PDO 

School  Newsletter

  2nd March 2023

Dear Parents,


Welcoming the children back to school after the half-term break was lovely; our students are so polite, well mannered and responsive.

The highlight of the week was World Book Day! We hope you enjoyed the parade and, hopefully could stay and chat with our PTA in the learning souq. Our PTA is organising a number of exciting events and you may wish to offer your support and have some fun along the way.

Next week, there will be a review of the learning that is taking place at PDO School. We have some visitors who will observe the teaching and learning, which will support future school improvement. As part of this process, a survey has been sent home with the eldest child in each family. Please respond to the survey and return the paperwork in the envelope provided. Your child can hand this to the class teacher, or you can post the envelope in the box at reception. Thank you for taking the time to complete this.

You are also invited to meet the Team who will be reviewing the teaching and learning here at PDO School on the first day of their visit, in the Main Gym on Tuesday 7th March at 2:40 pm. 

Please take some time to view the Class Pages for more detailed information about your child's learning this week and any class notices here . 

World Book Day

We had fun dressing up for World Book Day at school today. We had lots of games and activities throughout the day and an interactive assembly where a student in each class received a prize of a book for the most innovative costume. Here are some of our pictures!

Thank you to our parent partners for supporting your child in contributing towards our 'Donate a book' drive for local charity 'Dar Al Atta Let's Read' initiative. PDO School children have been developing ways to demonstrate their Personal Learning Goals (PLG) in everyday school life and their generous contributions are an impressive display of empathy and collaboration. For more home learning activities please visit :   World Book Day  

There are plenty of creative ideas under the 'For Families' tab.

Miss Amy - Leader for English


Early Years

Early Years children began a new unit this week - Let's Pretend:  Castles, Knights and Princesses.  After reading the Julia Donaldson story, 'The Princess and the Wizard', we looked at famous castles from around the world.  Children explored the different 3D shapes that made up the castles and then designed and made their own using recycled materials which had been brought in by Early Years parents.  We looked at a range of joining techniques, for example, making tabs that we could glue or stick down with masking tape.  Children also learnt that when we junk model, the process can take several days as we plan, build, paint, evaluate and improve our models.

Miss Dawn - Leader for Early Years

Sports Day Results

Before half term, we hosted sports days for every pupil at PDO School, from EYFS to our oldest pupils in year 6, with some of our parents also taking part in the popular speed bounce, which is a lot harder than it looks. 

Overall there was a great atmosphere at the events, and all of our pupils worked incredibly hard representing their houses. 

The results are as follows:

Phase 1 Champions:

Blue House

Phase 2 Champions:

Blue House

Phase 3 Champions:

Red House

Overall Champions:

Blue House

Well done to everyone.

Next up - Tug of War Competition!

 

MPSL Athletics

This week, our U9’s and U11’s travelled to the Sultan School in Muscat to participate on the MPSL Annual Athletics Tournament. Our athletes were involved in 8 different events and collected points as a team. During the competition, we had a lot of accomplishments and the students demonstrated hard work and great behaviour. The Boys and Girls U9 and U11 Athletics teams posted solid performances and faced the competition with determination and grit. The atmosphere was fantastic as our skilled teams put together some super performances. The teams had great fun and represented the school impeccably, it was great to see them in action. We are so proud of our teams, their resilience and teamwork. The teams finished in second place in the under 9 and 3rd place overall for Under 11’s Athletics team. 

Well done to all of those who took part!

Mr. Scott and Ms. Iveth


French is Fun!

One way to effectively learn a language is through listening to and enjoying songs and rhymes and of course, by joining in. In our French lessons, the children use actions and gestures to support their learning. Movement enables all learners to participate and join in before they are ready to  speak the target language or recall new vocabulary. As you can see from these videos from Y1 and Y3, all of the children are enjoying themselves joining in, and as a result learning new vocabulary. Year 3 created their own actions to learn the numbers to 20!

Miss Becky - Leader for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

Year 1

Monsieur Pouce.mp4

Year 3

Y3N French numbers to 20.mp4

PTA Coffee Morning

The PTA held their first coffee morning today after the World Book Day Parade. Many parents attended and enjoyed the refreshments whilst having the chance to meet the newly formed PTA committee and learn about what plans they have for future events. Parents were also invited to share their thoughts and ideas with the committee. Another great community event!

Miss Kirsty - Teacher representative for the PTA

PDO Acceptable Use of ICT Agreements

With access to rich dynamic content, connectivity across the globe, a platform for creativity and a place to engage in debate, digital technologies provide a powerful tool for learning. It is therefore essential that children are fully equipped to have the skills and knowledge to safely access and use digital technologies. Please make yourselves familiar with the PDO Acceptable Use of ICT Agreements.

Miss Kirsty - Leader for IT

Leaving Oman 

We request that parents who have plans to move away from Oman, to please provide us with the details as soon as possible by emailing Ms Cheryl, cfox@pdoschool.com or Ms Kath, kmorgan@pdoschool.com .  This will allow us time to prepare the Transfer Certificate and other documents your child may require for their application to a new school, as well as to be able to give your child a traditional school farewell.  

Dates for your Diary



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 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 Headteacher, Cheryl Fox,  or the Deputy Headteacher, Ms. Kath Morgan.

Mr. Hamed, our School Manager, is also happy to listen to any parental concerns that have not been resolved successfully.

Wishing everyone a pleasant weekend

Cheryl Fox

       Headteacher                                                               Deputy Headteacher                                                             School Nurse


cfox@pdoschool.com       kmorgan@pdoschool.com                                     nurse@pdoschool.com