Sunnyside Christian School-Lem Phonics Integrated

Welcome Speech – Director & Founder Sunnyside Christian School
Dear Students, esteemed Parents, hard-working Teachers and most honorable Guests, ladies & gentle man.
It is my absolute great honor to warmly welcome you all to Sunnyside Christian School (SCS) Inaugural graduation ceremony. Let me please have this honor to acknowledge the presence of our honored guests who have accepted our invitation to celebrate with us on this occasion;
Thank you so much for your time with us today.
Today marks a very significant milestone for Sunnyside Christian School since its journey began 3 years ago. We have gathered together today to witness the graduation of its first grade 2 student’s cohorts. Today’s success did not come by chance. It is the result of students, teachers and parents working harmoniously together towards a common goal.
It gives me great pleasure to look at this row of Grade 2 students and take pride in every individual one of them. Congratulations are in order! Education is for life. Your journey has just begun. Along the way, there are many dangerous things ahead. But you must guard your education with all your heart as the theme for this graduation. You and your parents have worked hard this year and today we celebrate your success. You are pioneers. A pioneer is a person who is among the first to enter or settle a region.
To be a pioneer means to move forward into territory that is new. This means taking risks, but it also means great adventure and great rewards. As the first graduating class of SCS, Grade 2 students have lived through the ups and downs of the school’s first year and taken part in quite an adventure. Moreover, your parents are pioneers, too. Of all the schools they could have chosen for you, they have chosen SCS, believing that this school can provide you with the best foundational education, setting you up for your education journey ahead. We thank you and appreciate you for entrusting your children in our care. Together, you and your parents, body the pioneering spirit!
Think back to the first day of school. Everyone was a little worried, a little nervous. New classmates, new teachers, new school environment. For some of you, so many new strange things to get used to. Each one of you was very brave, determined to forge ahead. You have picked up new words from your classmates—hopefully not only curse words—and learned to appreciate your classmates for who they are. Each one of you is unique, each one of you is valuable. Each one of you is full of potential.
I also want to thank our teachers and staff, who have lived through an incredible year, a year unlike any we’ve experienced before. You have had to rapidly adjust to changing circumstances and have stretched yourselves to the limit to keep the school running. Without your passion for education and your commitment to our students, we could not have done this. You, more than anyone, body the pioneering spirit that I, believes is so important for the education.
I’d like to close my opening remarks with this. Progress relies on people who are willing to take the necessary risks and guard the vision.Sunnyside opened its doors for its first early Childhood learners in 2021. Few months into operation, covid-19 pandemic hit the entire world and PNG was declared State of Emergency. We’ve had huge student’s withdrawal for fear of Covid-19. It was a difficult moment. But the vision of Sunnyside never grew dim. We were only left to get started with 50 students in 2021 and today we have doubled the number of students. We have (6) full time teachers and a qualified Lem Phonics Instructor. Its small but growing! We believe Sunnyside will grow bigger and better every year. Our vision is big, yet our constraints are real and our progress ahead will be gradual. Next year, we will have our first grade 3 intake!
Sunnyside has two main pillars that are integral and inbuilt into the school curriculum.
1. Christian Education &
2. LEM(Light Education Ministry)Phonics.
First Pillar – Christian Education.
Giving the word of God is giving proper roots to our precious students. It will help them form the correct values system and ground them properly in life. Our students will go far down the road to success and they will always find their true North Compass because the word of God is a lamp that will guide their feet and it is light that will guide their path.
2nd Pillar – LEM Phonics.
We pride ourselves in offering LEM Phonics to our students. Lem Phonics is an Australian Curriculum that is considered as a superior method of teaching literacy to early primary children. It has a very high success rate of getting early learners into the right pathways of development (encoding & decoding) words and sounds correctly. And our students will display some of those skills today.
We believe these are the pillars that makes Sunnyside different from the mainstream schools. Our mission is to empower children to achieve their full potential by giving them a smart start.

With that, I express my sincere gratitude and thank you so much for joining us today at this special occasion! Wishing you all a very merry xmas and a Properous New Year! May God bless you all!