Newsletter 7 - Term 2 - Week 2 - 2022

From the Principal

Thankfully, we have had a pleasing increase in student attendance this week. Let us hope that we can put illnesses, public holidays and student-free days behind us now and “return” to more consistent routines. However, as I mentioned on assembly, the students have shown great resilience and flexibility to have been able to continue positively with their learning, even though there have been some disruptions to their usual routines.

Our previous School Captain, Ieshah, and her family left our school recently. I am pleased to let everyone know that Aroha has been elected to replace Ieshah and will join Bonnie as our School Captains. I am also delighted to announce that, after a very close ballot on Thursday, Tul’ara and Maddison were elected as the new Redbacks Sports Captains. Congratulations Aroha, Tul’ara and Maddison on your elevation to leadership positions at Alyangula Area School. We all know that you will fulfil your roles in a very positive, enthusiastic and supportive manner.

I had the pleasure of attending my first Alyangula Area School Council meeting last Wednesday night. It was certainly great to be part of a highly motivated and interested group that has the responsibility of actively guiding the future directions of the school and discussing and sharing advice on topics that are currently important. School Council members are keen to seek expressions of interest from our families in communities who might like to join us as an Invited Guest. If you would like to be part of Council, please let our admin ladies (Olivia or Kyleigh on phone 89876366) know by Monday 9 May. They will then pass on your name to our Council Chair (Pete) for further follow-up with you.

Once again, we had many recipients of the Merit Awards that were handed out at our assembly on Friday morning. Congratulations to all of our students who were recognised for their great efforts throughout the last fortnight and for the way in which they demonstrate the values of the school.

Fairway 19 has been hosting our Canteen since earlier last term. It continues to be well-supported by students and arrangements seem to be working well. We had hoped that QuickCliq (www.quickcliq.com.au) might be a very useful and easy-to-use program through which families can place orders in advance. However, the canteen operators recognise that it may be a little limiting as orders need to be placed by a specific time the night before. Whilst we still encourage families to use QuickCliq for the time-being, alternative options are being explored that we feel might be more responsive in the future.

Our school’s Fund-Raising team has been enthusiastically preparing for our Mothers’ Day Markets that will be held from 10am this Saturday morning (7 May) at Alyangula Town Oval. Further more specific details of the stall are included later in this Newsletter. We hope that as many families and friends will be able to join us for a morning of fun and great buys (or you might even like to hold your own stall). Please let Olivia know (8987 6366) if you have any ideas or queries at all.

As many families would be aware, we are now preparing for our NAPLAN testing program that will be held during the week 10-14 May (with flexibility for catch-up sessions in the following week). NAPLAN is an annual National assessment program for all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 and covers skills in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation and numeracy. The students in these year levels had practice tests late in term 1 and all seemed to go smoothly. Good luck students – we know you will all do your very best!

Families are reminded that we now have a new school Website  –  www.alyangula.nt.edu.au

It contains lots of useful information and will be the main form of distribution of our fortnightly Newsletters. We hope you enjoy the website and can use it to keep in touch with, and informed about, our great school. 

Our school still has vacancies for Assistant Teacher/ Tutor positions. If you are interested in working to support students and eligible for a Working with Children /OCHRE Card please contact Mel at the school on 08 8987 6366 or via email mel.dougherty@education.nt.gov.au.

As well, our wonderful Maintenance Officer (and bus driver) Graham Grady is moving interstate and finishes up with us on Thursday 12 May. This position and, as previously advertised, the Grounds Maintenance position will also need to be filled. If you are interested (or know anyone who might be interested) in any of these important positions, please let Mel or I know ASAP.

Bert

Acting Principal

Other information & reminders

Health, safety and maintenance is an important part of our daily operations. If you notice anything that can be a potential health, safety or maintenance issue, please report it to the front office.

Every second Friday we hold a whole school assembly and invite parents, families and school community members to join in the occasion. Our assemblies commence at 8:10am and always focus on celebrating student success. Classroom teachers nominate two students to receive a Merit Award at each assembly. Parents will be notified when their child is receiving an award to ensure that they can be present for the moment. In addition to this, our classes take turns in presenting a class performance at each assembly. Once again parents are notified of the class performance by their child’s teacher.

Sometimes it is important for the school to contact parents or guardians immediately, especially if your child has had an accident. For this reason, it is essential that the school has accurate, up to date records of home and emergency contacts (that is another family member or a close, reliable friend). Please inform us of any changes in phone numbers, addresses or emergency contacts on 8987 6366.

Alyangula Area School is a health-promoting school. As a community we encourage students to eat healthy food. Students should not be bringing soft drinks/energy drinks and/or junk food/sugar food to school. This includes chocolate, lollies, gum and energy drinks. Parents may bring a birthday cake/treats to the school when it is your child’s birthday. However, notification must be given to the class teacher at least two days beforehand so that the teacher can check if any student in the class has food allergies.

Classroom News:

On Friday last week, the students presented some of their Term 1 Visual Artwork.

I am so proud of their efforts and creativity, well done to all.

Visual Artwork

Term 2 in the Arts, the students will be taking Drama and the year 4,5,6 cohort will also be learning Media Arts.

For Drama, the year 2/3 cohort will be learning about dreamtime stories, values, and character strengths and play writing their own stories.

The year 4,5,6 cohort will be learning about Arnhem Land’s involvement in WW2 and play writing their own scripts.

The year 7,8,9,10 cohort will be consorting with a very teenage, very troubled Alice, when they take on the playwright ‘Alice Dreaming’. ‘Alice Dreaming’ is an Australian spin on Alice in Wonderland.

The students will be learning to memorize lines and act in character. If parents can keep an eye out for costumes along those lines, that would be fantastic.

Good luck to all!!

        Peta Bartley

Community Library

The Alyangula Community Library is very grateful for the recent donation received from the Country Women’s Association, Groote Eylandt Branch. This donation was used to fund the purchase of additional books for the library’s collection. Books purchased included fiction books for children to adults and non-fiction books with topics including gardening, finance, business and parenting. Support from local businesses and community organisations improves the Alyangula Community Library for our whole community.

                              Opening Hours: Monday & Wednesday 6pm – 8pm

                                                           Saturday 9am – 1pm

STEM Club (science, technology, engineering and maths) is held in the library every Saturday 10am – 11am. STEM Club has activities suitable for 5 – 12-year-olds, children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.

As a proud member of Northern Territory Libraries our patrons have access to a wide range of eBooks and eAudiobooks on the BorrowBox app. With the BorrowBox app the library is never closed, you can browse and borrow items to listen to or read anywhere, anytime. Accessing the materials is easy and the app is available from Google Play and the AppStore. See our library staff to obtain your membership number and set up your password.