Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to Week 7 - more than half way through the term and certainly all settled now the COVID spike has faded away. Sincere thanks to all our families and staff for hanging in there as we navigated a tricky few weeks.

Student Led Conferences

As you will see later in this newsletter it is time to start booking for the twice a year Student Led Conferences - a chance for you to come in with your child, share their learning journey, successes and challenges and chat with the teacher. Our cherubs get very excited about this and prepare in class for their time with you - please don't disappoint - book now.

Swimming Years 3-6

This Friday nearly all our students in Years 3-6 head off to the Casuarina Pool for the first day of the swimming, water safety and health days. This continues for 3 weeks on Fridays. We are super impressed that well over 90% of our students are engaging and will have a fantastic opportunity to learn some CPR, Yoga and practice their water survival skills. They head off on the bus around 8:40am and return around 2pm. The school will be VERY quiet without 144 of our older students.

Learning Commission

Next Wednesday [24th March] our 14 Student Commissioners are heading to the Turf Club with Mrs Baines, Ms Katie and myself to meet and engage with the Student Commissioners from many other schools. This is their kick start to their program for the year and I know they are super excited to start unpacking our data and discussing what their focus is for 2022.

Have a fab week, 

Cheers

Sandy Cartwright [Principal of the Best School in the Multiverse]

Last Friday we celebrated our latest Honour Distinction Award winner and Principal for the day Mr Jaxon G.

Principal Jaxon went to sport with all the other Year 3-6 students and played netball. "I took my cloak off to play so it didn't get ruined. I handed out lots of merits to classes and students who were sitting on the mat and listening to their teachers. My favourite part of the day was handing our merits to everyone."

Hello everyone,

NAPLAN ONLINE: Next week we will begin our online practice test for NAPLAN. This is an opportunity for our system to test the online platform, the devises and capacity of the system. It is also an opportunity for all students to experience the conditions for the official tests in term 2. The year 5 students will participate in two different tests and the year 3’s will complete one. If any parents would like to discuss further their child and their participation in this assessment please let me know.

MINDFULNESS ROOM: Our Mindfulness Room is almost finished and is is being used by many students. This room was previously our Community room and the council gave approval for it to become our Mindfulness room. This room will provide a space so we can help our students better understand and manage negative thoughts and feelings in a more positive way. It will allow small groups and/or individuals to spend time practicing mindfulness strategies. This may include:

·      Exploring rich literature that teaches about regulating emotions

·      Opportunities to explore the Smiling mind app to develop mindfulness skills to feel better and reduce anxiety

·      Counselling/Playtherapy/Speech Therapy and other outside agencies

·      Relaxation and Breathing exercises

·      Mindful artwork

Our Social and Emotional groups will be using this space next term and you will be notified if your child will be included in this space. If you have any queries. This room will be officially opened when we the final furnishings arrive.

Gen Donohue

[Assistant Principal]

Payment is now due for our Primary Years Swimming program, $85 per student.

Payment can be made via:

• Cash or eftpos to the front office
• Direct deposit [please call front office for details] or
• School sports voucher

We encourage all students to take part in this valuable learning program.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the front office on 8997 7666 or alawa.school@education.nt.gov.au  

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 recognizing 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 6 of Term 1 was....Transition Henschke with 148 points!!!

For weeks 4-6 we have a tie between Year 3 Block and Year 4/5 Griffin with 333 points each!!! Great job!!!

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 6 of Term 1 Finnis was ahead of Goyder and Manton with 2909 points!!! 

In the lead for the year...Finnis with 12366 points!!!

Welcome to physical education by way of reintroduction my name is Jennifer White and I am teaching both PE and Art subjects in 2022.

In PE we have commenced the term by looking at how good sportsmanship, fun, participation, trying our best and safety are important in PE. We have been using the example of the Winter Olympics, the Olympic spirit and the Jamaican bobsled team as examples of this. Students have been able to further share the links between our school values and the Olympic values [respect, excellence and friendship].  Please see photos from some of our activities earlier in the term, including our Olympic torch relays, ordering the Olympic rings and Jamaican bobsled time trials…helmets included! A special thank you to Mr Daryl who brought in his Sydney Olympic torch which he ran with in Jabiru in 2000. Students have recently commenced a four-week unit on the essential skills of cricket with a focus on the fundamental motor skills of throwing, catching and batting [striking].

Jen White [PE Teacher] 

Art has been a welcomed component to the specialist area this year. We have been exploring what art means to us and where we see it. Students have contributed and given ideas for some suggested focus areas for the subject [student voice and agency]. We have been drawing ALLE the frilled necked lizard and our house animals [kingfisher, dingo and crocodile]. Our collaborative pieces were displayed at our open night last week [and are now on the walls of the art room for all to see!]  This week we have been focusing on still life, which included drawing a bowl of fruit with some of our fruits purchased and some from the farm courtesy of Ms Sullivan and Ms Conder.

The early years were able to draw comparisons between three-dimensional shapes and fruits and colours in an artwork and identified where we might find fruit and used words to describe what they taste like.

The senior students learnt about the important elements of still life artwork being composition, theme, light and perspective. They also learnt more generally, what still life is as an art form; usually commonplace objects that are either natural [food, flowers etc] or man-made [glasses, books, vases, collectibles] and viewed some historic artworks associated with this genre of art.

Jen White [Art Teacher] 

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.

Cafe Specials Weeks 6-10

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-Homemade Pizza - Large size $5.50

Thursday – Chicken rice paper rolls – Large size $5.50, Small $3.50

 Friday – Curried sausages and rice- 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