Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It was great to host Newcrest Chief Executive and Managing Director Mr Sandeep Biswas, his Executive Assistant Ms Zoe Payne and Newcrest’s Chief Financial Officer Ms Sherry Duhe at the school on Wednesday. We received very positive feedback on the quality of education, as well as the school and community spirit at LIS. The admin team and teaching staff, along with parents and wider Newcrest community, can be very proud of our wonderful school.

There will be a School Council meeting at 6pm on Thursday, 24th March in the Meeting Room. All our Councillors are encouraged to attend. If you are interested in finding out more about the School Council, please give me a call or make a time to come in for a chat.

Parent / Teacher Interviews

Parent / Teacher interviews for all classes from Prep to Year 10 will be held between 3.00pm and 6.00pm on Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th of March. Interviews are for 15 minutes. Bookings will be open from Monday and parents can either come into the office, call or email Mrs Romaso-Daimol (Lorna.Romaso@Newcrest.com.au) to make their appointment times. Kindy interviews are on Monday only.

School Camps and Trips

With the reduction of Covid 19 cases and relaxing of restrictions, the school will restart its camps program for 2022. Planned camps are:

• Year 8/9 (postponed in 2021) NGI/ POM  – Week 2 Term 2
• Year 5/6 Local and Provincial Government – Term 3
• Year 10 Transitions – Term 4

More information will be sent closer to the dates of the camps.

End of Term

Term 1 will finish next Thursday, 31st March at 12.00pm. For parents who live out of townsite, please ensure students are picked up by 12.15pm.  Students resume for term 2 on Tuesday, 19th April.

Regards,

Mr Greg Neville

Next Wednesday (30th March), LIS will hold the first long run and ballgames carnival in almost 3 years.  The students have been practicing for this carnival in PE lessons and are very much looking forward to the event.  All students in Prep to grade 10 will compete in the event which will be held on the school oval.  Please see below for the schedule:

Family and friends are more than welcome to come along and support the students on Wednesday morning.

If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact the school.  We wish all the students the best of luck in their events next week.

Regards,

Mr Simon McKeiver

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.

Current after-school activities this term:

Monday afternoon: Religious Instruction (P - 10): 3.00-4.00pm (Mrs Romaso-Daimol)

Wednesday afternoon: Homework Class (Yr 5/6), 3.00-4.00pm (Ms Langusch) - will continue next term. There is no Homework Class in Week 9.

If a parent or group of parents would like to run an afternoon or Saturday morning activity, please see Mr Neville.

The Student Council have organised some fun activities for the end of term.

- Easter colouring and drawing competition: These were due this week and winners will be announced in the last week of school.

- Ice-cream afternoon: This will be on Monday afternoon. Students should have given K2 to their teacher by Friday.

- Free dress day: There will be a free dress day on the last day of school, Thursday 31st March. This is a fundraising activity and students are asked to bring K2. 

Term 1: 31st  January – 31st March 

Term 2: 19th April – 16th June 

Term 3: 11th July – 15th September 

Term 4: 3rd October – 1st December 

Parent/Teacher Interviews: Prep to Year 10 - Week 9 Monday and Tuesday from 3.00pm - 6.00pm. Please book your interview times by contacting Mrs Romaso-Daimol in the office. We ask that parents be on time for their interview. Kindy interviews are on Monday only.

Student folios: On Friday afternoon, students will bring home their student folios, showcasing their learning and some of the assessment tasks that they have completed this term. We ask parents read through these folios with your children over the weekend, prior to parent/teacher interviews. Folios can either be returned to school on Monday or parents can bring them to their interview. 

Easter Hat Parade: Prep to Year 2 classes - Tuesday at 2.45pm in the undercover area. Parents are welcome to attend.

Long Run and Ball Games Carnival: Prep to Year 10 classes -  Wednesday, commencing at 8.30am We look forward to welcoming parents to the first sports carnival of the year.

Kind regards,

Ms Langusch             

Next Thursday we welcome the New Ireland Province, Secondary School Principal’s for their Principal’s meeting at STMC. Thank you to Pat Yip for assisting with preparations for their welcome.

Final stages of preparation for our DWU Lecturers to come to site for delivery of Semester 3 of our DWU Bachelor of Primary Education Upgrade Program are almost complete. During the first week of Easter holidays we will welcome Mr Peter Kelaki for delivery of a subject and in the second week of holidays we welcome Dr Lynus Yamuna for the face-to-face lectures of the second subject.

Our next Trupla Principal program will be delivered the first Friday back after the holidays on Friday 22 April. 

This week we finalised our next Work Ready Program Trainee list and onboarding of these candidates has begun ready for the commencement of the next program 25 April.

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 before the end of term and start working with them next 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