Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Week 5 already and we are looking forward to seeing many of our families this evening at our Explore, Eat and Engage!

A terrific opportunity for you to learn more about or focus areas, core programs and approaches at the school. Take some time to connect with friends, meet our teachers and quality support staff and have a bit to eat or drink.

Following the event we will be holding our Annual General meeting for the School Council - all are invited and encouraged to attend. We will be officially presenting our Student leadership Group for 2022, I will be sharing the highlights from our Annual Report and we will be electing our new Council for 2022.

Volunteer Survey

We highly value the support of so many in our community through their volunteer support. Please take the time to respond to the survey emailed out by Ms Tamra last week.

Primary Years Swimming

Please ensure you have returned your notes and money for this fantastic program by the end of this week. We are really hopeful ALL students in Years 3-6 are able to engage in the 3 full days of water safety, team building and regulation activities.

Have a fabulous week,

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

House Captains

Learning Commission

Tek Ninja's 

Tek Ninja Interns

Hello everyone,  

Special Education: I would like to welcome our new Special Education teacher who began this week. Her name is Nikki Bates. She is originally from Melbourne and comes to us with a wealth of knowledge and experience with working with children with special needs. Now that our teachers have gotten to know their students a lot more, we have commenced our Educational Adjustment Plan (EAP) meetings. We aim to have these meetings by the end of the term and will be in touch with you to confirm a time.

NAPLAN is an annual national assessment of all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. All students will be assessed online in language conventions [spelling, grammar and punctuation], writing, reading and numeracy. There will be coordinated practice tests later this month and the official testing will take place in early May. Tina Sullivan will also be coming into the Year 3 classes to support the children with learning and practising the digital technology skills required.

Whilst we value the information that this testing gives us about our students’ learning we acknowledge that NAPLAN tests are one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. They do not replace the extensive ongoing assessments made by teachers about each student’s performance.

A parent information leaflet will be sent home about the testing closer to the time. If you have any concerns with regards to your child sitting the tests please feel free to come and talk to either Sandy or myself this week.    For more information please see the online site.    

Public demonstration site (nap.edu.au)

I hope you are able to join us in our whole school event Explore, Eat and Engage. It will be a great opportunity to find out about teaching and learning at Alawa. Have a lovely week.

Gen Donohue [Assistant Principal]

Last Friday we celebrated our latest Honour Distinction Award winner and Principal for the day Miss Brooke Hughes. 

Principal Hughes spent the day going to the farm and handed out lots of merits. She spent time in the office helping out Ms Tammy and went to Year 4/5 Griffins kitchen lesson.

Principal Hughes said "my favourite part of the day was going to farm with Year 5/6 Baines. I fed Hay Hay the bearded dragon and turtles. I would really like to be Principal again" 

Brooke Hughes [Principal for the day] 

Hi everyone!

My name is Nikki Bates and I am the new Special Education Teacher at Alawa Primary School in 2022!

I am excited about working with many different students and families and getting to know everyone in the school community.

When I’m not at work I love travelling, being outdoors, reading, cooking and have a love for all sports [especially netball, basketball, footy and trail running].

I have taught In country Victoria, Melbourne and more recently the Torres Strait Islands. Super excited to get to know you all in 2022!  

Nikki Bates [Special Education Teacher] 

Parents, carers, staff, students and interested members of the school community are welcome to attend our School Council Annual General Meeting on 2nd March at 6:30pm in the library.

The role of the school council is to support the Principal to provide the best possible educational outcomes for our children. Participating as a school council member is a great way to contribute to the school. Being a part of the school council can be a very rewarding and interesting experience.

Council meetings are held once a month during the school term, after work hours, so it is a great way to be involved if you are busy during the day. Child care is available during the meetings if you need to bring your kids along. You don’t need any specific experience or professional background to be a part of the School Council so if you have a keen interest in your child’s education and school environment we encourage you to consider nominating to be a Council member.

As our carpark is under construction we encourage families to take up one of the following opportunities.

• If you live in the area walk or bike to the event
• If you will be driving please utilise the Nemarluk school carpark from 5pm

We appreciate your patience and ask that you respect each other when arriving and departing. 

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 4 of Term 1 was....Year 3/4 Bernardino with 121 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 1 Finnis was ahead of Goyder and Manton with 1415 points!!! 

In the lead for the year...Manton and Goyder on a tie with 6272 points each!!!

We have been on some amazing travels so far this term in kitchen. Each week we are visiting a different country and learning about the foods there. 

• Week 1- Indonesia- Nasi Goreng/Mee Goreng 
• Week 2- Malaysia- Laksa 
• Week 3- Thailand- Stir fry/Curry 
• Week 4-Sri Lanka- Curries 

This week we will be going to India to explore the amazing food of this region.  

We are also very excited to have our new aprons donated by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program in conjunction with Coles. To go with these, we bought sets of headband buffs to go with our group colours. We are all looking very snazzy. 

Tina Sullivan [Kitchen Teacher] 

Our Primary Years Swimming program will be taking place over 3 days in Weeks 7, 8 & 9.

Each Friday all Primary year’s students [Years 3-6] will travel to Casuarina pool and take part in a variety of swimming, water safety and life skill sessions run by the Royal Life Saving NT.

These sessions will include: Swimming skills, Lifesaving skills , Survival Skills , CPR awareness, Critical decision making, yoga and Team building exercises.

This program will provide our students with a fun, engaging and educational overview of the swim and survive program.

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

Playgroup will be back on again this Friday the 4th March from 9:30am.

We welcome everyone to come join us in the Preschool for some fun and games.

$4.00 per family covers tea, coffee, biscuit and activities.

Looking forward to seeing you all again and welcoming new families to our Playgroup.

Miss Maria [Playgroup Coordinator]

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.

LUNCHTIME SPECIALS: Weeks 2-5

Available every day lunch only [Wednesday - Friday]:

- Mini Beef burgers $3.50 each 

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

Wednesday - Chicken and Jackfruit curry - Large serve $5.50 small serve $3.50

Thursday- Scandinavian meatballs and mash - Large serve $5.50 small serve $3.50

Friday – Roast pork and gravy rolls - $5.50

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

Order online at www.quickcliq.com.au