Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to our Week 5 News - half way through Term 2 already - so hard to believe!

I was pleased to email out our COVID Bulletin last Friday with relatively low numbers at this stage. Thanks for your continued notifications, support and flexibility through this Pandemic.,

Farm Working Bee

Huge thanks to Farmer Bob, Mrs Conder and all the families who came along last Saturday morning to help out. There was certainly a lot achieved and we are all very appreciative of this ongoing support for our very unique and special outdoor learning environment. See later in the newsletter and on Facebook for photos and updates.

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN assessment has gone fairly smoothly for our students in Years 3 and 5 - just a few more to wrap up today and tomorrow. Results will be available later in the year. Huge thanks to Mrs Donohue and Ms Sacha in the library for their co-ordination of this national assessment program.

Writing: Persuasive pieces

As always happen when we focus on Persuasive writing through the school round this time of year I get flooded with very persuasive letters from many students - seeking my approval for class pets, our own swimming pool, fancy dress days and many other [unusual at times] requests. I have been impressed with the writing development and the motivation students are showing to share their thoughts and views in writing. Matilda from 2 Ward was so convincing that while I did not agree to a guinea pig as a class pet I have been 'persuaded' to buy 2 new guinea pigs for the farm and even ensure male and female so we can breed our onw and sell them to Alawa families. Great outcome for your efforts Matilda.

Year 2 Riley-Smith Assembly

Like so many parents who came along I enjoyed the assembly hosted by 2 Riley-Smith last Friday. They were very engaging and encouraging to get us all joining in their special Tongan song and shared their views on why we need to 'Save the Ants'. Fab effort Rocking Riley-Smiths!

Professional Development Day for Staff: No school for students

Just an early reminder we have our Professional Day for staff coming up on Tuesday 14th June - no school for students that day. We deliberately tacked this onto the long weekend so any families heading away have the opportunity for an extra day out and about exploring during the glorious dry season. Brat Pack is available for families requiring care for the their children that day.

Cheers & have a terrific week,

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Week 5

Hello everyone,

Well half way through the term already. It is certainly flying by.

What a fantastic effort at our working bee on the Farm. It was lovely getting to work alongside many children and families at our working bee. It was also lovely to meet new families to our school who also gave up their time on Saturday. The Farm is a fantastic resource and environment for learning and it is a big part of who we are and what we offer at Alawa. Farmer Bob and Ms Condor; you do a fantastic job down there.

Preschool: A lovely part of my work that I really enjoy is the time during the week that I spend in Preschool. The children have such a refreshing way of looking at the world and they often draw me into their explorations and imagination during play. This week I was reading with a great of children in a castle they have made out of blocks….a little squishy but apparently it was important we had the big chairs and tables inside the castle as well.

NAPLAN: Well done to all our students who have almost completed their assessments. All students were confident with the process and everything ran very smoothly. Thankyou Ms Sacha in the library for the technical support and the teachers for ensuring the students were at ease with the testing conditions and the expectations.

Bootcamp: Our morning exercise on a Wednesday will continue right up to the Sports Carnival. It is terrific to see families coming down and joining their children as we walk around the track. We are really looking forward to our sports coming up later in the term.

Have a lovely week.

Gen Donohue [Assistant Principal]

I will sneak a little quiz question into the newsletter each week. If you are a student and know the answer send me an email to have the opportunity to earn 20 bonus house points.

Week 5 question: Wen are the House meetings happening for students in Years 3-6?

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Thanks to everyone that joined us on Saturday for our first Farm Working Bee for the year. 

It was a great turn out with so many families able to come along and help out with much needed pre dry season jobs. 

Thanks to Farmer Bob and Ms Conder for coordinating and Ms Cartwright for supplying the refreshments. 

Big thanks to the following families for all your hard work:

• Sarah, Perrin and Hunter Agnew-Auld
• Chantelle, Andy, Kade, Sage and Rylan Lehmann
• Kirsty Abbott, Jeremy and Charlie Gibson
• Sarah and William Hubbard
• Michael Roseth
• Cleo and Brad Rayson
• Sallyanne, Zanny, Sylvester, Kelly, Justin and Anthea Cartwright
• Havana, Virginia and Joey Aparis Clemente 
• Asha, Kim, Brooke and Paige Hughes
• Daisy-May, Lilly-Paige, Kirsty and James Carr
• Sam, Erin, Kane and Andrea Taylor
• Anthony & Joshua Black and mum Tereza
• Flynn, Jodie and Rowan Hayward
• Catherina, Jessica and Chris Brady
• Alba Negret-Siewert and mum Martina
• Indi, Ruby and Wade Smyth
• Ms Conder and Lucy
• Farmer Bob
• Mrs Donohue
• Ms Cartwright
  
  

School Photos have been scheduled for Week 9, Wednesday 15th June. 

This year we will once again be using ‘The School Photographer’ who will have 2 photographers on site. 

Packages can be purchased from $27.00 and all sibling orders MUST be in before the day to be  included in the day’s schedule.

Envelopes will be sent home with students this week. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate in contacting the front office.

 We are super excited to announce that we have secured a Deckchair cinema fundraising night!

Save the date

• Sunday 31st July [public holiday Monday] 
• Minions - Rise of Gru
• Fundraising sweets stall and raffle on the night
• Tickets to be purchased direct through this link BUY TICKETS HERE [this will be a sold out event so don't miss out] 

If you are interested in donating an item for the raffle please contact Miss Tamra on tamra.caruana@education.nt.gov.au 

National Volunteer Week is a chance for all of us to celebrate and recognise the vital work of our volunteers and to say thank you.

At Alawa we have a fantastic community who volunteer in a variety of ways in and around the school including but not limited to:

• School events
• Classroom assistance
• Library volunteering
• Farm - both during and after hours

We are VERY grateful for all of our wonderful volunteers and wider Alawa community and would like to take this opportunity to say, thank you for all that you do - we appreciate what you do for our students and school. 

If you are interested in volunteering at our school please contact the front office on 8997 7666. 

We are, Better Together.

Thanks to our very talented Maintenance Officer - Mr David- the Primary Year students now have a new bike cage!

The new bike cage is located to the side of the library and be accessed as follows:

• Students can enter through one of the 2 side gates along the library side of the school with their bikes. The smaller library gate or the double gate near the playground. 
• Students are to get off their bikes at the gate and walk into the school directly to the bike cage
• Students should be wearing a helmet

• Only students Years 3-6 to keep their bikes in this cage

Absolutely NO access is to be made through the back car park. 

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the front office 8997 7666. 

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 expectation.

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 4 of Term 2 was....Year 3/4 Bernardino with 119 points!!!

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. These 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 4 of Term 2 Finnis was ahead of Goyder and Manton with 2673 points!!! 

In the lead for the year...Finnis with 39938 points!!!

The kitchen has been very productive with some new batches of Ms Elsa's yummy ice creams. These are for sale through the front office, we have Jackfruit, citrus sorbet and our experimental rosella sorbet. We also had a new batch of rosella jam also available from the front office.

The groups have been busy cooking more foods from around the world. We had some roasted vegetable cous cous meals created from our Moroccan week. These used some fresh herbs from the garden and a variety of veggies including cassava that the kids had harvested from the farm. 

Last week was French week and we made amazingly delicious French apple and pear pastries. These were a real success and very popular.

Tina Sullivan [Kitchen Teacher] 

Our visits to the Alawa Farm are a highlight of our week! The children look forward to venturing out of Preschool and exploring our beautiful Farm. The Alawa Farm gives children the opportunity to observe, interact and care for animals and the environment. These enriching experiences help develop a love and understanding of nature, ecology and how we interact with the world around us. Each week we collect our food scraps from Recess and Lunch to feed the chickens, ducks, goats and sheep. The animals are always very grateful and we are learning to minimise our waste in the classroom. 

Emma, Emma and Kelly and Flor [Preschool Team] 

Last Friday seven of our Year 6 Students had the fantastic opportunity to attend the annual CBCA Bookfeast and meet local Author/Illustrator Sandra Kendell. Sandra answered students questions and talked with the students about her inspirations and the process she goes through to research, write and illustrate her books. The students were amazed at how long it takes [2years] for her picture books to go from an idea to being a book on the shelf. Sandra explained the roll of the publisher and how the text writes and pictures she paints are put together to create the final book. She showed them examples of her notebooks, storyboards, drawings and paintings and took them through an activity in which they created a character and then put together a 6 panel storyboard story draft. Sandra signed and gifted the school with two of her beautifully illustrated picture books Saltie Mumma and Beauty. Sandra’s other works include – The Only Ones Left, Green Tree Frogs, Welcome Little Scrubfowl and The Bushwalk.

“I quite enjoyed my time with Sandra Kendell when we made a storyboard draft. We also got to see her illustration drafts, and it’s amazing how much effort gets put into a page in a picture book.”

Mia-Teresa Evans Shaw

“I enjoyed meeting Sandra Kendell and learning about her books. I also enjoyed making a storyboard about a Yellow Tree Snake and seeing some of her illustrations.”

Tegan Green

Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]

Whilst we had a small group this week at Playgroup last Friday, we made up for it with lots of fun! We loved playing with the red playdough, it smells of May Chang essential oil so it is multi-sensory, just like us. We are really enjoying the café area; we love to take orders, make coffees, and serve cupcakes and slices. We also love charging for our services!!

Outdoors we had fun constructing with the large building blocks, playing in the cubby and on the outdoors equipment. Some of us got very wet playing in the sandpit and water play area. We baked scones this week and all of us got involved, they were delicious served with jam and cream. We even gave some to the Preschool teachers for their morning tea.

Next week we plan to visit the Farm so bring along your kitchen scraps for the chickens.

Miss Maria [Playgroup Co-Ordinator] 

We are on the hunt for these items if anyone is doing a clean out at home:

• Beach shells
• Washed ice cream sticks
• Empty glad wrap tubes
• Old/scratched CD's
• Foil tart and pie trays
• Boxes for building
• Old plates and tea cups [real not plastic]
• Dress ups
• Baskets
• Old Tupperware containers with lids
• Corks
• Old or spare buttons

 As always, we are excited to take any items you are happy to donate that are not listed, these are just some things we have identified we will be needing. Thanks to everyone who has been sending things in. Don’t forget to pop them in the donation boxes so you can get points for your house. 

Thanks for everyone across the school who has been dropping in donations, we really appreciate it! We have been making lots of interesting creations with everything coming in.

Angela Henschke, Kate Hughes, Mr Brent and Ms Flor [Transition team] 

Our sun smart school uniform shirts are now available!

Shirts can be viewed at the front office during school hours. Cost is $36 per shirt. 

If you would like to order or have further questions please contact the front office - 8997 7666 or alawa.school@education.nt.gov.au

*Please note stock is limited.

The Teaching in the Territory Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate the contribution of NT Government school teachers, principals, leaders and support staff to quality education. There are 9 aware categories:

• NT Principal of the Year
• NT Leader in Education
• NT Primary Educator of the Year
• NT Secondary Educator of the Year 
• NT Early Childhood Educator of the Year 
• NT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Educator of the Year 
• NT Inclusion Educator of the Year 
• NT Support Person of the Year 
• NT Vocational Education Trainer of the Year

Nominations for the awards will open on Monday 16 May 2022 and close on Friday 24 June 2022.  You can find information about the awards, including category criteria, the judging process and any announcements, in the attached nomination guide or on the awards website. 

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.

Cafe Specials Weeks 1-5

LUNCHTIME SPECIALS:

Available every day lunch only:

- mini beef burgers  $3.50

- spaghetti bolognaise small serve $3.50 or large serve $5.50 /Gluten Free Spaghetti $6.50

Wednesday - Chicken Caesar wrap -  $5.50

Thursday – Beef Nachos - Large size $5.50, Small $3.50

 Friday – Chicken and vegetable hokkien noodles- Large size $5.50, Small $3.50

A reminder that our school Cafe is open Wednesday to Friday ONLY. Closed on Monday and Tuesdays. 

Order online at www.quickcliq.com.au