TOKSAVE - Lihir International School

This week our Year 8 students completed their National exams. They have been working hard in readiness for these exams and we know that they have done their very best. We thank Mr McKeiver, high school and STMC teachers for all their effort with preparing the students.

2021 Classes

I am currently in the final stages of organising classes for the 2021 school year. If you know your child / children will not be attending Lihir International School in 2021, and you have not yet informed me, please let me know as soon as possible so that year level numbers and class organisation can be finalised. 2021 classes will be announced in week 9.

Temporary  School Entrance Gate

Over coming weeks, construction of the new undercover walkway at the school car park gate will begin. During this time, students will enter the school from the back oval gate.

School for Term 4 will finish on Thursday the 3rd December.

If you would like more information regarding any of the topics in this newsletter, please do not hesitate to make contact.

Regards,

Mr. Greg Neville         

Wednesday 27 January to Thursday 1 April

Monday 19 April to Friday 18 June

Monday 12 July to Friday 17 September

Tuesday 5 October to Thursday 2 December

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 8.05am, ready to start the day at 8.10am.

3. All students will be greeted at the gate by a teacher and will be temperature tested. They are to wash their hands at the wash station and then proceed to the undercover area. Only kindy parents will be permitted to escort their children to their classrooms and pick them up at the end of the day.  If parents need to go to the office, or see a teacher, they will be temperature checked and permitted to proceed to the wash station and are then to make their way straight to the school office.

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 measure of 1.5 metres 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. Students will each be issued with a reusable washable mask. Students will be required to use these masks for travel to and from school and during specific identified activities at school.

8. The school canteen will be closed for the duration on term 4. 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 instead of drinking from the bubblers. 

10. In Term 4, separate assemblies for high school and the primary will continue. Social distancing measures will remain in place for assemblies. 

Student-led Conferences

Student-led conferences will be next Wednesday, the 11th November, from 3.00pm to 6.00pm for students from kindy to year 6. This is a time for students to share their learning with their parents. For parents new to LIS, it is not a parent/teacher interview, however, teachers will be in the classroom to support as needed.

Due to COVID restrictions, parents will have a timeslot for their child's student conference, Class teachers will send home a confirmation slip today (Friday), advising of your allocated time for next Wednesday. There will be a maximum of 4 student-led conferences in the classroom at one time to adhere to social distancing. We ask parents to wear a mask until you are temperature checked and to please wash your hands on arrival.

Students who need to wait while their parents are attending a sibling's conference will be supervised in the undercover area. They are to bring a book to read while they are waiting.

Please contact your child's teacher if you have any questions.

Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT tests)

Next week, students from Prep - year 9 will complete a range of tests known as PAT tests. Progressive Achievement Tests are a series of tests designed to provide objective, norm-referenced information to teachers about their students’ skills and understandings in a range of key areas such as Reading and comprehension, Grammar and punctuation (from year 3 up), Spelling (from year 1 up) and Mathematics. These tests are used in many schools to gather information about student learning progress.

The results of these tests are not used for reporting purposes but are used to identify individual student and year level strengths, progress and learning needs.

https://www.acer.org/au/pat

Awards Night

On the term calendar, Awards Night is scheduled for Wednesday, 2nd December. There will be some changes to our program this year due to COVID-19 and social distancing expectations.

Kindy to year 4 will have a morning awards assembly at 9.00am, with the year 5 - 9 classes' Awards Night that evening, commencing at 6.00pm. Social distancing practices will be adhered to and parents/carers will be temperature checked on arrival. There will be a maximum of two adults per family able to attend each presentation assembly. There will be limited class performance items and unfortunately, there will not be a shared meal at the end of the evening. We appreciate your understanding of the changes to our Awards Night program from the past two years. There will be more information about the presentation assemblies later in the term.

Ms Langusch