Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to our Week 6 news!

Focussed learning continues to roll along at Alawa, even as the weather continues to challenge us at times with the humidity and heat. We all welcomed the light rain last Friday and again yesterday and our children still all managed to get out on the verandahs and into the Muster area for some fresh air and playtime. On days like that it reminds me just how lucky we are to have the undercover areas around the school which enable everyone to still stretch and play during light rain.

NT Learning Commission

Today [Wednesday the 16th of November] we will be joining with around 400 other NTLC student commissioners at the Darwin Convention Centre to celebrate the positive changes that have been created and share all our hard work with the Minister for Education. This is a great opportunity to celebrate hundreds of amazing commissioners who have been leading improvement alongside their teachers and leaders throughout the school year and who represent over 10,000 young Territorians across their collective school communities! 

 The purpose of NTLC is to empower all students to be 'Partners in their Learning' by actively listening to student voice to make meaningful improvements in schooling. Throughout the year, students undertake a series of work, including data analysis, collaborating with other NTLC schools, and regularly meeting with their school leadership team.

We have 13 children from Year 5 and 6 in our Senior Commission who meet weekly with Mrs Baines, Ms Katie and myself. Then we have a further 10 children from Years 3 and 4 in our Junior Learning Commission who meet weekly with Mrs Cleary and Ms Katie.

Both groups will be sharing their investigations, findings and recommendations at Assembly on Friday 25th November.

Year 2 Excursion

Our Year 2 cherubs are off the Henbury School today for a performance of 'Where the Wild Things Are' - they were super excited and we appreciate the invitation and loan of the bus for transport from Henbury School. Thanks to Mr Dean for being the bus driver for us.

Friday 25th Assembly Student Leadership awards 

Just an early heads up - as with last year at our Week 7 Assembly [Friday 25th November] we recognise and celebrate so many students at our school for their contributions as leaders through the year. Certificates will be presented to the following groups of students:

• Senior Learning Commission
• Junior Learning Commission
• Tek Ninjas
• Tek Interns
• Library Monitors
• Student Representative Council

Perception survey Snapshot 4

This week I have shared another snapshot from our Perception survey last term.  This week focussing on Satisfaction for the services and programs we offer at the school.

Have a fantastic week,

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Welcome to week 6.

We are heading into a busy time of year in all classes as teachers are collating information and writing reports to inform families and parents on how students have finished the year. As well as this, our teachers continue to work hard to deliver quality programs. It is wonderful to see students continuing to apply themselves to their learning.

The temperature is certainly very steamy at the moment and I have really enjoyed my time in the Preschool as our students enjoy their waterplay. It’s amazing how many Preschoolers can jam into a blue clam shell.

We are starting to get a little rain at school, but it is not often at playtime. We will always endeavor to have the children outside at recess and lunch, even if it means they stay on the verandahs. If the rain is too heavy we may have to spend some time in the classroom. 

Don’t forget our Transition Information Session tonight at 5pm. If you missed the Preschool open session this afternoon, there will be another one held next Wednesday 23rd at 5 pm.

Have a lovely week!

Kind regards

Gen Donohue [Assistant Principal] 

The risk of a cyber attack has never been more real or prevalent. 

Cyber Pathways has developed an easy to follow short course for parents and students that will help protect you and your family from online attacks. 

Skoolbag is pleased to bring you an exclusive offer that is only available to Skoolbag families: any parent who signs up to the course for the special price of $149 will receive FREE access to the student version for your child.   

Designed specifically for parents and teens, this non-technical guide will help you identify and intercept cyber threats that jeopardise you and your family's private information.

By completing this 1 hour, self-paced short course, you will raise your cyber awareness, understand prevalent cyber attacks that pose a threat to you and your family and learn easy-to-implement best practices and safeguards that will significantly reduce you and your child's risk of a cyber attack.

Need more reasons to sign up?

• 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error
• On average, there are 164 cybercrime reports made by Australians every day
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Be prepared now, and save yourself in the future from potential financial and personal risk. 

Click here to redeem your offer now as a Skoolbag member

The Alawa School Council invites all interested parents and carers to an

Alawa Primary After School Care Parent Meeting: follow up.

5:30pm- 6:30pm, Monday, November 21st 2022

Alawa School Library

The Council invites you to a meeting to discuss the findings of the Out of School Hours Care (OSHC) working group and the decision around this issue.

At the start of 2022, Alawa Primary School families could access 4 services

• Little Flyers
• Brat Pack
• Jingili After School Care service
• School of Languages

At the end of Term 1 2022, Alawa School received notification of closure of Jingili After School Care service to Alawa students and the closing of their second campus at Millner.

The events and investigation into OSHC for Alawa Primary School have included the following:

• Alawa School Principal negotiated access to Wulagi After School Care services for Alawa families
• Invested parents and the School Council met in March to discuss this issue and consider solutions. A summary of this meeting was published in the school newsletter (Term 1 Week 8)
• A parent working group was formed at the March meeting
• The working group developed a school community survey to quantify the need for OSHC
• The working group contacted 3 Darwin based commercial after school care providers seeking proposals to provide Alawa School specific OSHC
• 3 proposals were received, and reviewed by the School Council
• Based on the survey responses and the proposals received, the Council decided that it was not currently feasible to establish an OSHC facility at Alawa Primary School
• The School Principal has been having ongoing conversation with families, carers and Ministers

Please RSVP to stephanie.cockfield@education.nt.gov.au

Childcare is available. Please indicate in your RSVP if you will need it.

School Start Time: Gates NOT open till 8am

Just a reminder to all families our school start time is 8:30am

Children can arrive, connect with friends and play sport when we open the gates at 8am. This is 30mins prior to the start of the day bell and staff are on duty to ensure safety and wellbeing of all from that time.

We ask that children DO NOT get dropped off / arrive prior to 8am unless a prior arrangement is made with Gen Donohue or myself.  We continue to have a small number sitting in the front office from 7:45am onwards - simply too early and way too congested for the office. I have emailed parents of children this includes and would appreciate your dropping them off 8am onwards.

Thanks

Sandy Cartwright

How do Preschool stay cool in this hot and steamy build up weather?

Wet and messy play of course!

We have been putting the new tap we had installed to good use. Every Monday and Friday afternoon the Preschool children engage in a range of fun, wet and messy activities. They have enjoyed playing in the sprinkler, making waterfalls in the sandpit and chilling in our relaxing, makeshift pools! What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon!

Emma Connelly, Emma Churchman, Ms Flor & Ms Kelly [Preschool Team] 

Full payment for the Early Years Swimming program is now overdue.

Please contact the front office to arrange payment on 8997 7666.

Cost: $84 for 8 lessons for Transition- Year 2              

          $45 for 4 lessons for Preschoolers                                

Venue:  Nightcliff Swimming Pool

Dates: Term 4 Week 7 and 8 – Monday 21st of November until Thursday 1st of December

We are currently seeking a Maintenance Officer for our school. 🧰

Mr Dean and his family are continuing with their round Australia trip and heading off again in a few weeks - we will be sad to see them leave our community!

If you want to learn more or know of someone who might be interested, please contact Sharon at the office on 8997 7666 or email sharon.jennings2@education.nt.gov.au

A special thank you to Mrs Annette Lehmann. Superstar Grandmother and volunteer. 

Annette has made some beautiful curtains for our kitchen learning space. Thank you Annette for your hard work and support of our school - it is very much appreciated.

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.  Students also can earn house points for having a go at the weekly quizz emailed out Monday mornings by Ms Cartwright. These points 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 5 of Term 4 Manton was ahead of Goyder and Finnis with 2111 points!

In the lead for the year we still have Finnis with 90892 points!!!

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 expectations.

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 5 of Term 4 was....5/6 Baines with 141 points!!!

Primary School Average for Week 5 Term 4: 88.19%

The class with the highest attendance for Week 5: Year 5/6 Henderson with 97.92%!!! Amazing job!!!

In the lead this term...Year 5/6 Henderson with 95.71%

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

There were 39 late arrivals in Transition—Year 6 in Week 5 Term 4!

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

In the lead this term...Year 2 Riley-Smith with 3 late arrivals!!!

Alawa Recycling is not only an important part of our fundraising activities here at Alawa with all proceeds going directly back into the farm, but also a vital step in helping us achieve the goal of creating a more sustainable farm and garden program.

Items can be deposited into the house bags in the back car park and  each item earns a point for each house. 

Apple for the Teacher – voting now open!😎The following super star teachers have been nominated for this year’s Hot 100 Apple for the Teacher competition:

🍎Miss Connelly

🍏Miss Churchman

🍎Miss Hughes

🍏Mrs Henschke

🍎Mr Henderson

Follow the link below to take you direct to the voting page and vote for your favourite teacher now! https://www.hot100fm.com.au/win/apple-for-the-teacher-2022/#enter-now

As we are halfway through week 6 and the end of the year is approaching at what seems like lightning speed, you will find overdue notices coming out on a weekly basis. Please have a look around to see if there are any Alawa Primary School library books lurking around the house. If you receive a notice and cannot find the book listed please pop in or contact me by phone or email as it may have slipped through the system and be hiding on the library shelves. Students will be able to borrow up until the end of Week 8.

 Book Recommendation

Are you looking for a fun series for the upcoming Holiday break? Ms Cartwright has introduced students in a few of our classes to the following series written and illustrated by Australians Andrew McDonald and Ben Wood.

 Real Pigeons

“Did you know your city is protected by a secret squad of crime-fighting pigeons? It’s true! With master of disguise Rock Pigeon, bendy Tumbler, strong Frillback and super-finder Homey the REAL PIGEONS will solve any mystery and fight any bad guy to keep the city safe!” [realpigeons.com]

Perfect for beginning chapter readers and those readers who love Bad Guys and Dog Man, this series brings readers a combination of animals and crime fighting with mysteries to solve. Readers 6+ will find 3 interlinked but separate mysteries within each book with a secret squad of crime-fighting pigeons bringing their own unique set of skills to each adventure. There is no need to wait for the next book in this series to come out as there are currently 10 books available in this series. Check out the Real Pigeons website at https://realpigeons.com/to where you can find out more about this fun series, download activities and join the creators as they chat about books, share the latest Real Pigeons updates and get creative with writing and drawing tips, ideas and challenges.

Happy reading!!!

Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]

We love Playgroup! It’s a highlight of our week and we sometimes explode into the room with our eagerness. Sometimes we quietly slide in too without being noticed!! 

This week we enjoyed being indoors as quite a few of us (and our parents) enjoyed the air conditioning! We played with playdough and built car tracks, we read books and puzzled happily. The Mobili Table has been so much fun as we build and create and imagine and explain to our caregivers what we have made. We draw and colour and love to play at the ‘Post Office’ too. There were many parcels sent to our Mums, Dads and Grandparents. Even dinosaurs were posted!

This coming Friday we’ll visit the Farm so please remember hats, water bottles and shoes. 

See you Friday!!

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.

Available every day lunch only:

- mini beef burgers $4.50

- spaghetti bolognaise small serve $4.50 or large serve $6.50 /Gluten Free Spaghetti $6.50 [Wed & Thu only]

Wednesday – Fresh meat pies - $6.50

Thursday – Chicken fried rice - Large size $6.50, Small $4.50

Friday – Pasta Carbonara - Large size $6.50, Small $4.50

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

Order online at www.quickcliq.com.au

If you have plans to leave our school for 2023 we would really appreciate early notification as this can assist with our class planning and structure and budgeting.

Please just email or phone the front office to advise.