Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to Week 4 - as the term rolls by so quickly!

Over recent weeks a number of staff have been impacted through COVID and that other influenza travelling around. We also have a few staff away this week for special personal circumstances. As always we do our best to cover where feasible and have as much consistency as possible for the learning programmes. I will continue to advise parents / carers where their child is directly effected. We appreciate your understanding and support during the ever challenging times. 

A lot of events coming up so please stay tuned and aware of events impacting your child including Year 6 Orientation day, Year 5 Science Fair, Sports Gala days, Year 3/4 Camp etc.

Plans are in full swing for our upcoming Community Event 'We are One' - 1st September. Classes are all fully engaged in learning  their dance routines and notices will come home from class teachers this week with regards to costumes for the night. We aim to keep these as simple as possible for families. This year we are also holding in conjunction with our Dance event an Art Expo - where all children will have art work on display which can then be taken home afterwards. Some very exciting projects are in the works and it is fabulous to see the creative side of so many children shine through these activities.

Last Friday I started working with a group of children from Year 2 and 3 in an Early Years extension maths group - such a terrific way to engage with these cherubs for an hour as they burst with enthusiasm for tackling problem solving and challenging their knowledge and use of strategies.

Last Friday we had a very special celebration to farewell Mrs Heather Briant who had worked at Alawa since 1996 in our front office. Thanks so much to everyone who came along for the afternoon tea to thank her for her efforts and significant contributions over the years to our school community. Heather is a very special person and life long friend to so many!

Have a fab week

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Alawa Primary School values the feedback from our students and families. We welcome and encourage you to share your opinions about school performance, culture and services by participating in the NT School Survey.

The survey opens from Monday of Week 4 to Friday of Week 6 and is an opportunity for us to hear from you about your school experience for you and your child. The School Survey is simple and easy to access, taking less than 20 minutes to complete. It can be conducted online or you can request a printed version from your school. The results of the survey will help inform your school about your experiences and provide valuable information about what it is doing well and where it can improve. For further information or to request assistance in completing the survey, please contact the front office during school hours 8997 7666. 

https://www.schoolsurvey.edu.au/s/AlawaPrimarySchoolParentSurvey2022/LogIn

It is great to be back after being away for a week with a very nasty virus. There has been quite a few staff illnesses and I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone for continuing to support and cover absences across the school in various roles. We are very thankful that we have our regular relief teachers and support staff to help us fill these gaps as best as possible.

Happy Principal’s Day: Last Friday was Principal’s Day. We would all like to acknowledge our Principal Sandy Cartwright who works tirelessly for all students and staff at Alawa School. Her leadership and continuous work and commitment to the continued school improvement, fun and learning at Alawa, is truly appreciated by all.

We are now half way through Term 3 already. It was fantastic for me to see some of our students participating in our dance lessons with Ms Crystal Thomas. They are loving learning their routines for our concert night in week 7.

Our Red Preschool students visited Nemarluk Preschool on Tuesday. The children will participate in 30-minute visits every Tuesday morning to engage in a range of outdoor learning experiences. This is a wonderful opportunity to explore each other’s Preschool environment and develop some lovely friendships.  Thank you Emma Connelly for coordinating this opportunity for our little ones. "The playground was the best"

Don’t forget our Transition Parent Information Morning next Wednesday at 8:30am. It would be wonderful to see all families (current and new) who will be enrolling their children at Alawa next year. This will include a session from a Speech Therapist and Occupational Therapist who will give us some excellent information on development stages of students of this age. We hope you can join us.

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 4 question: Can you name 5 things you would be saying or doing if you were Persisting as a 21st Century Learner?

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Still on the hunt for a sewing volunteer! Any assistance appreciated. 

If you are interested in helping out please contact the front office on 8997 7666 or alawa.school@edcuation.nt.gov.au 

*Please note all volunteers are required to hold an ochre card when working with children. A copy of our volunteer policy can be found HERE

In recent weeks we have had a number of children collected from school by parents / family members instead of attending their usual booking at After School Care. It is important if this is happening that you notify our front office via email or phone so they make a note on the daily roster we check children off with each afternoon.

Thanks for your support with us keeping your children safe and where they are supposed to be.

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

As you are aware our car park upgrade has now been completed. This has provided us with a significant number of extra car spaces for parking. The drop zone [Kiss n Go Zone] is clearly marked with car spaces. PLEASE DO NOT park, stop or queue up in the areas marked for not stopping as this adds to congestion.

If pulling into the Drop Zone please ensure you pull in close to the curb, not at an angle and not metres away and this causes traffic congestions and is a safety concern.

5/6 Baines have been busy in the STEM room over the last few weeks. We started out by learning about a young boy who started his own arcade - Caine’s Arcade. We discussed all his ideas, materials, construction techniques and end products. We then got to work designing, planning, and making our own games which considered clientele, difficulty levels and prizes. Everyone has been super engaged and creative. We are now very excited to open up our arcade to some of the early years classes later this week!

On Tuesday Alawa Primary School were fortunate to have members from the Royal Australian Air Force visit. Students from Years 3 to 6 were invited to join the RAAF Hot Air Balloon team on the oval and experience a unique hands on opportunity. Students were able to tour inside a cold air inflated envelope (the balloon) where they learnt about the different features of the envelope. In pairs, students were also invited to step inside the balloon basket and pull the trigger to ignite the burners. After the interactive session, students then had the chance for a Q&A session with the RAAF team.

A huge thank you to the RAAF team for this exciting and rare opportunity to get up close and hands on with 1 of only 4 RAAF hot air balloons.

Katie Wedel [Defence School Mentor]

This term we are lucky enough to have special guest teacher, Ms Crystal Thomas, who will be coordinating our performances for our whole school performance night. Welcome Ms Crystal - we hope you enjoy your time here at Alawa.

"I am a creative practitioner that has been living and working on Larrakia Country for over 8 years.

I am currently studying Creative Arts Therapies - Dance Movement Therapy and am excited by play based movement therapies that unlock creativity, grow self-confidence, nurture empathy and foster wellness.

I have loved my first week dancing with all the students at Alawa Primary!"

As part of the International Innovation Grant, we will be hosting free cooking workshops for Alawa students and their families where participants will have fun cooking a variety of international cuisines. 

Workshops will run from 3 - 4:30pm each Tuesday for 4 weeks starting on August 2nd. 

Places are limited so be sure to book your spot via this link: https://www.summitnutritioneducation.com/about-1 

Check out the latest news on our Facebook page.

Our initial letters and information have gone home about our exciting camp for our students in Years 3 and 4 to The Territory Wildlife Park on September 8th and 9th.

Permission notes will be sent home in the next fortnight. The payment of $150 and permission notes will need to be received no later than 26th August.  Payment secures our booking and is needed to purchase food supplies.  If payment is difficult by these dates, please come and speak to us directly or contact the Principal, Sandy Cartwright.

There will be 3 payment instalment dates throughout the lead up time to camp. Please take note of these suggested instalment dates below.

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 classes with the most points in Week 3 of Term 3 were....Transition Henschke and 1 Wilson with 100 points each!!!

The winning class for weeks 1-3 is... Transition Henschke with 277 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 3 of Term 3 Finnis was ahead of Manton and Goyder with 2825 points!!! 

In the lead for the year we still have Finnis with 67443 points!!!

Primary School Average for Week 3 Term 3: 89.65%

It is still of concern how many students are missing school each week.

The class with the highest attendance for Week 3: Year 5/6 Baines with 95.83%!!!

In the lead for the term we have.... Year 4/5 Griffin with 91.79%!!!

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

There were 24 late arrivals in Transition—Year 6 in Week 3 Term 3!

For Week 3 the class with the least lates was: Year 5/6 Henderson with 0 lates!!!

In the lead for the term we have... Year 2 Ward with 1 late arrival! 

The beautiful dry season weather has meant lots of outdoor investigation time at preschool. There is a lot of ‘cooking’ taking place in both the sandpit and the mud kitchen. Children are baking cakes, making soups and curries and discussing the ingredients that they need to find to add to their dishes. As children are filling pots with water and adding ingredients, they are learning about the measurement concepts of capacity and weight in a hands on, real way.

Measurement is our current numeracy focus at preschool. We investigate this through group games and experiments, fun, hands on investigation areas and activities such as measuring ourselves against a ruler made of handprints and asking ‘How many hands tall are you?’ During group time this week we explored the weight concepts of ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ and compared different objects weight on the scales. Children were very excited to discover that a table tennis ball was much lighter than a much smaller marble. Children quickly collected other objects to test on the scales.

Emma Connelly, Emma Churchman, Kelly & Flor [Pre-school team]

Have you read – Walk of the Whales Written and Illustrated by Nick Bland? This book has been shortlisted in the CBCA Book of the Year Early Childhood category.

When all of the whales in the ocean leave their home to walk around on land, people don’t quite know what to think. But soon shopkeepers go out of business, farms are flooded with water and salt, and people shout horrible, anti-whale words. That is, until, a smart little girl decides to ask the whales what everyone can do to help.

Nick Bland has, through flipping the reality of the impact we have on our oceans to what the impact of inhabitants of the ocean might have on our Human habitat, encouraged us to think not only about the environment but also about the importance of discovering why someone is doing something. Told using end rhyme, Walk of the Whales is a feast for the eyes using colour, scale, the idea of what if and humour to relay an important message.

The CBCA Judges say:

The magic and mystery of childhood imaginings are combined with the grand possibilities of illustrations, and a profound message about humanity’s interconnection with the planet. This weighty message is handled with a delicate touch, rhythmic text and a balance of imagination, humour and truth. There is a touching moment when a child querys the situation and the emotion in the whale’s blunt reply is beautifully framed by the tear in its eye. Less about pollution, this is a book about possibilities: the exchange of rubbish for the whales foregrounds the principle that for every action in nature, there is a consequence and there is always a fresh story and connection to discover.

Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]

It was so wonderful to finally return to Playgroup. So many of us had been waiting patiently! This week we welcomed a new family to Playgroup. They loved making and eating our special Playgroup scones! We loved playing in the Preschool shop this week.  We used the shopping bag to collect our groceries and saw the shop assistant when it was time to pay. Some of us insisted on using the self-serve too! Our parents were really surprised by the price of fruit and vegetables! Outdoors we loved building creative marble runs and testing to see if they would work, playing on the climbing equipment and riding the tricycles together.

Join us for another fun week of Playgroup next Friday when we plan to visit the Farm.

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. 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 [Wed and Thu only]

Wednesday – Homemade Pork dumplings -  $5.50

Thursday – Chicken and Jackfruit Curry - Large size $5.50, Small $3.50

Friday – Homemade Roast Pork rolls - One size $5.50

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

Order online at www.quickcliq.com.au