PDO

School Newsletter

8th November 2023

Dear Parents,

The highlight of this week was certainly the Diwali assembly. Thanks to all the performers and adults who supported the event. It was a real joy to see the smiles radiating from the whole community.

We sent out an important email on school car park safety yesterday. The report highlighted a number of issues that are all important. Can we ask that you support the school in making sure that all are safe. Several parents have commented on the high number of Road Safety staff on the school site, they are supporting the school in ensuring that we keep our whole community safe. If the road safety team see non compliance they will engage you in a conversation.

We also sent an email this week on the parent representative from the School Board, if you need to discuss the role then please contact Tim Robinson.

We are updating several of our policy documents at the moment, these will be sent to parents on completion. One change that we are putting in our parent handbook is the update below.

Collecting your children from school before the end of the day

If you need to collect your children from school before the end of the school day, for example, to attend a medical or visa appointment, please let the class teacher and the administration team know as soon as possible. Please either send a Seesaw message, email notices@pdoschool.com or call our reception desk on 246 77279.

Please note that you must collect your students from school, even if they have permission to walk or cycle home alone in these circumstances.

We currently have a National Day Calendar holiday on the calendar for the 22-23rd of November, this holiday is yet to be confirmed and the dates could change. We will update you when the holiday dates are official.

Tim Robinson

Headteacher

Diwali

Many thanks to our parent community for helping us to educate our students about Diwali. This week the children learnt about different aspects of this festival, including; fashion, music, food and decorations. We would like to thank all the parents who helped to create this wonderful learning experience and in particular would like to recognise and thank, Miss Sasi (Harsha and Thanushree's Mum), for her coordination of the assembly.

We are a diverse school body and it is important that we take time to recognise and understand each other's cultures, we can do this by learning about, from and with each other. Developing International Mindedness is part of our aim as a school and we welcome more opportunities to share learning in this way. If you are interested in supporting or have ideas of cultural days which are significant in our school, please complete the form below and our International learning team will be in touch.

Cultural Learning Opportunities in PDO School

Early Years

The Nursery children have been busy exploring numbers. In the outside area, the children had to rescue the fish that were trapped in the ice cubes and count them. In another activity, Nursery had to identify the number, match it with the correct number pebble and represent it using counters.

Outdoor Classroom Day

We are thrilled to share the wonderful experience we had during International Outdoor Classroom Day, on Thursday 2nd November. The whole school came together to play in our early years playground alongside our youngest learners. The day was filled with laughter, learning, and fun as older and younger children joined forces in the great outdoors.

Outdoor play offers countless benefits for children of all ages. It encourages physical activity and helps develop gross motor skills. It also provides an opportunity for children to explore and connect with nature, fostering a love for the environment. The collaboration between older and younger children was truly heartwarming, as it promoted teamwork, mentorship, and empathy. The older students became role models and helped the younger ones navigate new challenges and experiences, creating a strong sense of camaraderie throughout the school.

Milepost 1

Year 2 were excited to read their new class text, The Tin Forest. Children created a story map to represent the main events and then practiced retelling the story in their own words. Now that we have Seesaw, they were able to record their version for their parents to listen to and enjoy.

Milepost 2

Year 4 have been researching plate boundary types and deepening their understanding of how earthquakes and volcanoes are linked. They used maps and globes to locate all of the plate tectonics. To demonstrate their understanding they created models to communicate their knowledge and understanding. There were some great discussions and questions asked!

Milepost 3

Science

This week in Year 6 we began a new science unit 'Living Things and Their Habitats'. Their first task was student-led, they had to classify 32 different living things based on their characteristics. It certainly sparked some interesting conversations about where things lived, how many legs they have and if they were mammals or not!

Out of School Achievements

Congratulations to Bruno in Y5T who has been selected to represent Oman in the upcoming QMMF MENA Karting Nations Cup. The races will be held over 5 days in Doha. We look forward to hearing all about this exciting opportunity.

Well done Bruno!

Last weekend Diana, in Y6L, competed in the BSM Marlins November Open Short Course Meet and won her first gold medal in the 200 metre backstroke. She finished first in her age group with an incredible time of 3.43.66. She also achieved PBs in all the races that she competed in. It was a great experience for her and we are all very proud of her achievements.

Well done Diana!

Seesaw Parent Workshop

Thank you so much to the parents that attended the Seesaw workshop on Sunday afternoon.

Parents were shown:

How to access each child's journal.
How to view posts in certain folders.
How to search for staff members, add attachments to messages and send to one or multiple members of staff.
How to engage in their child's learning using the TAG approach either when face to face or when commenting on their child's work.

At present Seesaw is used to share and celebrate children's learning. Eventually it will also be used for setting activities. Another workshop will be held to support parents in this area at a later date.

A gentle reminder to all parents to check Seesaw on a daily basis.

Beach Clean Up

Thank you to all who made it down to the beach clean up on Saturday. It was a great success as we made a huge difference, leaving the beach a much nicer place. We even influenced several bystanders, who helped with some of the litter picking. The children were a credit to the school, making both parents and teachers very proud.

Apologies to those who were still busy collecting litter when the group photo was taken.