8th October 2025

Dear Parents

Celebrating Personal Learning Goals at PDO School

We’re excited to share a new initiative that’s brightening our environment and deepening our learning culture: several posters showcasing our Personal Learning Goals are now starting to be displayed throughout the school! These visual reminders help children reflect on key dispositions such as resilience, collaboration, adaptability, respect, communication, ethical, empathy, and thinker—the building blocks of lifelong learning.

Why Personal Learning Goals Matter

Personal learning goals are central to all progressive curricula, including the International Curriculum (IPC, IEYC), IB Primary Years Programme (PYP), and other inquiry-based models. These goals nurture essential learning dispositions—the habits of mind that shape how children approach challenges, collaborate with others, and grow as independent thinkers.

Research shows that when children develop strong learning dispositions, they’re more likely to:

Persevere through difficulties
Take ownership of their learning
Engage meaningfully with peers and adults
Transfer skills across subjects and real-life situations

How Parents Can Support These Goals at Home

You play a vital role in reinforcing these dispositions beyond the classroom. Here are a few simple ways to support your child’s development:

Model the goals: Talk about how you show resilience, respect, or adaptability in your own life.
Celebrate effort: Praise persistence and thoughtful decision-making, not just outcomes.
Use the language: Refer to the learning goals in everyday conversations—e.g., “That was very thoughtful of you!”
Encourage reflection: Ask questions like “How did you show cooperation today?” or “What could you do differently next time?”

As parents I would encourage you strongly to pay attention to the Personal Learning Goals; good habits that you establish now will support your child as they move into the sometimes challenging teenage years.

Congratulations:

Well done to all our sports teams who have performed so well over the last few weeks, we are very quickly running out of space for all our trophies ! And many thanks to the choir who brought a smile to all our faces last Thursday (see the video below).

Tim Robinson

Headteacher

News from the PE Department

It has been a fantastic start to the year in the PE Department! All of our students have been working incredibly hard, both in swimming and in PE lessons.

The MPSL season has begun in full swing. Our first tournament was also a first of its kind - a Chess Tournament. PDO School proudly entered 4 students; Alman, Ephraim, Dhariya and Amar. The team performed brilliantly, with PDO securing second place overall. Congratulations to the boys for their focus and determination!

Our second tournament took place at ABA School on Tuesday, September 30th, where we entered 24 of our Year 3 and 4 students in the U9 Skittleball Championships. Being the first large tournament of the year, there were a few nerves, but those were quickly replaced with a lot of loud cheering! Ms Jamie and Ms Iveth’s ears are still ringing! The children showcased all the skills we have been developing over the last few weeks in PE and our many practices. Their excellent sportsmanship was recognised by both parents and teachers at the event. The girls’ team played fantastically, earning a 4th Place finish, while the boys team went undefeated, taking first place overall and bringing home the 2025 MPSL Skittleball Trophy!

We are very proud of all our students for their hard work, teamwork and positive attitude. Watch this space for more information on the upcoming sports. We are excited to continue building on this strong start to the season.

French

There has been a lot of learning happening in French lessons so far this year in school which we would like to share with you.

In Milepost One, the children have been learning French through playing games and singing songs. Year 1 has only been learning French for a few weeks and they can already say hello, say how they feel and count to 10. I am so proud of their attitude and enthusiasm towards learning a new subject.

In Year 3, the children have started to focus more on their reading and writing skills in French, in addition to speaking and listening. They have been looking at the layout of a bilingual dictionary and have started to develop their independent learning in class by using a bilingual dictionary to translate words.

Year 4 have been focusing on developing their speaking and listening skills so far this term, by joining in with key words and actions in a French story and learning and performing a poem in French. It has been great to see their confidence grow when speaking aloud in French.

In Milepost 3, Year 5 have been talking about their likes and dislikes, using bilingual dictionaries to extend their French vocabulary. Year 6 have demonstrated that they are able to read and write longer texts in French. They all wrote about themselves and their family, substituting words in sentences from a reading text to support their accuracy. They also used bilingual dictionaries to translate new vocabulary to help them to personalise their work.

Thursday Morning Informal Concert.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Informal Concert last Thursday, it was wonderful to see so many there.

Also, well done to all those who performed. The songs was put together with only five lunch time rehearsals, which is very impressive.

For those of you who were unable to make the concert, click on the link below to watch the performance!

Informal Concert Choir Performance

BSM Collaborative Music Event Signup Form - Y4/5/6

There are still a few places available for the above event on October 31st so if you are interested in attending, please click on the following signup link and complete the form.

Signup Form

For more information, please email me at gruston@pdoschool.com

Mr Gary

PDO Christmas Choir - The Grand Hormuz and PDO Club

Dear Parents,

I am delighted to inform you that once again, PDO Choir has the opportunity to perform at two Christmas events during the festive season. These events are open to anyone in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the chosen songs will be appropriate for the festive season but non-religious.

Please read on for the sign up form and further details

The scheduled events are as follows.

· Monday December 8th at The Radisson Grand Hormuz Hotel, Seeb

· Thursday December 11th at RAHRC (PDO Club) Ras al Hamra

Rehearsals for this event will take place every Thursday after school (2.10 to 3.10 pm), starting October 30th. These will run up until the performances so regular attendance is very important. Both performances will start at 5.30 pm, although the exact times are yet to be confirmed. As in previous years, PDO School does not provide transport for the event and parents or a designated adult will need to be present at all times to supervise children and to collect them promptly at the end of the performance.

The Grand Hormuz Hotel will kindly provide refreshments after the performance for the children in one of the conference rooms, which lasts until around 7.00pm. The PDO Club performance will be completed by around 6.15pm. Please note that times are subject to small changes depending upon the smooth running of the events.

Both events have been tremendously successful in the past so as this will be the final year asl PDO School, it would be wonderful to see as many children participating as possible.

If you are interested, can you please sign using the Google form below by Thursday 16th October. Only those who complete the form will be included. For those of you who are non-members at RAHRC, access for the evening can be arranged for the immediate family.

Christmas Choir Google Form Signup

If you have any questions, please email me at gruston@pdoschool.com

Mr Gary

Share Your Talents: Bring Learning to Life!

We would love for you to share your skills, hobbies or expertise to enrich our IPC and IEYC curriculum. Your talents can make learning exciting and meaningful for the children!

We are creating a Learning-Link Document to connect your expertise with classroom topics, giving children real-world experiences and strengthening home–school partnerships.

As we welcome a number of new families and teachers to our school community, we are looking at ways to further enhance our curriculum provision for the children. If you are open to sharing and potentially collaborating with us, perhaps through a creative demonstration, your involvement would be most welcome. All hobbies, skills and interests are valued: examples could be cooks, artists, engineers, musicians or storytellers, geologists - Your contribution could help children experience learning in new and exciting ways.

If you would like to get involved, please complete the form below. Teachers will then be able to contact you to invite you into class or support learning if there is a curriculum match.

Learning Link Document

Thank you to the parents who have already shared their talents, your support has truly brought learning to life!

IC Team

Early Years

Early Years have been busy exploring our Powerful Plants unit. We loved discovering flowers from around the world and how they are used in celebrations.

The children discovered marigolds, flowers from India often used in Diwali celebrations, as well as jasmine from Oman and Mohammadi flowers from Iran and Oman. We used our senses to smell, touch and describe the flowers. The children also learnt that both marigolds and Mohammadi flowers can be edible and watching a chef prepare marigold halwa was especially exciting. This helped us make international connections by seeing how plants are celebrated across cultures. Outdoors, we extended our maths learning by collecting different kinds of plants, exploring patterns, numbers and adding more through nature.

Milepost 1

This week, Year 1 have been enjoying lots of different maths games to deepen their understanding of numbers. Using concrete resources such as counters and Numicon, the children practised subitising, worked out one more and one less, and matched numerals with quantities. Playing games not only makes maths fun but also helps the children really understand what the numerals represent and develop confidence with numbers.

Milepost 2

Year 4 have been busy buddy journalists this week! As part of our 'Active Planet' unit, students have been researching key facts about life in Pompeii during Roman times.

They explored the dramatic eruption of Mount Vesuvius through the lens of a newspaper report. Using their detective skills, pupils identified key features like headlines, eyewitness accounts and chronological sequencing. They were fascinated by how facts and emotions are woven together to tell a powerful story. This activity sparked great discussions about historical events and how we report them. Watch this space for more informative and eye-catching reports!

Milepost 3

This week, Year 6 students took on the role of young leaders as they supported their younger peers during lunchtime.

As part of their transition to secondary school, our Year 6 students have been embracing new opportunities to take on leadership roles within our school community.

This week, they began their ‘school community project’ by spending lunchtime in Early Years— sharing lunch, joining in games, and helping the younger children during playtime. It was wonderful to see their communication skills in action as they chatted and played together, and their cooperation and respect as they supported and encouraged the younger students.

Moments like these also help develop adaptability and thoughtfulness, as our Year 6 leaders learn to respond to the needs of others and act as caring role models. We’re so proud of the way they are demonstrating these important Personal Learning Goals through everyday interactions.

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.

PDO School Newsletter