Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Public Holiday

Please note that Wednesday Week 5, the 26th February, is a gazetted public holiday - National Remembrance Day of late Sir Michael Somare.

Grade 10 Leadership Day

Last Friday, we welcomed our HR Manager, Ms Jacqueline Waka, to present our new school leaders for 2025. During this assembly Jacquie presented badges to our School Captains, House Captains and the Year 10 cohort of student leaders. Our School Captains also presented the badges to our Term 1 Student Council Representatives for each grade.

Following assembly, Ms Baiwan and Ms Andar accompanied the Grade 10 students to the LSSC where they participated in our annual Gr 10 Leadership Day. Students undertook a range of leadership and team building activities, discussed what it means to be a good leader and developed personal and class goals for 2025.

Parents and Wantoks

This week the P&W met for their Annual General Meeting. During this meeting, they elected their new Committee.

Congratulations to the new President, Rebecca Daimol, the continuing Vice President, Emma Grubb, the new Treasurer, Joanna Ling and the new Secretary, Patricia Dala. Thank you also to the outgoing committee, in particular the outgoing President Vivianne Soipang. Thank you to the P&W for their efforts through 2024 and for your continual support of both our school community and indeed all local schools in Lihir.  

School Council

The Annual General Meeting of the School Council was held on Thursday 20th February. At this meeting, we elected a new Parent Representative for 2025 / 2026. Congratulations Encie Niba on being elected to this position and we look forward to your contribution over the next 2 years. The new Newmont Representative is still to be confirmed and will be elected at the first regular School Council meeting later this term. Thank you to our School Council for your continual support of Lihir International School.  

Regards,

Mr Kevin Collins 

SCHOOL HOURS Prep - 6

Official school times are:

8.10 Bell rings

8.10 – 8.15 Home room (Assembly on Friday)

8.15 – 10.35 First session

10.35 – 11.05 Recess (15 minutes eating followed by 15 minutes play)

11.05 – 12.35 Second session

12.35 – 1.20 Lunch (15 minutes eating followed by 30 minutes play)

1:20 – 3.00 Third Session

3.00 End of school day

SCHOOL HOURS 7 - 10

Official school times are:

8.10 Bell rings

8.10 – 8.15 Home room (Assembly on Friday)

8.15 – 10.05 Two periods

10.05 – 10.35 Recess (10 minutes eating followed by 20 minutes play)

10.35 – 1.20 Three periods

1.20 – 2.00 Lunch (10 minutes eating followed by 30 minutes play)

2.00 – 2.55 Third Session

2.55 – 3.00 Home room

3.00 End of school day

2025

Term 1 Monday 27 January to Thursday 3 April

Term 2 Tuesday 22 April to Thursday 19 June

Term 3 Monday 14 July to Thursday 18 September

Term 4 Monday 6 October to Thursday 4 December

• Week 7: NAPLAN testing for year 3, 5 and 7 students
• Week 10: Parent / Teacher Interviews
• Afternoon activities: - High School Volleyball, Primary Art and Craft, Religion (Monday afternoons); Afternoon swimming lessons (as per schedule); Homework Class (yrs 3-6) and Highschool Study (Wednesday afternoons)

PE lessons

This term, all primary classes from prep – year 6 will be participating in swimming lessons. High school will do swimming from weeks 2-7 and volleyball weeks 8-10. Students will need to bring appropriate swimming attire, towel, thongs/slippers. If a student is unable to swim, please notify their respective class teacher or myself Judith.Meauri@newmont.com .

 PE days are as follows:

Monday – year 1/2

Tuesday – 3/4

Wednesday – year 9/10

Thursday – Prep and year 7/8

Friday – year 5/6

If you have any questions about sport or swimming, please do not hesitate to contact me.

After school and Saturday sport

After school activities for this term include Arts and Craft (Ms Saua and Ms Yip); Religion lessons (Mrs R-D); and High School Volleyball (Mrs Laien and Ms Baiwan) and sessions commenced this Monday.

Kind regards,

Ms Judith Meauri (Sports Coordinator) 

After-school swimming

Please see schedule attached below.

Classes will be as follows:

• Babies / Water awareness – Must have an adult in the pool.  (20 minutes duration)
• Beginners level 1 / Learn-to-swim (ages 3.5 - 5) – Must have an adult in the pool.  (25 minutes duration)
• Beginners level 2/ Learn-to-swim (ages 6 - 8) – Must have a supervisor at the pool.  (30 minutes duration)
• Juniors: Ages 8 – 11:  Able to swim 25m freestyle and backstroke with aid - must have supervisor at the pool.  (35 minutes duration)
• Intermediates (ages 8-10) – Must have a supervisor at the pool.  (40 minutes duration)
• Advanced (ages 11+) – Must be competent in freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke; some younger children who demonstrate competent skills may be placed in this class. (50-60 minutes duration).

Kind regards,

Ms Judith Meauri  (Sports Coordinator)

Hello Olgeta!

A big thank you to all the parents and wantoks who joined us for our AGM this past Tuesday. It was wonderful to see some new faces, and we warmly invite everyone to attend our meetings throughout the year.

We are excited to announce our new Executive Team for 2025:

• President – Rebecca Daimol Matson
• Vice President – Emma Grubb
• Treasurer – Joanna Ling
• Secretary – Patricia Dala
• School Representative – Diana Saua

We truly appreciate these ladies for stepping into their roles, and we are confident that this year will be full of success! We can’t wait to share all the exciting activities planned for the year ahead.

The first P&W Meeting for 2025 will take place on Monday 24th February, 5:30PM before the Independence Meeting. During this meeting, the Executive Team will finalise the nominations for the sub-committee coordinators.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Warm regards,

Vivianne Soipang 2024 Outgoing President

The P&W Committee recently had the privilege of visiting Ton Primary School on Masahet Island to deliver the donations pledged by the 2023 P&W Committee. Upon arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the staff, students, school board and parents.

As part of our commitment, the committee was able to donate a 20KVA generator, a printer, papers and toners to the school.

In return, the Ton school community graciously expressed their gratitude by sending over a generous gift of fruit, vegetables, and seafood which was shared with everyone after last week’s school assembly.

Ton Primary School sincerely thanked the teachers, students, parents, and wantoks for the donation, noting that it would significantly enrich the lives of the students.

A special thank you to our Ball Committee for 2023! The funds raised through this event made this donation possible, and we couldn’t be more grateful. We also want to express our deep appreciation to our ongoing sponsors — your contributions are being put to good use, and it means the world to us.

The LIS library opened for borrowing this week and we encourage all students to regularly borrow. Primary students do need to have a library bag. This will be provided to new students. Students can also return and borrow books at some lunchtimes.

Library days are as follows:

• Tuesday - Kindy and year 1/2
• Wednesday - year 5/6 and year 7
• Thursday - year 3/4 and year 8
• Friday - Prep
• Year 9/10 students do not have a set borrowing time; however, are encouraged to borrow at lunchtime.

Kind regards,

Ms Grace Savitas (Librarian).

It is lovely to be back at LIS after my delayed return. Learning is well underway, and it is great to see the enthusiasm students are showing when I visit the different classrooms!

High school assessment calendars

High school assessment calendars have been sent home both in hard copy and emailed to parents and carers. We ask that our high school parents help their children by monitoring when assessment tasks are due and when exams are on. A reminder that a completed extension form must be submitted before the due date if a student is requesting an extension to an assessment task. 

Primary reading

At LIS, we expect every student to be reading every day and again we thank parents for supporting your children with your home reading. If you have any questions about reading, please do not hesitate to see your child's teacher. 

Kind regards,

Ms Langusch.

The Batch 1 of 2025 WRP trainees are in their third week of their 8-week program. The focus for this week is on time management with discussions on how time management can affect work performance and outcome. Apart from the normal WR program, we will have guest speakers, site induction, as well as a mine and process plant tour in the coming weeks.

FODE

Our FODE program has also commenced  this month and students are continuing their studies at their own pace with assistance from STM staff.

Kind regards, 

Mr. David Wengip