Dear Parents,

I hope you all had a good break, it is hard to believe that we are nearly in December.

Road Safety -I am sure you will have noticed a high profile presence of road safety teams in school over the last few weeks, their aim is to keep us all safe and often to engage in conversations with members of our community . They are trained in  Road Safety issues so please take time to engage with them.

We are seeing an improvement in the figures,  however we still have some concerning statistics.  ( See below ) can we please request that all children are wearing seat belts and that smaller children have the appropriately fitted car sets to protect them; the seatbelts must be worn until the car is stationary.

I see lots of children and parents following the road safety roles, so thanks to you for playing such a positive role model for  our community.

 The three-week numbers currently stand at:

Forty-two (42) vehicles and / or their occupants were observed in various breaches of safe practice as follows:

• 6 drivers (parents) did not use seat belts;

• 48 children (passengers) did not use seat belts;

• 8 drivers failed to adjust the speed of their vehicles to presented road and traffic conditions;

• 3 vehicles were observed unattended / parked with an engine running (which may constitute a risk of theft or unauthorised use);

• 2 vehicle / driver was blocking an aisle (traffic obstruction) while allowing passengers to alight;

• 1 vehicle was entering an aisle in the wrong direction;

• 1 parent with a child was observed jaywalking (not using near-by pedestrian crossing);

PDO Road Safety Standards Body

Tim Robinson

Headteacher

Early Years

Foam Experiment 

This week, Nursery have been exploring water play and bubbles. Children learn so much about the physical world by pouring, stirring, and squeezing things. The children were enchanted with blowing and chasing bubbles in the air. The children sang 'Tiny Tim' and spoke about the different sizes of bubbles they could see as they popped them. 

Does your child enjoy blowing bubbles, playing catch or making paper airplanes? Then they are exploring their trajectory schema; studying the movement of an object, or their own body, through the air. 

Milepost 1

Milepost 2

Yuzu Visit

 As part of our Oman IC units, Year 4 & 6 enjoyed a visit from a local organic farmer and a health and wellness coach. The children used their thinking skills to both answer and ask questions and learnt about both the advantages of eating organic foods and the struggles that organic farmers can face. Thank you to Yuzu who also kindly gifted both the children and staff fresh produce. The year 4 children put these ingredients to great use today as part of their Exit Point, making a variety of Omani-inspired dishes. 

Milepost 3

Year 6 - ABA Open Day

 This week, Year 6 travelled to ABA School for their Grade 6 (Year 7) Open Day. The students were greeted by the Head of School, before hearing all about a day in the life of a Grade 6 student from the Middle School Principal. They were then given a tour of the school from some current ABA student ambassadors in Grade 6, including some of PDO's class of 2023. The day concluded with an opportunity for the children to take part in an MS Solves activity alongside Year 6 pupils from another school.  

Term 2 School Clubs

Next week, we will issue the Term 2 School Club Booklet. Each Year 1 - Year 6 student will be allocated up to 2 After School Clubs. In addition to this, you will also be able to sign up for some after school clubs which will be run by external providers. You will also see a number of clubs which run before school and at lunchtimes.

Please see the information and sign up links in the booklet that we will issue next week.

All After School Clubs will start the week beginning Sunday 7th January 2024 and run until the week ending Thursday 7th March 2024. 

We will email an overview of all of the After School Clubs which your child/ren have been enrolled in by 12th December  2023. 

Physical Education

Next week is our second interhouse competition of the year - Invasion Games! Our Year 1's and 2's have been working hard and developing their understanding of attacking and defending whilst learning about evading, dodging, and tactics. Our year 3 & 4 continue their skills for benchball which are transferable skills that they will use later on for basketball and netball and our 5&6's will compete in Basketball which is becoming increasingly popular at PDO School.  We look forward to updating you on the results before the end of term! Let go teams!!

IPC

There are several advantages to this pedagogy: 

1. Making deeper connections

Learning is an integrated process where the brain constantly tries to connect from one experience to another. Theme-based learning supports and mirrors this natural way of learning. By creating purposeful links between the knowledge and skills taught within different subjects, children are able to gain deeper understanding and insights which in turn, sets an effective platform for higher-order thinking and engagement. Moreover, by supporting children’s ability to recognise the interconnectedness of the world around them, we effectually engender creativity and innovation in their thinking. 

2. Creating relevance 

A theme creates a context for children to see the meaningful applications of academic knowledge and skills. When children can relate what they are learning to the real-world, they will understand and retain the new knowledge better. The BIG Question posed at the start of each unit can be considered a badge of authenticity which ensures children can see how each unit of learning has relevance to them, both as learners and global citizens. 

3. Developing a passion for learning

A thematic approach facilitates a deep-dive into topics by asking children to examine and learn through a variety of perspectives. Whether they are a geographer, artist or scientist at heart, children get the opportunity to view the subject through their preferred lenses, ensuring their natural curiosity is piqued, motivating and exciting them to find out more. At PDO School, we believe in creating lifelong learners and the thematic study approach supports children’s ability to actively translate their own passions and interests into meaningful learning experiences.  

Ms Munira - IPC Leader for Learning

Wishing you a pleasant weekend,

The PDO School Team