It has been an energetic start to the year, which took a while to settle down with our school participating in two Swimming Carnivals in Quorn and Leigh Creek as well as our own week of swimming lessons for students from the Foundation Year to Year 9. Participation by our students at both carnivals was on a high level and some won the opportunity to travel to Booleroo and represent Quorn and Hawker as a result. The follow day up at Leigh Creek was important for our swimmers as it is probably the last time that Leigh Creek will be able to stage a swimming carnival with their pool likely to be shut down. After a few adventures arriving at the pool for one group our students we had a great day, dealing with the 37 degrees heat quite well and enjoying a variety of pool events. The most notable impression for me was the greater number of students who wanted to participate on the day, a reflection in part on the experience of the swimming lessons the week before.

Our Student Parent Teacher Goal Setting Interviews were held this term on February 15^th and 16^th. At the interviews we had attendance from 13 families, representing about 60% of our enrolment. While we want this to improve, those that attended got the opportunity speak with their students teachers, review progress so far and set initial goals for they year. These goals will appear on our school reports each term, changing as teachers review progress and new goals with their students.

We have held our first Governing Council meetings for the year, including our AGM and first meeting of the new council where new members were elected. The Governing Council for 2021 consists of:

At the first Governing Council meeting I presented our Annual Report for discussion, this is now available on our school website for download and reading by the school community. The report especially is a reflection of key performance areas including our School Improvement Goals of Reading, Writing and Numeracy, as well as other key areas such as attendance, wellbeing, SACE and surveys to the community. In terms of learning data schools normally have a focus on NAPLAN data for each year, but of course last year this was not the case. Due to this our Annual Report delves into other evidence of student learning including data relating to literacy at the Junior Primary level such as PASM (Phonological Awareness Skill Mapping) which is conducted in the main with our Foundation to Year Two students and Phonics Screening. Both tests assess and deliver information on student’s ability to manipulate sounds, including various types of deletion (from different parts of words), similar / different sounds and syllable awareness. In addition to this the report explored other data including our Running Records data, PAT R and M and our grade and achievement data.

Part of data analysis concerned our attendance data, which was really pleasing for 2020. Overall our school attendance increased in 2020 from 85.1% in 2019 to 88.8% in 2020, which is a significant improvement, especially in a year which was affected by the pandemic. A lot of work went into keeping our attendance levels up with class teachers and our ACEO Letisha McKenzie working to keep students at school, in addition to this well attending students have been recognised for their attendance. At the moment our Year to Date attendance still sits at the 2020 figure, as can be seen from the data summary to the right.

The Wellbeing and Engagement Survey was conducted in late Term 3 2020 and was completed by 14 students across year levels 4 to 12, covering a reasonably high level of student numbers in this area. Because of our small student numbers the survey mostly presents information on our students as a whole and the data generally compared favourably with the rest of the state. Positively the survey does reveal a positive student culture at Hawker Area School, showing that a high percentage of our students are happy, optimistic and don’t have many worries. We can also see that our students have a high level of belonging to the school and peers, are emotionally engaged with their teachers and have friends. An area for us and other schools to always work on is in the area of how our students relate to each other, with some indication of students falling out with each other and feeling put down or bullied. This is an area the school has put a lot of time into with our students through in class curriculum and visits from Headspace in particular. The data also showed that our students have a positive self concept academically and in general are quite healthy in and out of school, with a few exceptions for students who did not feel they had sporting options. The survey through it’s historical analysis where data was displayed over a period of years showed a positive progression in almost all sets of data, which was really pleasing.

The school also conducted a parent survey through the department for education in late term three and early term four with eight responses being gathered. Data from the survey was presented to the Governing Council and discussed. The survey data also included a comparison to schools around the state and in general these responses were comparable with Hawker. Questions in the survey ranged through a variety of topics, including opinions on respect, communication, standards of work and feedback about work and the nature of interaction between parents, students, teachers and the school. Data gathered indicated a positive view of aspects of the school such as interactions and respect between teachers, students and parents, standards of work and feedback about work. An area to work on was in communication, which is something to take on board and explore different options for getting information out to the community.

The school is once again getting organised for the latest annual participation in the NAPLAN online tests in Reading, Writing, Language Conventions and Numeracy. All tests except for the Year 3 Writing test will be conducted online. Preparation for this involves a detailed and deliberate process each year of testing and installing software and apps on our laptops and iPads, as well as training in how to manage the overall process, through student participation, starting and concluding tests and administering the system for the correct delivery of test data. Letters have already gone out to parents of our Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 students about the tests, how they are run, lengths of tests and parent options including exempting students from test participation. This information also included clarification on how information about students is managed and used in a secure way. Our practice run for the test came on Thursday March 25^th when our students participated in the National Coordinated Practice Test. This test was held for a few reasons, firstly giving students an idea of what the test will involve and an introduction to the various tools available in the online version. The test was in the form of an Omnibus Test, covering all areas of NAPLAN. The second reason was to give schools a dry run in managing the test and reviewing any data if needed on how devices operated and whether issues occurred during the practice test.

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