I would like to start this newsletter with a special mention about Rowan Bevan who has joined our list of winners in STEM challenges at Hawker. The F-6 students entered this year's Premier’s Reading Challenge STEM Challenge this year, as they have done for the last 3 years. This is in addition to the reading challenge that will be completed towards the end of this term.

This year there were 3,335 entries in the Premier's Reading Challenge STEM competition. The judging panel selected 38 outstanding entries to award prizes across four themes – STEM, Space, Nature and Green Hydrogen.  

Of the 38 outstanding entries, there were 11 age-group winners across the four themes. Rowan Bevan won in his age group for the ‘Nature’ Theme. 

It has been a busy start to the term with a few public and whole school events on our agenda, and more to come this term. One has been postponed for the moment, the Open day but still an eventful term lies ahead.

Already this term we have had the visit of Stephen Bell on the second Friday of term. Stephen presented to our audience details of his life as a mountaineer and presented with it lessons on facing your fear and being committed to your own goals personally. The audience from age 5 to parents who came along were engaged with Stephen’s message, this being evidenced by the interesting questions that were asked at the end.

In week four we are presenting the movie ‘The Last Daughter’ to our students from Year 5 upwards and have also made this screening available to the public. It is an impactful documentary that focuses on the history of the stolen generation, centering on the experiences of Brenda, who was removed from her family and returned later.

Other events for the term coming up are:

• Book Week– This will be on the week of August 21^st to 25^th with the theme Read, Grow, Inspire. Book week parade will be on Monday August 21^st with the Book Fair on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
• Quorn Area School Sports Day– straight after our Open Day, Quorn Area School will be having it’s Sports Day, on Friday August 25^th.
• Nilpena Excursion– a school excursion to Nilpena Ediacara National Park will happen on Monday September 11^th. Year levels to participate in the excursion will be released during the term.
• Hawker Area School Sports Day– Friday September 15^th.

Over recent years we have had Jack Pointon from Headspace attending our school to support the wellbeing of our students over the age of 12. Jack has now moved on and we thank him for his support of our students. In his place Ben McCann will now be attending Hawker Area School every fortnight to continue this service. Another change is that Headspace forms have now been changed so we are asking all families who want support from Headspace for students aged 12 and over to fill in the attached forms (consent and external referral) in this communication. They are also available from the front office in hard copy form and can be sent home with students on parent request.

NAPLAN reports will be going out to parents in week four. A few changes were made to the NAPLAN this year:

• Tests were held in March – all online except for Year 3 Writing.
• New proficiency standards have been introduced.

From this year the following new standards were introduced to NAPLAN reporting which replace the previous numerical NAPLAN reporting bands and national minimum standards. The intention is that Proficiency standards will provide clear information on student achievement. This year there are now 4 proficiency levels:

• Exceeding: The student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
• Strong: The student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
• Developing: The student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
• Needs additional support: The student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.

Our construction project on our hardcourt area is progressing well, with the addition to the project of four new galvanised metal posts to replace the previous timber posts that have deteriorated over the years. This decision was made during the construction process, creating a delay due to their manufacture and delivery. The courts area will be completed soon, opening up the recreational options for students at the school. At the end of term our Disability Access Provision toilets will commence construction, the first phase of this involving the removal of asbestos. For this reason for the first part of the holidays the school site will be closed to school staff and the general community.

I look forward to seeing parents at school during the term. As always I can be contacted via our Front Office on 0886484003 or by my email daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au