Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Acquaintance Night

Thanks to all the parents who attended our Acquaintance Night held on Wednesday. The night gave all parents the chance to attend brief information sessions with their child’s teacher and gave teachers the opportunity to discuss a general overview of class systems, learning and behaviour expectations.

Year 9 Camp

Year 9 Camp will take place next week from Tuesday to Sunday, with the year 9 class accompanied by Mrs Baiwan, Miss Kinkinteng, Mr Collins and myself, travelling to Kavieng and Port Moresby. Students will take place in a range of activities including a session with Dame Carol Kidu.

Public holiday

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

Term 1 Calendar

Term 1 will be a busy time of learning at our school and the term one calendar can be downloaded below. Other important dates will be brought to your attention as they arise.

Parents and Wantoks

The Parents and Wantoks first meeting for the year will be held in Week 3, Tuesday the 13th, at 6.00pm.  The Parents and Wantoks Committee add a great deal of value to our school and this is a fantastic opportunity for families to become involved in contributing to school events throughout the year.  All parents, community members, and others who are interested to join the P&W are encouraged to attend.

School Council

The annual General Meeting of the School Council will be held on Thursday, the 29th of February 2024. At this meeting, voting for vacant positions for a Parent Representative will occur, in the Yr 9/10 room from 6.00pm– 6.20pm. Nomination forms are available from the school office and must be returned to the school office by Thursday the 8th February 2024. 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 

School Hours K - 6 (LIS)                                                               

Official school times are:

8.10                 Bell rings

8.10 – 8.15      Home room (Assembly on Monday and Friday mornings)

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 Monday and Friday mornings)

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      One period

2.55 – 3.00      Home room

3.00                 End of school day

Term 1 Monday 29 January to Thursday 28 March

Term 2 Monday 15 April to Thursday 20 June

Term 3 Monday 15 July to Thursday 12 September

Term 4 Monday 30 September to Thursday 5 December

A reminder that the LIS and STM libraries are open for borrowing 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 lunchtime.

Library days are as follows:

Tuesday - Kindy and year 3/4

Wednesday - year 5/6; year 7

Thursday - year 1/2; 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 was disappointing that so many swimming lessons were cancelled this week because of the weather. Hopefully it will be right next week. There has been a great response to the after-school swimming lessons and as such, I have needed to create a new timetable to accommodate everyone. A copy was sent home with students; however, if you did not receive one than please see the class schedule below.

Monday sport also commenced this week with the prep - year 2 students doing rotating games and sports activities, year 3-6 boys doing Touch Football and year 3-6 girls doing Netball. Prep- year 2 students need to return a permission slip to participate. Thank you to those students who have returned their note already. If needed, please download a copy below. Year 3-6 students do not need to return a note.

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

Kind regards,

Ms Judith Meauri (Sport Coordinator)

Week 3: Year 9 Camp

Week 3: Tuesday, 13th February - P & W Meeting

Week 3: Year 8 and year 10 Mock Exams

Week 5: School Council AGM (Thursday 29th February - 6.00pm)

Week 7: NAPLAN testing for year 3, 5 and 7 students

Week 9: Parent / Teacher Interviews

Afternoon activities:

Monday Sport: 3.10-4.00pm Prep – year 2 Rotating games; year 3 – 6 boys Touch football; Year 3 – 6 girls Netball

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday: Swimming lessons at the pool with Ms Meauri (times as per lesson schedule)

Wednesday: Homework Class: year 4 with Ms Tukata and year 5/6 with Ms Langusch from 3.15-4.00pm; High School Supervised Study

Acquaintance Night

Thank you to everyone who attended our Acquaintance Night on Wednesday evening. If you have any questions about classroom learning, please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher. 

Parent workshops

In Week 4 (Thursday 3.15pm), I will again present a parent workshop on Soundwaves (Spelling) and in Week 5 (Thursday 3.15pm) on Maths Problem-solving. These sessions would be beneficial to new parents to our school who would like to know more about how we teach spelling and Maths problem-solving at our school. These sessions will be in the year 5/6 room. Later in the term, Primary class teachers will also hold sessions with parents to support our homework reading program.

Assemblies

Whole school assemblies are held each Friday morning at 8.10am in the basketball court and parents are most welcome to attend. Next week, it will be the year 5/6 assembly.

Kind regards,

Ms Cathy Langusch             

This week we welcomed our 19 new Work Ready Program Trainees. All trainees have made a positive start and we look forward to seeing them progress over the next 8 weeks. Please take the time to read the trainee profiles that will be included each week in the toksave.

All of our continuing FODE enrolments for Year 9 / 10 FODE Program commenced work this week. In the coming weeks we will finalise Grade 10 upgrading Lihirian students from LSS who will work with us to upgrade their results in selected subjects this year, with the goal of being accepted into Grade 11 next year.

STMC staff are also working closely with the Local Provincial Education Office to finalise teachers for our next Trupla Tisa Workshops which will happen early March.

We are also working with DWU to finalise arrangements for our next semester of the DWU Bachelor of Primary Education, and Master of Education Leadership.

NML Learning and Talent have accepted our Academic Support students who graduated from LSS last year, and also our graduating Scholarship Student’s from OLSH into the Tertiary Support Program. The contracts and paperwork for this program are being finalised for these students to be supported through their university studies.

Regards, 

Mr Kevin Collins