TOKSAVE - Lihir International School

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Grace Savitas to the LIS staff beginning in 2020. Grace is a former Head of Primary at OLSH International Kavieng and a highly experienced primary school teacher. Grace  is no stranger to LIS or Lihir Island and many would know Grace from her involvement in the interschool Netball Carnivals over the years.

Temporary  School Entrance Gate

Construction of the new undercover walkway at the school car park gate has begun. During this time, students will enter the school from the back oval gate. Please ensure that children walk to the gate through the cordoned off pathway. Children must walk along the cement path and not through the carpark. Students who ride bikes are to walk their bike along the cement pathway until they get to the road. They are not to ride their bike through the carpark.

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.

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

Thank you to all the primary parents and carers who attended the student-led conferences on Wednesday afternoon and evening. It was a wonderful opportunity for children to be able to share what they have been learning and I am sure parents enjoyed the opportunity to visit their children's classrooms.

Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT tests)

This week, students from Prep - year 9 have been completing 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 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

Reports

Semester 2 reports for students in Prep - year 9 will be sent home, along with portfolios, at the end of term. Senior Kindy students receive a Transition Statement, not a formal report.

Awards Night

As mentioned last week there will be two Awards Assemblies this year on  Wednesday, 2nd December. 

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.

To limit numbers, we ask that a maximum of two adults per family attend each presentation assembly. If you have a small child, you may bring them to either assembly, however, we ask that students from the junior school do not attend the evening assembly. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

School Photos

Many thanks to Annie McKeiver for taking our school photos. We very much appreciate the hours of hard work that she has put in with taking the photos and editing them. I am currently liaising with printers and we hope to have these to parents by the end of the year. If not, they will be available early next year.

Yearbook / Calendar

Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of most of our sporting, extra-curricular and community activities, there will not be a yearbook this year. We have created a calendar which is currently being printed that we hope to distribute in the last week of school.

Ms Langusch