Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Well as the weather continues to be fantastic [apart from a little too much rain during school time] our students and staff are fully back in the swing of maximising all learning opportunities. There was great excitement as our goats and lamb arrived at the Alawa Farm recently.  Huge thanks to Ms Conder, Farmer Bob and all the families who volunteer at the Farm over weekends and holidays.

It is terrific to see our attendance for the first few weeks back - in the mid 90%'s. We hope to see this continue and remind families if for any reason your children will not be at school we ask that you contact us in advance to discuss the reasons for the absence and work to be done whilst away.

For our students in Years 3-6 Friday morning sport has recommenced and this coming Friday we start meeting up with other local schools for a game of AFL or Touch Football.

Common language / expectations

Over the past week Mrs Donohue and  I have spent time in all classes celebrating our highlights from 2020 as well as reviewing our attendance and behaviour data. We have also taken the opportunity to set the scene with regards to our Improvement Agenda, our behavioral expectations and the commitment we as a staff make to honouring the right for all students to have a voice in our school. In the primary classrooms I shared a You Tube clip from Kid President  reminding us that while each day may not be awesome how we respond to events / incidents can change our attitude and  perceptions. We all have the right to disagree BUT how we go about that can make a significant difference.

Kid President How to Disagree Video

 #attitudetrain

Volunteer Survey

Thanks so much to everyone who has already responded to the Volunteer survey - we are really looking forward to seeing so many more families back in the school with us supporting our students and programs through 2021.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YRNC6GK

Have a great week,

 Sandy Cartwright [Principal of the Best School in the Multiverse]

Hello everyone,

Last Friday was our first assembly for the year with Year 2 Bernardino and they did a great job. It was wonderful to see the students receiving their well-earned awards and chat with families both new and old.

The collaborative planning days were very productive and all teachers worked very hard assessing and evaluating data and using this to plan their programs for the term.

 Student leadership

We are now into Week 3. Many students already have jobs and responsibilities from last year and willingly stepped up to take on their roles. We will be finalising our School Captains, Vice Captains and House Captains. We will also be electing Learning Commissioners, Tek Ninjas and Tek Interns. Each classroom from Years 1-6 will then elect their student representative’s for our SRC. Badges will be presented at the Week 4 Assembly and all 2021 Student leaders are invited to be presented to the School Community at the AGM on 3rd March.

Have a wonderful week.

Genevieve Donohue, Assistant Principal

Hello Alawa Families,

Preschool children have really settled into the flow of the preschool days; sometimes it seems like they have been at Preschool for a whole term! We have been busy creating life size collages of our bodies. Children had to stay very still while a teacher traced around them (some of them found it very hard not to giggle during this stage). Once they had their body outline drawn they could paint, draw and decorate their ‘person’ any way they liked. Some traced bodies are very colourful, some are adorned with just a smile and some are covered in all the collage; string, paper pieces, glitter and more. These large self-portraits will be proudly displayed in the preschool room for all our visitors to see.

Have a wonderful week!

Have a great week!

Alice, Emma and Kelly and Flor. 

During the school holidays superstar student Sienna Pauli from Year 4/5 Henderson started up her own business. Ms Tamra sat down with Sienna to learn all about it....

Q. What business did you start Sienna?

I started a business called Sienna Leaf Designs. It is a shirt design business. 

Q. How did this come about?

A couple of years ago I wanted to make a business called Nila and I have been nagging my mum all this time to do it. She finally let me do it but she didn't like the name so we came up with a new one called Sienna Leaf Design. 

Q. What does your business have for sale?

I started in December and I made a shirt called 'Be Yourself' I drew the pictures myself and it has characters which are all different which I made to represent that being your self is ok. 

We wish Sienna lots of luck with her new business and if you would like to buy a shirt and support this budding entrepreneur you can visit  https://www.facebook.com/Sienna-Leaf-Designs-100121632019490 

The Sport voucher scheme is an initiative of the Northern Territory (NT) Government, aimed at offsetting the cost for children to participate in sport, recreation and cultural activities. 

Children in urban areas receive a $100 voucher twice a year.  Parents or carers need to apply for vouchers online each semester via the website www.sportvoucher.nt.gov.au 

If you require any assistance accessing this service please contact the front office on 8997 7666 or alawa.school@education.nt.gov.au 

Students at Alawa receive raffle tickets [house points] for their attitude and behavior 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 from the activity after recess on Friday where we count the students in full uniform, wearing house shirts etc.  At the end of each term we also include the points earnt through the recycling project—we hope to start this again soon.

Goyder is ahead of Manton and Finnis for Week 2 Term 1. 

Goyder is now in the lead for the year!

What an exciting start to 2021! Year 4/5 Henderson, 5/6 Lotherington and 5/6 Hammond have all made a start on the ‘Wraps n Noodles’ topic for term 1.

Our first task has been to either make rice paper rolls or a noodle salad. We have seen some excellent experimenting with dipping sauces and flavours. It’s been great to start using some fresh produce from the farm such as green pawpaw, mint, saw tooth coriander and limes. As usual I am pleased to see our budding cooks trying their food and experimenting with fruits and vegetables that they haven’t tried before. I always encourage the groups to give everything a go and if they don’t like it at least they have tried.

The next few weeks will see noodle soups, stir fries and sweet or savoury crepes.

As well as all the fantastic cooking, we will also be watching short cooking videos in class to not only teach us recipes and new techniques but to prepare us to create our own unique cooking video!

Tina Sullivan, Kitchen Teacher

Scholastic Book Club was sent home last Wednesday afternoon and is Due back this Thursday the 17th of February. If you have missed out on getting a copy there are a couple of copies at the front office or you can check it out online on the Scholastic Bookclub website at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download the LOOP app From Google Play or from the App Store. Please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions.

Did you know? Each issue of the Book Club comes with great titles by some well known authors which are priced under $5

These books in the current issue are:

1.       Whoever you are by Mem Fox for ages 3+

2.       A friend for Dragon by Dav Pilkey for ages 6+

3.       Kristy’s Great Idea (The Babysitters Club) by Ann M. Martin for ages 6+

4.       The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson for ages 10+

Sacha Evans, Library & ICT Manager

Welcome back to Alawa for what is sure to be a fantastic year. I hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful break. I am feeling refreshed and am excited about being back at school and seeing all of our families again. We do have a few new families joining us this year, several of which are Defence Families. I look forward to welcoming them and supporting them as they settle into Alawa School and their lives in Darwin. If you see new faces around please say Hi and welcome them to Alawa. After all they have just started the best school in the Multiverse.

We have had such a positive start to the school year. I have had a great time the first few weeks visiting students in their new classrooms, their excitement is contagious. Kids Club has been extremely popular so far this term. We have spent our time building friendships by getting to know each other a little more through playing games.

This Thursday I am hosting a Welcome / Welcome back morning tea for all of our Defence Force family parents at 8.30am. Please see the link below for details.

Defence Parent morning tea

Katie Wedel, Defence School Mentor 

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.

LUNCHTIME SPECIALS: Week 3

Wednesday – Spaghetti Bolognaise *V option available or Chicken satay and fried rice. 

Thursday – Spaghetti Bolognaise *V option available or Homemade pizza, ham cheese or pineapple or Alawa farm pizza.

Friday – Whole baked potatoes with savoury mince, coleslaw, cheese and sour cream. 

[Serve $3.00 or large serve $5.50 Spaghetti, Gluten Free Spaghetti $6.50]

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

Order online at www.quickcliq.com.au  

Wow! What an amazing turn-out to the first Playgroup of 2021!

Last Friday 11 children joined us, and together we explored the Preschool Music Room. We enjoyed playing with the blue playdough and playing with the dinosaurs. Some of us enjoyed some drawing and we all played with the puzzles. We went outdoors and loved being in the Preschool yard. We climbed and jumped and loved to be in the cubby house together too. We waved to our siblings in the big kids’ playground and really had such a wonderful time in the sand pit. We were just too busy to cook but its on the list of To Do’s this term!

Next week we plan to visit the Farm so be sure to remember a hat, your shoes and water bottle. See you then.

Miss Maria, Playgroup Coordinator

Congratulations to the 2021 Tek Interns!

Year 2 and 3 student’s Rafael Clark, Angus Cochran, Arlo Whitmee, Nicholas Taylor, Brooke Hughes, Caspar Pike, Jax Frawley, Paige Bullen, Georgie Jenner and Jackson Pearson will be with Ms Jeffery every Tuesday lunchtime. They will be learning ICT skills such as logging into devices and emails then will have the opportunity to share with their classmates.

We look forward to sharing our learning through out the term.

Courtney Jeffery, Tek Intern Co-Ordinator

A gentle reminder for those that have not yet used their back to school voucher - these vouchers need to be used before the end of this term and are available through the front office. 

Please contact the school direct with any questions or concerns on 8997 7666

For more information about the scheme visit here https://nt.gov.au/learning/student-financial-help-and-scholarships/back-to-school-payment-scheme 

In consultation with the Department of Education, the Department of Corporate and Digital Development (DCDD) has been working on a number of projects to improve efficiency and to enhance online safety.

To provide consistency, improve functionality across systems and enhance security measures, all Department of Education staff and schools will move to a new email address domain: @education.nt.gov.au

Please note this means that the new school email address will be alawa.school@education.nt.gov.au

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the front office on 8997 7666

Please watch out for any new and important updates required to be sent out via email from Ms Cartwright and in our Covid updates section in the newsletter each week.  Please note that birthday cakes etc can still not be brought in to school to share amongst students. 

Our bubblers are open and available for students to use so please ensure they have a water bottle to fill up each day. 

LATEST COVID-19 ADVICE from the Department of Education

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR ALL NT FAMILIES

From Tuesday 16 February 2021, the CHO has announced that for the purposes of travel to the Northern Territory, the Melbourne Airport is no longer considered a COVID-19 Hotspot.

If you have travelled to

·         the metropolitan Melbourne suburb of Sunbury or the Melbourne Holiday Inn Airport on or following the 5 February 2021; OR

·         the metropolitan Melbourne suburbs of Maidstone, Sunshine, or Taylor Lakes on or following 29 January 2021,

please follow the advice issued by the NT Chief Health Officer to:

-          Arrange for a COVID-19 test

-          Self- quarantine whilst awaiting for the results

-          Return to school only once a negative test has been returned and/or you have clearance from COVID-19 Hotline to do so (COVID-19 Hotline: 1800 008 002)

This advice changes regularly, with the potential for new hotspots to be announced without warning, you can access the latest advice here - https://coronavirus.nt.gov.au