Alawa Primary School Newsletter

Welcome back to Semester 2!

An interesting school holiday break for sure. Like I am sure happened to so many of you my plans went astray once 'LOCKDOWN' was called. A few days working from home and checking in on family, friends and work mates became the norm for me. I soon realised I did not really need to get to the shops much but did miss my time in the heated pool at Parap. We are lucky to all be back on deck at Alawa and I enjoyed seeing all our smiley faces yesterday morning.

As always we will continue to keep you all as informed as we can with the COVID situation and will continue doing this via direct email from me. Specific measures in place at Alawa include:

• Territory Check-In App on all school entries / class windows etc
• regular hand washing and sanitizing
• encouragement of the use of water bottles [not bubblers]
• limiting the number of people in the front office
• encouraging parents / carers to collect and drop off  from out the front of the school [not coming inside]
• daily washing of the play equipment
• extra clean in the middle of the day of high touch areas such as toilets, doors, common areas
• weekly spraying of engine room and sports gear

Looking forward Term 3

We have lots to look forward to in coming weeks including:

• our extra special performing arts program with the Aussie Icon Sara Storer commencing right up this week on Wednesdays. Don't forget to add Thursday September 2nd to your diaries for our annual community concert and fun night.
• Our Year 3/4 cherubs will be heading off to camp at Tumbling Waters for 9th and 10th September. The privilege of being involved is as always dependent on regular and on-time school attendance as well as positive behaviour choices in the classroom and playground.
• We will continue to host Assemblies outdoors this term every second Friday commencing Friday 30th July.
• Our car park project - anticipated to commence the first week in August.

Stay safe and looking forwarding to reconnecting around the school over the coming weeks,

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

The long anticipated upgrades / expansion of our car parks [front and back] are due to commence during the first week in August. We fully envisage this will cause significant disruption as the works are done - we will do our best to keep you in the loop and minimize this. However PLEASE be prepared to be patient as works are done to make our car park, drop off and pick ups safer for everyone in our community.

Once the works are completed ALL drop off and picks up MUST be out the front of the school, the side streets are simply too congested and unsafe.

Sandy Cartwright

All our students in Years 3-6 have the newsletter emailed directly to them each Wednesday. They then are offered time in class to check their emails, read the newsletter etc.

Question for Week 1: 

What is the name of the new teacher in Room 4 with Year 1?

Email me with your answer for 20 bonus house points.

Ms Cartwright

On the last day of Term 2 Tyler received the Honour Distinction Award and was named Principal for the day. 

Tyler spent the day helping Ms Cartwright with end of term room checks, giving out merits to students and staff and helped give out icy poles to the whole school for helping get their classes ready for the end of the term. 

"Being Principal on the last day of term was epic. I got to do anything I wanted and I can't wait to be Principal again" 

Tyler McCrae [Principal for the day]

Welcome back,

I hope you have all had a very restful break and are now ready for Term 3. Some people were impacted quite a bit from our COVID situation but I still hope you were able to enjoy your time with family. Despite missing our house rental at Dundee my family and I just took the opportunity to really relax and get off the merry-go-round of life that we can sometimes find ourselves on.

Fortunately we are all now back at school and ready to ensure we continue to carry out our COVID safe practices.

Music

Our music lessons will resume next week and we have some new students taking up this opportunity for instrumental lessons on various instruments.

Please be aware that our lessons are now on Friday and the timetable has been changed to cater for our school timetable.

Professional learning

All staff were involved in our Professional Learning Day on Monday. We appreciate the support of our whole school community to allow us the opportunity to have these days. They are crucial in allowing us to collaborate together and further develop our knowledge and skills around delivering quality Curriculum here at Alawa.

I am looking forward to a fantastic term with some fantastic events to look forward to.

Kind regards

Genevieve Donohue, [Assistant Principal]

Hi there,

My name is Jennifer White and I am looking forward to joining the team at Alawa. I am formerly from Melbourne, and have taught for more than 10 years mostly in junior primary and PE and love all things about the NT!

Ms Tamra caught up with a few of the students to see what they had to say about their new teacher...

"She is fantastic" - Lena

"She a nice and she helps me" - Tommy

"I think she is good and nice" - Hunter

"She is really nice" - Lestari 

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 10 of Term 2 Goyder is ahead of Manton and Finnis. 

Goyder remains 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 10 Term 2, the class with the most points was... Year 5/6 Lotherington!

Welcome back to Term 3. It is always so lovely to come back to school after the break and see all of the smiling faces and feel the excitement the students have to be back at school. I know I am quite excited myself to be back at school after our family holiday travel plans didn’t eventuate thanks to good old COVID. 

Yesterday I spent part of my day visiting all of the classrooms and reconnecting with the Defence students. I loved hearing about what everyone did over the break and what they are looking forward to this term, the Whole School Performance is a hot favourite.

As we all know June/July is the time that Posting Orders start to filter out. If you know that your family is leaving us at the end of this year onto a new location if you could let the school or myself know that would be appreciated. This way I can begin to support your child through the preparation of the move. I also have some handy info sheets on how to support children through a posting. If you would like copies please let me know. Also remember that the DCO website has some great posting info and tips too. 

Katie Wedel [Defence School Mentor]

Preschool children have been having a wonderful time being back at Alawa; getting reacquainted their friends and the indoor and outdoor learning spaces.

We have set up a camping area under some trees complete with a tent, chairs, a (pretend) campfire and an outdoor kitchen. This has been a very popular place to explore and play with children eager to recreate their camping experiences from the holidays or just imagine they were camping (and toasting marshmallows).

Our book explorer focus this term is on traditional tales such as ‘The Gingerbread Man’ and ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’. We are exploring lots of different examples of these texts and encouraging children too retell these stories through puppet play and other forms of drama and art. 

We look forward to an exciting and busy Term 3 at Alawa Preschool!

Alice, Emma and Kelly and Flor [Preschool Team] 

Term 3 is one which will see two exciting events involving the Library with Book Week and the Book Week parade happening in Week 5 and the School Book Fair shortly after. This week your children will be bringing home this terms Book Club. This is due back Week 3. If you do not receive a catalogue you can view the catalogue and order online through the Scholastic Bookclub website at scholastic.com.au/LOOP, download the LOOP app From Google Play and the App Store or by returning your order form and payment to the office. Please feel free to give me a call if you have any questions.

Books that won’t break the budget include:

Zoo House by Heath McKenzie for $3
The Story Puppy $3
Heroes of the Holocaust $3

Book Week Book Packs [These are books that have been Shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards]

CBCA 2021 Shortlist: Picture Books – 6 Hardcover Books $99
CBCA 2021 Shortlist: Younger Readers – 6 Books $79
CBCA 2021 Shortlist: Early Childhood – 6 Hardcover Books $99

Sacha Evans [Library and ICT Manager] 

Alexandra [Alex] from Year 3 Hughes has spent the month of July taking part in the CareFlight Territory Rescue Challenge 2021 to help raise much needed funds for CareFlight NT. 

Alex now has only 19.82km to go until she reaches her goal of riding 180km during the month of July! WOW!

If you would like to support Alex and her challenge please visit https://www.ntchallenge.org.au/alexandra-vidins

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