Cousteau name graces LV French school

Last month, the The French International School of Vancouver (located in Lynn Valley’s former Fromme Elementary building) honoured the legacy of visionary Jacques-Yves Cousteau — the most celebrated French defender of marine ecology— by renaming itself The French International School Cousteau. The school has pledged to make environmental awareness a significant part of its ethos and curriculum.

The French International School Cousteau became the first French International School in the world to be granted official permission by the Cousteau Society to bear its name. An annex school, named Calypso in memory of Cousteau’s infamous ship, will also open its door in September 2013. Located in the South Granville area, this annex will offer a preschool program.

The French International School Cousteau has pledged to honor Cousteau’s passion for, and committment to, marine ecology through a partnership with the world-renowned Cousteau Society and Vancouver Aquarium, that will make marine ecology a major part of the school’s day-to-day curriculum. The French International School Cousteau will teach students the Cousteau philosophy— “To Know, To Love, To Protect.”

The Science and Environment Director of the Cousteau Society,  Tarik Chekchak, was on hand as an honoured guest at the March 14 inauguration at the Lynn Valley School. For more information about the rededication of the school, read their press release. To learn more about the school, visit its website here, or attend the school’s Open House on Tuesday, April 9, from 10 a.m. to noon.

LynnValleyLife would like to congratulate the French International School Cousteau on its rechristening. We’re glad to have you in the neighbourhood!

School registration deadline approaches

It’s time to think about September school entry, Moms and Dads! The North Vancouver School District Registration deadlines are here

You have until March 8 to ensure your child has priority for placement in their school of choice for September 2013. Look sharp – not long til the school bell rings!

(P.S. The bell shown was rung five times daily for 43 years at Lynn Valley Elementary. It’s now in the school lobby, along with an account of its interesting history!)

Register schoolkids before Dec. 21!

Here’s an important tip for parents of kids entering school in September 2013 – be sure to do it before Dec. 21st!

As long as a child is registered for a school before this date, he or she cannot be denied a placement in the school. However, if a child registers AFTER Dec 21 (even if they move into a house across the street from the school), the North Vancouver School District can redirect them to another school that has more open spaces.

Here are some other quick facts for new scholars:

A parent/guardian can register their child for kindergarten if, on or before
December 31st of that school year that child will have reached the age of five years. For example, for the 2013-2014 school year, the student must turn five prior to December 31, 2013.

Here’s where to register:

Central Registration Office
2121 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver
604-903-3368
Hours of operation:
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (Mon to Fri)

When to register:

Nov. 5 to Dec. 21, 2012

What to bring:

* Completed registration form (available at www.nvsd44.bc.ca)
* Proof of age and legal name (birth certificate or passport)
* Proof of residence (BC Hydro bill, purchase agreement, or tenancy
agreement)
* If not born in Canada – Passport and Permanent Residence card or Canadian
Citizenship card

Please bring original documents. Staff at the Central Registration office
will make copies. All registration forms and related documents must be submitted in person to the Central Registration office.

Thanks, Cindy Lanctot, for all the info! For more school news and links to our Lynn Valley neighbourhood school websites, have a look at our Schools page.

 

CBC Almanac broadcasts live from Argyle

Listen up, Lynn Valley! CBC Radio will be broadcasting live from Argyle tomorrow (Wednesday) from noon to 1 p.m. Tune in to AM 690 to hear the Almanac show’s forum on the topic “What don’t adults get about bullying?” Gloria Macarenko from CBC TV will also be there so you’ll potentially see excerpts later on the 6pm news.

People have plenty of questions about the tragic incidents of bullying that hit the headlines. Chief among them is usually “How could anyone be so cruel?” Perhaps this local forum will help adults understand the psychology of bullying from a teen’s perspective.

FM listeners can turn to 88.1 on their dial. For full details, visit CBC Almanac.

Argyle Piper football victory recounted

Three hundred fans came out on Saturday afternoon to support the Argyle Pipers Senior Football team at their first home game in 31 years. All this Piper pride paid off as the boys in green racked up their first victory in the season, with a score of 36-0 against Eric Hamber Secondary of Vancouver.Here is a post-game wrap-up from co-coach Dave Heskin. Thanks to parent Doug Yip for the photos!

Personally my favourite part of the game was meeting Dave Backie, Argyle’s coach from 1981, who was so happy to be a part of our event. [Ed. note: The Backies are long-time Hoskins Road residents.]

It was also really exciting to see our Grade 12 running back [Stuart Bourne] score our first points of the season in the AA football ranks.

The success of this event was a testament to the hard work by our parent volunteers, staff supporters (teachers and administrators), coaches and especially the players, who really deserved this win.  We have been challenging them to get better as players and as a team each week, and the hard work paid off.

The timing is great as the team now heads into the final third of the season, with two big games against cross-town rivals Windsor and Carson Graham (on the next two consecutive Fridays at their fields). Then they round out the season vs. the #1 provincially ranked John Barsby of Nanaimo on their home field.

Thanks again, Lynn Valley, for all your support!

– Coach Dave Heskin

Argyle Pipers football team re-christens home field

Update, October 13, 2012: Congratulations, Pipers! News just in that this game ended in a  victory for the Pipers, with a score of 36-0 over Eric Hamber. 

For the first time in 31 years, Lynn Valley football fans will have the chance to watch a home game on the Argyle School field, at a 1:30 p.m. kick-off against Eric Hamber School.

The Argyle Pipers football teams – dormant since the early 1980s – made a long sought-after comeback last year, thanks to the persistent efforts of gym teacher Milan Boljuncic (now co-head coach, along with Dave Heskin), private donors, and passionate parents such as Shane Sheehan, a Piper MVP in the ’70s (his son, Grady, is a Grade 12 player on this year’s team).

It’s not easy getting a team rebuilt, virtually from scratch. The boys had to be kitted out, and the helmets alone were $300 each. Necessary items were purchased with the help of generous donors and fundraising efforts by the players and coaches. (LynnValleyLife is proud to join the team as a new sponsor, and is looking forward to cheering on the players this Sunday!)  Another stumbling block was that the grass field needed upgrading to be able to accommodate a football game, which is why no home games were possible last year.

And while the old Piper magic has come back strong, to judge by the enthusiasm of its players and fan base, the scoreboard has yet to reflect the football team’s rebirth. So far, the seniors have yet to score in any of the four games played this season.

But the team’s spirit remains strong and everyone realizes that Rome wasn’t built in a day. This year will provide an extra challenge for the players,  in that the Pipers have now been moved up a division, into AA, after just one year spent at a lower tier. As many players on the team are rookies, there will be a lot of “learning by doing”.

To judge by the eagerness on the faces of both the players and their supporters, though, they are more than equal to the challenge. You can help them make the play by coming out on Saturday to cheer them on – and coming back to the field the next day to test drive a Ford vehicle. For every driver who comes out for a  buzz around the block, they’ll donate $20 to Argyle School! All details are here.

In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for some crisp fall weather for Saturday’s game, and come enjoy some good family fun! Kick off is 1:30 p.m., but fans are encouraged to come at 1 to start some spirit-building!

Grade 9 and 10 students are on the Junior Varsity team, and play on Wednesdays. The Grade 11 and 12 Varsity team plays on Fridays and Saturdays. Season schedules for both can be found here (search under AA Varsity).

Lynn Valley students carry Terry’s torch

If you see students running from their schools en masse this week, don’t worry, it isn’t a fire – they’re just taking part in the annual Terry Fox School Run.

Janet Dunkin, French teacher and organizer of Argyle’s run on Thursday, Sept. 27th, says the high school has been participating in the event for at least 25 years. The whole school will run in the blocks around Argyle at about 12:40 that day, with traffic-directing support from the RCMP and Parent Advisory Council, and the senior PE classes acting as race marshalls.

Ms. Dunkin is a driving force behind the school’s involvement, due in part, she says, to her own family’s experiences with the merciless disease. Both of her daughters, Colleen and Katharine, had malignant brain tumours as infants. While they both survived that harsh beginning, Katharine passed away in 2003 when she was a 16-year-old Argyle student, from a cancer that was linked to her earlier treatment.

Many of us know people both within and without the school community who are currently battling the illness; there are no shortage of reasons to show your support this week. Argyle is hoping to raise $3,000 for the Terry Fox Foundation, and students will be collecting pledges until early October. If you don’t know a local elementary or secondary student who can collect your donation, please consider pledging to one of our local schools’ campaigns via the Terry Fox Foundation School Run website.

And if you’re out driving on Thursday, watch out for kids running where and when you least expect them!

 

Lynn Valley kids blessed with natural playscape

FROM LYNN O’MALLEY: We talk a lot about our children having lost the ability to ‘play.’ Between busy work schedules, programmed after-school activities, and parental anxieties about kids being allowed to wander on their own, we have apparently turned into a nation whose offspring are dependent on screens or adult intervention for leisure-time entertainment.

But perhaps it’s not all bad news, especially here in Lynn Valley where we are blessed with (relatively) quiet streets, lots of green space, and climbing trees aplenty. You just have to look at schools such as Grandview Elementary in Vancouver, which are putting out huge bucks ($250,000, in their case!) to install ‘natural playgrounds’ that emulate the woodland features we take for granted.

I know a variety of local teens who bike the Fromme Mountain trails, arrange great (supervised!) airgun battles deep in the forest, are often heading out to play road hockey, used Upper Lynn School as their meeting place this summer because “it’s got the best playground for playing Grounders,” and love to top off a summer day with a dip in the creek.

Not so long ago, I remember them as primary kids spending a year’s worth of recess and lunchtimes playing in the school woods, building forts and stockpiling bits of rotted wood they called “Chunky Cheese” – the currency they hoarded, guarded, traded for sticks, and no doubt hurled at each other when things got slow.

Schools sometimes put on assemblies to teach playground games. If you want to learn (or be reminded of!) a few yourself, you might want to have a look at this list of traditional children’s games compiled on Wikipedia. Or just ask your kids and their friends what they play at recess – chances are there is a whole playground subculture that keeps them busy.

As adults we often ask ourselves what we can do to foster more of this kind of play. Perhaps our job is to stand back and do less. Less driving to school. Fewer scheduled activities. Less worrying about whether the kids are being entertained, and more trust that they are capable of creating their own fun, if given the independence to do so.

It takes adjustment on all sides, of course. Children used to being constantly ‘plugged in’ will no doubt feel at a loose end when they are first sent outside to the backyard and left to their own devices. But my own mother had the answer to that one – any time I said “I’m bored,” I was presented with a list of chores to do. I soon learned how to keep myself busy without help!

So let’s be grateful for Lynn Valley’s many play possibilities, and encourage our kids to get out and use them – even if it’s a game of ‘Don’t Step on the Sidewalk Crack’ or ‘I Spy’ when they’re walking to school instead of being driven. (Parents nervous about young kids starting to walk to school on their own might want to bridge the gap with a healthy and social Walking School Bus arrangement.)

Hopefully we’ll have a lovely Indian Summer in which to enjoy the sunshine, but when the wet weather comes, keep the fun going with some low-tech indoor play – or a pair of wellies and a puddle!

 

 

 

Prize-winning temperance essay from 1928 still relevant today

FROM LYNN O’MALLEY: It has become abundantly apparent that you can’t count on June for good weather. But the end of the month does bring one thing you can depend on: grad ceremonies, photo opps and – unfortunately – the worry that some kids will take things too far and ‘celebrate’ with an open bottle in hand.

So this month’s launch of Canada’s Temperance Foundation (CTF) is timely. Started by a Victoria man and V-P’d by his addiction-experienced friend, it advocates “abstinence or retraint” in the use of alcohol and drugs. It invites Canadians to take a pledge in support of the cause.

“In ancient Greece,” reads the CTF website, “temperance was considered a virtue and was obtained when one became enlightened through harmonious living.”

Fair enough – who can argue with harmonious living? But in the interests of fair play, I do want to point out that the fine awareness-raising work of the CTF is building on the earlier labours of Nora Newman, Anna Flodin, James Simmonds and other Lynn Valley schoolchildren who competed in the annual essay competitions sponsored by the local Women’s Temperance Union in the early 1900s.

In 1928, young James won a $5 gold coin for the following second-place essay. (Each year the winner received the David Spencer Cup, which was often displayed at Lynn Valley School.)

We bring you this excerpt of James’s 84-year-old essay, along with our heartfelt wishes for a safe and happy grad week throughout the valley. We can’t speak to the veracity of his scientific claims, but we do hope today’s kids pay attention when he says that by drinking, you are “lowering the grade of your mind… (and) dulling your higher sense.”

***

Alcohol has great effects on health and length of life. If a man drinks he is sick more, and dies sooner than a sober man.

Alcohol causes fatty degeneration and fibroid degeneration of certain of the tissues. In fatty degeneration, little drops of fat or oil gather in the cells which gradually become small bags of oil.

When the muscles of the heart change to fat, they lose their strength. The kidneys and nerve fibres are also affected in this way.

Fibroid degeneration affects the heart, liver, kidneys, arteries and brain. The arteries are affected by the lime that is deposited on the walls. This makes them very brittle and narrow, so the blood can hardly make its way through.

Alcohol affects the brain. It causes paralysis and insanity. A man who takes three ounces of alcohol each day for twelve days could add figures only three-fifths as fast as when he takes no alcohol. This effect lasts for at least forty-eight hours.

A drunkard is not the only person who suffers from the result of his habit. Drink is responsible for a large number of crimes. The worst feature of the poverty caused by alcohol is not the fact that the drunkard himself suffers, but the fact that the innocent person suffers far more than he does. Many companies and railways will not employ anyone who drinks. During the Great War most of the principal nations of the world forbade the manufacture of alcoholic drinks.

Six main things you do if you take alcohol are: that you are threatening the physical structure of your stomach, your liver, your kidneys, your heart, your blood vessels, your nerves and your brain; that you are unquestionably lessening your power to work in any field, be it physical, intellectual or artistic; that you are in some measure lowering the grade of your mind, dulling your higher sense and taking the edge off your morals; that you are distinctly lessening your chances of maintaining your health and living to a good old age; that you are adding yourself to the number of those whose habits cause more suffering and misery, disease and death, than do all other causes combined; that you are fastening on yourself a habit that will lead many business men to refuse to employ you.

Alcohol is a poison, a deceiver and a wrecker of man and homes.”