Mr. Steven Rowley Principal

srowley@pmis.iea.ac.pg

Mr. Peter Upton Deputy Principal

Academic

pupton@pmis.iea.ac.pg

Mrs. Keuts Vui-Neuendorf Deputy Principal Administration

kvui@pmis.iea.ac.pg

P.O. Box 276, Boroko, NCD

Papua New Guinea

Tel: (675) 325 3166 / 325 3004

325 8072 / 325 6857

Mobile: 7635 2565 / 7928 1601

Fax: (675) 325 4439

Website: www.pmis.iea.ac.pg

Owned & operated by the International Education

Agency of Papua New Guinea

Issue #7 06 May 16

From the

Principal

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We are now well into Term 2 and the

school is a hive of activity with sports

teams training and people rehearsing for

the UN Concert. However this also

means that we are in the last few weeks

of the first semester assessments and

this promises to be a hectic time for all

concerned as there will be many

assessments coming up with semester

exams in many subjects following quickly

on. This is a good time for students and

parents to sit down with the Unit

Assessment Outlines and their planners/

diaries and think about everything that is

coming up. Often young people get

excited by events like the UN Concert

or sports teams are nearing end of

season and finals. It is easy at times like

this to lose sight of the priorities that

they may have had at the start of the

year. This is a time when we can help

them by taking a moment to check

diaries/planners and look at Unit

Assessment Outlines again. If you do not

have the Unit Assessment Outlines

which were distributed at the start of

the year then these can be downloaded

from the school website.

UN Concert

This year’s UN Concert will be held at

the Sir John Guise Indoor Stadium on

Saturday 18th June from 3pm to 6pm.

We hope to have tickets on sale within

the next week or two. Obviously this

will be a major challenge for the school,

especially the Grade 12s who are

organising the event, but we hope that

all parts of the school community will

support the concert.

IEA 40th Anniversary

The theme of this year’s UN Concert

celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the

International Education Agency – our

umbrella organisation. The IEA operates

18 international schools here in PNG

and has done so since it was set up after

Independence. As part of the celebration

we are hoping to have performances

from the other IEA schools here in POM

(TEMIS, Koroboro & Gordons Int’l)

during the event to commemorate the

IEA’s 40 years of providing quality

international education here in PNG.

Bullying

This week the SRC has been marking

World Anti-Bullying Day on 4th May.

They have been selling pink ribbons and

put up a pledge board. However raising

the awareness and selling ribbons will

not completely eradicate this issue and

sad to say it does happen. The message

here at POMIS is that if you are being

bullied or harassed then you should

report it to the school; either directly to

a teacher or through your parents. If

issues are not reported then we cannot

deal with them. If you then take matters

into your own hands and things escalate,

you put yourself in the wrong. It is vital

that issues are reported. It is very

important that when issues are reported

to parents they report the issue to the

school. Students who involve wantoks in

these issues are putting themselves in

the wrong regardless of what has

happened before.

We want POMIS to be a bullying-free

school but we can only do that with the

help of students and parents in reporting

issues. (continued over)

Mr. Steven Rowley,

Principal

Port Moresby International

School NEWSLETTER

Motto: Excellence,

commitment, diversity & integrity.

Mission:

To prepare students for success in the

modern world by being the

leading provider of secondary education in

Papua New Guinea.

Bullying (cont’d)

If a child reports an issue to you as a parent/

guardian then you need to be careful about the

advice that you give your child. Often a parent

will advise their child to speak to the person with

whom they have an issue. Unfortunately this often

has negative consequences. If the child chooses

the wrong words or adopts a confrontational or

antagonistic manner things can escalate. Or the

other student can take offence at being

approached and “accused” and then again things

escalate. The best advice is that the child should

speak to a teacher so that any meeting between

the students involved is mediated by a teacher so

that it does not escalate. Alternatively parents can

report the matter to the school.

Valley Hunters U19 Rugby Union Team

The U19 Rugby Union boys have qualified yet

again for the Semi Finals of the CRU competition-

indeed they came top of their pool. Well done to

the boys and Mr Briggs. This Saturday 7th May

they play Wanderers in the Semi Final at the Sir

John Guise Stadium. Kick off is 11:45 and I hope

that lots of people can go along and support them

as they try to battle through to another final.

And finally a happy Mothers’ Day to all the mums

in our POMIS community.

Newsletters & Website

The full newsletter will be sent by email or can be

downloaded from our website at

http://www.pmis.iea.ac.pg/

Amongst the contents are:

Language Matters—Mothers Day

POMIS at the ANZAC Day Service

Year 12 History Excursion to Rabaul

Important Dates for Term 2

Week 4 - Friday 6th May Student Dance

Week 9 - Thursday 9th June

Grade 10 PNG Written Expression Exam

Week 10 - Monday 13th June

Public Holiday Queens Birthday

Saturday 18th June UN Concert

Week 11 - Thursday 23rd June

School Athletics Carnival

Friday 24th June Last day of school, end of Term 2

Please note that Semester 1 Report Sheets will be

distributed in the first week of Term 3.

Term 3 begins July 18th.

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LANGUAGE MATTERS

The idea of honouring mothers is not a new one.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans had festivals for

their Mother Goddesses. The Catholic Church

has also long had a celebration of Mothers,

normally celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent,

and Mary has long been a favourite of Catholics.

The modern commercial celebration has different

beginnings and different meanings around the

world. In Australia, it started in 1924 when a local

woman started bringing gifts to abandoned

women in a local hospital. The next year she

organised local businesses and eventually even the

local mayor with helping her to honour local

mums.

From humble beginnings Mother’s Day is now a

huge commercial celebration around the world.

Did you know that there are more phone calls on

Mother’s Day than any other day in the year?

Are you going to ring your mum on Sunday?

WORD PLAY

When I grew up I called her Ma, which is a short

version of Mathair from the Irish.

Mum or Mom? It’s not just Americans who say

Mom. There are whole areas of England where it

is pronounced Mom. Go to Birmingham and listen

to a Brummy talk to his Mom.

Here are a few ways we say Mum around the

world.

Adapted from mothersdaycelebrations.com

Mr. Ronan Moore,

HOD English and Languages

rmoore@pmis.iea.ac.pg

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Language Mother

Afrikaans Moeder, Ma

Arabic Ahm

Brazilian Portuguese Mäe

Bulgarian Majka

Danish Mor

Dutch Moeder, Moer

English Mother, Mama, Mom

Flemish Moeder

French Mère, Maman

German Mutter

Greek MÃ na

Hawaiian Makuahine

Indonesian Induk, Ibu, Biang, Nyokap

Irish Máthair

Italian Madre, Mamma

Japanese Okaasan, Haha

Latin Mater

Malay Emak

POMIS at

ANZAC

DAY

SERVICE

Port Moresby International School was

represented at the Bomana War Cemetery

Anzac Day Dawn Service this year by two of

our School Captains and a group of International Baccalaureate Grade 11

students.

The group, led by Naparage Genia and John

Paul Kawi, were asked to lay a wreath at the

memorial by the Port Moresby Sub-branch of

the Returned and Services League of Australia

(RSL).

The moving ceremony is held each year on

25th April to honour the sacrifices made by

troops in this and many other countries

around the world.

Thanks to Mr Steinberg and Ms Chislett for

accompanying the students.

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Year 12 History Excursion to

Rabaul, 12–16 April, 2016

In the first week of Term 2, 28 Grade 12 ACT/IB

and PNG History Students went on a five day

excursion to Rabaul in East New Britain Province.

This Trip would not have been possible without

the help and support of our POMIS/IEA

Community. We would like to acknowledge and

thank the following people and groups for making

the trip possible and a memorable experience for

the 28 students and three teachers.

To our Principal for granting us permission

and the school finance and admin staff for all

the paperwork and moral support.

To all our Parents for your consent and

financial support in making the plan a reality.

The Paivu Tours (Kalie Tio’s family) for

sponsoring our Tour Guides in Rabaul.

Air Niugini for the discounts on our airfares.

Rabaul International School for permitting us

to use their grounds and providing transport

upon our arrival and return.

Seaview Beach Resort for offering discounts

on accommodation and their hospitality,

transport and security.

We also appreciate and acknowledge the warmth

of the friendly people of Kokopo and Rabaul

whom we came across during our trip.

After tireless meetings and organisations late last

year and early this year, we finally embarked on

our 5 day excursion to Rabaul on April 12. The

town was very clean and beautiful with tall

coconut trees scattered along the road sides and

Mount Tavurvur sleeping serenely across the

harbour. We stayed at the Sea View Resort.

Day 1: we set off to The Bita Paka War Cemetery

where hundreds of soldiers who fought in WW2

and some from WW1 were put to rest. We then

drove up to Kokopo Museum to examine a

variety of war relics such as machine guns, bomb

shells, submarine torpedos and aircraft remains.

Our next stop was the Japanese tunnel system

that was dug to store food and equipment and

also hide the Japanese soldiers from the Allied

forces. This is where the underground hospital is

and to our amazement we discovered a drip hook

that was still there since the war. The submarine

barge tunnel was also part of the system that was

dug up by prisoners of war.

Day 2: we visited Admiral Yamamoto’s bunker

and this particular site amazed us all because it

encompassed maps on the ceiling and writings on

the wall in Japanese. The Rabaul Museum is

located next to Yamamoto’s bunker and it was

filled with war relics and posters about the war.

The final stop of the day was Tavurvur volcanic

hot springs. All the students got to view an active

volcano at close range and observe the springs

and volcanic soil.

Day 3: we drove down to the submarine base

where the Japanese hid their submarines from the

Allies who dominated the skies. Then the last site

we visited was the Volcanic Observatory hill that

contains equipment used to monitor volcanoes as

far as the North Solomons.

Other sites visited included: the Chinese

Cemetery, Japanese Beheading Square,

Montevideo Maru Memorial Headstone, Japanese

Burial Site, Japanese tunnels at Blue Lagoon.

Overall this entire excursion was an unforgettable

experience that fed our minds with stories of the

Pacific War (1941-1945) and it enabled us to

thoroughly understand and appreciate our

country’s history and the role our people played

during that time.

Yours in History,

Amanda, Elijah, Kallie, Kingstimer, Chloe, Dan,

Zina, Billy, O’Waiye, Helo, Rosemary, Tanaka,

Irene, Ila, Tiara, Springfield, Mariel, Roy, Elisha,

Brendan, Bridget, Joe, Rigolo, Chris, Timaima,

Kusunoki, Elthony & Tiffany.

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