18 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

Principals Report

The school year has started off well for our students with classes commencing in all curriculum areas, which their teachers will be reporting on in this newsletter. Our new staff are settling into their roles with in class support for learning across literacy, numeracy, technology and LOTE occurring. In this newsletter you will also be able to read up to get to know our new staff as they have provided their own profiles to share.

In our student intake we have a new group of Foundation students arriving in Amanda Hilder’s Foundation to Year 2 class, whilst the other classes have remained similar to last year, with the arrival also of a Year 12 student. In the senior secondary area we have students taking up the chance to study Japanese, Digital Image Solutions (Photography) and Creative Arts at the Open Access College. Apart from our delivery of English, Maths, Science and HASS, we have Ailsa Green teaching Art to our F – 2, 3 – 5 and 6 – 8 classes, Sasha Andersson teaching LOTE and Music to the same students, Travis McDonald teaching Design and Technology to the 3 – 5 and 6 – 9 students and Susan Barclay, who is the Work Education and Student Pathways Coordinator for Hawker, Leigh Creek and Marree coming in one day a week to teach Work Studies to our 6 – 9 students. Susan will also deliver a Flexible Learning Option to three of our Senior Secondary students.

During term four last year and also followed up in week 0 this year our staff have been putting a lot of time into preparation for the school year and success for all our students. This has involved building a profile on all our students to assist us in identifying the focus of our teaching with each individual student and what we need to build on and improve. Data concerning NAPLAN, PAT tests, and other tests associated with literacy and numeracy were included in this profile. We also surveyed our students near the end of the year using the TfEL (Teaching for Effective Learning) Compass tool. The aim of this exercise was to give our students a voice in their own learning, giving us their perspective on their learning. Students responded to statements relating to the 12 Elements of the TfEL Framework which are organised around the three Domains of:

• Create Safe Conditions For Rigorous Learning
• Develop Expert Learners
• Personalise and Connect Learning

These questions connected with the elements associated with these domains, relating to themes such as feeling safe and taking risks in lessons, how we can help each other to learn, getting choices with learning, how students view the value of feedback they receive, how students understand their strengths as a learner and what they need to do to improve, how persistence is valued, understanding why people think the way they do, learning through sharing with others and connecting with learning and sharing it. Our analysis of this data through the tool assisted us to understand student perceptions of the value of Growth Mindset and their own self perceptions as a learner.

From the survey it could be seen that our students have a very positive sense of Growth Mind Set, showing a belief in being able to change how intelligent you are and how to be a better learner and that the harder you work the smarter you get. They also showed that they have a good understanding of how we are part of a community of learners who gain from working together. The survey also helped to highlight areas where we can develop our students sense of how they learn effectively and make connections with their learning and share it openly with other students and teachers safely. Teachers will be sharing this data with our students so they can understand what we have learned. It will be interesting in term four this year to once again get students to complete this survey and analyse how things have changed.

Dates for term one are coming pretty quick. By the time the newsletter arrives online the students would have attended the Quorn Area School Swimming Carnival. As a follow up to this event we also have the MNSEC Swimming Carnival, which will be held in Quorn this year (big bonus there!) on February 18th. Our Parent Student Teacher Goal Setting Interviews will be held on the 18th and 19th of February. Other dates will be reported to the community as they are finalised and approved.

A couple of points about uniform which I have already mentioned this term. Hats are an essential for every day at school now for all four terms. The departments’ SunSmart Policy in particular identifies any day where students are out in conditions where the UV rating is over 3 as days where a hat is required. At Hawker when we tested this in 2018 we found that the UV 3 level was reached daily in terms one, three and four comprehensively and also for most days in term two. The school website has the SunSmart widget on it, (simply click the arrow to select Hawker rather than Leigh Creek) and our teachers will be referring to this as a way of making students more aware of the conditions each day. The website will also be a useful reference at home for parents who want to look into our UV ratings each day.

Shorts are also an item I would like to promote and discuss. Our uniform policy while not identifying a compulsory short to wear does point out that the colour should be blue or black and of an appropriate length. On our first day we discussed with students that this length should be at least half way down to the knees, similar to the length of basketball shorts and also many of the shorts with pockets that can be bought at Woolworths and Coles. Some of our students already wear shorts of this length and colour but not all. At the moment our uniform policy identifies our shirt as being compulsory but not the shorts. We want to promote these shorts and encourage parents to get their children wearing them. The reason for this is that shorts of this length are more presentable for students at school and on excursions and also are more suitable in our climate, due to the issue of UV levels and the threats of skin damage.

Unfortunately we have still had some instances of motorists going past the school above the required speed at the start and end of school days. Can I ask all motorists to be observant of requirements for obeying the speed limits when students are present. Enjoy reading our teachers articles on their planned learning for this term, and also the introductions of our new staff. I look forward to meeting you all during the term, and as always I can be contacted at the school via the front office on 86484003 or by my email on daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au

Have a great term.

Mr Daren O’Neill
Principal Hawker Area School

Headspace – Jack Pointon

Foundation – Year 2

From the strange and mysterious land of the little people…

And we are off…a warm week 1 is wrapping up as I write this article but we’ve gotten through and we’re looking forward to the rain that is forecast for the weekend.

We have five new foundation children and they are settling in nicely. In total our class has 14 students beginning the year. We are excited to embark on our second year of using the Read Write Inc. program to learn more English skills. Beginning this week we are also using the Big Talk/Big Write and VCOP approach to further enhance our talking and writing skills this year. During the year I will share some new development for our Mathematics learning too.

In the Foundation-Year Two class this term we are studying under two umbrella themes. Our first theme is Our Six Senses -weeks 1-6 and the second is Working and Money -weeks 7-11. We have discussed our senses and listed what we already Know about them. We have also thought of some questions about things we Wonder about our senses.

Our questions: How does my mouth taste? What are my nose bones? What part of my brain helps me with my senses? What are our tastebuds? Which animals have super senses? How does my brain work? How do we see? Can we use all of our senses at the same time?

We will find answers for these questions over the next 5 weeks along with lots of other learning under our theme.

We have a new bookshelf in our room and we are using it to store all of our Non Fiction books. This will help the children differentiate between the two different kinds of books. We will also be looking at some of Pablo Picasso artworks this term, and learning about some of the different ways he created his art…and of course we will give our own creations a go.

In the photos you will notice our new display board using the VCOP approach in English. There are 4 characters that we use to help remind the children about different parts of speaking/writing. The characters are Vinny Vocabulary, Connie Connectives, Ollie Openers and Penny Punctuation. As parents, feel free to ask me any questions you may have. You’ll also see a child showing their thinking about the 6 senses following our discussions…WOW!

Best wishes to all of my families as you begin your first year as a school parent or if you are an old hand at it. If in doubt ask your child’s teacher for clarification on anything…big or small.

Mrs Amanda Hilder
Foundation – Year 2 Teacher/Literacy Coordinator

Year 3-5 class

Welcome back! I hope everybody had a great holiday. This year in the year 3-5 class, we have a Tropical Paradise theme!

In English we will be focusing on writing narratives and persuasive texts. As a continuation of the Read Write Inc program, we will be starting The Big Write this year, The Big Write helps students with their writing skills. We have a VCOP board in our room this year which acts as a bit of a word wall. V=Vocabulary C= Connectives O= Openers and P=Punctuation. Each letter comes with its own character. The VCOP Gang were created to provide students with a group of vibrant young characters they can relate to, use for guidance and to aid with their writing.

our HASS lessons this term, our focus is on different islands around the world. We will start looking at tropical paradises and discussing why people might like to go to them. We will also look at some less appealing islands later in the term and do some comparisons.

School Sport

This term in Health the kids from Year 3 and up will be focusing on the health benefits of physical activity, and food and nutrition. In PE we will be starting off playing Basketball.

In week 2 we will all head down to Quorn to participate in the QAS Swimming Carnival. In week 5 Year 4-7 students will have the chance to compete in the SAPSASA Basketball carnival in Port Augusta. There will also be an opportunity for them to participate in the SAPSASA Football and Netball carnivals at the end of week 10. In Week 6, the year 6– 9 class will be making their way down to Port Augusta to participate in some aquatics sports! We will also be getting a volleyball clinic organised for later in the term, all students will participate in this (date still to be confirmed). We have lots of exciting things happening this term so I’m sure it’s going to go super-fast!

Miss Hayley Brown
Year 3-5 Teacher and HPE Coordinator

Year 6-12 class

Year 6-12 Class with Sharon Bates

Hello and welcome to the new year. Just in case you’ve missed it, I’m Sharon and I’m teaching year 6-9 English and HASS as well as SACE Stage 1 English (year 11) and home group for 6-12.

Home Group

During home group we are spending some time on mindfulness, current affairs (internet depending), and basically reminding people to use their diaries. If you see a diary come home, I’d love to see it signed once per week. If you aren’t seeing a diary would you mind giving your child a gentle (or not so gentle, up to you!) reminder to show it to you and get it signed at least once per week. I will tell students if I’ve put a note in their diary, but if we are all checking we shouldn’t miss anything.

English 6-9 Class

We started the year with a “cold write” where students write in a particular style (in this case a recount) with very little prompting or guidance. Their writing was timed and they were given a stimulus to write about. This will allow us to see where each student is at, so that we can build from there. At the moment they are working intensively on writing a narrative, first as a class, and then independently. This is part of the “Big Write” program that the whole school is using. It includes learning all the different writing genres, and focuses on vocabulary, connecting words, opening words and punctuation. Of course spelling will also be a strong focus.

We will begin our first book study soon, which will be a visual text called The Rabbits, by John Marsden. This is a beautifully illustrated picture book aimed at secondary students and talks about the theme of colonisation. Students will not only analyse the text but they will look at the images and discuss themes, symbols, visual imagery, colours and tone. This unit of work will finish with an essay, which also ties in with the next writing genre, a persuasive text.

That should be enough to keep us busy for the rest of the term!

Year 11 – SACE

Year 11 English for this term will focus on The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. This book takes in the themes of coming of age, guilt and redemption and will include an in depth book study finishing with a written submission to the SACE board explaining why this book is an important inclusion in the senior secondary reading list.

HASS

We are starting with History this term, which sees us studying the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague which happened in medieval Europe. The students are enjoying the gruesome details and general ickyness (new word, trust me, I’m an English teacher!) of this topic and may come home singing about fleas on rats. My apologies. Feel free to look up “Hollaback Girl Black Death” on YouTube if you’d like to join in with the song. It’s pretty catchy! After looking at the social and biological effects this plague had on Europe and the world we will shift to a Geography focus when we will look at how to survive a zombie apocalypse in modern times. This will consider themes like disease resistance, disease mobility, water and food security, and the social effects of losing a large portion of the population.

That pretty much covers our term for English and HASS in the 6-12 class. If you ever have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to contact me at school.

Mrs Sharon Bates
Year 6-12 Teacher & SACE Coordinator

Mathematics and Science

Big and Small Year 6-7 Mathematics challenge

Little taste what is coming this term

Try to solve it, have a go …

Here are two equilateral triangles.

One has sides that are 3cm long and the other has sides that are 6cm long.

What fraction of the big triangle’s area is the small triangle?

There is more than one solution.

Can you think of one?

Year 8 -9 Mathematics inquiry…

I wonder which toilet roll is the best value.

Can you help me to find value for money?

If you are struggling to get started, maybe this will help you to get started:

How many individual sheets are there in this toilet roll?
How long is this toilet roll?
Which roll has the most sheets?
Which roll is the longest?
What other variables could you consider in your inquiry? (e.g. ply, double length)
I wonder which roll is really double the length.
Which toilet roll would last the longest?

Good Luck

Mrs Lidia Szelzak
Mathematics and Science Teacher

Language Music

Welcome back! 2020's looking to be a good one, and before things in my life get super busy, here's what's happening at school!

In Music classes, all students will be continuing to develop, broaden, and reconcile the past years of learning, using a Kodaly approach to music competency and literacy. All students in Foundation to Year 9 are continuing with classroom music lessons at this stage, and I've heard rumours about some exciting things to come later in the year!

In Choir students will be continuing to develop their singing and performance skills and confidence, through the Primary Schools Festival of Music repertoire. As I write this, Lisa and I are attending the choir conference to introduce us to the song material (which actually looks fantastic), and we will be off from week 3.We are thrilled to have Lisa on board again this year as accompanist, and she will help ensure continuity of delivery, after I go on leave. Please make sure contracts are returned with payment by the end of week 4.

Band is continuing in 2020, with 9 students enrolled, from years 5 to 11. Unfortunately we lose our trumpeter, but the balance of instrumentation will remain strong! I have also been hired (separate too HAS) by the Department for Education's Instrumental Music (IM) team, meaning that these students will also be receiving targeted, small group lessons once a week, growing our abilities and progressing even faster!

In Indonesian students have hit the ground running, with students in Foundation to year 5 currently focusing on numbers, before the 3-5 classes moves on to food, fruits and Indonesian markets. Students in 6-8 are using an Australian Curriculum aligned text book titled 'Saling Silang', to strengthen their existing learning, without leaving newer students in the dark. All these programs have been carefully chosen to allow continuity of delivery after my departure. This year we are also super lucky to have Ani in our lessons. Ani is a Hawker local, formerly of Bali! She has generously agreed to support the students and I in our language and culture development.

Similarly, in Adnamatna classes, we are continuing to work with Aunty Pauline, and welcome Letisha to lessons! Programming in these lessons is still being finalised, as the school has won a small grant entitled 'First Languages Maintenance and Development', with which we plan to collate and create some whole school language immersion resources, as well as putting together a school-specific program, which can be used by future Adnamatna language teachers. I am currently doing lots of reading and research, and have begun talking to Aunty Pauline about the direction of these resources. At present, Foundation to Year 2 students are looking at the concept of 'Home', while older students are doing some solid revision, and re-activating the language parts of their brains!

On a more personal note, thank you for all the well-wishes and congratulations so far. I can now inform you that I will be working until week 4 of Term 2, before I am off on maternity leave. It is absolutely the priority of the school, and myself, that all students maintain access to these subjects until such time as I am fit to return (taking bets on when that will be!), but we ask your patience as the transition is made.

Enjoy 2020!

Mrs Sasha Andersson
Language Music Teacher

HAS Community Library News

Premiers Reading Challenge

The Premier’s Reading Challenge has commenced for 2020. The Premier's Reading Challenge is a literacy engagement program that was introduced by the Premier in 2004 to:

• Encourage students to read more books and enjoy reading and
• Improve literacy levels.

The Challenge requires students to read 12 books between the beginning of the school year and early September, this year by September 4.

Please see your child’s home group teacher for more information.

Baby & Toddler Library Sessions will be on Thursdays between 9-9:30.

Library Lessons & Expectations

Students in F-8 have a weekly borrowing time in the library. F-2: Tuesday; 3-5: Wednesday; 6-8: Tuesday.

Students are able to borrow up to 5 items at a time. They can have these items for up to 4 weeks. DVDs can be borrowed at lunchtime and after school.

Helping your child develop positive library habits…

• Support your child in making sure the library books they wish/need to return are in their school bag the night before their library lesson

• Create a special place for library books to be kept while at home.
• Have a place, for example on the fridge, where they can keep the paper slip that says what books they have borrowed and when they are due back.

Dates for the Diary and you can also find these on the school website under our page along with our BLOG - cbcjslibrary.edublogs.org

Digital Literacy

Digital Literacy is, “The ability to find, evaluate, utilise, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.”

I am working with the F-5 students on various aspects of Digital Literacy over the year, including researching and further developing a blog where they can share their information.

Art

This year, I am working with the F-8 students in Art for 1 lesson a week. In Semester 1, along with developing their own style in Visual Arts using a variety of mediums and working in both 2D & 3D, the students will explore the work of different artists and learn about the Elements of Art and Principles of Design.

Ailsa Green – Teacher Librarian and Rosie Luckraft CLA

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

Some plants have done very well so far. The brassica leaves are still full of goodness and provide minerals and vitamins to any dishes.

This year Lauren Johnson will take care of the garden. Lauren and I will work closely to bring to the students interesting lessons in gardening and cooking. Hopefully we will have more rain than last year.

The kitchen was covered with dust and more dust after the storm.

As always the first lesson was about safety. We will cover this subject in more details, for example finding all about the “2 hour/4 hour Rule etc.

In term one the students will familiarise themselves with the equipment that will help them cook more efficiently.

In the garden the students will look at the world of hydroponic culture. Who knows, it might be the way to overcome the lack of rain!!!

Mrs Joelle Sharples
Kitchen Garden Specialist

Welcome New Members of HAS Staff

Mrs Lisa O’Neill

Hello, I’m Lisa O’Neill, and I am working as an SSO on Mondays and Tuesdays, in the F-2, 3-5 and 6-8 classes, and accompanying the primary choir once again. I am an Adelaide girl who loves reading, music, ballroom dancing, cross stitch and knitting, sudoku, word puzzles, walking, and dogs. I am a classical pianist, (currently out of practise), and have accompanied the Jamestown Drama Group for 6 musicals, given concerts with friends in Jamestown and performed at the Bundaleer Weekend. I have twice played for the East of the Ranges primary choir, and have accompanied and/or sung in several other community choirs.

I began my life-in the country teaching Maths in Whyalla, where I met Daren, and our journey together has taken us to Cleve, Jamestown (then came Sean and Rebekah), a short teaching stint in Gladstone, several years as a Kindergym leader in Jamestown, then a move to Keith. I have been on P & F committees, helped in the classroom and at lots of school events. I have played an assortment of sports over the years mostly at a very average level. I attend the Catholic church, I try to get to the gym or swimming pool sometimes, and like exploring with the Hawker Walkers. I am looking forward to getting to know the students better and helping them with their learning, whilst learning lots of new things myself.

Mrs Lisa O’Neill
School Services Officer

Mrs Susan Barclay

This year the 6,7,8,9 students from Hawker, Marree and Leigh Creek Area School will be embarking on a new subject called Work Studies. One aim is to expose students to the skills and attributes which are generally valued by the workplace and relate this to their current learning. An example might be the importance of being well organised. This is a behaviour which is useful in one's personal life, as well as in one's working or post – school study life.

In addition, the course seeks to encourage students to explore possible pathways post – school and to examine the relationship between school learning and building the knowledge, skills and understandings, required to attain these pathways. An example is understanding the importance of achieving competent literacy and numeracy skills. This is essential if one is to have some flexibility regarding future pathways. Many of our students prefer hands on learning and therefore will gravitate to trades, working in primary industries, operating machinery, the transport industry and so on. All of these ventures require high levels of literacy and numeracy, along with strong interpersonal skills and ICT skills.

Another very important aim is to have students develop a sound understanding of how to be well. It is no use, for example, knowing how to operate a welder, if one does not know how to look after one's physical and psychological well-being. So to be brief, our students will be supported in making important steps along the journey to post – school life. Throughout the year, parents will be advised of special activities, some off site, designed to enhance our program, to engage our students and to have fun along the way

Mrs Susan Barclay
Work Education and Student Pathways Coordinator

Reminder

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