Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome to Week 4 - time is flying by quickly and Alawa is such a busy place as always. Our older students are really focused on nominating themselves and standing for leadership roles.....so many opportunities at Alawa for them to develop their confidence in sharing their opinions and views. I am super proud of them all for standing up and nominating. While not all of them can be elected and this can be disappointing it can also be a learning experience for them to work through. If at any time your child is concerned about the process they are welcome to come and have a chat with myself or Mrs Donohue.

Parent Concerns

At times we can fully appreciate  parents / carers may have concerns about something their child tells them is happening or has happened at school. We ask that you approach the class teacher respectfully and at a time appropriate for the conversation. If more serious, parents are welcome to contact Mrs Donohue or myself. We insist that parents do not approach others about matters that may have happened at school as comments may be misinterpreted or cause angst / tension that is unnecessary. & distressing.  As per the information in our Parent handbook [Page 10].

 Rights and Responsibilities

At Alawa School Community everyone has a right to expect:

· a safe learning environment

· to be cared for

· others to share their time, skills and experience

 In the Alawa School Community our responsibility to others is to:

· create a safe learning environment

· to care for others

· to share our time, skills and experience.

 At NO time should a parent approach another child about any incident.

 As I often mention at enrolment interviews we do NOT want a 'Car Park Mafia' or any toxic conversatons - if you have concerns approach us respectfully and we WILL listen and work with you!

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

Welcome to week 4. Students have now settled into their new classes and are now really clear on their areas for growth this year. Their individual goals have been set and they have outlined strategies and skills that are needed for success.

Student leadership

By the end of this week our School Captains, Vice Captains, House Leaders, Learning Commissioners and Student Representatives all be determined. We are looking forward to introducing them all at our Alawa School Council Annual General Meeting after our Meet, Greet and Eat night next week.

Preschool

We know that children are born with amazing potential and capacities and we will provide the experiences to allow them to express themselves in many ways. I am looking forward to spending more time in preschool as we play and investigate new learning.

Have a wonderful week.

Genevieve Donohue, Assistant Principal

House Captains are now elected

Last week our enthusiastic students were campaigning all around the school with speeches and posters as they nominated themselves for the roles of House Captains for 2021. They then spoke to the peers in house teams [Years 3-6] at House meetings on Friday after lunch.

Congratulations and well done to all who were involved.

Our House Captains for 2021

Finnis	Manton	Goyder
Miguel Clark	Evangelina Ronayne	Lylah Quall
Felicity Wedel	Kleo Sailor	Blair Hanley

The Senior Learning Commission is also now elected

These student nominated and sat through group interviews with Ms Cartwright, Mrs Baines and Ms Katie. They were super impressive with their ideas, their skills in active listening and their confidence in sharing their views and options respectfully.

2021 Learning Commission

Chevayo Roe	Hayley Hopkinson	Ahnouk Roseth	Jesse Davey
Ellery Martin	Harper Rush	Evangelina Ronayne	Indiana Mills
Miguel Clark	Noah Stoeckl	Niluh Jackson	Dimi Pappantoniou
Hein Thuc Ta	Grace Laker	Taylah Buganey	Clementine Heaslip

Congratulations to the 2021 Tek Ninjas!

Year 5 and 6 student’s Kleo Sailor, Miguel Clark, Clementine Heaslip, Zoe Quinn Solis, Harper Rush, Tegan Green, Theodora Ellinas, Calista Wesley-Aragon, Flynn Buganey and Jesse Davey will be with Ms Sacha every Monday lunchtime. They will be responsible for the shared ICT devices, learning ICT skills to assist other students with network issues and the ICT skills they will need for Naplan. They will also be doing some coding in Scratch and HTML and participating in Lego League later in the year.

We look forward to sharing our learning throughout the term.

Sacha Evans, Tek Ninjas Co-Ordinator

Hello Alawa Families,

Our Preschool room is buzzing with learning and creativity. The children have created big, colourful self-portraits which are displayed in the preschool music room. These pictures were created using oil pastel and coloured vegetable dye and are as unique as the artists who made them.

Preschool children have been learning all about ALLE the Alawa Learner. ALLE is a frill necked lizard. The ALLE puppet helps children to remember the 5 l’s of listening and is always part of introducing a new idea or concept to the class. ALLE is a very special member of our preschool class and we are always on the lookout for the ‘real life’ one (that has been hiding from us lately).

Next Wednesday, 3rd March from 5pm is Alawa School’s ‘Meet, Greet n Eat’ evening. This is an opportunity to visit your child’s classroom, meet their teachers and have a look around the school. We look forward to seeing you.

Have a fabulous week!

Alice, Emma and Kelly and Flor. 

The Zones of Regulation are a behavioural approach that help with self-regulation. The idea is for students to recognise feelings and associate these with a Zone. The next step is to then choose suitable strategies to get back to the Green Zone (optimal learning zone).

In 2 Bernardino we use this approach on a daily basis with regular check-ins. With time and consistency students should improve their ability to self-regulate with guidance.

This approach is positive, student-centred with an emphasis on well-being.

The Alawa Primary School Council AGM will take place directly following our annual Meet, Greet n Eat night at 6.30pm-7.30pm in the library.

We will also be presenting our 2021 student leaders and we welcome all new and existing parents to join us. 

We meet once per month, usually from 5:30pm and we are looking to meet Mondays this year [3rd Monday each month]. The meetings are a  chance for you to get involved, have a say and guide the school improvement agenda in conjunction with the school leadership team.

*Child minding will be available.

Please be advised that directly prior to the AGM beginning on Wednesday 3rd March at 6.30pm, we will be holding a Special General Meeting to ratify amendments made to our current constitution. 

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

It is so wonderful that we are able to run Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden and Farm program at Alawa.

A big thankyou to all those involved in the program and those who have helped in the past. We are now looking for more volunteers. Are you interested in becoming more involved in our farm and kitchen?

 Do you have a spare hour a week? 

Tuesday

8.30am - 9.30am	Year 5/6 Hammond Farm
9.30am- 10.30am	Year 1 McHatten Farm
11am- 12pm -Year	Year 1 Jeffery Farm
12pm-1pm	Year 2 Ward Farm
1.40pm-2.50pm	Year 2 Bernardino Farm

Wednesday

11am - 1pm

Year 4/5 Henderson Kitchen

Thursday

8.30am - 9.30am	Year 4/5 Henderson Farm
9.30am - 10.30am	Transition Lane Farm
11am - 12pm	Year 4/5 France Farm
11am - 1pm	5/6 Lotherington Kitchen
12pm - 1pm	Year 3 Hughes Farm

Friday

9.30am - 10.30am	Transition Connelly Farm
11am - 12pm	Year 3/4 Baines Farm
11am - 1pm	Year 5/6 Hammond Kitchen
12pm - 1pm	5/6 Lotherington Farm

To volunteer to assist in the farm or kitchen lessons, please click on the 'sign up here' link below.  Alternatively please contact the school on alawa.school@education.nt.gov.au  or phone the front office on 8997 7666.

Sign up here

School policies

Please follow the below links to read the updated school policies.

Volunteer Policy

Mobile Phone Policy

Allergy Awareness Policy 

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.

Finnis is ahead of Manton and Goyder for Week 3 Term 1. 

Goyder is still in the lead for the year!

Twice a week we tally up all students water bottles and students receive a house point for each one brought in. 

This is another way to help students remember their bottles each day and earn points for their team!

This week I am excited to officially welcome 4 students who have been chosen as Library Monitors. Tegan Green, Jorja Besic, Natalia Robertson and Shanaye Crosby-Dowling.

These students will be helping out before school and at lunch time assisting with the returning and borrowing of books, shelving books, tidying and ordering shelves, assisting students to locate and use resources within the Library and assisting with library displays, library competitions and other activities.

This week I will be sending home Library book overdue notices. These books can be returned any day of the week before school, after school, at lunchtime or on the day your child's class has library time. If you believe that you or your child have already returned the book please let me know via note, email or a phone call.

Sacha Evans, Library & ICT Manager

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 4

Wednesday – Spaghetti Bolognaise *V option available or Whole baked potatoes with savoury mince, coleslaw, cheese and sour cream.

Thursday – Spaghetti Bolognaise *V option available or Chicken and noodle.

Friday – Bacon and egg pie

[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  

We had so much fun at Playgroup last Friday. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and families. The highlight of our morning was visiting the Farm. We had such a lovely time getting to know the new cheeky kids (baby goats) and lamb. Some of us had bought our kitchen scraps which we fed to the very happy chickens. We explored the gardens and checked for animals in ponds and all the cages and pens. Back at Preschool we shared a biscuit at morning teatime and the many table activities.

Next week we will get back to our scone-making which will be delicious to share at morning tea. See you then. 

Miss Maria, Playgroup Coordinator

My name is Megan Griffiths, I have been with Alawa Primary School since January 2021. I have worked in education for nearly 2 years with corporate in the Palmerston Office supporting the Top End Region.

I was born in Darwin, lived in Perth for 2 year and in 1998, moved back to Darwin due to personal reasons. I have just moved back up to Darwin in 2017 from Alice Springs where I lived for 16 years and absolutely loving being back home with my family.I am a mother of three grown children.

I assist in the class rooms and each Wednesday cooking in the kitchen. I look forward to getting to know everyone and contributing to the school community. 

Megan Griffiths, Reception

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

On Wednesday, the NT Chief Health Officer (CHO) revoked all Victorian Local Government Areas as COVID-19 hotspots for the purpose of travel to the Northern Territory, effective from 6pm, 17 February 2021 – see media release attached. This means that there are currently no hotspots for the purposes of travel to the Northern Territory.

If you are from a Victorian Hotspot and are in the Northern Territory and are still awaiting a COVID-19 test result, you may leave quarantine, unless you have been identified as a close contact of a positive case.

Refer to Northern Territory Government Coronavirus website for the latest updates - https://coronavirus.nt.gov.au/travel/quarantine/hotspots-covid-19