Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome back to the start of Term 4 at Alawa!

I am all refreshed and raring to go for the final quarter of the year after a very enjoyable period of long service leave. I returned to work Monday 3rd and have had a chance to catch up on all the events from when I  was away and reconnect with staff and families. Sincere thanks to Gen Donohue, Ana Bernardino and the rest of the team at Alawa for leading the school community in my absence.

This term we welcome Mr Jed Henderson to our Leadership Team. Jed will be Senior Teacher Innovation & Assessment and will play a significant role in supporting colleagues with their data analysis to inform teaching as well as continuing to take a leading role in our Maths and Digital learning programs.

We have our next School Council meeting Monday 17th October at 5:30pm. Please send any additional business / agenda items through to Kylie Smith via alawa.school@education.nt.gov.au.

Reminder: Pupil Free Day 21st October

No school for students  Friday 21st October. This is our final Professional Learning day for the year and we will be reviewing our 2022 School Improvement plan and establishing the goals and plans for 2023.

Alawa Harvest Cooking - another big success

During the first week of the break Ms Elsa offered the Harvest Cooking program once again and it was terrific to see so many families make the most of this opportunity. I popped in on the Tuesday and saw many smiley faces and children engaging in the program. Thanks once again Ms Elsa.

Sporting Schools

We applied for further funding to offer lunchtime and afterschool sport programs during the term but were unsuccessful. We will, however, continue to use existing school resources to offer before school sport as well as sport on the oval for Years 3-6 each lunchtime. The older students will continue to arrange a soccer game for children in Transition each recess and lunch.

Busy Term 4: Keep your eyes open

We have a very busy term coming up - please keep a close eye on the events calendar in the newsletter and also on the Skoolbag App:

• Touch Gala Day Friday 14th October
• Open information sessions for Transition and Preschool for 2023
• Growth and Development sessions for Years 5 and 6
• Afterschool cooking classes again with Ms Sullivan [See flyer with booking details further in the newsletter - spaces limited]
• Swimming for Preschool - Year 2.

Class teachers will send home letters within the next week advising you of their curriculum overviews for the term and key dates for your child.

Planning for 2023

We have commenced our financial and staffing planning for 2023. If you will NOT be with us next year we would appreciate your early notification to take into account when arranging classes and cohort sizes.

Have a fantastic week and see you around the school

Sandy Cartwright [Principal]

Hello everyone,

I hope you have had a restful break and are ready for a fantastic Term 4. Like all schools we have a very busy Term planned. We have many events to look forward to as  we prepare to finalise 2022 as well as get ready for 2023

This year, NT Mental Health Week will be held 8th - 16th October. World Mental Health Day was on Monday 10th October. This is a day dedicated to reflecting on our mental health and wellbeing, raising awareness of the importance of mental health and to check in on each other to see who may need support. The theme of the 2022 World Mental Health Day is Awareness, Belonging, Connection.

The home environment and the families that occupy them, play a primary role on the ongoing development of children and young people and their mental health.

Be You is the national mental health in education initiative delivered by Beyond Blue, in collaboration with Early Childhood Australia and headspace. It has some excellent resources and information on how we can support our students mental health and Wellbeing. Family Partnerships - Be You  Development - Be You

We all may feel overwhelmed at times and relaxing isn’t always something that comes naturally. There are lots of programs that can help you learn how to be more mindful and relaxed.

Smiling Mind has a free app you can download that guides you through different mindfulness meditations.

Relaxation is about calming down the body and mind. You can practise relaxation every day to wind down and use relaxation techniques during stressful situations. Many people find that mindfulness and relaxation work together: they feel more relaxed when they try to be mindful, and being relaxed helps them practise mindfulness.  

Bite Back’s is a set of Power Up audio tracks. These short snippets of audio guide you towards being more mindful and you can listen to them on your phone or computer.

Breathe is an app designed just for young people to help manage anxiety and worrying.

Have a wonderful week

Gen Donohue [Assisting Principal] 

I am Regan Tew and I will be at Alawa Primary School for the next 8 weeks, finishing my teaching placement in Nathan Wilson's class. I am from Georgia, USA and my university, The University of Georgia has organised for me to teach in an international school before I graduate in December. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn about Darwin and Australia while I am here!

Hello, my name is Monique Tudehope and some of you may already know me as I have worked at Alawa as a Special Education Support Assistant for the past two years. I am currently in my fourth and final year of my Bachelor of Education at Charles Darwin University and will be undertaking my final placement in Transition Henschke. I am excited to learn as much as I can from Alawa school, the  teachers and students, so that I can be the best teacher I can be. 

On the last day of term we celebrated our latest honour distinction award winner and principal for the day, Miss Alexis Nicholas.

Principal Alexis had a fantastic day being Principal. 

Alexis's quote....

My favourite part of the day was visiting all the classes and handing out merits. My favourite class was Preschool.

I hope to do well in school and become a Marine Biologist!

Great job Principal Alexis ! 

We will be looking forward to a fantastic term of kitchen in Term 4. The journey around the world will continue with China - wontons and dumplings, Italy - pizza and pasta, Spain - Spanish omelette and many more.

The year 3's have been practicing hard and will be assessed for their knife licenses this term. This will mean they will be able to use the MasterChef knives, which is very exciting.  We will continue to practice many skills such as using the ovens and stoves and trying out different cooking techniques.

As always, we will be using the seasonal produce from the farm to make our meals extra delicious. We now have extra herbs and vegetables in the Zen Garden outside the kitchen which we can harvest as we need them. 

We always love parent volunteers in Kitchen. If you would like to help out, please contact Tamra in the front office.

Ms Tina Sullivan [Kitchen teacher]

Woot Woot Term 4, always an action packed and funfilled term. A highlight on the Term 4 calendar each year is the Free Dress Day hosted by Defence Kids Club. On the Friday of Week 7 students are invited to wear clothing of their choice to school in return for a gold coin donation. The funds raised are donated to a not-for-profit Defence Organisation. This year we will be donating to Legacy Australia.

As we head into the end of the year and all of the joyous occasions it brings, Defence families head into another all too familiar season…..Posting season. This means that over the next couple of months we are going to see friends, family and neighbours packing up their lives and moving on to their next location. As well as new families moving to Darwin. Moving is a major life change. It is an event filled with a variety of emotions. A move of choice may be viewed as a positive opportunity associated with feelings of excitement and anticipation. In contrast, a move without choice may be associated with feelings of fear, anxiety, and sadness. Each family member may experience different emotions at different times. However, if relocation is approached with an optimistic attitude, it can promote family growth and involvement.

The relationship of the parents forms the foundation for a healthy family. The strength of this foundation is the key to family stability. During times of relocation children benefit from the security of their parents' love and support.

Over my next few newsletter articles, I will share suggestions that can assist in making that transition little easier.

This week, here are some suggestions for helping couples through the relocation process:

• Focus on yourself. If you take care of your physical and emotional needs, you will be better prepared to help your family.
• Express and share your feelings, emotions, and expectations with your partner.
• Recognise that your family may experience a sense of loss as a result of a move. It takes time to work through this loss.
• After the move, become involved in familiar activities.
• Maintain contacts with friends and relatives.
• Schedule time alone as a couple.

Katie Wedel [Alawa DSM]

 Suggestions Credit: Ken Welsh: NSW Regional Education Liaison Officer.

Last term we finalised the fundraising from our hugely successful Preschool Bikeathon! With the help from our wonderful Preschool families we raised just under $2000 to go towards installing a tap and water system closer to our sandpit. This will provide many amazing water play opportunities for our Preschool children. Thank you to all the parents for your support!

Congratulations to Toby (Pre Red) and Ricky (Pre Blue) for being the highest fundraisers for their class. 

Emma Connelly, Emma Churchman & Kelly Crawford

Being selected for the under 13’s hockey team gave us a rush of excitement. We were proud to represent our home: The NT.

On the 27th of September we started our journey by departing to Hobart via Melbourne. 

When we got to Hobart we instantly got our bags and headed to the hockey grounds for our final training.

The next day we got up and went to the hockey grounds to play our first game in the freezing cold against the Queensland Cutters. This game was really hard as we had only been in this temperature for one day and did not realise the speed of State hockey. The cause of this led to us losing 7-0. Although this happened it was our first game and our worst one so it only got better. 

The next few games weren't too bad. We lost a couple, won one and drew one. Eventually we got to the best game that we had winning 2-1 against the Victoria Volt!

Finally the tournament was over and we finished 10th out of 12 which is really good for the NT.

Our favourite part of the tournament was the celebrations that no one could pull off other than the NT for drawing a game.

We would like to say a big thank you to the Alawa School Council and Joel Bowden for donating to us and helping us to go on this trip!

 Jesse Davey and Callum Critchley

NED's Mindset Mission is a character education program that centers around three important messages that have lifelong relevance: Never give up, Encourage others and Do your best. During the assembly, students will learn about the importance of these three life skills while also enjoying storytelling, magic, humor and yo-yo tricks. 

Yo Yo's will be on sale through the front office from Wednesday 12th October through to Thursday 20th October.

http://www.mindsetmission.com/assembly.html

We are looking for bus drivers to help out with the Early Years Swimming Program starting on the 21st November. 

If you are interested and can help out for a day or 2 [between 8:30am and 1:30pm] please contact Ms Tamra with your availability. 

tamra.caruana@education.nt.gov.au or 8997 7666

Please note you will be required to have appropriate license to drive a 21 seater coaster and hold a current ochre card. [Ms Tamra can help secure an ochre card if needed] 

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 10 of Term 3 was....Transition Henschke with 91 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 10 of Term 3 Finnis was ahead of Goyder and Manton with 2786 points!!! 

In the lead for the year we still have Finnis with 82832 points!!!

Primary School Average for Week 10 Term 3: 87.32%

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

The class with the highest attendance for Week 10: Year 3 Block with 97.12%!!! Amazing job!!!

The class with the highest attendance for Term 3 was.... Year 3 Block with 94.75%!!!

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

There were 51 late arrivals in Transition—Year 6 in Week 9 Term 3!

For Week 10 the classes with the least lates were: Transition Henschke, 1 Wilson and 5/6 Henderson with 0 lates!!!

The class with the least lates for the whole term is..... Transition Henschke with 13 late arrivals! 

This Friday we will recognise the efforts of Ms Lucinda from 4/5 Griffin with an Honour Distinction Award.

We will also proudly present other Alawa Honour Awards:

Welcome back to Term 4 – Wow the year seems to be flying by. Last term saw a focus on reading and writing for information. I have always had a fascination for the world at large, it’s peoples, history and geography and in my time here at the school I have found that Kids LOVE Non Fiction books just as much if not more and some students prefer to read non-fiction books over fiction. So I thought I would have a look at what the benefits are of reading this genre. Here is what I found:

Non Fiction books –

• foster critical thinking and information gathering skills;
• build vocabulary and language;
• make real world connections;
• support investigations;
• allow the reader to follow their interests and dip in and out depending on what information they are interested in or looking for;
• reading becomes interactive and social as the reader shares information and facts they have learned;
• prepares students for further study and life at large ie. Often work requires people to read manuals, reports, policies and undertake professional development;
• include graphs, charts, diagrams, tables and maps which build visual literacy and spatial sense.

Non Fiction books come in a lot of different formats, sitting here I can think of a few that have caught my and my children’s interest over time. Richard Scary has different books out that look at how things work and what jobs people do to name a couple. These present information in a fun way that kids engage with and as a parent I have enjoyed reading and seeing all of the funny things the characters are doing along the way. There are books such as Give me some space by Philip Bunting or Saltie Mumma by Sandra Kendell which tell a story along with facts about the topic along the way. For the older kids there are different books which include pull outs, envelopes and things to explore such as Spyology: the complete book of spycraft by Dugald Steer. Books such as the Horrible Histories, Horrible Geography, Murderous Maths and the My Story series present information in an accessible and interesting way.

 So if you are looking for something to interest your reluctant reader find out what they are interested in and check out a Non-Fiction book.

Miss Sacha [Library and ICT Manager]

Playgroup will return this Friday 14th October. 

Please join Miss Maria for some fun and games from 9:30am in the Preschool. 

Over the weekend Alexandra and Henry competed in the NT BMX Championships at Satellite City in Palmerston. It was an action packed couple of days and even a power outage from the storms couldn’t stop them. Alexandra competed in a combined 9 Year old and 10 year old girls competition in which she placed 3rd and 5th. Henry earnt his trophy in the 7 Year Old Sprocket category. Congratulations to both Alexandra and Henry. 

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.