Principals Report

Welcome to our first newsletter for 2025. Things have been happening and already we have had our trip to Quorn last Friday for the Swimming Carnival and this week the visit by Hypergym. Our students who attended Quorn all put in a great effort and enjoyed themselves, special mention to Sammy Haywood who swam in many events and was a real competitor on the day. Well done also to Ada, Leo, Lily, Alice, Eden, Ryan, Liam, Rhys, Pip, Archie, Fleur, Edee, Charlotte and Frank. I would like to thank Daniel Spick, Anni Polkinghorne, Amanda Hilder, Emily Fels and the parents who came along to support, Kaila Mason and Rachael Hilder, if I have left anyone out my apologies. Enjoy the photos, some may be a repeat from Tuesday’s newsflash, but they are worth a second look.

Annual Report

The annual report will be available on our school website later this term. The tool for it’s preparation comes available from the start of February and the report needs to be submitted to System Performance at the Department for Education by May 2025. From a general perspective for interested parents the following will be noticed in the Annual Report:

• NAPLAN results will only show 1 year due to reporting changes introduced by ACARA.
• Due to our numbers of Aboriginal students a separate NAPLAN section for Aboriginal students will be included.
• 3 years of attendance data by year level will be visible.
• Parent Engagement Surveys for the last 3 years for the school will be available.
• Workforce qualification data of staff will be displayed.

Also in the report:

• A complete financial statement for Hawker Area School.
• A Governing Council Report, required under the Education and Children’s Services Act. The governing council report is a summary from the chairperson on the council’s operations, achievements and highlights for the past year.

COLA Construction Update

We have had the first visit by the management team from Weathersafe Shades and the COLA project coordinator from Ventia to the school. At the moment construction will start in early May by the earliest, going for a short period of 2 – 3 weeks. A few operational aspects of the construction are:

• During construction the entire court area will be temporarily fenced, there will be no access to staff and students.
• All delivery access will be through the gate off Chace View Tce, for minimal risk and interruption to site operations. The gate will be set up by removing a fencing panel from the current fence, in the former walk in area next to the kindy and just before the stone laundry shed.  
• WeatherSafe will have their own sign in and induction process within compound.
• A temporary fence area will be constructed by Weathersafe.

Staffing at the start of 2025

After a really busy January and appointments from 2024 this is a summary of where we are for our staffing in 2025:

• Daniel Spick has joined our staff on a Special Authority to Teach, working mainly with the 36 class under the mentoring of Jan Love and with the Secondary HPE class under the mentoring of Hayley Brown.
• Annette Hill has been appointed as our Secondary English and HASS teacher with some SACE roles as well. Annette will be starting at Hawker early in Week 5.
• Peter Russell has gained his authority to teach and will be teaching five lessons to the F2 and 36 classes in the HPE area. The rest of Peter’s week will consist of SSO2 responsibilities in the SWAN class and other classes.
• Anna Oakey and Karmy Coulthard are sharing the ACEO responsibilities this year. Karmy will be here on Tuesdays and will be working with Polly Smart, our AET in delivering the Yura Muda curriculum to all three of our classes.
• As mentioned above Polly Smart has returned as our Teacher Librarian and AET.
• Anna Oakey will be our ACEO, supporting students and families on general wellbeing and attendance. She has also taken on the role of Specialist Learning Support with two of our students in Tailored Learning, where the goal is for increased engagement and career planning.
• Sarah Bull has joined our staff as our Full Time SWAN teacher, working five days a week in our SWAN class.
• Hayley Brown continues as our HPE teacher and Autism Lead until the end of Week 6 when she leaves temporarily once again.

Dates this term

Some key dates coming up this term:

• Quorn Swimming Carnival last Friday.
• Hypergym in Hawker – Monday and Tuesday this week, delivering to all our classes.
• Acquaintance Night moved to Monday March 3rd after our interruption due to COVID.
• South Australian Coordinated Practice Test, Tuesday February 25^th. This is the warm up for NAPLAN testing.
• Leaders days in Adelaide – All site leaders across the state and other department staff meeting on February 27^th and 28^th. The Far North Leaders from our Partnership meet in Adelaide on the previous day, February 26^th.
• Swimming lessons – Monday to Thursday March 3^rd to 6^th.
• Pupil Free Day Friday March 7^th, in conjunction with staff from Leigh Creek Area School. Professional learning delivered by the SRS (Self Regulation Service).
• NAPLAN Assessments – March 12^th to 24^th.
• School Camp to Adelaide during Fringe – March 17^th to 21^st .
• Governing Council Meeting – Monday March 24^th
• Cue Learning visit – March 24^th – 26th.
• Parent – Student – Teacher Conferences – Monday March 31^st and Tuesday April 1^st.
• Friday April 11^th – Final day of term.

See you at school for Acquaintance night.

Mr Daren O'Neill

Principal