PDO School Newsletter

20th September

Dear Parents,

I would like to thank the many parents who have introduced themselves either at the start of the day or at one of the recent parents' meetings; you have made me feel very welcome at PDO school. I will be hosting a number of events in the near future. It would be lovely to see you at one of these.

Thank you to everyone who came to the PTA coffee morning, this gave me a chance to get to know some parents a little better. The PTA do a remarkable job, organising events and raising funds. If you think you could offer some spare time to support the PTA please email us at notices@pdoschool.com.

We are very grateful to all Parents who have agreed to be a Class Parent. This essential role promotes Home/School partnership and has a positive impact on the children's experience in school for everything from day to day reminders to our big events and celebrations. If you would like to take on this role or share it with another parent in your child's class, please speak to the Class Teacher. Ms Margaret will do a presentation to all Class Parents on the first of October at 0810.

Safety:

As you know, our core priority is the safety and welfare of all the children in our care. Creating a happy, safe and secure learning environment is a key part in ensuring that all of our students have a school setting where they can reach their full potential and enjoy their learning. In order to ensure our school is safe we have to implement a series of school policies which we must adhere to, which can be found on the parent portal. With the safety of our children in mind, can I politely remind you to wear your Parent Pass each time you enter the premises. This would also really help me, as a new member of school staff, to know who is authorised to be on school premises and who I must challenge.

Seat belts:

It has been noted that a number of children are not wearing a seat belt when leaving school, at the end of the day. In the interest of safety, please ensure that all children are safely strapped into car seats. Research shows that a properly fitted child seat will reduce the chance of injuries caused by a crash, and possibly even save your child’s life. Failure to wear seat belts is a violation of PDO. Life Saving Rules.

Following a recent incident, where a young child was locked inside a car, can I please ask that you do not leave children unsupervised in a car, even for just a moment. Furthermore, I would advise that you do not give children car keys to play with.

Road Safety:

At PDO. school we teach the children about road safety from an early age and we expect parents to support us with this. If you walk to school, can you please ALWAYS use the crossings. Young children need a great deal of guidance with road safety; they should always hold an adults hand. If your children come to school with a nanny or a driver, please talk to them about safety near the roads.

Literacy:

I would like to take this opportunity to announce our P6 Book Monitors for this academic year. The senior leadership team presented these children with their official badges in assembly last week. I would personally like to say an enormous thank you to each and every one of them as the contribution they are making to our school community is outstanding. The children have demonstrated their personal goals very clearly by way of their thoughtfulness, resilience, adaptability and cooperation. Please help me to congratulate them for their efforts when you see them.

Catherine Coventry - Literacy Leader for Learning

Leaders for Learning in Mathematics:

I am delighted to announce that Miss Munira (P5) has been appointed joint Leader for Learning in Mathematics. She will be working very closely with Miss Liz to further enhance the provision in Mathematics.

International Primary Curriculum:

The Primary Years got their learning off to a monstrous start by spending their first two weeks learning about their brains, mindset and Personal Goals. The children took the roles of little monsters who had forgotten how to learn, how to have a growth mindset and how to demonstrate their Personal Goals. Their challenge was to spend Learning Week, learning to learn to prepare them for their year ahead.

Throughout the Primary Years, the children were given the challenge of exploring how their brains work and how to maximise their brains' learning power. They learned about how to overcome difficult tasks and completed challenges to help them develop their growth mindsets. The children persevered and did not give up - they were extremely resilient. Finally, we learned about the 8 Personal Goals and how they can help us become great 21st Century learners. We celebrated the excellent theme by having a monster dress-up day. The children took part in a series of celebratory activities culminating in a sharing assembly where we shared what each year group had been learning.

Ms Joh & Mr Neil

Playground Leader Programme (PLP) Interviews

In P7 the children have many opportunities to further develop their leadership and interpersonal skills. A prime opportunity for this is to take part in the PLP. The role of the PL is to coordinate and lead an exciting variety of break time activities for all age groups.

This week the P7 children who applied for a PL position were interviewed. The standard of applicants was extremely high. They arrived well-dressed and had clearly prepared for these interviews in a mature manner. In the coming weeks, the successful applicants will undergo a training program that will provide them with all the skills necessary to run their activities successfully.

Ms Jamie & Mr Joe

Birthday Treats and Gifts:

Just a reminder; we celebrate birthdays during assemblies. If parents would like to provide treats for your child's class, please remember:

  • it should be a small healthy treat
  • it should be nut free
  • it should be manageable within normal snack time

Internet Safety

As part of our Computing and wider curriculum, we teach children from P3 to P7, to be aware of the dangers of using the internet and how to protect themselves. We try to strike a balance between not scaring children and keeping them aware of the potential dangers.

Access to the internet is supervised within school and the school network is protected by filters, but ultimately it is the children’s own decision to act in a sensible and thoughtful manner, that will help them to be safe and responsible internet users. We aim to give the children the best information possible, and encourage them to make the best choices.

To support parents in continuing this education at home, we have produced a small website with some reproduced articles containing useful advice, as well as some of the resources (videos and an ebook) that we use in lessons to encourage the children to think about the dangers and how to manage them. We hope you will find the articles interesting and useful, and you may wish to view the resources with your child as a starting point for useful discussion with them.

The website can be found on the Parent Portal and also at: https://sites.google.com/pdoschool.com/internetsafety

Mr Dave

Learning Shared in the Class Pages:

Here is a selection of images from each milepost showing recent learning.

Early Years

Primary 1 Entry Point. Blast Off! A flying saucer crashed in the play ground so the children went out to investigate. They found lots of clues that helped them discover a family of aliens hiding in the classroom! These aliens will be staying at PDO School for the term to help the children with their learning.

Milepost 1

Entry Point P3 - Light and Dark

This week the children in P3 have participated in many exciting activities as part of their Entry Point. Some of these have included going through a very dark tunnel and going in to a dark den. They needed to think about how they felt, why they thought it was dark and whether they could see in the dark.

How do you feel in the dark?

Milepost 2

P4 Procedure Texts

In Literacy, P4 have been reading and following written instructions to make their own monsters. They have also worked cooperatively to analyse procedure texts and annotated them to show their structural and language features.

Milepost 3

P6 Narrative Texts

In Literacy, P6 have been following on from the monster themed Learning Week by reading, up leveling and creating our own stories. The children were required to use their memory strategies and cooperation skills to perform their stories as a team and remember their parts.

Dates for your Diary:

September

  • 23rd - Enrichment courses begin 1405-1505
  • 30th - Final deadline to register for P8

October

  • 1st - Presentation to all Class Parents - 0810 in Training Room with Ms Margaret
  • 1st - Primary 1 (P 1) - Phonics Workshop for Parents - 1600 in the Early Years Gym - (Adult only session)
  • 2nd - MPSL - U11 - Boys&Girls - Skittleball at BSM (Invited children only)
  • 8th - EAL Parent Meeting - 1615 in the Early Years Gym
  • 28th - MPSL - U9 Boys - Benchball Tournament at ABA (Invited children only)
  • 30th - MPSL - U9 Girls - Benchball Tournament at ABA (Invited children only)
  • 31st - October - Nursery Phase 1 Workshop for Parents - 1600 in the Early Years Gym

Parent Portal and class pages: www.pdoschoolparent.com

Our school Parent Portal has a great deal of information to support parents. Please take some time to visit the class pages. You will find many photographs, recording the learning which has taken place in the classrooms.

Wishing you lovely weekend.

Cheryl Fox