Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Thanks to the teachers and parents who attended the P&W Annual General Meeting last Tuesday. The first meeting of the new committee will be next Tuesday the 23rd of February at 6.30pm, where the office bearers will be finalised and upcoming activities for the year will be discussed.

Student Photographs

There are many photo opportunities at our school and student images are often used in publications, such as the Toksave, and displayed online through the school website. The Toksave is uploaded to our school website www.lipschool.com.au every week. Student images will continue to be used in the Toksave, website and other media this year. If you do not wish photos of your child to be displayed through any form of print or digital media, please let me know so that I can ensure no images of your child appear in any school material.

Reminders

• The chewing of beetle nut and smoking is prohibited on school grounds
• Parents are asked to refrain from bringing dogs into the school grounds

After School and Weekend Sport/Activities

At LIS, students can be involved in a variety of afternoon and weekend sports and other activities. After school sports/activities are run by teaching staff and/or parent volunteers. If you would like to volunteer to run a sport/activity this year, please let me know. If you would like to run a sport/activity, it is your decision as to what day and which classes you will include in this sport/activity – our school community is always grateful to those who take the time to organise after school sport/activities.

Activities currently underway this term

Wednesday: Homework Club for years 3/4 and 5/6 students, from 3pm-4pm.

Thursday: High School Study Hub - School to Mine Campus for years 7-10 from 3pm to 4pm

School Council

The annual General Meeting of the School Council will be held tonight, Thursday the 18th of February 2021. At this meeting, voting for one vacant position for Parent Representatives will occur, in the Meeting Room from 7.00pm–7.20pm. Nomination forms are available from the school office and must be returned to the school office by Thursday the 11th February 2021. If you would like to know more about the functions of the School Council, please make an appointment to see the principal.

Regards,

Mr. Greg Neville         

In line with company policy, increased hygiene and social distancing practices will continue to be implemented in the school during Term 1 2021. 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. All students  are to wear a face mask and will be greeted at the gate by a teacher and temperature tested. They 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 need to wear a face mask and 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.

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 1 due to renovation. 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 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. Masks and social distancing measures will be  employed.

Wednesday 3 February to Thursday 1 April

Monday 19 April to Thursday 17 June

Monday 12 July to Wednesday 15 September

Tuesday 5 October to Thursday 2 December

P & W Sausage Sizzles

Next week, P & W will be having a sausage sizzle for lunch on Friday, 26th February.

The cost of a sausage on bread is K2 and students can order more than one sausage if they wish. 

Students are to give their money to their teacher by Wednesday. Please try to have small notes or coins.

Thank you to the P & W and community volunteers for organising and preparing the sausage sizzles over the term.

Soundwaves workshop

Next Thursday, 25th February, from 3.15 - 3.45pm, I will be running a 'Soundwaves' parent workshop to help parents understand how we teach spelling in our primary school using the Soundwaves program.  This will be held in the Year 5/6 classroom. (This is a repeat of the workshop held last year.)

Children can be supervised in the undercover area whilst parents attend if needed. 

Kind regards,

Ms Langusch             

This week, our latest School to Mine Campus - Work Ready Program entered its second week. It is pleasing to see the improvement and confidence already shown in these trainees and we look forward to seeing them progress further over the next 6 weeks. On Friday, we will undertake a tour of the Mine Pit and Processing Plant, this is an excellent opportunity for these trainees to explore a range of potential opportunities for the future.

We are continuing to shortlist students for our Year 9 FODE Program for 2021, pre-enrolment testing for this program will occur next Saturday for the shortlisted students.  

STMC is also continuing to work closely with local education authorities to finalise Lihirian teachers' enrolment in the DWU Bachelor of Primary Education. 

Regards, 

Mr. Kevin Collins