27 September 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principals Report

Welcome to the end of term 3. In this newsletter you will find articles by our teachers outlining their programs for this term and the activities our students have been involved in. As with all terms involvement in extracurricular activities has also been a theme with a very successful Sports Day had and the recent Choir trip to Adelaide where four of our students performed at the Festival Theatre.

Sports Day

I would like to thank Hayley Brown for her fantastic organisation of our Sports Day which despite the wintry conditions went off really well. Thankyou also to Cameron Redden who put many hours into assisting with setting up the oval for the sports day events. As a result of efforts such as these the day was a great success, with just a few events falling victim to the conditions. With 70 plus students competing (including Leigh Creek students) this level of organisation helped keep things on track.

Choir Camp

I would also like to thank Amanda Hilder for her work on the Choir trip, the culmination of a year’s work for our students who benefitted from Sasha Andersson’s excellent teaching efforts in the first half of the year. Our four performers Holly, Emily, Annabelle and Callie, travelled down with Paul, Jimmy, Lachlan and Sierra, our future Choir students, who practiced throughout this year too. The students had a great time, taking in some of the other aspects of Adelaide’s culture including the Art Gallery and a performance from the Adelaide Youth Orchestra. The performance experience was great for all our students, a taste of things to come if their interests in this area continue.

NAPLAN

In week 9 our NAPLAN information arrived and went home to the parents of our Year 3, 5 and 7 students. Parents received two booklets:

• The Individual Student Summary, which details the basic results and levels for students in the four NAPLAN tests.
• The Student Report which presents information on student results in more detail to highlight achievement levels and what students were tested on.

While the NAPLAN tests are only a gauge of student ability on one day of the year for schools they are a way of measuring student achievement and progress. Our NAPLAN results have been really pleasing this year, especially in light of our goals for improving Literacy and Numeracy. The strongest point of the data for Hawker is that we have identified improvement in quite a few of our students, some bigger than others, with a greater number of scores in the higher bands. Our School Improvement Plan goals were very simple in this area, but were all about improvement in Reading, Writing and Numeracy so this is a great result for our students in general. With our PAT testing this month it will be interesting to see how our students go in this annual test.

Next term from November 11th to 13th our school will undergo its External Review. The last time the school experienced a review was in November 2015. The purpose of this year’s External Review will be to inquire into our progress with what are called the ‘Key Directions’ that were set in 2015. A strong focus will also be on how we are working towards achieving our goals in the present School Improvement Plan. Over the next few weeks we will work to develop lines of inquiry for the review which will help us set our key directions for quality teaching and learning and student achievement. During the first two days an important part of our process will be to ask students to play a role in showing our panel members around the school, and also to seek feedback from our students about their perceptions of learning. In addition to this the panel will be looking to interview and generate feedback from our Governing Council and parent members of our school community. It will be an important time for our school as we gain feedback and directions on where we are headed for the future.

Attendance Data

In the two graphs to the right we can see data on our attendance so far this year and for last week.

Although the Department for Education recommended attendance rate is 93%, our school data generally has been quite favourable, especially for schools located a long distance from Adelaide where trips for necessities down south usually cost locals at least an extra day when compared to other locations. Data does show that the higher the attendance rate the higher the level of achievement, the data from Hawker backs this up when we look at student achievement in grades at the end of the semester and also when examining data from NAPLAN and PAT testing. Our attendance rate has been very good at different times of the year, with attendance in the mid-90s especially in term one and three and this is a really pleasing statistic. Attendance can drop off at the end of school terms and in previous years it dropped off in term four as the end of the year approached. Term four is an important term for students as when they experience a good finish to the school year academically, this gives them a better chance of starting the next year well, coming back from a large holiday break. Good attendance from this point of view goes hand in hand with a good finish to the school year and a good start in the next one where students can move forward more successfully. I ask that students and parents think about this over term four and aim to keep attendance as close as possible to the recommended level for their respective children – a good finish to the school year can then be achieved.

Governing Council

At the last Governing Council meeting after discussions with staff we set a date for our Open Night for Thursday October 31st. The structure and intention of the night will mainly revolve around giving parents and students the chance to visit our different learning areas including Design and Technology, the Kitchen / Garden Area, Science, LOTE and our Library to see what activities our students are participating in. It will be an engaging opportunity to see what our students are up to more on this special date early next term.

Term 3 Reports

At the end of term parents will receive our term three reports. These will focus on student progress at all year levels, with written subject reports for our Secondary Students and Progress checks for our Primary students indicating levels of effort and academic progress for the semester so far.

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

Mr Daren O’Neill
Principal Hawker Area School

Hannah from Headspace

Next Visit – TERM 4

Week 4 – Wednesday 6 November
Week 6 – Friday 22 November

Foundation – Year 2

From the strange and mysterious land of the little people…

Thank you again this term for all the support you have shown me and the early primary class. We are all moving forward with our learning and are looking forward to finishing off 2019 with a big surge of effort and good attitude.

We started the term studying the moon landing in 1969, and then went on to look further at our little solar system, the milky way. It was intended to change learning unit’s mid-way through the term but I decided to continue with the solar system study for the entire term as the children were very interested.

In the early newsletter I included photos of student work showing construction of the lunar module ‘The Eagle’ and the moon, along with some moon sheet work. In this newsletter I have featured some art/English work- exploding/imploding Nubula with writing showing speech. I used this work as an assessment piece to show whether they had learnt about the beginning of our solar system history.

You will also see a photo showing the order of planets from the sun star. This work piece incorporates Maths, Science and English.

And lastly I have included a photo of some string planets that the students are working on…soon to be complete. This work incorporates Science/Visual Arts demonstrating materials and liquids ability to combine and change. Wool dipped into white glue and then put onto the blown balloon to dry and harden.

Our English program Read Write Inc. is working wonders with attending students. It is a program that needs strong attendance as each day we build on the previous day’s practise and content. I am excited to be able to deliver this program in the junior school with the wonderful support of SSO staff and Daren O’Neill on different days.

Enjoy the precious time you have with your children over the holidays and I will look forward to teaching them again in term 4. …Christmas is almost here…

Mrs Amanda Hilder
Foundation – Year 2 Teacher/Literacy Leader

Year 3-5 class

School Sport

In week 4, the year’s 3-12 students travelled to Quorn to participate in the Quorn Area School Sports Day. The weather wasn’t ideal, but still an improvement on the previous week! Even though it was cold and windy, students were able to participate in the day and have a good time. Vai Uran received an award for his incredible performance, winning second overall for his age group! Well done Vai!

In week 7 it was our turn to have our school Sports Day. We are obviously jinxed because Sports Days seem to be the rainiest days of the year! Students, parents and teachers braved the cold windy weather and did a fantastic job. Special thanks to those who volunteered as time keepers and scorers, without you the day couldn’t happen. It was great to see everyone getting involved and competitors doing their best. At the end of the day Arkaba came out on top! Better luck next year Heysen!

3-5 Class News

Our HASS topic this term was ‘Extraordinary People in History’. We learned about the lives of three extraordinary people in recent history.

The first person was Neil Armstrong. Everyone in the class had heard of Neil, and knew that he had been the first man on the moon. We then learned about his family, where he was from, and the determination he had to show in order to be the first man on the moon.

The second person we learned about was Anne Frank. Some students had heard of Anne but didn’t know anything about her. After doing some research we found out that she was a young girl growing up in Amsterdam, who had to be resilient and brave in order to survive. Anne wrote a diary which was published and sold all over the world.

The third person we learned about was Malala Yousafzai. Nobody in the class had heard of Malala. Malala showed courage and strength and demonstrated why it is important to stand up for what you believe in. These three people all showed great courage and determination and the class really enjoyed learning about them and finding out differences and similarities between their own lives and the lives of these extraordinary people.

SRC News

This term, the SRC has been working hard behind the scenes. On the last day of school, we will be holding a Footy Colours Day to raise money for the Fight Cancer Foundation. Students can wear any team colours, not just football, and bring a gold coin donation.

We have also ordered another couple of boxes of bandanas so that we can hold Bandana Day in Hawker again. Last year was a great success so we believe this year will be the same. Bandana Day will be on Friday the 25th of October Term 4 (Week 2).

The third thing we have been discussing in SRC is Wheels Day. We haven’t had a Wheels Day in a while but students are very keen to get this going again. Students will be invited to bring their wheels (bikes, roller blades, scooters, etc.) to school for the day. Helmets must be bought along too! The SRC will set up some tracks to be used at recess and lunch time. This event is to raise money for the SRC. The date for Wheels Day is yet to be decided so stay tuned!

Miss Hayley Brown
Year 3-5 Teacher and HPE Coordinator

Mathematics and Science

The Australian Curriculum of Mathematics describes student’s success based on the development of four proficiencies: Understanding, Reasoning, Problem Solving, and Fluency.

One can ask the questions:

What does it look like when students demonstrate understanding?
What does it look when students demonstrate reasoning?
What does it look when students formulate and solve problems?
What does it look when students demonstrate fluency?

The ultimate goal of teaching is to do just that – teach, not stand up in the front of the room and talk. In mathematics or science topics understanding must be measured and dealt with as soon as the first frown appears on a face of the student. It is such a great privilege to have a small classes and to be able to create a good teacher-student respectful relationship. That allows me – the teacher to get to know my students well. This combination gives me power to recognise signs of any problem of understanding, and gives me the luxury to design student learning according to their individual needs.

There are many ways that one mathematical or scientific problem can be solved – the success of the Australian Curriculum is that permits me, the teacher, to teach different strategies and for the students’ the freedom of choosing which strategy they want to use. During this term students learned multiplication, they were provided with different ways to multiply for example: doubling and doubling strategy, grouping, using arrays, visual multiplication using place value, using mental computation. All students are individual and develop their individual way of learning. Therefore, it is great that students can choose one that they feel comfortable with. As a teacher with Sharon Bates who is currently having her last teaching practicum, we can monitor their understanding by asking carefully designed questions: What connections do you see between….? Or What if (change something)...is it still 9? Which is less/smaller/shorter...? Why 3x2 =6 and 2x3=6? Can you explain, show me why?

Please don’t be surprised if your child uses different strategies to solve the problems that were thought in the past. All families want to support their children in their learning journey. It would be great if children could share when they learned new strategies with their families. Please ask them questions: What might be another way to check that? Or What might be another way to do that calculation?

The Year 6-7s this term challenged themselves to solve the problems of writing their own first algebraic formulas to solving the secrets of the 3D geometric shapes: prisms, pyramids, antiprisms- edges, faces and vertices. It was extremely challenging for them. However, it was the first time that they were presented with this way of learning. Saying that I must say that some students achieved a pleasing result and used their own strategies to solve the given problem. The second challenge this term given to students, was a CD Cars problem. Students had to build their own CD cars and workout the given challenges related to the performance of the car– the speed and distance relationship with mass and height of the ramp. Students were asked to record, calculate, analyse and explain their thinking. They had to deduce their strategies that they used and justify strategies and conclusions. The biggest challenge for all our students is still how to adopt the known to the unknown and prove that something is true or false. However, there is a great improvement and most of our students started to develop their own self confidence to apply their knowledge to the given problems.

Mrs Lidia Szelzak
Mathematics and Science Teacher

Design and Technology

Students have been developing skills in using the Design Process while in Design and Technology. The Design process is like a wheel where we identify a problem, research how to solve it, develop an idea, build and test a project and question how well our idea works. As it is a wheel we would then improve the idea and perhaps redevelop the idea, this may mean that we start again and try a different idea making another project similar to the one before but improved.

The process involves identifying a problem that can be solved using the knowledge, skills and abilities the individual has to help them solve the problem. As students we investigate possible ideas by researching how others have solved the problem before us, we then look at how the ideas can be adapted or changed to suit the individual problem that we have before us by drawing or modelling an idea. From here we then build a project or prototype that we can test to see if our ideas work or not. This part is the questioning stage where we critique or appraise the project, questioning if our ideas solve the problem.

Over the last term students Year 3 to 5 have continued to develop skills in measuring and marking out materials. They have been looking at using the bandsaw safely, using safety equipment in the workshop environment and shaping timber using the disk sander and jig saw. Students have also been looking at joining timber using butt joints and dowel joints. We have designed and built small toys with moving parts, shaped letters, developed cricket stumps, made boxes, designed buildings for animals, made models, made small tables and book cases. Some of the students have started to have an understanding of the 3D printer and looked at how it can be used with our projects, printing animals to go with our project ideas.

Within the Year 6 to 12 group students have been developing skills in Technical Drawing, and using Google Sketchup, they have continued to develop skills in using the machinery safely while working on projects like coffee tables, jewellery boxes, wood turned bowls, cabinets and recumbent bikes while learning to weld.

Mr Travis McDonald
Design and Technology

HAS Community Library News

The Power of Story

Book Week 2019

On a clear, sunny day in August, the school grounds were transformed as a tornado blew in bringing, not Dorothy and Toto, but princesses, super heroes, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, sports stars, visitors from Narnia, North America and Polynesia, and numerous other characters demonstrating how the power of story to ignite the imagination in people’s lives is alive and well today.

We extend our congratulations to the following students and staff on receiving these awards at our Dress Up Day Parade…

Most Creative: Tayla McInnis; Julieanne Ashenden
Most Glamorous: Sierra Wiltshire; Rachel Sinkinson-McInnis
Most Unique: Paul Haywood; Cameron Redden
Most Original: Kane Press; Sharon Bates
Most Interesting: Rachelle Johnson; Lidia Szlezak
Most Colourful: Katrina Stuart; Leonie McKenzie
Most Elaborate: Will Du Bois; Lauren Johnson
Most Inspirational: Harry McAuley; Florence Galarita

The following day, grandparents, parents and special friends joined us as we shared in reading together and students took their adult on a tour of the school/kindy. Margie Arnold from Meg’s Bookshop in Port Pirie shared with the adults about books suitable for the young people in their life and, over a cuppa and morning tea, children and adults alike, were able to peruse and purchase books.

Thank you, parents, grandparents and special friends, for joining us to help celebrate Book Week. The children love having you share in their lives in this way. Thank you also to Rosie and Joelle for their help and support in getting these days together.

Aboriginal Cultural Studies

The power of story has continued as a theme this term in the work the students have been doing in learning more about the Adnyamathanha language, culture and environment.

The F-2 students have been using Book Creator on the iPad to share information about themselves. With the help of Pauline and Leonie, we have been learning how to share information about ourselves in Adnyamathanha and have illustrated this information using some of the great drawing features available in Book Creator.

Throughout this term, the 3-5 students have been developing their own blog. As part of that, they have researched and posted information about animals in the Flinders Ranges. This included finding out the name of the animal in Adnyamathanha and what story, if any, it was in. Currently, they are writing their own story, some of which they will translate into Adnyamathanha. They will create a page on their blog on which to share this information.

Visual and media arts can provide a very powerful avenue for the telling of stories. Early in term 3, the Year 6/7 students researched information about a particular aspect of Adnyamathanha culture or environment and presented this information as an iMovie. Currently, they are researching how the Adnyamathanha people shared their stories in the past through their art in such ways as engraving and painting on cave walls. They are comparing that with how Adnyamathanha people still share stories through their art, though this art is now seen further afield.

Coming soon

Scholastic Book Fair is coming Week 3, Term 4 (28/10/19-01/11/19). The fair will be open at our Open Night on Thursday October 31 as well.

Students will be able to use attendance vouchers from Semester 1 at the Book Fair.

More information will come out early next term.

Mrs Ailsa Green & Rosie Luckraft (CLA)
Teacher Librarian

S.A.K.G – Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden

Our first root vegetables harvest was beetroots. We made chocolate and beetroot muffins. Another day we harvested all the carrots. It was a surprise to many of the gardeners to find: white, purple, yellow and pale orange ones and some white with a green tops. All the classes from F to Year 10 had a taste of them raw and compared with a commercial one which we find more watery. Then we made muffins and small cakes. We all were involved: F—2 students each cracking an egg in a bowls. The 3-5 measured all the other ingredients accurately and the 6 10 cooks mixed everything and baked muffins and small cakes.

And now what? Purple corn, yellow Suisse chards, white beetroot?

Again the garden has to put up with temperatures fluctuations and lack of rain. We are going to move the seedling in the shade house as our white green house is getting too hot in the beginning of the afternoons. We are not going to give up and try all the gardening tricks we know….. We are preparing to plant the sun loving tomatoes, capsicums, basil etc..

Mrs Joelle Sharples
Kitchen Garden Specialist

Reminder

Check our calendar for upcoming events each month –