3rd December 2025

Dear Parents

Next week we have our STEM week in school, we are looking forward to all our parents supporting our young engineers and designers, (see below for more details).

While some may think STEM is a mixture of learning maths or doing experiments, it's impact is far reaching and a powerful way to build crucial life skills that help your child succeed in school and beyond.

Beyond the Technical: Essential Collaboration Skills

STEM activities, especially those involving projects and design challenges are built around teamwork. Here's how engaging with STEM is boosting your child's ability to work with others:

Effective Communication: When students work together to solve an engineering problem or analyse data, they must clearly explain their ideas, listen to their teammates and offer constructive feedback. They learn to use specific, precise language to share findings or describe a design.
Problem-Solving as a Group: In STEM, failure is often part of the process! Students learn to pool their different strengths and perspectives to tackle tricky challenges. One child might be great at the maths, while another excels at building the physical model. They discover that the best solutions come from combining efforts.
Conflict Resolution and Compromise: Working as a team means different ideas will surface. STEM projects teach students to respectfully debate, defend their choices using evidence (like data or results), and most importantly, compromise to move the project forward. They learn to value diverse viewpoints.
Leadership and Shared Responsibility: Children naturally take on different roles in a STEM team—from being the project manager to the materials expert. They learn to take responsibility for their tasks and understand that the entire group's success depends on every member doing their part.

A Well-Rounded Learner

By fostering these collaboration skills alongside technical knowledge, we're not just preparing students to be future scientists or engineers, we're preparing them to be successful team players, creative thinkers and effective communicators in any path they choose!

Ask your child about the last STEM challenge they completed and who they worked with—you might be surprised by the advanced teamwork skills they describe!

Looking forward to your support next week.

As this incredibly busy term nears the end, we extend our thanks to all staff for delivering such amazing learning experiences, you only need to look at this newsletter to fully appreciate the hard work of our staff. The collective dedication has provided our students with unique and learning focused opportunities to grow and discover. We are grateful for your dedication and commitment, which makes our school such an enriching environment. Thank-you.

Tim Robinson

Headteacher

Year 6 Visit to RAHRC Library

On Tuesday, 25th November, the whole of Year 6 visited the RAHRC Library to explore some of the incredible books, learn how to become members and see how the books are organised. The children were guided by three of the many volunteering librarians who kindly give their time to care for the PDO Library—they simply love books and enjoy helping people of all ages step into a world of imagination.

The day began with book riddles. Each child received a sheet with around a dozen riddles, all about books. Working in pairs, the children had fifteen minutes to solve the riddles. For example, one riddle read, “A book all about a wardrobe, a lion and a magical world.” (Narnia!).

Next came the book tasting activity, which was a particular favourite. Each child received a slip of paper to write down their initial thoughts about the book they would choose. Six wrapped books were placed in the centre of the table and the children picked one, reading the blurb and examining the cover. They then recorded their thoughts about the book and whether it sparked their interest. Many rediscovered childhood favourites and several Year 6 students were so excited by the books they found that they couldn’t wait to sign up and borrow them.

The final activity was a book scavenger hunt. Children worked in pairs to find books matching around two dozen specifications, such as, “A book with random facts.” Some chose a Guinness World Records book, while others found different titles. For fifteen minutes, ten- and eleven-year-olds enthusiastically searched through the shelves, carefully returning each book to its place.

Overall, the Year 6 students were delighted, happy and had a wonderful time at the library. They explored new, old, award-winning and favourite books, engaged enthusiastically with the activities and many have decided to join the library. The trip was a huge success, and the PDO Library can expect to welcome many more young visitors very soon!

To find out more about the library, click here.

Written by Hana, Maeve and Eshal, Year 6

The Radisson Hormuz Grand Tree Lighting Ceremony

For those children in the Christmas Choir performing at the above event on Monday 8th December, can you make sure that they arrive at the hotel by 5.00pm please.

The hotel GPS location is: 23.577179479886418, 58.29262287246705

Children will need to wear PDO School uniform with a seasonal green or red polo shirt (not PE shirt).

Food will be served after the performance but it should be finished before 7.00pm.

If you are interested in in the gingerbread house competition after the performance, please contact the hotel to book your place on 9952 9741.

If you require any further information, please email on gruston@pdoschool.com

Mr Gary

Thursday Morning Informal Concert, December 4th

On Thursday, 4th December at 7.40am, we have our second informal concert of the year. This time, we are celebrating the progress made with the extracurricular groups who rehearse after school, lunch times and break times.

The concert includes performances from the Guitar, Keyboard, Wind Band, African Drumming and Recorder groups.

Those children who are performing need to arrive by 7.15am on Thursday to prepare. All parents are welcome to come and support the children.

If you require any further information, please email on gruston@pdoschool.com

Mr Gary

Little Voices Choir

On Monday 8th December at 7.40am the Little Voices Choir from PDO Club, run by Miss Irina are performing in the Learning Souk at PDO School!

The choir includes many of our children from Milepost 1 and they will perform a selection of non-religious seasonal songs.

Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the short concert.

STEM Week: Week Beginning 7th December

The week beginning 7th December the children from Year 1 to Year 6 will be taking part in 'The Great Egg Challenge'. The children will have to design, make and test a contraption that can keep a raw egg from breaking/sinking whilst being dropped or transported over a distance. Parents are invited to join in the building (Year 1 and 2) or testing (Y1-6) of the children's designs. Please check your Seesaw messages for the specific date and time to join us in the STEM room for your particular child.

PTA Quiz Night

The PTA, supported by Year 6 students, hosted a fun and exciting Quiz Night at PDO School. The Year 6 children wrote the quiz questions and presented the quiz, which included 6 rounds covering sports, history, geography, film & TV, music and science. Teams competed for prizes like Borders, Snow Oman and Trampo‑Extreme vouchers, while raffle winners enjoyed ice‑cream, pool, or movie parties for their classes.

We would like to thank the PTA, Year 6 children, and all the families who joined us for a great night!

Written by Mariam, Kenza and Elsa, Year 6

Choose Day

This term, the children have had an amazing time during the 'Choose' Day Afternoons, enjoying a wide range of exciting activities, ranging from archery and art to creative Lego, GarageBand, slime making, sewing, and many more! Throughout the afternoon, they demonstrated many personal goals, showing creativity, collaboration, and curiosity. They loved working alongside children from different classes and year groups, building new friendships and sharing lots of fun. Everyone is already looking forward to more fantastic activities next term!

Congratulations to our Learners of the Week!

A huge congratulations to our newest Learners of the Week! This award recognises the incredible effort they put into their learning and the excellent ways they are putting their personal goals into practice. It's fantastic to see them growing and becoming such dedicated and confident learners.

After School Clubs for Term 2

We are excited to share an expanded range of opportunities for the children in Y1-Y6 for next term. However, the timing of Ramadan will lead to clubs being run only for the first six weeks of term. The club brochure and sign up form are now available:

After School Clubs Catalogue - Term 2 2025/26

Early Years

Our Nursery and Reception children had so much fun taking their pre-writing outdoors! We rolled out a giant sheet of paper and the children painted, marked, and doodled. The children worked together, filling the space with colour and creativity. It was a joyful, collaborative experience; little hands exploring big ideas in the sunshine!

Milepost 1

Concentration and awesome thinking have really shone out across Milepost 1 this week. Reading, writing, computing, maker stations, puzzling things...goodness haven't we been busy! What amazingly respectful, adaptable, resilient and collaborative learners we are becoming. Well done Year 1 and Year 2! I wonder where our learning journey will take us next week?

Milepost 2

Beautiful Oman: Fashion!

Year 3 have been exploring Omani traditional clothing as part of their IPC unit. They started by interviewing Miss Nabiha to learn about the different styles and the names of various clothing items.

Miss Nabiha explained that each governorate has its own unique style of traditional women’s clothing. The children then studied maps of Oman to identify the governorates and matched the traditional clothing to the correct region.

Milepost 3

This week, Year 6 visited BMF to learn more about PDO’s contribution to Oman’s economy and how the company is adapting to align with Oman Vision 2040.

The children gathered in a conference room where they listened to an informative presentation delivered by a member of the PDO team. The session was thoughtfully linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which the students have been exploring in class.

We then welcomed our PDO-employee parents to join us for a collaborative lesson made up of three parts: noting new learning from the visit; identifying how we fit into the PDO SDG “jigsaw”; and discovering how parents contribute to the SDGs through their professional roles. It was a fantastic experience, particularly as it was the first time many students had visited the head office, and it was inspiring to hear how our Year 6 parents support both the national economy and the SDGs in their daily work.

Young Author Event at RAHRC Library!

Please see the flyer for details.

Please note this event is not organised by PDO school, we are unable to verify any Safeguarding or HSE procedures for this event.

PDO School Newsletter