Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back to school for term two!

Students have made a great start to the new term and it was pleasing to see so many arrive on time and in school uniform. Please remember school begins at 8:15am and children can start arriving at school from 7:45am onwards. Please do not send your child to school before 7:45am as teachers will be busy preparing for the school day and supervision of children will not be available.

 All children are expected to be collected from school no later than 3.15pm unless they are involved in a pre-arranged after school activity. Siblings are not allowed to wait out the front of the school for brothers or sisters attending an after-school activity.

Parent / Teacher Interviews

Thanks to all parents and carers who attended the Parent / Teacher interviews for all classes from Kindy to Year 10 at the end of last term. It was great to see parents so enthusiastic about their children’s learning. Parents are free to approach teachers at any time during the term to make an appointment to discuss their children’s learning.

LIS PNG Independence Celebrations 2022

Thanks to those parents who attended the initial meeting last term. The next meeting will be advised by the committee once a date has been confirmed.

School Camp

Next week, the year 8/9 class will go on their long awaited school camp! This trip is to replace that 7/8 camp that was postponed last year due to Covid. The camp has a Civics and Citizenship focus that will involve a visit to Parliament House and interactive sessions with Dame Carol Kidu.  We look forward to pictures of the camp and activities in upcoming editions of the Toksave.

 A Good Night’s Sleep

It is important for children to have a good night’s sleep. There is no magic number for exactly how much sleep we need, but the Australian Centre for Education in Sleep (ACES) suggests the following as a guide:

Primary school: 10-12 hours per day

High school adolescents: 8-10 hours per day

Adults: 7-9 hours per day

Long Run and Ballgames Carnival

Congratulations to all students on their efforts and spirit during the Long Run and Ballgames events on the last day of term one. We look forward to the Athletics Carnival, which is to be held Wednesday of Week 9 of this term. 

Regards,

Mr Greg Neville

There will be a meeting for the P&W Committee on Tuesday, 26th of April 2022. This meeting will be held in the year 9/10 classroom starting at 6pm. Please come along to discuss some great ideas for our P&W.

We look forward to seeing you there.

IIn line with company policy, good hygiene and social distancing practices will continue to be implemented in the school during Term 1 2022. Please read the points below carefully. Thank you to all members of the STM/LIS community for your patience and commitment in ensuring that we keep our children and island safe.

1. It is imperative that parents and carers do not send their children to school if they are sick or showing any symptoms of a cold or flu. If your child is sick, please keep your child home and seek appropriate medical attention. Children who display any signs of sickness will be isolated under supervision in the school's sick bay and parents called to come and collect them.

2. Entrance to school for students and parents / carers will be via the Aginas Oval gate only, which will open at 7.45am. Students who arrive before this (which is discouraged) are to wait in the carpark undercover area until 7.45am. Students should be at school by 8.00am, ready to start the day at 8.10am.

3. On arrival all students are to wash their hands at the wash station and then proceed to the undercover area. Parents will be permitted to escort their children to the undercover area / classroom and pick them up at the end of the day. Parents will also need to wash their hands after entering school. If parents need to go to the office or see a teacher, they are permitted to proceed to the wash station and are then to make their way straight to the school office or to the relevant classroom. Parents and High School students are to have a face mask ready to use when social distancing is not possible

4.  Students will be required to wash their hands in the mornings, before school and before and after recess/lunch.

5. All desks, door handles, playground equipment and other high contact equipment will be sanitised twice daily or after use by cleaning staff.

6. Social distancing will be employed in classrooms through desk arrangements. Social distancing markings have been painted on cement areas where students line up and in the undercover area for recess/lunch eating times. The school will implement staggered lunch and recess breaks between the primary and high school to reduce the number of children in the eating area at one time.

7. High School students will each be issued with a reusable washable mask. Students will be required to use these masks for activities where social distancing is not possible.

8. Students will need to bring a packed recess and lunch each day - there is to be no dropping off of lunches by parents, siblings or haus meris. Students are also asked to bring a water bottle to school that they will refill. 

10. In Term 1 on Mondays, separate primary and high school assemblies will be held in the basketball court, employing social distancing measures. On Fridays, there will be a whole school assembly on the basketball court that parents are welcome to attend. Social distancing measures will be  employed.

Term 1: 31st  January – 31st March 

Term 2: 19th April – 16th June 

Term 3: 11th July – 15th September 

Term 4: 3rd October – 1st December 

Welcome back

Welcome back to term 2. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Easter break.

Parent Overviews

Term 3 overviews will be sent home with students this Friday. This overview outlines the key learning your child will undertake this term. If you do not receive your overview, please contact your child’s teacher. High school assessment calendars will be emailed to parents in week 3.

NAPLAN parent meeting

This term in Week 4, students in years 3, 5 and 7 will sit the Australian National  Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. Next Thursday afternoon, 28th April, at 3.10pm, in the year 5/6 classroom, I will hold a short parent information session for parents of year 3, 5 and 7 students to share further information about the tests, including previous exam papers. Parents can also access the website https://www.nap.edu.au/.

Year 8/10 Exam Preparation

This term, students in years 8 and 10 will commence weekend exam preparation lessons. Thank you to the STM staff for facilitating these sessions. A note will be sent home to parents advising when the sessions will begin. After-school support lessons will continue for identified students as per last term’s schedule.

Kind regards,

Ms Langusch 

Welcome back to term 2; I trust everyone had a safe and happy Easter.

At the end of last term, we welcomed the New Ireland Province, Secondary School Principals for their Principal’s meeting at STMC. Thank you to Patricia Yip for assisting with preparations for their welcome.

Over the holiday period, DWU Lecturers came to site for delivery of Semester 3 of our DWU Bachelor of Primary Education Upgrade Program. We now have 10 primary school teachers from across Lihir completing Semester 3 of the Bachelor Upgrade Program who should graduate at the end of this year.

Our first Trupla Principal program will be delivered this Friday. We look forward to welcoming Principals from all of the primary schools across Lihir for the 1-day workshop.

On Monday, our new Work Ready Program Trainees will commence. We look forward to welcoming them and seeing them develop throughout the program.

Our FODE students and Elementary Teachers from across Lihir continue to work on their distance education with the support of our STMC Staff.

We have finalised participants for our Academic Support Program with Lihir Secondary School and hope to meet with these students and parents and start working with them early this term.

Please note the Kisim Save Library is open for use by all Newcrest Employees and Townsite Residents. Please email SchoolToMineCampus@newcrest.com.au to book a time to come.

Regards, 

Mr. Kevin Collins