11th March 2026

Dear Parents

As we look forward to our forthcoming Parent-Teacher Conferences (PTC), we are reminded that a truly successful school is built upon the strength of its community. These meetings are a vital opportunity to ensure that our home and school environments are aligned.

For awareness, our Early Years and Year 1 PTCs may take place prior to the 24th and Year 2 - 6 will take place on 24th March or alternative slots will be provided. More information will be shared next Sunday.

The Impact of Our Partnership: By the Numbers

Global educational research shows that when parents and teachers work in harmony, student results are measurable and profound

The "Hattie Effect": Researcher John Hattie identifies parental involvement as having a significant "effect size" (0.50), placing it well above the threshold for highly impactful educational interventions.
Student Well-being: Data from the Harvard Family Research Project indicates that children in active home-school partnerships are 52% more likely to report high levels of social confidence.
Teacher Support: Schools with high parental engagement see a 20% increase in teacher satisfaction, allowing the school to focus more energy on high-impact instruction.

Supporting a Successful PTC

To ensure these sessions are productive for both families and school, we invite you to join us in a Partnership Approach:

Valuing Our Shared Time: Support the school by arriving punctually and identifying your top two questions beforehand. This ensures the teacher can address your most important reflections with the depth they deserve.
Strengthening the Home-School Link: Ask the "Golden Question": “How can we best mirror your classroom goals at home?” When classroom strategies are reinforced at home, the impact of our teachers' work is significantly enhanced.
Championing School Culture: Sharing "the good news"—such as a project your child found particularly inspiring—is incredibly heartening for our staff. Your feedback is a vital part of what keeps our school community positive.

A Note of Gratitude

A thriving school is defined by the dedication of its people. We thank our staff for their unwavering professionalism and parents for their continued partnership. We look forward to the opportunity of insightful and encouraging conversations.

Last Day of Term

Please note we will finish at 11.30 on the last day of term.

Tim Robinson

Headteacher

Safety Notice - Please Close the Gates

Please may we ask for our parents' support in ensuring gates are closed if you visit during the school day.

Please close the gates behind you, even if you are only visiting briefly.

This is essential to ensure we keep all children safe, especially our youngest children.

Thank you.

Our PLG Journey: Together as a Learning Community

We kindly ask for your support in capturing moments when your child demonstrates any of the Personal Learning Goals - whether at home, in the park, during outside play or in daily routines. For example, if your child shows collaboration while playing outside, you may upload one photo and select the appropriate Personal Goal folder (e.g. “Collaboration”).

Families are welcome to share one photo per week if they wish, showing a Personal Goal their child has demonstrated.

Please click on the Padlet link below to share your child’s achievement with our community. This is a wonderful opportunity for children to celebrate their out-of-school achievements and for us to reinforce that their Personal Learning Goals are transferable skills beyond the classroom.

PLGs Padlet

Thank you for supporting the celebration of children’s achievements.

The IC Team

Open Mic Showcase Year 2, 3 and 4

This week, our lunchtimes were filled with music as Years 2, 3, and 4 hosted a wonderful open mic event. From energetic singing to traditional drumming, the variety of talent was truly impressive.

A massive thank you to everyone who attended and cheered our performers on. Most importantly, well done to the brave, talented students who took the stage and entertained us all!

The stage stays warm for next week, when it’s time for Year 5 and Year 6 to show us what they’ve got. See the photos below.

Mr Gary

Year 2 Open Mic Photos

Year 3 Open Mic Photos

Year 4 Open Mic Photos

Early Years

Ms. Kawthar and Ms. Entisar warmly introduced the Nursery children to our host country's Omani tradition of Garangashoo, a joyful celebration that takes place in the middle of Ramadan when children go around collecting sweets.

This lovely experience connected beautifully with our My Toy Shop unit, as the children talked about the different sweets they might collect and imagined selling them in their own toy and sweet shops. The experience also encouraged international mindedness as the children learned about and appreciated a local cultural tradition. We listened to the Garangashoo song and happily clapped along together, filling the room with smiles and excitement.

Milepost 1

Year 1 have had a wonderful start to their new IPC unit, Green Fingers! Our exciting Entry Point began during our online learning day, when the children became plant explorers in their own homes. They searched for plants, carefully observed them and created wonderful drawings. It was lovely to see how adaptable the children were while learning from home. A big thank you to parents for your support with this activity.

When we returned to school, we continued our Entry Point with a nature hunt around the school grounds. The children looked closely for different plants and flowers, taking photographs and sharing their discoveries. As thoughtful and ethical learners, we discussed why it is important not to pick from living plants, and instead collected leaves and flowers that had already fallen. Back in class, we used these to create nature collages and shared what we already knew about plants by drawing and labelling the different parts.

We also enjoyed decorating plant pots and planting cress seeds, beginning to care for our own plants and develop our green fingers.

It has been a great start to the unit as we explored the life cycle of a sunflower using our own sunflowers for inspiration. We carefully observed the different parts of the plant and even dissected one to learn more, the most exciting discovery was finding the seeds inside! The children then created sunflower collages using different materials to show the parts of the plant and help explain the sunflower life cycle.

Milepost 2

Year 3 have been learning about Charles Darwin and his exploration of the Galápagos Islands in both IPC and English.

To develop their historical and geographical knowledge and understanding, the children carried out research to learn more about Darwin’s discoveries and the unique animals he observed. They recorded their learning by creating their own comic strips, which helped them sequence the key events from his journey. Building on this, the children are currently writing a journal entry in role as Darwin, developing their vocabulary and sentence structure to describe what he might have seen, thought and felt during his exploration.

Milepost 3

This week in Maths, Year 6 have been exploring area, perimeter and volume. Pupils have been learning how to apply the correct mathematical formulae to calculate the space inside shapes, the distance around them and the amount of space three-dimensional objects occupy.

To deepen their understanding of 3D shapes, the children used isometric paper to draw models made of multi-link cubes from different perspectives. This activity encouraged pupils to think carefully about how shapes look from different viewpoints while strengthening their spatial reasoning and visualisation skills.

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.

Online Learning - Being prepared

We have no information to suggest we will have online learning however we wish to be prepared in case we are instructed to transition.

Our teaching team have kindly organised and recently sent home learning packs to support your child if we have to go online.

If we have to go online, please may we have your support in ensuring:

Children attend lessons on time. On the first day we would begin at 0900. Normal timings from Day 2. Please contact notices@pdoschool.com if your child is absent as registers are taken online.
Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately; we recommend their normal school uniform.
Eating should only take place at designated snack times.
Please ensure all children have writing materials, rulers, erasers etc ready to support their learning.
The responsibility for online behaviours at home is a parental responsibility - please support your children on using positive online behaviours.

The above is only precautionary - hopefully we will remain in school, however, thank you for your support.

PDO School Newsletter