Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to Week 7

We had a very exciting week last week with our Whole School Performance night. It was wonderful to see the children on stage with their great dance moves. Crystal, our dance instructor, did a fantastic job teaching each class and many children thrived with this learning experience. Crystal is a trained Musical Therapist and she has just agreed to return to our school next term to work with identified small groups.

Thanks to Yenni and our SRC students for preparing gifts and cards for our Father’s day stall. We appreciate your support in allowing your children to buy some small gifts to support our fundraising.. I hope you enjoyed celebrating Fathers day and connecting with your family.

There are some very excited Year 3 and students who we will be saying goodbye to us as they head off to camp tomorrow. I am sure they will have a wonderful time and I am looking forward to visiting them on Thursday night with Ms cartwright.

I have already started interviews for our 2023 enrolments in Preschool. I am encouraging these new families to come to our Playgroup on a Friday morning at 9:30. If you attend Playgroup, please be mindfulful that our Playgroup is  a priority for new families to familiarise their children with this space and to also begin to start establishing friendships.  

For the next two weeks I will be Acting Principal while Sandy takes some well earned leave. Please do not hesitate to get in contact with me if required.

Gen Donohue [Assistant Principal] 

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 7 of Term 3 was....Year 2 Ward with 140 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 7 of Term 3 Finnis was ahead of Manton and Goyder with 3067 points!!! 

In the lead for the year we still have Finnis with 77543 points!!!

Meaningful Maths: Our approach at Alawa

I have noticed a few comments through the perception surveys expressing concerns, queries regarding our Maths approach.  I can fully understand that as the way they are taught today is significantly different from when I went through school and I imagine for many of you. I can assure you our students are engaged in a quality program and our results continue to improve across the school since the implementation back in 2014.

In the past we have offered family Maths nights and the opportunity for parents to come in and observe a Maths session in operation in the classrooms. We are very happy to offer these again.

If you would like to know more about our Alawa maths approach please respond to these quick questions in this survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3NR8BSS

Survey will close Friday 9th September. To date we have only had 8 responses. I will close the survey this Friday and make direct contact with those who have responded seeking further information and clarification.

In the meantime for those interested here are some links to further information:

Alawa Approach to Maths

Maths | Alawa Primary School | Primary School Located in the Northern Suburbs of Darwin

 Parent Information

Families and whānau | NZ Maths

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Preparations are under way for the Early Years Swimming program in Term 4. All parents of Pre-school to Year 2 students should receive a note today with more details of the program running during Weeks 7 and 8 next term.

It is vital that you return this note by Monday Week 10, whether you intend to participate in the program or not.

Thank you for your support returning these notes. Please note that payment will not need to be finalised until Week 5 of next term but can be paid anytime prior. Some families may have already contributed to the payment through their Back to School Voucher. The Front Office will have a record of all contributions already processed.

Book Fair is almost here…

This year our Book Fair Theme is Paws for Books – Come. Stay. Read a Great Tale

Our Book Fair is all set up and classes have started to come to the library to see what is on offer and create wish lists. Next week we will be opening the library doors each morning and afternoon for students and families to come, have a look and purchase what is on offer. We have fiction and non-fiction books, graphic novels, posters, pens, diaries, activity kits and much more. Our opening times are listed below and include Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon until 6pm to coincide with our Student Led Conferences. I look forward to seeing you there.

Book Fair dates:                Week 9 September 12th – 16th

Shopping hours:               Monday – Friday: 8am – 8:30am,  

                                             Monday, Thursday, Friday: 3pm – 4pm

                                             Tuesday and Wednesday: 3pm – 6pm [During Student Led Conferences]

Thank you to those who volunteered to assist in setting up the Book Fair. If you would like to help out over the next week whether it be with sales or pack up on Monday in Week 10 please let me know.

Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]

We had a wonderful time at Playgroup last Friday. We met some new families that will be attending Alawa in 2023 which was wonderful. the coming weeks we can expect to meet many new 2023 Pre-schoolers at Playgroup. It is fun to welcome them into our community and show them around their Preschool. We also had some wonderful Grandparents from interstate and abroad spend the time with us which is very special indeed.

 

This week Miss Maria baked scones for our morning tea while we busily played Doctors and Nurses with our families. We spent time doing artwork; painting, gluing, cutting and creating. Outside we rode bikes, played in the sandpit, climbed, read books, and built a fortress with the oversized wooden blocks. 

We also shared our scones outdoors and some of us even had seconds.

Next week we will visit the Farm so please remember your hat, water bottles and shoes.

See you then,

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 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 [Wed and Thu only]

Wednesday – Asian paw paw salad -  $5.50, Small $3.50

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

Friday – Homemade Chicken burger - 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

FREE parent and carer webinar – games and apps

Online games can be fun for your child while helping them learn and make friends. But there can be risks, like seeing violent content, being bullied or being contacted by strangers.

Watch this short video for some easy things you can do to help keep children safe playing games online or read about it in the advice sheet. The video and advice sheet comes in, English, Simplified Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Tamil and Dari.

You can also register for our FREE live webinar, 14 September for tips on helping your children stay safe when online gaming.