28th January 2026

Dear Parents

The Value of Outward Bound: Beyond the Classroom

Last week our Year 6 children took part in 3 day Camp at the Outward Bound Desert Centre - (See report below).

We believe that academic excellence alone is insufficient for student development. For our Year 6 students, the Outward Bound event served as a vital "rite of passage" before they transition to secondary school. Outward Bound is about building resilience and further developing several personal learning goals.

The Pillars of Character Building

Resilience: The desert is a challenging environment. By navigating the dunes and enduring the heat and cold, students learn the value of perseverance -developing the mental resilience needed to face life’s future challenges.
Service and Leadership: True leadership in the Outward Bound sense is about looking after those around you. Students learned to support all members within their group during their desert hikes, fostering a deep sense of communal responsibility.
Confidence through Competence: There is a profound shift in a child’s self-esteem when they realise they can pitch a tent, conserve water and manage themselves for 2 nights. They hopefully return with a quiet, earned, self confidence.

The success of such an ambitious event rests with PDO school staff. We wish to formally recognise the planning and execution of this event by our Y6 team.

Another advantage of this event is that teachers and students connect in an informal setting, teachers often comment that they see another ‘side’ to students when they are out of a classroom. Finally, thanks to the Y6 students for helping to make the trip such a success; several teachers commented to me on the cohesion and sense of community that is a strong feature of the year group.

Tim Robinson

Headteacher

BSM Music Collaboration Event - Friday 13th February.

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 February 13th 2026.

The event is open to children in Year 3-6 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 8.00am and 1.00pm. 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 12.30pm. 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 with a significant number of PDO children participating, so it would be great to see as many of our children representing the school as possible.

BSM Collaborative Event Signup Form

I will post more information near the date but if you require any further details, please email me on:

gruston@pdoschool.com

Mr Gary

PDO School Class Photos - 29th January

Please see below the dates for the final class photos.

For children in Nursery - Year 1 - Year 4 - Year 5

Your child's class photo will take place on Thursday 29th January 2026.

Please can children wear school uniforms on their allocated day as normal (No PE kits etc)

For children in Reception - Year 2 - Year 3 - Year 6 - These have been completed.

Thank you.

PDO School Team

Reminder: Sports Days next week

We invite parents to attend.

Please be seated on the school field no later than 0825.

Please walk up to the school field by using the gate between the main building and our Early Years building. Please ensure all gates all closed once you have walked through. Thank you.

A Huge Congratulations to our Maths Passport Globetrotters!

Achieving the Globetrotters certificate is an exceptional accomplishment and represents the final stage of the Maths Passport programme. This award reflects years of dedication, perseverance and consistent mastery of key mathematical skills. Reaching this level requires determination, resilience and a genuine love of learning and we are incredibly proud of the hard work and commitment shown by Vedik. Well done on this outstanding achievement!

Student Council

The Student Council is composed of children who were elected by their classmates to represent children's views and ideas. This term's meetings started with enjoying a picnic in the lovely weather, while deciding which initiatives they would like to work on over the next few weeks. As a lot of the ideas revolved around playground equipment, a board meeting was organised with Ms Jamie. The children were passionate and clear with their requests and it was very professional with a chairperson and minute taker. Ms Jamie was able to grant some requests instantly and so she trained the children to safely inflate the playground balls and gave them some extra equipment to put into the playground shed for children to use. Well done to all our School Council representatives.

Early Years

Our busy builders had lots of fun exploring the den in our Early Years space, investigating how the pipes fitted together and working happily with their friends.

The children loved climbing under and over the den, giggling as they wriggled through and helped one another. The children have also been enjoying construction-themed play, mixing and pouring, transporting materials and exploring different shapes.

Milepost 1

In Year 2, we are wondering how our previous learning within our unit Beautiful Oman connects with our new unit on Green Fingers and also Money? Hmmm...?

As our Beautiful Oman learning has come to a close, we have gathered examples of our thinking to share with all our Milepost 1 friends. We hope you like it. We are now starting to think about plants and animals in greater depth through our Green Fingers unit of enquiry. In our Entry Point, we have begun to design our dream garden, although we can't share our ideas yet because they're Top Secret at the moment!!! In Maths, our learning about times tables has led us to investigate how artful this can be! Check out our cardiod pictures to see how beautiful the 2x table can be! Finally, money! Learning about money is a bit tricky at times but we've explored ordering coins and notes, as well as making specific amounts in different ways. Lots of fun and memorable learning this week!

Milepost 2

Year 4 have been deeply immersed in the world of How to Train Your Dragon. After analysing Hiccup’s challenges and exploring new vocabulary from the text, the children set about designing their very own dragons. The results have been wonderfully imaginative, with dragons ranging from tiny forest camouflagers to gigantic sky-soaring beasts with extraordinary abilities!

With their dragon designs complete, the children are now applying their English skills to create detailed fact files. They have been considering key features such as appearance, habitat, diet, behaviour and special abilities, using sentence stems and descriptive language to support precision and clarity. Year 4 have also been experimenting with prefixes, ambitious adjectives and technical vocabulary to make their writing informative and engaging.

This task has been a brilliant way to bring together comprehension, creativity and non-fiction writing, while encouraging the children to think like authors and researchers. We are looking forward to seeing the final profiles!

Milepost 3

Last week, Year 6 embarked on their 3 day 'Young Adventurers Course' at Outward Bound Oman's desert centre. The course focused on developing independence, resilience and collaboration. Continue reading below for a review from one of our students...

On Tuesday, we waved goodbye to our parents and rode two hours into the desert for the ultimate adventure. After demolishing lunch, we faced our first war: the tents. Pitching them was total chaos (some of them definitely fought back!) but we survived just in time for a sunset hike. The dunes looked incredible, even if our legs were totally screaming by the end of it.

The next day was non-stop action. We conquered the "Longest Hike Ever," spotted wild camels, and discovered that rolling down dunes is 100% better than walking up them. Nights were spent star-gazing and trying to sleep but Mr. Neil’s legendary pasta kept us going. The final campfire was actually really nice as we realised what an awesome team we’d become.

By the time we packed up on the final day, we were exhausted. The bus ride home was silent because almost everyone was asleep! A massive thank you to our teachers for being such great sports and making this trip unforgettable. We might be back home, but the desert sand is definitely staying in our shoes forever.

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.

Community Notice

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT IS NOT LINKED IN ANYWAY TO PDO SCHOOL. WE ARE UNABLE TO VERIFY ANY SAFEGUARDING OR HSE PROCEDURES FOR THIS EVENT.

Join Muscat Dog Adoption for a fun filled family fun day. The link to the tickets and further information is available on the posters.

PDO School Newsletter