Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Week 8 and the term is slipping by!

How lovely has the rain been over the recent week?  Certainly has cooled everything down for us all.

Today I have let the students all know that our own Ms Tamra has been diagnosed with Cancer and has started aggressive treatment, resulting in her hair falling out. Tamra is away this week for a second round and will return next week with her head shaven. I felt it best to let the students in Years 3-6 know about this and open up for conversations, questions etc.

I have shared with staff and now also with you some very helpful resources you may choose to access to support you if your child has questions or concerns:

Explaining Cancer to Kids | Cancer Council NSW

Kids' Guide To Cancer app | Camp Quality

Tamra has a very supportive network and family wrapping around her, including the Alawa School Community and we are all staying positive that the treatment will be successful.

Staffing Updates 2023

As is always the case at this time of year we are finalizing staffing for 2023. At this stage I can advise of the following:

• Gen Donohue will be taking Term 1 and I will be taking Term 2 off on Long Service Leave - both looking forward to a well earned break
• Bianca Hyke [ex Anula, Stuart Park, Larrakeyah] will be joining our team as Assistant Principal Term 1 and then Principal Term 2
• Emma Connelly will be taking maternity leave to welcome her new baby to her family
• Maddy Ward will be relocating to NSW with her husband who has been posted through Defence
• Nikki Bates is heading overseas to join her partner who headed over recently for work to USA. Mrs Rachel Barnett [ex Alyangula, Anunguru Borroloola] will be joining us as Special Education Teacher
• Nathan Wilson has been accepted into a Leadership Program in NSW and will be heading back that way to take up a role as Assistant Principal
• Janelle Thorne [ex Anula, Manunda Terrace and Principal Douglas Daly] will be joining our team as Early Years Senior Teacher

Looking forward to seeing you around the school and many of you at our special graduations next week,

Have a fab week

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Hello everyone and welcome to Week 8!

It is incredible how fast Term 4 has gone.  As we prepare for many final celebrations and activities for the year, we are also starting to think about and prepare for 2023. Our aim is to ensure the changes next year will be as smooth as possible.

TRANSITIONING TO 2023 CLASSES: This Friday 2nd December our students from Transition to Yr 5 will be visiting the areas of their classes for next year. They will have a 30 minute transitioning session planned from 9-9:30. The students will have another session next Friday, 9th December for one hour. The purpose of these sessions are to become familiar with the new year level, eating areas as well as play areas. The children will be encouraged to ask any questions about the new classes and will also develop their comfort and confidence before the end of the year. Please let us know if your child may need this further support.

Our Preschool and Transition information sessions were held last week and it was wonderful to welcome new families who will be joining our Alawa community next year. Thank you to all the teachers who were involved in the organization of these sessions.

Our early years students are thoroughly enjoying our swimming sessions that have been happening. Thank you so much to our organizers that ensure the movement on and off buses, changing and settling back into the classes has run so smoothly. 

Gen Donohue [Assistant Principal] 

Following the closure of one of the Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) options available to Alawa parents earlier this year, the provision of alternate options including a service at Alawa have been raised with the school and the school council.

With the support of the school, alternate external services that are available were identified.

Some parents have stated that although there are alternate services they would like to have a service located onsite at Alawa. Whilst recognising the desirability of this service for some parents the council decided that it was not feasible because there was not an appropriate facility that could be used without impacting on the education and delivery of current programs for Alawa students during school hours.

Several parents attended a subsequent council meeting requesting the council do more to see that a OSHC service is provided onsite at Alawa.

Although OSHC is not the responsibility of council, given the ongoing concern of some parents, a special meeting was called on the 21st November to discuss the feasibility of onsite OSHC at Alawa School and the basis on which the council made its earlier decision.

Based on information discussed at the November meeting the council has determined that the reasons for its earlier decision remain. It is not currently feasible to establish an onsite OSHC at Alawa School.

The council thanks those involved in the previous parent working group for their investigations on behalf of the school community.

The three actions from the November meeting are

·         Stephanie Cockfield (school council) has volunteered to coordinate a sub committee to identify new opportunities for establishing an onsite OSHC. This would be based on identifying resources/funding to establish a purpose built facility and identifying a suitable operator willing to operate the service based on the demonstrated demand.

 

·         Members of the school community are invited to nominate themselves to work in the sub committee

·         Council to discuss a letter of endorsement for a future sub committee to use when seeking grant funding

The minutes from the November meeting will be emailed out to all RSVP’d to the meeting.  They are available on request for other interested parents/ carers.

A list of current OSHC services available to Alawa families is here https://www.alawaprimary.nt.edu.au/parent-information

If you would like to nominate to join the sub committee please contact stephanie.cockfield@education.nt.gov.au

The council would also like to extend an invitation to parents to consider nominating for the council or volunteer in other ways into 2023. Some ways you might like to consider contributing to our great school include reading to students, helping at the farm or at fundraising events, helping out in the library or supporting children in maths groups. You can register through the front desk [alawa.school@education.nt.gov.au]. All support in class and around our school is very much appreciated by the staff.

At Alawa we offer a very small Before School Supervision service to support families with early work starts.

I would like to remind parents of the following :

• A staff member will be available for before school supervision from 7:30am – 8am in the Preschool - NOT prior to 7:30am
• Parents must walk the students in and sign them in with the staff member if they are Year 2 and younger

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]

School Start Time: Gates NOT open till 8am

Just a reminder to all families our school start time is 8:30am

Children can arrive, connect with friends and play sport when we open the gates at 8am. This is 30mins prior to the start of the day bell and staff are on duty to ensure safety and wellbeing of all from that time.

We ask that children DO NOT get dropped off / arrive prior to 8am unless a prior arrangement is made with Gen Donohue or myself.  We continue to have a small number sitting in the front office from 7:45am onwards - simply too early and way too congested for the office. I have emailed parents of children this includes and would appreciate you dropping them off 8am onwards.

Thanks

Sandy Cartwright

Last Friday we celebrated our latest Honour Distinction award winner and Principal for the day Ms Mia-Teresa. Principal Mia-Teresa had this to report....

"I went to Preschool for recess and it was an open day and so there were new kids that would be coming to Preschool next year. I did electives and went around to all the different ones, my favorite was Simple Art with Mrs Baines. 

In the middle of the day I went to all the different class rooms and handed out merits for things like being helpful in class and paying attention and being respectful to the teacher. 

The best part of the day was the whole thing!" 

Congratulations Principal Mia-Teresa - you did a fantastic job!

Congratulations to the following students who won Joel Bowdens Art Competion. The member for Johnston will now use these designs throughout the year. 

I drew a cake and a cupcake with the Northern Territory’s floral emblem on it, which is the Sturt's Desert Rose. In the background there are letters and if you unscramble them, they spell ‘Happy Birthday’. There are candles on the cake that spell ‘Darwin’, which is our capital city that we know and love. Ngoc

Kangaroos and crocodiles are animals that represent the Northern Territory. The kangaroo is even on our Australian Coat of Arms. These animals are having a party in the bush by the side of the river which is a very Territorian thing to do! Shannon 

We chose to draw the balloons because it symbolizes a celebration. We chose the colours to match the dot painting.

The colours of the dots represent the earth and the colours of the Indigenous flag. Dot paintings are a tradition for Indigenous People, and we have a high percentage of Indigenous People in the Northern Territory. I have Indigenous heritage. Dot paintings are traditionally done in the central desert areas of the NT.

We decided to do an inclusive circle because throughout the Northern Territory because we are also multicultural. We researched what cultures we have in the NT and then we found out how to write ‘Happy Birthday’ in those languages. We then drew four circles and selected the main cultures that we have and wrote them in. Felicity and Niluh

 

On my birthday card, I drew some Australian animals that most people can identify. You can see the Northern Spotted Quoll with a baby on its back, a wombat and a wallaby. They’re celebrating the little one’s birthday. They have presents, party hats, streamers and cake to celebrate. There’s even a green balloon with the words ‘Happy Birthday’ on it.  The sky is a vibrant blue to reflect how colourful Australia is. There are sparklers on a four-tier cake with green icing which is just what the baby spotted quoll ordered! Mia-Teresa

Early Years Swimming is running again this week Monday to Thursday at Nightcliff Pool. Lessons at the pool will happen at the following times:

Preschool Red – Monday and Tuesday 9:00-9:30

Preschool Blue – Wednesday and Thursday 9:00-9:30

Transition Hughes and Henschke 9:35-10:15

Year 1 Bullock and Wilson 10:20-11:00

Year 2 Riley-Smith and 2 Ward 11:05-11:45

A huge thankyou to our volunteer bus drivers who have made it possible for our students to participate in such a great opportunity. Thanks again to Kara Tweedie, Will Barker, David Shearer, Jasmin Thomas and Dean Thomas.

Primary School Average for Week 7 Term 4: 90.48%

The class with the highest attendance for Week 7: Transition Heschke with 95.63%!!! Amazing job!!!

In the lead this term...Year 2 Ward with 93.87%

Arriving late for school has a significant impact on your child’s learning and engagement in the education program.

There were 62 late arrivals in Transition—Year 6 in Week 7 Term 4!

For Week 7 the class with the least lates was: 2 Ward 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. 

Have you ever wanted to check out a book before you buy it to see what it is all about? Or does your local library not have a copy of the book you are champing at the bit to read? The Open Library website has a huge range of books you can access and borrow out for either an hour to browse or up to 14 days if the book is fully borrowable. All books are available in both print and audio format. Sign up requires only an email address, Username and Password and books borrowed can be accessed on a number of different devices. The following link is for the Student K-12 book collection with books listed in grade level groupings - https://openlibrary.org/collections/k-12

This week is the final week for Home Borrowing and students will need to return all books next week. Overdue notices will be sent out each Friday for the next couple of weeks. Please have a good look around the house for any Library books and if you are unable to find a book please let me know as occasionally books manage to sneak past the returns and hide back on the shelf. Class borrowing will continue until the end of next week.

Have a great week and Happy Reading 😊

Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]

So many Pineapples ripening everywhere around the farm at the moment. We have given some to Miss Sullivan to use in dehydrator to turn into yummy snacks. They can be purchased from the front office when in stock.  

We have had 8 gorgeous new ducklings hatch recently. We get students to spend time with them so they get used to lots of people. They will especially be enjoying this nice rainy weather the last few days. 

Students have spent time in class on  creating a Recycled bottle cap art work.  Once done we hope to display in the farm for everyone to enjoy.

Linda Conder [Farm Teacher] 

Paediatrician News

Unfortunately we will say farewell to Dr Mantho at the end of 2022. Dr Mantho has been an asset to the Alawa community over the last 5 years. We would like to thank Dr Mantho for all of her dedication and advocation for our students. 

Therapy and Sensory Items  

We have been busy researching and trialling a range of therapy and sensory items in 2022. The students have provided us with feedback on which items they like to use the most. We have topped up our supplies for the Engine Room, Mindfulness Room and classrooms to assist engagement in learning. 

Nikki Bates [Special Education Teacher] 

This past weekend Taylah took part in the 2022 AusCycling BMX Racing National Championships in Tasmania. 

It was a tough few days of racing but in true Taylah style she fought hard and didn’t give up.

Australian Championships -Taylah placed 5th and raced the top 19, 12 yr old girls in Australia.

National Cup series- Taylah came 3rd - out of 68 girls. 

Congratulations Taylah - superstar effort!!

The Cafe will once again be having an end of year lunch special on Wednesday 14th December. 

$6.50 - Sausage in a bun, Popper & icy pole. 

$3.50 - Additional sausage in bun 

$2.00 additional popper

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. 

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.