PDO School Newsletter

12th September 2019

Dear Parents,

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful summer and you are relaxed, recharged and ready for another, fun filled, school year.

The school is once again full of excited children and teachers, eager to embark on their new learning journey.

To all our new children and their families, welcome to PDO School. We hope you will be very happy being part of our community.

Seussical Jr.

At assembly on Sunday, it was announced that PDO School will be putting on a School Production this year. It is called Seussical Jr., a colourful, toe-tapping musical based on the works of Dr Seuss. It has been performed on Broadway and now, here in Muscat!

The performance dates are 6th and 7th April 2020. We will be holding auditions in November (the exact dates and format to be announced).

This is an amazing opportunity for children in P4, P5, P6, P7 and M1 to be involved in all aspects of putting on a show.

If your child is interested in finding out a bit more about the different jobs in a theatre and how they all work together, then they may wish to sign up for Miss Rosie's Enrichment Activity called Theatre Skills. Please note you can still audition for Seussical Jr if you are not doing the enrichment this term.

Parent Portal and Class Pages Changes

The Parent Portal (www.pdoschoolparent.com password: camel) is your gateway to up to date information for parents such as dates and recent photos. It also has the links to the class pages where your child's class teacher will share regular up to date information about learning. This year we have moved to a different platform for creating the pages (Google Sites - like this Newsletter) with the intention of providing a better mobile experience for users. We may face some teething problems at first but will but will work to ensure we give you better access to your child's learning week by week.

Class Pages

The purpose of the Class Pages is not only to inform parents about the children's activities and learning, but it is also to engender discussion at home about that learning, strengthening the partnership between home and school in educating our children.

You should not expect to see pictures of every child doing every activity, but you should expect to see sample pictures that show what the children in the class have been doing accompanied by explanations of how the activity is developing their learning. If you don't already do so, why not make it a brief weekly activity to look at the Class Pages together with your child?

Snapshot of Posts from the Class Pages:

Here is a post from each phase showing recent learning.

Phase 1 (PN - P2)

After talking a little about our class rules and in particular good listening skills, we met our class mascot; a shark named Fin. We passed Fin around our circle and shared with him, and everybody else, our names. We said "Hello" to each other individually.

Miss JulieAnn and Miss Evita were very impressed with our sitting and listening skills :)

Phase 2(P3 - P5)

The P4's started their swimming lessons yesterday. Mr Scott and the Britswim coaches tested the groups water confidence and basic swimming strokes and to assist with our groupings moving forward into next week. We were very impressed with the ability of the students and look forward to building on this throughout a successful year of swimming.

Phase 3 (P6 - M1)

P7G had the opportunity to demonstrate their skills as writers today. They were set the challenge of continuing a piece begun by another writer. In order to adopt the style, tone and atmosphere of the original text, the children had to make thoughtful choices about their vocabulary, sentence and text structure.


We are looking for Class Parents:

The objectives of a Class Parent:

  1. To provide non curricular support to the class teacher whenever required
  2. To help new parents feel welcomed into the class and school community
  3. To act on behalf of parents for celebrations, thank-yous and farewell to children

If you would like to be a Class Parent for your child's class- please speak to their teacher; the role can be shared by two parents if preferred. There will be a session to explain the role with Ms Margaret for all Class Parents in the near future.

News from across the school

Phase 1

PN, N, P1 and P2

The Phase 1 building has been bustling as we all returned for the start of a new school year.

The children were all learning to be adaptable by joining new classes, making new friends and getting to know new routines.

The teachers have had lots of Learning Week activities to help the children settle and get to know their new friends and adults within the classes and year groups.

Thank you to all the parents who came to our Phase 1 Parent Information evening. It was wonderful to see so many parents attending and we look forward to continuing our school-home partnership over the coming school year.

Phase 2

P3, P4 and P5

P3 have been settling into their new classes this term. They have had two great weeks of learning, listening to stories, getting to know class routines, teachers and friends and refreshing their number skills. Children have talked about having a growth mindset and have shown lots of resilience and adaptability.

P4 are very excited to be learning about The Rainforests and have completed research about the flora and fauna and its inhabitants. They are also reading 'The Great Kapok Tree' by Lynne Cherry and learning about the dilemmas that face people who live in these endangered parts of the world.

P5 have been learning about the human body and how our bodies work. They have drawn outlines around their own bodies and enjoyed discovering which facts about the body are true or false.


Phase 3

P6, P7 and M1

Phase 3 have had a fantastic start to the new academic year. There has been a buzz of excitement running through the corridor during learning week, throughout the phase the children have been engaged in an excellent variety of stimulating challenges designed to get their brains working again after the long summer holiday! This year sees the introduction of specialist science lessons with Mr Hamish, across the phase students have been working on developing their understanding of scientific method by carrying out simple experiments - what caused the liquid sugar to expand and change colour? What conditions are needed to separate the salt from a salt solution? This week whilst P6 have been immersing themselves in their first IPC topic ‘Black Gold’ P7 have started the Playground Leader selection process. Playground Leaders are responsible for organising and running activities for the younger children at break-times. This is an excellent chance for the children to develop their own leadership skills as well as their Personal Goals.

M1



M1 have had a busy start to a year that is packed full of amazing academic, sporting and creative opportunities. After the lockers had been allocated, the timetable discussed and the new Chromebooks given out it was time for the first challenge: to complete a jigsaw puzzle without knowing what it would look like; this sounds a lot easier than it is, but with team work and determination anything is possible! As well as completing the more serious task of baseline assessments in English, Maths and Science, the students are also well underway with 'Flight - a mini project', this is a combination of design and technology, maths, science, speaking and listening and is designed to test their skills and challenge their preconceptions.

Punctuality:

Please can I politely remind all parents that school starts promptly at 7.55am for our P2 to P7 children and by 8.15am for our children in P1 and Early Years.

Many classes will be starting their ‘Maths Passport’ lesson at this time, for 10 minutes each day. If your child is regularly late they are going to miss a great deal of teaching and learning in this area of the curriculum. 10 minutes each day is equivalent to over 30 hours per year and this is time we can not get back.

The occasional late may be unavoidable. There are millions of things that can cause us to run behind but if your child is frequently late (two or more times each month) you may need to change your routine to ensure a successful start to your child's school day.

Concerns:

We are here to help!

If you have any concerns, please raise them with your class teacher. If your class teacher is unable to resolve your problem, please make an appointment to speak to a member of the Senior Leadership Team. You can do this at our reception or by sending an email through Notices.


Dates for your Diary:

September

  • Tuesday 17th - Parents Information Afternoon - 1630 - P3-P4-P5
  • Wednesday 18th - Parents Information Afternoon - 1630 - P6-P7-M1

Parent Portal and class pages: www.pdoschoolparent.com


Wishing you and your family a very restful weekend.

Cheryl Fox