animal experience and a blindfolded activity. It was interesting to see how the students handled these tasks.

We have an excursion planned to visit the North Metropolitan TAFE in week 10. They are holding a morning open opportunity to explore post-school options for students from an educational support setting.

During English classes, we have learnt about the power of positive thinking, mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy. Students experimented with techniques such as meditation, visualisation and positive self-talk and discovered these techniques could calm us when we are stressed. It was also useful during HPE classes to visualise getting that strike and believing we will sink the black ball.

The power of positive thinking

Later this year, some students will be sitting their driving theory test at the licencing centre. They have all been practising the tests online and working hard. I know the students who haven’t passed yet won’t get too frustrated and will continue practising and will eventually pass their test.

Joseph is about to begin a goal from his ITP. He decided, with his family, that he was ready to start travel training. He needs to follow instructions and accepted feedback from Mrs Pieri and Mrs Bullock when travel training. Hopefully, Joseph will gain confidence and complete the travel training requirements to become an independent traveller.

The end of the school year is fast approaching. We have dinner, a presentation ceremony and many other commitments to keep us busy next term. Students have an opportunity to leave after week 1 or stay part-time or stay full time until week 10 in term 4. I hope all families have a great holiday and see you all next term.

Dwayne Griffin

Pathways

During the year, the Pathways students have been studying BME (Enterprise). They have learnt lots of skills such as teamwork, organisation, budgeting and costs as well as researching different products to make. They have named their enterprise “Pathways 13”. They all designed a logo and then voted on the best one to use. During the past few weeks “Pathways 13” has been looking for different recipes for the products they have chosen to make. This week they started making “stress balls” and “Theraputy”. The enterprise is looking forward to selling its products next term on Market Day.

Cindi Griffin

Pathways 13 at work

Design and Technology

Year 7 Woodwork

Year 7 students have completed their third term of woodwork and have become used to the workshop noise and wearing items of personal protective equipment when needed. Mr Sands’ class is about to complete a wooden coffee cup holder. Mrs Solomon’s class has just finished speed boats and is working on a challenging game that requires the operator to guide lead balls into a series of holes by manipulating the game with arm movements.

Year 9 Enterprise

The year 9 Enterprise Cando collecting team would like to remind everyone about the collection and recycling of aluminium cans (every aluminium beverage can sold in WA is suitable, including those that previously contained a percentage of alcohol). The students request all parents and students to look after the environment and support their recycling enterprise by donating cans by placing them in the green bag in the garden area at school.

Cando logo prepared by Reece

Year 10 Woodwork

Year 10 woodwork students have completed their wooden toolbox and are working on their major project for the year, which is a footstool. We have been able to source some affordable vinyl from a factory closing down sale which will make this year’s stools look very fancy when they are completed.

Tradestart

Tradestart students are busy making a model house they have designed themselves. Each student has created a detailed set of plans that include overlays of plumbing, electrical, appliances and furniture. They have taken their plans into the workshop and transferred them onto timber. The next step was to use a handheld router to create scale footing trenches. Students have used a multitool and a range of other power tools to cut out wall panels, windows and doors to scale. Once all the walls are up, students will create a scale roof made out of timber to fit on their model house.

Cameron using the multitool

Year 10 DFES Cadets

Year 10 Department of Fire and Emergency Services Cadets are working through a module called “Living in the Field”. Students have been learning about first aid in the field. The content is focused on dealing with burns, exposure to the elements, and critters that bite and sting in our Western Australian environment. Students are lucky this year because they are being offered a practice camp in tents in the school garden during the last week of term. Please encourage your year 10 student to participate in this event as it will be an excellent opportunity to practice for the DFES senior camp next year.

A tent used by DFES cadets

Interest-based activities - Jewellery

Students are due to complete their cuttlefish casting necklace. It is a race against time to get the polishing finished and fit the jump rings and chains before the end of the term. Students have enjoyed working through the process from mould making through to completing the finished piece.

Mark Arrantash

Workplace Learning

Term 3 can sometimes be a pretty tough term with people catching dreaded winter colds and having to take time off. This year we had the extra stress of COVID 19 with which to contend. We have been pleasantly surprised by the number of students who have regularly attended their workplace.

Just a quick reminder if a student is unable to attend the workplace it is crucial to let the school (or one of the WPL coordinators) and the employer know as soon as possible. All contact details can be found on the paperwork that is sent home before the placement begins.

We would like to congratulate Katie Usher. She has worked hard to impress her employer, who has offered to support her through a Certificate II Salon Assistant. Well done, Katie.

Kayleb has become independent in the workplace. Kayleb is travelling independently to his workplace, which is a long way from school.

Congratulations to Allana Downing for working hard and being so reliable that her employer, GSI, has offered her a paid position. Allana has started working one day a week, and this will be increased when school has finished.

We had a very successful Post School Options Information afternoon with many agencies providing valuable information. We hope the families who attended found this event helpful.

It has been a pleasure to meet and get to know the year 10 cohort. We are impressed with the students’ knowledge of what workplace learning is all about and look forward to welcoming them to the senior campus during their transition.

It is a bittersweet time of the year for us as we prepare for our leaving students to make their final farewell to school and begin their journey into the wider community. One day you will look back and think “Those were the best days of my life”. May all your hopes and dreams come true.

We look forward to hearing about your achievements in the future.

Carollyn Pears and Vera Edwards

Post School Options evening

R U OK?

2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, and circumstances have made it even more important for us all to stay connected and, for those who are able, be willing to support those around us.

You don’t have to be an expert to keep the conversation going when someone says they’re not OK. By knowing what to say, you can help someone feel supported and access appropriate help long before they’re in crisis, which can make a really positive difference to their life.

This year, Thursday 10th September marked the annual R U OK? Day. To raise awareness of this important day and the associated messages, the senior school guild members planned, organised and ran a healthy morning tea for the senior students and staff. The guild members also gave out R U OK? information including wallet cards with helplines listed for easy reference. Activities also included music, conversation cards, table tennis and a raffle.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and I wish to thank the guild members for their efforts.

Learn what to say after R U OK? Download FREE resources for tips and ideas to help you share the message in your community. Go to the link below.

Katherine Athanasiou,
Senior School Student Services

Information from the Community Health Nurse

The vibrant yellow daffodil represents hope and a continuing fight against cancer. Cannington Community Education Support Centre and Cannington Community College supported Daffodil Day on Friday 28th August with students, families and staff fundraising for the Cancer Council. This fundraising effort had a great result, raising the sum of $250.00. Students helped contribute to a fantastic paper daffodil display for the day! A very big thank you to everyone for supporting Daffodil Day 2020!

Amy Myles

Star Tech

The frequent need to recharge smartphone batteries is a common frustration with an otherwise handy device. There are several reasons why a battery will drain faster than expected. Common ones include:

• Mobile roaming/data connection is left on.
• Location services are left on.
• Apps left running in the background, especially ones that are not regularly needed.
• The smartphone is exposed to temperatures outside the normal operating range.
• Operating system updates are not installed. Updates sometimes contain fixes which improve power efficiency.
• Screen brightness is on the highest setting.
• Animated full-colour backgrounds and widgets are left on.

If you would like further information on battery life improvement, please have a look at articles from these smartphone producing companies:

Stay safe, and I’ll catch up with you again in the next newsletter.

Pete Bazen

Office Information

Payments

Thank you to everyone who has paid their contributions. Just a reminder you can pay your contributions by EFTPOS, direct debit or by a payment plan. Please contact the office to arrange a payment plan. All contributions for years 11 and 12 students are compulsory. Our bank details are BSB 016 270 A/C 340822406 (when using online banking, please remember to state your student's name in the details box; otherwise we cannot identify the relevant student).

Middle School Parking

Please note that parking is not permitted in the driveway at the school’s entrance as indicated by the ‘no stopping’ markers and yellow line, as this causes a traffic jam on Wharf Street and is dangerous for students. Your cooperation would be appreciated. Parents are welcome to park down the side of the school near the bus bays.

Visiting the School

All visitors must sign in at Reception/Business Centre and receive a yellow visitor label.

Tanya Buchan

Our Recreation Room

Middle School Athletics Carnival