Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to Week 4 News!

What an absolutely gorgeous dry season weekend, hope you all managed to get out and about!

Our individual students assessments continue through the school this week, initial reviews of the Reading and Maths results from the Progressive Achievement test [PAT] show some terrific growth made by many students. NAPLAN is the big focus this week and next for all students in Years 3 and 5 - please support your children by getting them to bed on time, having a healthy breakfast and being at school on time.

I spent some time visiting Preschool last Friday and they were super excited to show  me their new scooters as well as share their stories of the sightings of ALLE all around their playground.

Primary Pep Talks

As I spend time in each primary class over last week and this week we are reflecting on Term 1 as well as focusing on what we all have to look forward to for this term. We are having a fun quizz about the 21st Century ALLE - so far I have certainly been impressed with how articulate the students are about the 21st ALLE tools, what students are saying and doing and how this helps them with their learning.

Learning Commission

Our Senior Learning Commission stayed till 4:30pm last Thursday to deliver their elevator pitches trying to influence each other as to the chosen line of inquiry for 2022. The final choice: Data literacy: Are students at Alawa Data Literate and does it make a difference to their learning? Stay tuned for lots more as they investigate further and then share their findings and recommendations through the year.

Extra Curricula activities and opportunities

Once again through the term there are so many opportunities for our students:

• Recycled art club with Ms Saleena
• Instrumental Music program
• Daily sport [recess, lunch and before school]
• Sport Gala Days
• Tek Interns with Mrs Henschke and Tek Ninjas with Mrs Cleary and Ms Sacha
• After school sport with Ms Gina
• Special lunchtime sport with development officers for AFL and Cricket.

Farm Working Bee - this Saturday morning

I hope to see many families pop in and help out at the Farm working bee this Saturday morning from 8:30am - 10:30am. Many hands make light work!

Take care and have a fab week

Cheers

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Hello everyone and welcome to Week 4,

Our Mother’s Day stall was a huge success. Thankyou everyone for your support and to the SRC for your work in making the gifts and selling our products. A special thankyou also to Yenni Kroger for making many of the gifts as well as Fern and Findlay Russell’s grandmother and her friends for their wonderful crafts. I hope you all had a lovely weekend with your families.

NAPLAN: Our Year 3 and 5 students have begun their NAPLAN assessments this week. All assessment will be online except for the year 3 writing. The conditions will be exactly the same as the practice tests so the students are all familiar with the process. As advised in earlier newsletters the tests will be spread out over 2 weeks.

REPORTS: Another reminder again to encourage your children to eat and sleep well as well as drink plenty of water and do the best they can. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Teachers are now heading into our report writing period where they are gathering data and preparing information to give you a clear picture of where your children are at and their next steps for learning. Please ensure your emails are all up to date so you receive the reports. If you would like a hard copy please let the front office know.

PEP TALKS: This term I have visited the early years classes to speak with them about our focus on our school values, ALLE’s new 21st century tools for learning and having a Growth Mindset. We discussed behaviours, awards, attendance, events from last term and what’s happening this term. Our focus this term for the early years was keeping safe and going to a trusted adult as well as self regulating by using strategies to control emotions. We always refer to the program called the Zones of Regulation to provide the language and visuals to support this learning.

Have a wonderful week!

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 3 of Term 2 was....Year 1 Wilson with 150 points!!!

The winners for Weeks 1-3 were....Year 3 Block with 319 points!!! Well done!!!

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 2 Finnis was ahead of Manton and Goyder with 3652 points!!! 

In the lead for the year...Finnis with 37265 points!!!

It has been a productive start to Term 2 in Year 1 Wilson with many wonderful achievements. It was wonderful hearing all about the time students spent with their families over the Easter break, with plenty of excited children sharing interstate travel tips with me after the holidays. As always much appreciated!

During Week 2 we hosted a full school assembly and showcased some of our persuasive thinking and reasoning. The children were very convincing in making suggestions for pets in classrooms and changes to the playground. With the long weekend heavy start to the term, plenty of students made compelling arguments for three-day weekends as well.

Towards the end of last term, we enjoyed Buddy Class activities with Year 4/5 Griffin learning about Indigenous games and discovering the game of marbles, which has been played all around the world for centuries. Check out some of our photos. We have settled into our programs for a new term, enjoying our visits to the farm with Ms Conder and we compiled a class sounds book, from adventures exploring the school with Ms Cleary. 

Nathan Wilson [Year 1 Teacher] 

Our beautiful dry season is finally here. With very little chance of rain, and the magical weather calling us outside we can get super creative with our activity ideas and extensions. We can set up painting and art experiences in the garden and really utilise the natural environment in learning experiences. Chalk drawings stay overnight and can be added too the next day; constructions can be hung up in trees and left to be enjoyed for weeks…the possibilities are endless!

This week children have really enjoyed exploring the many cosy nooks and natural cubbies scattered amongst the plants and bushes in the garden. The dramatic play and storytelling that happens in the outdoor classroom is amazing and sometimes we do not really want to go inside at all.

Have a magical week

Emma, Emma and Kelly and Flor [Preschool Team] 

This week seven of our Year 6 students will be attending the CBCA’s annual Bookfeast where students from 7 schools in Darwin will be meeting and having brunch with an Author or Illustrator. Students from Alawa have the amazing opportunity to sit down with local Author/Illustrator Sandra Kendall and ask her about her reasons and inspirations for writing, her passion for nature themes, how she takes facts and turns them into interesting stories and her incredible illustrations. Books Sandra has written and illustrated include Saltie Mumma, The Last Ones Left, Beauty, Green Tree Frogs and Welcome Little Scrubfowl. You can find out more about Sandra, her books and artwork at her website http://www.sandrakendell.net/

Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]

Last Friday we had a great time! We are loving seeing all our friends again and exploring preschool. This week we really enjoyed the Farmhouse and animals and wooden house. We created all sorts of interesting scenarios at the Farm! We are also able to play in the café. We made coffees and served out cupcakes to our parents and grandparents. It was a stunning dry season morning, so we spent most of it outside in the preschool yard, digging in the sand pit, riding the bikes and scooters and painting. Then we visited the farm. It was so much fun to feed the goats and lamb, we even fed Hay Hay a Hibiscus flower. We fed the chickens and checked for eggs too.  For morning tea, we shared a biscuit with our parents. They were delicious.

Join us for another fun week of Playgroup next Friday. We are planning on doing some baking!

Miss Maria [Playgroup Co-Ordinator] 

We are on the hunt for these items if anyone is doing a clean out at home:

• Beach shells
• Washed ice cream sticks
• Empty glad wrap tubes
• Old/scratched CD's
• Foil tart and pie trays
• Boxes for building
• Old plates and tea cups [real not plastic]
• Dress ups
• Baskets
• Old Tupperware containers with lids
• Corks
• Old or spare buttons

 As always, we are excited to take any items you are happy to donate that are not listed, these are just some things we have identified we will be needing. Thanks to everyone who has been sending things in. Don’t forget to pop them in the donation boxes so you can get points for your house. 

Thank you to Ruben who donated this fantastic basket that we are using to store the books we like to read.

Angela Henschke, Kate Hughes, Mr Brent and Ms Flor [Transition team] 

Not only do we have superstar students at Alawa but also superstar siblings!

Hannah Mills is the big sister of Olivia Mills from Year 4/5 Griffin and she is taking part in a grueling ride across the Simpson desert to raise much needed funds for Dolly's dream. Dolly's dream was created to implement anti-bullying initiatives and programs that  help to empower and educate our community about the power of kindness and bullying prevention.

These brave women are doing their bit to join together and ride for 4 days as part of the Simpson desert crossing in the aim to help raise $100,000.  https://fb.watch/cT1k-vSKW9/

If you would like to donate or support this important cause please visit:

https://fundraise.dollysdream.org.au/

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

Wednesday - Chicken Caesar wrap -  $5.50

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

 Friday – Chicken and vegetable hokkien noodles- 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