Welcome to the Alawa Primary School weekly newsletter.
Welcome to our final newsletter for 2022!
It feels as though the year has zoomed by as Christmas is just around the corner. As I mentioned at the Year 6 Graduation last Thursday the year started as a Sprint and has kept up at that pace it seems to us all. It has been a very busy last few weeks at Alawa as students were gearing up for our Presentation Assembly and other end of year events. We celebrated some great achievements and progress at our 2 graduation ceremonies over the past two weeks. Congratulations to all our Year 6 students who graduated last week as well as our Preschoolers who are looking forward to moving to Transition after the holiday break. Yesterday we had our annual awards assembly. Our final Honour Awards for the year will be handed out today after lunch.
We wrap up the year with a quick assembly and farewell to our Year 6’s around 2:15pm Thursday 15th December. Check out the NT news Thursday 15th - it may just have a special Alawa feature!
Reports
Student progress reports were sent home yesterday via email [Tuesday 13th December]. Please remember when viewing your child’s report that a C grading is year level expectation. The Red data folders were provided to children to bring home yesterday so parents / carers could look at their assessments and reflections in conjunction with their reports.
Students in Years 3-6 are accessing their reports online at school today.
Christmas Activities & Celebrations
A reminder to all families that as we move into the final week of the school year, many classes will be completing activities relating to Christmas. I am aware and appreciate that not all families celebrate this event. If you have any concerns or if you would like more information about what each class might be doing please contact your child’s teacher.
Class lists
Draft class lists were available from yesterday afternoon on the outside window of the front office. All care and consideration has gone into the formulation of the lists. Our team considers academic levels, peer groups and emotional and behavioural needs.
If you have concerns about your child’s class placement please make an appointment to discuss this through the front office with either Mrs Donohue or myself. Please keep in mind these are draft, changes may need to be made based on further enrolments.
Farewells
This week we say farewell and thanks for your time and effort as part of our team at Alawa to some very long term families as well as a few staff.
Will you be back at school on Tuesday 31st January?
If your family will be late returning to school after the holidays PLEASE contact the front office and advise us as this DOES effect our staffing allocation and staffing budget.
Please travel safely if you are heading away on holidays and enjoy your special family time.
I am looking forward to seeing many of you in the New Year!
Sandy Cartwright [Principal of the Best School in the Multiverse]
After extensive consultation and reviews we have made some changes with regards to our communication for 2023:
We will continue to also use the following for updates:
Sandy Cartwright [Principal]
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As you may have read / heard about through the media from Day 1, Term 1, 2023 there will be changes in all NT Government schools with the use of mobile phones. All phones and smart watches are not to be used from the time students arrive at school until the end of the school day. This includes recess and lunch breaks.
There is no variation on our policy on the use of mobile phones for Alawa. This ban has been in place for the past 5 years. Our Alawa Policy can be accessed through our website:
Week 10 it is!!!
We are finally here. What a great final week with fun activities to wrap up our year.
Yesterday mornings Presentation Assembly was fabulous. It was wonderful to acknowledge the achievement of so many students at our school. Class parties were certainly in full swing after our assembly and there were many smiling faces enjoying the food and celebrations with their class for 2022.
It is now the end of my third year at Alawa and what another fabulous year it has been. I have thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work together with teachers, students and our whole Alawa community. A couple of highlights for me include, of course, our Whole School Performance Night as well as our Preschool Bikeathon. As busy as I get in the role as Assistant Principal I always love my time teaching in the classrooms. This year I have taught in year 3/4 Bernardino and I have taught in Year 1 Wilson. I also worked with our Year 2 classes and their teachers to embed our Whole School Approach to literacy.
Our staff here at Alawa are to be commended for their hard work and commitment to making our school the super school that it is and certainly deserve a well earned break. I am also looking forward to an extra break this year as I will be going on long service leave for Term 1.
Please take the time to reflect on the year with your children and chat with them about their successes and areas for growth for next year. It will also be important to talk about the class they will be in for next year and who their teacher will be.
Stay safe during the holidays. Enjoy your Christmas celebrations with family and loved ones and I look forward to seeing you when I return in Term 2.
Kind regards
Genevieve Donohue [Assistant Principal]
At Alawa we offer a very small Before School Supervision service to support families with early morning starts at work.
I would like to remind parents of the following:
Please ensure all payments are up to date as access to the service cannot be offered in 2023 if any outstanding money is not paid in full by Thursday 15th December.
Sandy Cartwright [Principal]
Congratulations to the might Finnis who this year have taken out the House Shield!
Great work to all students who have earned points for their team throughout the year and to the House Captains and Vice Captains for their leadership and support
Students at Alawa receive raffle tickets [house points] for their attitude and behaviour in the playground and out the front of the school at the end of the day. Students also can earn house points for having a go at the weekly quiz which is emailed out Monday mornings by Ms Cartwright. These points are then counted on a Friday along with the points for students in full uniform, wearing house shirts etc. At the end of each term we also include the points earnt through the recycling project and water bottle checks.
In Week 9 of Term 4 Finnis was ahead of Goyder and Manton with 4415 points!
In the lead for the year we still have Finnis with 102622 points!!!
Muster is held at Alawa after each recess and lunch break - this gives us an opportunity for everyone to settle from playtime, share any celebrations and work on consistency of messages and expectations.
Each week we allocate class points during Muster time recognising those students who were ready and waiting to go back to class calmly and quietly after break times. The winning class from each 3 weeks will receive ice-blocks from Ms Cartwright and get to choose 5 songs that will play before our bells for the following 3 weeks.
The class with the most points in Week 9 of Term 4 was....3 Block with 152 points!!!
The winning class for Weeks 7-9 was...3 Block with 371 points!!!
Primary School Average for Week 9 Term 4: 89.81%
The class with the highest attendance for Week 9: 5/6 Baines with 97.20%!!! Amazing job!!!
In the lead this term...Year 2 Ward with 94.53%
Arriving late for school has a significant impact on your child’s learning and engagement in the education program.
There were 63 late arrivals in Transition—Year 6 in Week 9 Term 4!
For Week 9 the class with the least lates was: 2 Riley-Smith with 0 lates!!!
In the lead this term...Year 2 Riley-Smith with 5 late arrivals!!!
Alawa Recycling is not only an important part of our fundraising activities here at Alawa with all proceeds going directly back into the farm, but also a vital step in helping us achieve the goal of creating a more sustainable farm and garden program.
Items can be deposited into the house bags in the back car park and each item earns a point for each house.
Last Wednesday evening the preschool children arrived at the library dressed in their finest outfits ready for an evening of celebration. Children performed a beautiful song they learnt during Music classes with the wonderful Anne Dennis. They were then presented with their graduation certificates. We watched a special video starring the preschool children and finished the night with ice poles and pizzas. Everyone was so proud of the them!
It seems like only yesterday these little humans arrived at preschool for the first time and began their learning journey. This year we have had so many adventures. We decorated our bikes and took part in a bike-a- thon. We explored many amazing books and got very clever at recognising and writing our names and counting. We learnt through play, danced at a concert, made new friends and, most importantly, had lots of fun.
The preschool team will really miss our beautiful class of 2022. One of the best things about Preschool is how connected we are to our preschool families. We would like to thank all our amazing families and volunteers for all their support and assistance throughout the year. We wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and holiday season.
Emma Connelly, Emma Churchman, Kelly and Flor [Preschool Team]
The holidays are upon us and if you are anything like our family we love to find good books and activities that are available around town. Check out the Darwin Family Life blog for their comprehensive list of activities that are running in and around Darwin over the December/January holiday break. Activities include:
Check it out at https://www.darwinfamilylife.com.au/darwin-december-january-school-holidays-2022-2023/
Holiday reading lists/ideas:
Kid’s Reading Guide - https://issuu.com/gleebooks/docs/kids_reading_guide22?fr=sMThlMjU0NDYyNDk
Holiday themed books - https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/90920-2022-holiday-books-for-kids-and-teens.html
50 Books Kids should read before they are 12 - https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/50-books-all-kids-should-read-before-theyre-12
Scholastic Book lists by age - https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/books-and-reading-guides/recommended-childrens-books-by-age.html
At the time of writing this we still have a few overdue books outstanding. I will be sending home an overdue note today and I appreciate your assistance in getting these books returned. Thank you for all of your support for the library this year, I look forward to seeing you all in the new school year.
Happy Holidays 😊
Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]
The Cafe will once again be having an end of year lunch special on Thursday 15th December.
$6.50 - Sausage in a bun, Popper & icy pole.
$3.50 - Additional sausage in bun
$2.00 additional popper
$1.00 additional Icy Pole
Orders can be placed through Quickcliq and are open now - https://app.quickcliq.com.au/
*Please note orders will close off on Wednesday 14th December and normal lunch and recess menu will NOT be available.
Our Mission is to provide the Alawa School community with delicious healthy meals and snacks and to create meaningful links to our kitchen garden program. We will do our best to ensure we order the same products as advertised but occasionally have to change due to stock availability.
Available every day lunch only:
- mini beef burgers $4.50
- spaghetti bolognaise small serve $4.50 or large serve $6.50 /Gluten Free Spaghetti $6.50 [Wed & Thu only]
Wednesday – Fresh meat pies - $6.50
Thursday – End of Term lunch special - $6.50
A reminder that our school Cafe is open Wednesday to Friday ONLY. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Order online at www.quickcliq.com.au
If you have plans to leave our school for 2023 we would really appreciate early notification as this can assist with our class planning and structure and budgeting.
Please just email or phone the front office to advise.
