Dear parents and carers,

Year 10 Graduation

Due to the government’s restrictions on gatherings of no more than 20 people, our plans for the year 10 graduation have changed. The graduation program will happen at the school, next week on Friday, 12th November, at 12pm. Some aspects to note:

• Attendance at the graduation will be for the 10 students, high school teachers, principal and HR Manager only (limit of 20).
• Program will be:
• Speeches
• Student PowerPoint presentation
• Presentation of awards
• Shared graduation lunch provided by the school
• Students are required at school by 11am dressed in formal attire, for photos etc before the Graduation lunch.
• The Graduation will be filmed and available to parents via a link at a later date.
• Parents/ guardians are also encouraged to celebrate the graduation of their children in the evening at home, with a family function gathering.

Following the graduation, students are free to go home and will have finished all formal requirements for LIS for 2021. Year 10 results and certificates will be communicated to parents once they have been received. As the school will not be holding an awards evening, year 10 students will not be required back in week 9.

Friday Assembly

Due to current restrictions on gatherings, Friday assemblies will be cancelled until further notice. 

Awards Night

Due to the current rise in Covid cases, the Awards night planned for Wednesday the 1st of December is cancelled. Awards will be presented to recipients in their individual classes on this day.

Athletics

Next week, we welcome former PNG Olympian Nelson Stone to Lihir International School. Mr Stone will lead athletics training for each class next week. Classes will be going to Nelson's sessions separately to keep numbers below 20. On Thursday, each class will separately participate in sprints and hurdles for their respective house - also to maintain numbers below 20. Due to restrictions on gatherings, parents and friends will not be permitted to attend the races. Photos of all the events will be in next week's Toksave.

End of Term

School for Term 4 will finish on Thursday the 2nd December.

School Council

On Thursday the 25th November, there will be a School Council Meeting held at the School to Mine Campus at 6.00pm. 

Regards,

Greg Neville

This week, our Year 10 students continued their Work Experience placements. Mr Neville and Mr Collins had the opportunity to visit all of our students and it was impressive to see how much every student appreciated and enjoyed their placement, as well as how well they were all received by their supervisors and workplaces. We received nothing but glowing reviews on all students.

Thank you again to the following organisations for their support in welcoming our Year 10 students and providing them an opportunity to experience the reality of life in the workplace:

City Pharmacy Lihir, NML Community Development, Anitua Services, External Relations & Communications NML, Lihir International School and Lihir Sports and Social Club. 

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.

1.  A comprehensive deep clean of the school will be undertaken by Nayal LTD, prior to school resumption in term 4.

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 social distance and  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, where they will be temperature checked. They will then wash their hands at the wash station and then proceed to their classroom.  Parents and carers will be permitted to escort their children to classrooms, If parents need to go to the office, they will be permitted to proceed to the wash station and are then to make their way straight to the school office. 

4. Several wash stations are installed around the school and hand sanitiser is available in all classrooms. Students will be required to wash their hands in the mornings before school, before and after recess/lunch and before leaving school in the afternoons.

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 recess breaks between the primary and high school to reduce the number of children using toilets etc.

7. Students will be issued with a reusable washable mask. Students will be need to wear these masks for travel to and from school and during all activities at school.

8. The school canteen will be open on Fridays in term 3. The P&W will send more info out regarding this in due course. Students will need to bring a packed recess snack and lunch each day - there is to be no dropping off of food by parents, siblings or haus meris. Students are also asked to bring a water bottle to school that they will refill.

9. Term 4 will see assemblies in the basketball court  throughout the term. Parents will be welcome to attend, adhering to social distancing protocols.

Student Led Conferences and High School Open Night

Student led conferences will be held for primary school classes (Kindy - year 6) on Wednesday afternoon next week from 3.15pm - 6.00pm. The High School students will showcase some of their Technology work at the STMC  at the same time.  

Due to Covid restrictions, primary teachers have sent home a booking form for parents to nominate the timeslot they wish to attend. This form has also been emailed to parents by class teachers. As per the form's instructions, please nominate your preferred times and your class teacher will confirm allocated times on Monday.

Siblings will be supervised in the undercover area. Students are to bring a book to read while they are waiting.

Progressive Achievement Testing (PAT Tests)

Next week, students from Prep – year 9 will be completing online ‘PAT’ tests in English and Mathematics. PAT stands for Progressive Achievement Tests.

These tests are conducted in many schools in Australia as well as international schools and are used to track both individual student and year level learning progress. These tests are not used for student reporting but give teachers evidenced-based data about a student’s learning at a given point of time.

Staff analyse data from these tests in order to identify future learning needs.

These tests are facilitated through the ACER organisation (Australian Council for Educational Research). Their website  ix  www.acer.org/au/pat/progressive-achievement.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either myself or your child’s teacher.

Kind regards,

Ms Langusch

Term 4 - Tuesday 5 October to Thursday 2 December

Term 1: 31st  January – 30th March 

Term 2: 19th April – 16th June 

Term 3: 11th July – 15th September 

Term 4: 3rd October – 1st December 

Our FODE students continue to complete their final assessments as the year comes to an end. This weekend Mr Takaundo will do a final day completing their Computing Practical assessments.

This week we commenced Week 5 of our Work Ready Program with 14 young Lihirian people continuing to develop work readiness for a future of work with either Newcrest or other stakeholders in the mine. On Wednesday we welcomed Hannah Iihave and Peter Ririma from the HBP Team for come to discuss the Trupla Man Trupla Meri with our trainees and the importance of respecting everyone in the workplace and in the community. Again this week, I’ve included a Trainee Profile of 2 of our Trainees.

Unfortunately, our Trupla Principal Program that was to be held next week was postponed due to numbers allowed for gatherings under the current COVID19 Restrictions. We will undertake this Professional Development opportunity with Lihirian Principals and Head teachers during Term 1, 2022.

The Kisim Save Library remains open to all Townsite Residents and Newcrest Employees every Saturday by appointment. Please email kevin.collins@newcrest.com.au .

Regards,

Mr. Kevin Collins