24th September 2025

Dear Parents

Student Wellbeing

The school's commitment to student wellbeing is a core focus, and it's a topic that will remain central to our future planning. As educators, we frequently encounter anxiety in children, a challenge that can become more pronounced as they get older, significantly impacting their journey into young adulthood. This is why it's so important to build a strong foundation for managing stress in childhood—these good habits often carry over into adult life.

In recent weeks, we've hosted a session with Al Harub to provide support for you. It's a common and understandable tendency for parents to focus on academic outcomes and reports, as we often see these as the key areas for success. However, I would encourage you all to also prioritise supporting your children in developing their life resilience.

Last year in a newsletter I highlighted an article by Dr. Beth Mosley, an MBE recipient for her work in mental health education. Mosley, the author of Happy Families: How to Protect and Support Your Child’s Mental Health, emphasises that teaching children techniques to manage anxiety is a worthwhile investment at any age. She shared a powerful quote that I believe captures the essence of this message:

“The best predictor of success in life, and life satisfaction, is emotional health — over intellectual ability or academic attainment.”

This quote is a vital reminder that while academic achievement is important, it's emotional health that truly sets the stage for a fulfilling life.

Tips for Parents on Fostering Emotional Resilience

Here are some practical tips to help you support your children in building resilience.

1. Validate Their Feelings

When your child is anxious, avoid saying, "Don't worry about it." That can make them feel like their feelings aren't valid. Instead, acknowledge and validate what they're feeling. A simple, "It sounds like you're feeling really worried about that," can go a long way. This shows them you're listening and that their emotions are okay.

Tip: Help them name their feelings. You can ask, "Are you feeling nervous about the test, or more frustrated with the homework?" This helps them develop an emotional vocabulary.

2. Encourage a Growth Mindset

Praise their effort, not just their intelligence. When you praise hard work and persistence, you teach your child that challenges are opportunities for growth, not a reflection of their ability.

Tip: Instead of saying, "You're so smart at maths," try, "I saw how hard you worked on that maths problem, and you figured it out!" When they make a mistake, frame it as a learning experience: "What did you learn from that?"

3. Model Healthy Behaviour

Children learn how to handle stress by watching us. Be mindful of how you cope with your own anxiety. If you talk about your stress in a healthy way, they will learn to do the same.

Tip: Share your own coping strategies out loud. For example, "I'm feeling a little stressed about my meeting, so I'm going to take a short walk to clear my head."

4. Prioritise Unstructured Time

In a world of scheduled activities, make time for unstructured play and connection. This is how children process their experiences, build creativity, and develop social skills.

Tip: Carve out "unplugged" time each day. This could be a walk together, playing a board game, or simply having a conversation without any devices.

By focusing on these areas, you can provide your children with some tools that they need to navigate the complexities of life and build the resilience.

Road Safety

The safety of our students is our highest priority. To ensure a safe environment during drop-off and pick-up times, we kindly ask for your cooperation with the following rules inside the school premises:

Speed Limit: Please drive no faster than 10 km/h at all times.
Reversing: If you see another parent reversing, please stop and wait until they have fully reversed and parked safely before moving your car. This prevents accidents and keeps our children safe.
Parking: Always use designated parking spaces and avoid blocking pathways or entrances.

Your patience and cooperation play a vital role in ensuring the safety of all children. Thank you for supporting us in keeping our school a secure environment.

Tim Robinson

Headteacher

STEM - Bridges & Towers

The children have been hard at work, learning to think like real scientists and engineers building incredible bridges and towers. They discovered the power of teamwork and perseverance, all while exploring the physics behind their creations.

Years 1 to 6 have been working on two exciting STEM projects: building bridges (Years 2,4,6) and towers (Years 1,3,and 5). These projects weren't just about constructing things; they were about exploring fundamental concepts of physics, like how to balance weight and use different forces. Through hands-on challenges, they learned the importance of collaboration, working together to brainstorm ideas and solve problems. They also developed resilience, learning to overcome setbacks when their structures didn't work the first time. It was incredible to see them grow in confidence and learn that persistence and teamwork can lead to great things.

Parent Contact Update

To help maintain the best possible communications with parents, we would like to ensure that the contact information we hold for you is up to date. An email was sent recently to our recorded primary contact email address, showing the contact information that we hold. If you would like our records to be updated, please let us know using this form:

https://forms.zohopublic.com/dsalt/form/ParentContactUpdate1/formperma/WSrJQV5pM-Dr3R9EsuTIqNMh845-IBEeIx6ilcFzERA

Please note that the primary contact is the one we will use for regular emails such as sports teams invitations etc.

2025 - 2026 PTA Announcement!

We are very pleased to announce our PTA members for this academic year!

A huge thank you to our volunteers who will kindly lead the PTA this year - your support is greatly appreciated.

Chair: Ms Amber (Y3&6 Parent)
Vice Chair: Ms Ruth (Y6 Parent)
Treasurer: Ms Rumiya (Y5 Parent )
Secretary: Mr Dave (Teacher)
Staff Representatives: Ms Munira and Ms Marie (Community Leads and Teachers)

You might notice that Ms Amber has taken on the role of Chair for a second year running, and Ms Rumiya will take on the role of Treasurer, also for the second year - thank you!

We also welcome Ms Ruth as Vice Chair - your support is greatly appreciated.

Our thanks go to our staff members also with Mr Dave taking on the secretary role for a second year and Ms Munira and Ms Marie supporting as community leads.

The first PTA meeting will take place in due course. Dates will be shared in the newsletter.

Early Years

The children had a wonderful time in the sensory room, enjoying blowing bubbles, bouncing on the big balls and splashing in the water tray. The coloured lights and shapes sparked their curiosity and imagination, making learning fun through play and exploration.

Milepost 1

Our Milepost 1, Year 1 children have been continuing to explore different feelings through our 'If You're Happy and You Know It' IPC Learning unit. Following on from a very successful pyjama day where we explored different ways to feel calm and relaxed, we have been discussing who can help us when we do not feel well.

We went to visit Nurse Munira's Clinic and talked about when our body has feelings of being unwell, sick or hurt. Nurse Munira talked about the ways that she can help and showed the children lots of her medical 'tools'.

Milepost 2

This week in Y3, the children have been developing their knowledge and understanding of non-fiction writing.

Through collaborative research, the children discovered key facts about brown bears and explored exciting adjectives and nouns to make their writing more engaging. They then used these skills and knowledge to produce fantastic non-chronological reports. We are so proud of the hard work and creativity they have shown!

Milepost 3

This week, we take a look at Maths in Milepost 3 as the children begin their next area of learning in Number: Operations.

Year 5 and Year 6 have completed their first Maths unit on Place Value and are moving on to their next area of learning — Operations, beginning with addition and subtraction.

Throughout this unit, the children have explored place value in a variety of ways to strengthen their understanding. They have used concrete manipulatives to model numbers, worked collaboratively in pairs and small groups to solve problems, and taken part in larger group activities guided by the teacher. Independent practice has also been an important part of their learning, allowing them to build confidence and accuracy in their skills.

In addition to their mathematical progress, the children have shown great resilience when tackling challenging problems and developed their communication skills by sharing their reasoning with classmates. These learning behaviours will continue to support them as they begin their work on addition and subtraction this term.

BSM Collaborative Music Event

I am delighted to announce that once again, PDO School has been invited to perform at the Collaborative Music Event, to be held at BSM on Friday October 31st.

The event is intended for children in Year 4-6 who are currently in choir or our school band. However, for anyone not in choir but interested in coming along, please feel free to fill in the form in case there any spaces remaining.

I am awaiting finalised timings from BSM but the event will be held in the Oryx Theatre and run between approximately 8.30am and 2pm. At this point in time, there are currently 5 other schools participating so this is a wonderful opportunity for PDO children to collaborate with children from schools across Muscat.

Staff will be present throughout the morning and parents are invited to the performance at around 1.30pm. Numbers are limited so if you are interested in attending, please indicate this on the signup link below. There is no charge for this event but PDO School does not provide transportation to and from BSM and children are required to bring enough drink and snacks for the scheduled 5 hours.

In previous years, this has been an immensely successful event so it would be great to see as many PDO children in attendance as possible.

BSM Collaborative Event Signup Form

I will post more information in the coming weeks but if you require any further details, please email me on:

gruston@pdoschool.com

Mr Gary

PDO Choir - Thursday Morning Informal Concert

On Thursday 2nd October, we run the first of our series of Thursday Morning Informal Concerts. The performances take place in the Learning Souk from 7.40am to 8.00am. In the past, these events have not only been tremendously popular with parents but also an opportunity for children to perform to an audience. Next week is the turn of the PDO Choir so regardless of whether you have a child participating, please feel free to come along and enjoy the performance.

For further details, email me on gruston@pdoschool.com

We look forward to seeing you all on 2nd October.