I want to start by saying thankyou to our students, staff and community for this term, it has been an extremely hectic one, with commitments made by staff to NAPLAN, the school camp at Errappa and finally our fantastic Sports Day held on June 18^th. In this article you will find reports from our staff on the terms they have had with our students, summarising the learning that has occurred and the special moments.

As I mentioned during the week Harald Walther will be coming in to replace Hayley Brown as the teacher of the Year 3 – 5 class. Harald brings a lot of experience with him and has taught at Hawker before, as a Relief Teacher over blocks of time and last year in Term Four he took on the Foundation to Year 2 class. He comes with a lot of knowledge of our students across the school and good relationships with them too. We look forward to having Harald here for the rest of the year, as I am sure do our students.

It has been a busy term for the school, we don’t often have as many major events as we have this time. The Errappa camp was a great success with the students as they got the chance to extend themselves, face challenges that caused them to think through the fears and excitement associated with them. The management of the activities by the SA Police was first class as students were made to think in these areas and got the chance to test themselves out in fully supported activities. The Climbing Wall, the Flying Fox, Tree Climb and Town Exploration Activities all were brilliant and got our students to work together to explore and understand their feelings in challenging situations.  

Similarly our Sports Day on June 18^th was a great success, with students from Leigh Creek, Marree, Oodnadatta and SOTA getting the chance to come to Hawker and compete against our students. The standard of events was high, with students getting to push themselves more than they would in a one school situation. It was great to see students get the chance not only to compete but catch up with friends their age that they don’t always see. This was also commented on by visiting parents and the staff from the other schools who came to Hawker for this day, which is clearly appreciated by them. The Hawker students also looked fantastic in their new house shirts as the photos show. This was especially apparent to me at the end of the day when we got all the students together for the Tug of War!

Last week I got some feedback from a few students on their experiences of the Camp and Sports Day that I would like to share:

On the camp….

‘I liked Errappa because we got to do climbing and we got to do a flying fox. Also we got to learn new skills.’ – Lachie

‘The rope work was challenging and we learned about overcoming our fears. It was scary to start with but felt good to get it done once you worked out you weren’t going to die. The food was great and we enjoyed mixing the whole school for breaks.’ – Jack

‘The food at Errappa was great, the activities put us out of our comfort zone and it was to learn about how to manage fear. We learned to work together as a team which was a challenge.’ Annabelle

‘I loved all the activities at camp. My favourite activity was the flying fox.’ – Harry

‘I loved the errappa camp it was a great success I loved doing the flying fox and the rock climbing wall. I also liked watching the people do the high ropes.’ – Will

‘The high ropes activities were my favourite because they were heaps of fun, the rock climbing was good because it was a challenge.’ - Belle

‘School camp was fun. We got to climb and go around town. I think the dorms were comfortable except the mattress. It was fun.’ – Deb

‘The high ropes helped me overcome my fear of heights. I enjoyed working with the younger kids during orienteering.’ - Madi

‘Thank you Mrs Hilder for taking us on a camp, the other people thank you for taking us to the movies. I appreciate you all.’ – Opheilia

‘I enjoyed the food and getting to know everyone at school.’ – Thane

‘I enjoyed the camp because it helped us face our fears. The scavenger hunt was fun and I enjoyed the challenge of finding the check points.’ - Jaiy

On the Sports Day……

‘I really liked Sports Day. All the events were fantastic. The hotdogs and yogurt tasted great. The hurdles were a great success. I think it was great.’ – Jimmy

‘Sports day this year was a good competition with the other schools. Having more older students pushed us to go faster and higher.’ – Jack

‘I loved sports day because I liked to catch up with my old friends and played dodge ball at the end.’ – Angus

‘It was good to have lots of variety in the events. I enjoyed the running and the long jump the most. The shirts had a good design and looked great on everyone.’ – Annabelle

‘I liked sports day because I got to catch up with James, Arielle, Anakin and Lily. I also liked the hurdles.’ – Lachie

‘I enjoyed the running events at sports day, it was good to have other schools to compete against.’ – Belle

‘Sports day was great thanks to the people that were helping Miss Brown I appreciate it.’ – Opheilia

‘I enjoyed having strong competition from other schools, it pushed me to try harder. The shirts were outstanding.’ – Madi

‘I loved sports day the events were set up perfectly.’ – Will

‘I enjoyed socialising and getting to know people.’ – Joel

Lastly in anticipation of next term there are a few dates that I would like to share:

• Tuesday August 3^rd – a whole school NAIDOC celebration at Wilpena Pound.
• Friday August 6^th – Quorn Area School Sports Day.
• Thursday September 2^nd – Foods and Cultural Celebration Open Night.
• Friday September 3^rd – Pupil Free Day, Read Write Inc Training.
• Saturday August 21st to Friday August 27th – Book Week, Dress up Day Wednesday 25^th.
• Monday August 30th to Friday 3rd September – Book Fair.

Have a great holidays, it is well earned after this term for our students. I look forward to seeing you all at the start of Term 3.

As always if parents have any questions I can be contacted at the school on 86484003 or by my email at daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au

Mr Daren O'Neill

Principal 

The Junior Primary Class started doing some drama and rhythm activities, learning about spacial awareness, action stills and how to construct rhythm pattern beats.

The students have been accelerating in their Read, Write Inc program and their English units overall. In Maths, the students have extended their number knowledge, counting forward and backwards up to 20, 100 or 1000 as appropriate to their year level. The skip counting has been embraced by all, even the Foundation group are practicing counting by 2s and 10s.

In Science the student’s worked in groups investigating push and pull simple machines. Each group chose a particular type of machine, like levers, pulleys, incline planes and wedges.  Each group then presented their findings, including a model to the others in the class.

In the sequence of photo’s, the student’s chose a picture and in the first shot modeled the picture. In the second shot, they predicted what could happen 5 minutes later and the last shot, how the situation ended.

This term in the year 3-5 class students have been working very hard. We have had some fabulous stories come out of English lessons and a lot of good independent work has been done in Maths.

In HASS we learned a lot about Australia’s history, World explorers, and local histories.

“I learned that Tasmania was originally called Van Diemen’s Land” Deborah.

“I enjoyed learning about Christopher Columbus and his travels.” William.

“One of the most interesting things I learned was that people could get away with murder if they knew the right people” Angus.

“I enjoyed learning about the history of the Hawker Pub. It used to be called the Daybreak Hotel.” Archie.

“I enjoyed learning about Torres Strait Islander People.” Opheilia.

“I learned that Norfolk Island was very hard to park a ship at.” Jimmy.

“On Port Arthur they built a jail for convicts.” Harry

Sports Day was very successful this year, students enjoyed their extra PE lessons leading up to the day and they loved having more people to compete against.

I hope everyone has a safe and restful break.

We’ve made to the end of another busy term in the secondary class. Here’s a quick run down of what we have been up to…

English – We have focused a lot on poetry this term, if you listen carefully on a Thursday morning I’m sure you will be able to hear to the groaning of teenagers being forced to appreciate literature! But seriously, they haven’t hated it. We have studied some modern Australian slam poets (slam poetry is a spoken word performance poetry that’s a little like hip-hop) who have encouraged us to think and reflect. We’ve made some beginning attempts at writing our own modern poetry, which has been a challenge, but we will keep working on it.

HASS – Geography has been the focus in the latter part of the term. Having 4 year levels means 3 different topics when it comes to geography, as the curriculum varies a great deal between year levels. The year 6/7 group have been focusing on water, its management and conservation. The year 8’s are studying landforms and landscapes, they are concentrating on one Australian landform (such as Uluru or Wilpena Pound) and are conducting an in depth study of it’s formation, conservation and links to Aboriginal culture. The year 9’s are looking at the worlds biomes, and are also conducting an investigation into one type of biome (such as a desert, or a tundra). This has been a challenge to teach and also be taught, but thanks to some independent workers and help from our trusty SSO Letisha, we’ve made it work.

Home Ec – We have continued to enjoy cooking a variety of simple dishes during Home Ec. A favourite has been spaghetti bolognese, and also cupcakes with Stef Teague. In theory lessons we have been studying food over the past 70,000 years in Australia. We’ve looked at traditional bush foods, and how diets and health changed with the introduction of European food. We are also looking at what modern Australian Cuisine actually is, and are working toward developing our own modern Australian menu. This will involve meal planning, recipe writing and costing, as well as looking at the origins of the food and how we have developed it into something uniquely Australian.

HPE – The past few weeks have been all about sports day. We’ve been practising high jump, discus, shot put, hurdles and running the 400m. I was really pleased to see all students take part in some events on sports day and lead the rest of the school with their example. Well done especially to Annabelle who won the team spirit award for cheering on her team mates, and even running the 400m with younger students to encourage them to finish. Well done Annabelle.

For health we have been taking a close look at what a Growth Mindset is, and how important it is to our learning and everyday life. We’ve looked at the difference between a fixed and growth mindset, and discussed how the brain is elastic, and can continue to learn, even when you’re old like me!

F-2 HPE – Like the big kids, the junior primary class has been involved in getting ready for sports day. We have had lots of fun practising sack races, egg and spoon races and team games. We’ve even had a go at learning how to triple jump, although this is a work in progress! A special mention goes to Bayley for his leadership and teamwork which saw him awarded with the team spirit award for the junior primary students, well done Bayley! During health we have been looking at self esteem, what it means and how we get it!

SACE Stage 2 English – Stage 2 English is progressing well, with 3 assessment tasks completed and 2 currently almost done. All work has been of an excellent standard. The next phase is the comparative analysis which forms 40% of the overall grade. This is a huge task, which we will begin next term.

Mrs Sharon Bates

Year 6-12 Teacher / HPE Coordinator

When any object is divided into equal numbers of parts and you pick up one or more of those parts, you have a fraction of the object. 
Now one very important characteristic of these parts of a fraction is that:  Each part of a fraction has to be equal to other parts.

Doing calculations on fractions is different than doing the same on the whole numbers. Students from 6 -8 are currently working to understand the steps for performing the various mathematical operations on fractions in detail according to the year level. 

Fractions are a very interesting concept in mathematics and lay a solid foundation for advanced levels in mathematics. Fractions also have a wide range of real-world applications. Once our students become well versed with fractions, they can solve many real-life examples from daily life.

The Year 9s are completing unit of work mastering algebra.  Algebraic reasoning is important because it pushes students' understanding of mathematics beyond the result of specific calculations and the procedural application of formulas. For starters, algebra is a starter for other classes. That means students will apply what they learn in algebra throughout rest of the school years. Learning algebra helps to develop their critical thinking skills. That includes problem solving, logic, patterns, and reasoning. Students need to know algebra for many professions, especially those in Science and Math. Not planning to go into those areas of study? They’ll probably still use algebra without even realizing it!

For example: It’s time to fill up your car’s fuel tank. The price of diesel per litre is $1.62 and you only have $35 to spend. How much gas can you purchase? This can be answered by the algebraic equation “$1.62Xlitre = $35.00 “                    

Mrs Lidia Szelzak

Mathematics Science & Language Teacher