Dear Parents/Caregivers,

At Lihir we are privileged to have many very experienced parents, friends and members of the community in various fields. The school likes to utilize their expertise whenever we can. This week, the year 5/6 students were able to visit the Geothermal Power plant. Thanks to Ms Langusch, Mr Glenn Bereicua and Mr Tom Grubb for assisting with the organisation.

Thanks also goes to Mr and Mrs Collins who organised a visit for the kindy and prep classes of emergency response officers from fire and ambulance, as well as local police. The students were very excited to meet the various officers and see the respective vehicles.

Mr McKeiver is busy preparing students for their track and field sports carnival at the end of the term. The twilight track events will be held at 4pm on Wednesday the 15th June, followed by a sausage sizzle. All parents, friends and wantoks are encouraged to attend and support their children’s house. If you would like to volunteer to assist with the BBQ, please see Mr Neville.

Next week Thursday sees our second year 10 class sit for their first National Exam – Written Expression.  LIS teachers have a comprehensive program to well prepare students in place, including after school and weekend remedial studies. Attendance is very important leading up to the exams. If you would like to understand the preparation or would like more info on how the exams are facilitated at LIS, please see our exam coordinator Ms Patricia  Yip.

School Council

This term’s School Council meeting will be held on Thursday, 2nd June, at 6pm in the 9/10 classroom.

Regards,

Mr Greg Neville

This week our Kindy class have been learning about important people in our community. They were fortunate to have some of these important people visit them this week and talk about their important roles in our community. Thank you to our local police officers, the ERT team and ISOS team for coming out to the school to talk our Kindy class.

In 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 

Friday Assembly

A reminder that parents are welcome to attend our Friday assemblies. This week, it was the year 3/4 class presentation and next week, it will be the year 3/4 class presenting their PNG Studies (Tok Pisin) assembly.

Primary Student-led Conferences and Highschool Open Afternoon - Wednesday, June 1st, Week 7, from 4.00-6.00pm

A reminder that student-led conferences will take place next Wednesday for Prep - year 6 classes. Classrooms will be open from 4.00-6.00pm so students can share some of their learning with parents. Parents do not need to make an appointment time to attend student-led conferences.

Student-led conferences usually take 10 - 15 minutes. For new parents, this is not a parent-teacher interview, but an opportunity for students to share some of their class activities such as bookwork and computer work. Teachers will support their students in preparing for the student-led conference. If parents have more than one student-led conference to attend, students are to go to the library where they will be supervised until it is their turn.

During the same time, High School will have an open afternoon in the undercover area, and parents and students will be able to view various work projects on display. 

We look forward to seeing lots of parents attend our student-led conferences and Highschool Open Afternoon.

Reading

A reminder about the importance of home reading, particularly in our early years classes (Prep - year 3). It is essential that students are regularly bringing their reading folder to school.  We would like every child to be reading every day!

Kind regards,

Ms Langusch 

Our Work Ready Program Trainees are continuing to progress well through their training. This week we had a number of special guest speakers come to present to our trainees. Thank you to Hannah Illave and Peter Ririma from the HBP Team for coming to present and discuss Trupla Man Trupla Meri and its importance for all people. Thanks also to Ms Anastasia Tukata who came to speak about her experiences as a Lihirian women adapting to the workplace and her story of how she has come to work at Lihir International School as a Teacher.

We are continuing to work with our students from Lihir Secondary through our Academic Support program and look forward to hosting them again later this term.

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

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