Our Stories

July 3 Newsletter

03 Jul 2020

Click here to view the July 3 Schoolzine eNewsletter!

Last Day of Term Two

02 Jul 2020

Wheels Day July 3rd

Our last day of school promises reasonable weather for our bike ride around town with little chance of any rain and a maximum UV of 3.0. Our schedule for the last day is as follows:

8.50 – 10.20 – Normal Lessons

10.20 – Students assemble and are organised into groups. This is followed by the ride to the War Memorial for Recess (bring recess and a water bottle and a hat)

11.00 –  11.15 – Ride to Blue Burt Park

11.15 – 11.25 – Short Break at Blue Burt Park

11.25 – Assemble Groups and ride back to School, arriving back by 12.00

12.00 – 12.40 – Ride the bike track at School.

12.40 – Sausage Sizzle (Hand in your gold coin donation to Leonie or Joelle).

12.40 – 1.20 – Enjoy your sausages and ride the track at School.

1.20 – 2.00 – Back to class for clean ups.

2.00 – 2.10 – Gather on Basketball Court and farewell for the holidays.

2.15 – School bus leaves.

All students riding tomorrow will need their helmet and covered shoes, we will also be asking students to demonstrate that they can stop on their bike with their brakes before we go. All students on the day (some are walking) also will need to bring their recess and a water bottle. 

A reminder about a gold coin donation to support our SRC fundraiser, this can be paid at the sausage sizzle. 

Please note the schedule tomorrow, as per the last day of term, school finishes at 2.10 pm, with the school bus departing at 2.15.

Regards,
Daren O'Neill
Principal
daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au

Wheels Day Friday

29 Jun 2020

The SRC have asked to have a fundraiser day this Friday as the last day of term with a focus on 'Wheels'. Details are below in the letter written by our SRC:

On Friday the 3^rd of July the SRC is organising a wheel’s day through town.We will leave school at approximately 10.20am to have recess at the  ANZAC Memorial. After everone has eaten recess we will make our way to Blue Bert Park. We will have a small break at the park then we will head back to school on our planned route. We will hold a sausage sizzle at school with a gold coin donation per sausage. There will also be a small track set up at school for the kids still wanting to ride. Children can bring any non-motorised wheels and must have a safety helmet and sound shoes. They will also need to demonstrate that their bike or scooter is roadworthy ie good tyres and functioning brakes.  

Jack Allen and Tayla McInnis on behalf of the SRC

More information on the activity will go home to gain parent consent for this Friday. 

Regards,
Daren O'Neill
Principal
daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au

School Community Update - COVID-19

17 Jun 2020

The latest update on managing COVID-19 has been released and contains some adjustments for schools as well as some more of the same in other areas. It is worth emphasising some of these points.

Physical Distancing requirements remain in place

Expectations for adults remain the same. All adults must continue to follow the density and physical distancing guidelines outlined by SA Health:

• no more than 1 person per 4-square metres in an enclosed space
• maintain a minimum social distance of 1.5 metres.

This means that parents still need to physical distance, including at school pick up and drop off. At Hawker this means that children can be walked into school by their parents, however parents can’t enter class areas.

Changes

From Monday 29 June, the following activities can resume providing government health advice and physical distancing requirements are strictly followed:

• school assemblies
• all intrastate camps and excursions
• all school sport competitions, sports days and carnivals, including inter-school competitions
• inter-school choirs, bands and other performing art activities

Some requirements remain in place

• It’s important that students and staff stay home if they are unwell.
• Schools are expected to report daily on student attendance. COVID-19 factors no longer are relevant reasons to give for student absence.
• The general public should not access school playgrounds or play equipment.

It is worth emphasising at this time of the year and with the increased traffic of visitors to Hawker that if children are unwell parents should keep them at home. This is the time of the year where respiratory illnesses in particular are on the increase and these also need to be kept under control.

School Update

22 May 2020

COVID 19

I hope everyone is staying healthy. Things appear to be settling down in our state, but SA Health are still updating schools via the Department for Education on current practices in relation to the pandemic. The Department for Education this week changed some of it’s guidelines for the management of COVID 19 in relation to schools, based on the advice of SA Health. In particular the situation on where students should now be has changed.

Attendance

While we have been supporting parent choice during this pandemic, the department now expect all public school students who are well and not considered vulnerable to COVID-19 to attend school or preschool. This will apply to the majority of our student population.

There still are some exceptions. Students are required to attend school unless they are:

• Feeling unwell
• Have a chronic medical condition or compromised immune system and are not able to attend school on advice from their medical practitioner
• Live in a household with others that are deemed vulnerable to COVID-19 and are not able to attend school on advice of their medical practitioner
• Have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or have been required to self-isolate by SA Health

We will continue to provide support for students not able to attend school on advice from their medical practitioner. The school will also continue with it’s attendance checks for the time being to assess reasons for absence.

Camps and Excursions

All school camps and excursions (outside of the school grounds) should continue to be deferred for now. SA Health believe it presents an unnecessary risk due to the transport and logistics involved, the need for extra supervisors/parent involvement and sharing of equipment.

Given the amount of planning and effort that goes into organising each camp and excursion, we are not planning to have any excursions beyond local town activities for the rest of this term.

Physical distancing at school drop off and pick up

Parents should maintain the 1.5m physical distance between themselves and other adults (parents and teachers) at all times, including school drop off and pick up. Parents at Hawker may enter the yard at drop off and pick up to take their kids to the classroom entrance, but we ask that they not enter classrooms due to these social distancing issues.

Parents continue to be requested to bring lunches to the front office during school hours. From here students will be contacted to come and collect their lunch.

Essential Services

The school is now able to allow essential services staff on site where appropriate social distancing and hygiene measures can be taken. This for our community includes:

• priority and essential services for children, students and staff
• facilities management and building works.

These essential services include most importantly services that are vital to the health, wellbeing and learning outcomes of our students.

The school under direction from the department still requires all our service providers (who are not department employees) to complete a site entry form addressing COVID-19 before they can enter the site.

SA Health has also advised that volunteering (e.g. parent reading groups) and non-essential services should continue to be postponed.

School sports

At Hawker our PE lessons can continue as part of our school curriculum. School sport activities which may involve students from more than one school, and is not part of the curriculum at this stage can’t occur. School sports competitions will eventually recommence but only for non and low-contact sports, and only for localised rather than state-wide or regional competitions.

Sports days/carnivals should continue to be postponed. With our school sports day involving Leigh Creek and possibly Marree in term 3, we will continue to keep an eye on updates concerning sport.

Regards,
Daren O'Neill
Principal
daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au

Hawker School Community Library - We're Back!

21 May 2020

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We're back! with some restrictions from Monday May 25th please see attached for further information. 

Hawker School Community Library May Update

Kind Regards,
Ailsa Green 
Teacher Librarian

May 19 Newsletter

19 May 2020

Click here to view the May 19 Schoolzine eNewsletter!

HAS Community Library - Term 2 Scholastic Info

12 May 2020

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

There will not be a paper version of the Book Club catalogue in Term 2. For the first time in the history of Scholastic the catalogue for Book Club for Term 2 will be a virtual one.  Please click on the link to access it. 

Scholastic Virtual Catalogue

Book Loop 

Book Club LOOP is an easy way of paying for any Book Club purchases. It is free to register. Please check out the link to access the loop. Orders made through the Loop are delivered to school.

Scholastic Book Club Parent Login

You are welcome to pay for your order at school as well. I will send home a copied version of the order form (not the catalogue) with students to enable you to do this. 

All orders are due by Friday May 15. 

Many thanks,

Ailsa Green
Teacher Librarian

May 3rd COVID Update

03 May 2020

With the SA Health announcement concerning kids returning to schools last week Hawker Area School saw most of our students return, which was pleasing. We are still implementing the hygiene practices mentioned last term which included:

• Students washing their hands at each break.
• Students washing hands at other instances such as when they sneeze or cough.
• Toilets set up to reduce instances of students coming into contact with surfaces such as doors handles.
• Daily cleaning of all surfaces in classrooms which come into regular contact by students and teachers eg tables, chairs, door handles.
• Daily cleaning of the school playground each morning.
• We continue to ask parents to drop children off outside their class in the mornings.

Food at School – In addition to this we are no longer warming up any food brought in by parents for kids lunches, in order to reduce the amount of contact that occurs here. Parents can still bring in lunches during the day, but these need to be brought into the Front Office and from here contact will be made with the student to come up to the Front Office to collect their lunch. We are able now to run our Canteen lunch service. At this stage students will be able to order from a basic menu of pies, pasties and sausage rolls.

The COVID situation is still one to be weary of and we will continue to enforce standards of hygiene to protect our staff and students. I know this situation will continue to be a point of concern for our community and remind parents that if they have concerns please don’t hesitate to contact the school. We will continue to respect the preferences of parents. If parents choose for their children to learn from home, remote learning options will be in place for those students.

Government advice for parents

Visit www.sa.gov.au/covid-19  for the most up to date information from South Australian government agencies about COVID-19.

Parents seeking more information are encouraged to call the SA COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. This offers local information and advice on general COVID-19 information for South Australians, 8am to 8pm 7 days per week.

Parents can also access the public webpage about advice for COVID-19.

iPads and Laptops

26 Apr 2020

Can students returning from the holidays with their iPads or Laptops please be reminded to charge these up tonight and bring them into school tomorrow for their lessons. Some students also did complete some work over the holidays - your teachers will be eager to see your efforts!

Regards,
Daren O'Neill
Principal
daren.oneill253@schools.sa.edu.au