Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Week 3 already - how quickly does time go with some fantastic long weekends! School Photos today certainly caused a buzz and excitement and many smiley faces were seen!

Congratulations to Ms Jeffery and her family on the safe arrival of their new baby - Isla Mercy. The gorgeous bub was born last week and has quickly captured many hearts!

Our students are all settled and focused and the majority have now reviewed their data and progress from last Semester and have identified and set their learning goals for this term along with developing an action plan to help them achieve these.

Last week each of our teachers spent some extra time out of their rooms working with their teaching partners - collaborating on their teaching programmes, ensuring consistency of expectations etc. By the end of last week you should have all received a letter home via email from your class teacher with an overview of the term as well as some details about up and coming events. As always if you have any questions please just check in with your child's teacher. If you have not received as yet please check in with your child's class teacher.

This week I conclude my Pep Talks in the primary classes and one of the things we are discussing is what the Australian Curriculum says students at each Year level should be focusing on. It is well worthwhile for parents / carers to also check this out at the very parent friendly information sheets:

Australian Curriculum Parent Information: Year Level Overviews

Have a great week, 

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

Welcome to Week 4!

As much as we have all enjoyed our extra days off with public holidays it has meant our time at school has been jam packed. All classes have settled back into the routines and are applying themselves to the new learning experiences for this term.

READING............Please continue to encourage your children to borrow from the library and read at home. Reading helps our children calm down and relax, opening doors of new knowledge to enlightening minds. ….just to name a couple of benefits….. Children who read, grow up to have better cognitive skills such as memory, vocabulary, thinking skills and imagination. Keep reading to and with your children as their reading skills are crucial to their success at school.

SRC.............Our Student Representatives will be meeting on a more regular basis to determine actions to promote composting, limiting our rubbish and keeping our school clean. We will also be planning our orders for Fathers Day stall early next month.

Enrolments............Just a reminder to all families. It is important that you complete paperwork for siblings who will be attending Preschool next year. We will be booking in interviews for enrolments for new families in the coming weeks and I would like to ensure we have current numbers that included current families.

Have a wonderful week

Genevieve Donohue, [Assistant Principal]

Sports vouchers are now available on line to apply at www.sportvoucher.nt.gov.au

The Sport Voucher Scheme makes it easier for Northern Territory children to participate in sport, recreation and cultural activities making for happier, healthier Territory children. 

Children in urban areas receive a $100 voucher twice a year.
An enhanced sport voucher policy, beginning 12 July 2021, includes swimming programs and music lessons/instrument hire during school hours, as eligible voucher redeemable programs. For more information, contact the Department of Territory Families, Housing and Communities: 1800 817 860 or sport.voucher@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, as well as having a go at the weekly quiz. 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 and water bottle checks.

In Week 2 of Term 3 Manton is ahead of Goyder and Finnis. 

Goyder is in the lead for the year!

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 day we allocate class points during Muster time recognizing 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.

In Week 2 Term 3, the class with the most points was... Year 4/5 France!

This week we had a great bonus session with our visiting artist Sara Storer. We have come up with the song that we’ll be singing for our families at our Alawa Performance night later in the term. We don’t want to share too many details but it is sure to be a nice surprise when both groups perform.

The block corner has become a building site at Preschool. It started when two children constructed rooms out of blocks. The construction began to resemble 3D architectural plans with more rooms being added, more children creating rooms and details such as doors and beds finding their way into the design. We will build upon this interest by providing clipboards for children to plan and design their buildings, add rulers and measuring tapes and also display different examples of house plan drawings to help inspire our budding architects.

Next week Wednesday 11th August is our Preschool Bike-A-Thon event. This is such a fun morning and an important fundraising event for the preschool. Children decorate their bikes and do laps of a custom track with their friends. In between laps they take part in fun activities in the shade of marquees. We look forward to this fun event with Preschool children and their families.

Have a wonderful week!

Alice, Emma and Kelly and Flor [Preschool Team] 

This term, students in Upper Primary have been looking closely at critical and creative thinking.

Critical and creative thinking is essential for students to become successful learners.  Learners grow their critical and creative thinking when they learn new things, explain ideas clearly, problem solve and think about things in different ways.

Critical and creative thinking involves using your own set of skills, thinking about the 'why', making sense of things, using available resources, solving problems in new ways and creating new things.

When learners are curious, think about possibilities in a sensible and reasonable way, are flexible and open to different ideas, are ready and eager to try and learn new things, consider different alternatives to situations and are persistent and don’t give up, they are demonstrating the characteristics of effective critical and creative thinking..

"Critical and creative thinking is very important thig to help us learn and think about our learning" – Dimitri

"Creative thinking helps you to think outside the box and critical thinking helps to keep your ideas sensible" – Ziah

"It’s thinking about different ways to solve a problem"  – Zafer

"It’s like using both sides of your brain to think about things and to solve problems" – Clementine

"Critical thinking is where you find important information to solve problems. Creative thinking is thinking about different ideas, trying new things and using your imagination" – Ahnouk 

Graphic Novels are hugely popular today catering to a range of reading levels and interests. The current Bookclub Catalogue has a two page spread of Graphic Novel options to choose from with the titles covering a wide range of interests and including a few different series. Graphic Novels are a great way for developing literacy and can be useful in a number of different areas including:

1.      As stepping stones for younger readers transitioning from picture books to chapter books;

2.      Instilling a feeling of confidence while reading as they contain less text and can therefore be less overwhelming than traditional texts as a result;

3.      Engaging readers in a story they might otherwise find no interest in through the visual elements of the story;

4.      Inspiring creative writing; 

5.      Critical thinking around the combining of different elements from traditional novels, picture books, poetry and even film in a new engaging way.

Graphic Novels on offer in the current catalogue include Roald Dahl’s The Witches, Wings of Fire, I Survived – The Sinking of the Titanic 1912, Shock Waves [A Spider Man Graphic Novel]

Bookclub is due back by Friday. If you did not receive a catalogue there are a few copies which can be found at the front office or you can view the catalogue and order online through the Scholastic Bookclub website at scholastic.com.au/LOOP<https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Login.aspx> or download the LOOP app From Google Play<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scholastic.BookClubs_Android> or from the App Store<https://apps.apple.com/au/app/book-clubs-loop-for-parents/id932249497> or by returning your order form and payment to the office. Please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions.

Sacha Evans [Library and ICT Manager] 

We have had a fun start back at Kids Club this term with lots of students coming along to play different games including our fun giant Snakes and Ladders and giant Jenga.

Kids Club is a great opportunity for students to interact and get to know other students from different year levels and areas of the school. Many times students start chatting and realise that they have a lot in common with each other due to the Defence lifestyle that they lead.

The students who attend Kids Club regularly have their favourite activities however to keep things interesting I am encouraging students to come up with ideas of some different activities they might like to try at Kids Club. So if you have ideas that might be of interest to your child please encourage them to make a suggestion. 

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: Weeks 1-4

Available every day lunch only [Wednesday-Friday]:

- mini beef burgers  $3.50

- spaghetti bolognaise small serve $3.50 or large serve $5.50 /Gluten Free Spaghetti $6.50

Wednesday:  - Roast pork and gravy roll - one size only $5.50

Thursday: - Homemade Scandinavian meatballs with mash potatoes - Large size $5.50, Small $3.50

 Friday: - Chicken and jackfruit curry (mild) - 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