PDO School Newsletter
7th April 2022
Dear Parents
It has been lovely seeing many of you in school this week for the Exit Points across the whole school. For lots of photos of the Exit Point in your child's class, please click on the link below to view these on the Class Pages.
Pupils from Early Years, all the way up to Y6/P7 have enjoyed a number of super activities, which you can read about and view in the articles below. It has been great to end Term 2 in such an exuberant way this week, showcasing the children's fantastic learning in the Exit Points as well as your children enjoying themselves on the Fun Days. The end of term has been a fun and exciting event for the children. There has been a real buzz in school these last few days and I am sure the children have enjoyed all the different experiences. I have enjoyed visiting the classes and seeing the children in different settings with different groups of children. I have also been impressed with the hidden talents of the staff!
I hope everyone has enjoyed the last two days and learned a lot.
A big thank you to Wayne at PDO Club, for organising the popcorn party bags today for our Fun Day.
Click here for a quick link to the Class Pages via the Parent Portal, to see what your children have been learning this week and for class updates.
Classroom Music
It has been a very noisy but extremely productive Term 2 in music. Many of the students have been learning about the characteristics of world percussion, including African Drumming, Indonesian Gamelan, Tamboo Bamboo from Trinidad and Brazilian Samba. They studied different types of rhythms and worked together to perform class structured pieces.
Thursday Morning Informal Concerts
This new venture has been popular with children, parents and staff and will continue into Term 3 with even more musical ensembles. These will include, Guitars, Ukulele, Recorders and Keyboard groups. We look for to even more performance opportunities in the future.
Term 3 Enrichment Programme
Although we remain constrained by some covid restrictions, the Term 3 Enrichment Programme will be extended to some P3 activities. The programme continues to be based on music and sports activities and will commence the week beginning May 8th 2022. The enrichment booklet and sign up details will be available the week before.
Well done to the children involved this term, it has been extremely successful. Finally, a big thank you to those teachers who continue to support the programme and enhance the opportunities available for children at PDO School.
Gary Ruston
Leader of Enrichment
Early Years
The children have been Superheroes in training!
There was lots of fun and laughter during these last 2 days as children worked through each mission. They showed skills like strength, cooperation, teamwork, creativeness and adaptability.
Today we also dressed up as Superheroes as part of our Exit Point. What a great way to end Term 2!
Phase 1
After all their hard work this term, the phase 1 children have had a wonderful last two days of term, enjoying some fun activities. They have had the opportunity to participate in a variety of different creative tasks with all of the phase 1 teachers as well as with some of the specialist teachers. Some of these activities included drawing, making pom pom animals, designing a comic strip, skittle ball and painting. The children have been very resilient and have worked so well both independently and cooperatively with children from other classes. What a super end to the term. Well done children!
Phase 2
Phase 2 has enjoyed a multitude of activities today; from energetic team rounders, and skittle ball to card games and paper plane making. The children have had a wonderful two days.
Phase 3
Phase 3 has enjoyed a range of activities these past two days including slime-making, Lego, cartoon art, clay work, quizzes, balloon questions, code-breaking, skittle ball and so much more! They have really enjoyed themselves - a well earned-treat after a very busy term!
Student Success!
A massive congratulations to Pranjal from P5 who has taken part in numerous mathematics and science competitions recently and has gained many local and international rankings, including Silver in the International Mathematics Olympiads. He has received so many trophies and awards that he couldn't hold them all in one photo or even two or three photos! Well done, Pranjal. PDO School is very proud of you.
Sports
Our pupils have been working extremely hard in the pool in what has been a stop-start few years. We are pleased to award our first set of certificates following the STA School Swimming Academy Award scheme. We look forward to our swimmers continuing their development through the assessment framework next term and into next year. Well done to all of our swimmers including our previous water safety winners.
“Congratulations to all the swimmers at PDO School who have successfully achieved their first STA swimming award – we’ve heard it’s been a long stop-start journey for you all through the pandemic, but you did it! "
Kaylë Brightwell, Head of Qualification Development at STA
We are pleased to welcome Mr Said to our school as a Sports LSA this week. He will also be assisting poolside, as a qualified lifeguard, with our Britswim Team.
Zohreh, Aiden and Lorgez from our Britswim Team
Congratulations!
Well done to Miss Nabiha and Miss Kawthar, who successfully graduated from college last week. We are proud of your achievements and are pleased that you are here to support our students.
From Term 3 (after the holidays), Miss Anre will become our new Leader for Learning Support and will replace Miss Kath in this role. Miss Anre will still be teaching her own class in the mornings and will become the fulltime Leader for Learning Support in the next academic year. Congratulations Miss Anre on your new role!
Nurse Munira
Dear Parents,
I hope you a lovely spring break.
These are gentle reminders for when the children rejoin school after the holidays:
1. Keep your child at home if they have Covid-19 symptoms.
2. Keep your child at home if they have been in contact with someone who has Covid-19.
3. If you are travelling outside Oman during the spring break, children can rejoin the school if they are totally free from any symptoms, if there is no household member who tests positive for Covid-19 and if they are not in contact with any positive cases. If that is not the case, please contact nurse Munira for advice about returning to school.
Home Languages - returning soon!
This is a call to our Home Language Tutors who previously taught at PDO School. We are planning to offer Home Languages after school in Term 3. If you have previously been a Home Language Tutor or would like to be considered as a tutor for next term, please contact notices@pdoschool.com to register your interest. Please include your CV with a letter telling us about your experience teaching your language and we will get back to you.
Parental Concerns:
At PDO School we acknowledge that, from time to time, parents may wish to express concerns about specific aspects of their child’s education. We are always happy to investigate and respond to these concerns. Please note that, for the Class Teachers, it is important that even informal discussions take place outside of their teaching time.
What do I do if I have a concern?
Please make the Class Teacher your first point of contact if your concern is not successfully resolved, please contact the school via notices@pdoschool.com to make an appointment with the Deputy Head Teacher, Ms. Kath Morgan, or myself.
Mr. Hamed, our School Manager, is also happy to listen to any parental concerns that have not been resolved successfully.
Dates for your Diary:
School closes for the end of the Spring Term 7th April
Our PDO Bastah (SME Booth at BMF) will be hosting Omani SME who sells Books & learning toys on 17th to 21st April (Banat, Oman)
School reopens 24th April
PDO School Board Meeting 11th May
PDO Celebrate World Book Day on 12th May
Reports to parents on June 19th
Parent-Teacher Consultations on 20th and 21st June
P7/Year 6 School Camp on the 22nd - 23rd June
P7/Year 6 Car Parade - 26th June
