School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

Newsletter

Date: 25th February 2016 Issue: 11

Dear Parents,

After a week to relax and refresh, the children have returned to a learning fueled week, following

their midterm break.

World Mother Tongue Day

On Sunday, we participated in World Mother Tongue Day, starting with a whole school assembly for

children from P2 and P7. Did you know that we have more than 42 different home languages

spoken in our school? The children have enjoyed learning about this, and finding out how to say

“Good Morning” in their different Mother Tongues. On Saturday 27th February we further celebrate

the cultural diversity of our school, with our annual International Market Day. Come along between

11am and 2pm to find out more about the many countries represented in our international school.

Further details are in this newsletter.

Maths Problem Solving Morning

On Wednesday of this week, the whole school engaged in a Problem Solving morning. This was a

practical mathematics session, providing the children with opportunities to collaborate and to use

and apply their mathematical skills and knowledge when faced with problems to solve. The

children worked well together and were resilient in achieving their goals.

PDO School

PO Box 81, Muscat 100

Sultanate of Oman

Website:

www.pdoschool.com

Tel: (+968) 24675864

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

Seashell School

On Wednesday we welcomed the children of Seashell School in Sur, who visited our school as part

of their IPC learning on Communities. This was a good opportunity for our P6 children to meet the

boys and girls from Seashell before they visit them as part of their upcoming residential visit in

March.

Book Week

Next week the whole school celebrates the importance of reading and a love of learning by

participating in Book Week. Throughout the week there will be lots of opportunities for the children

to read and share information about their favourite books, including games and competitions.

Further details are in this newsletter.

On Thursday 3rd March we invite the children to come to school dressed as their favourite book

character. There will be a costume parade on the school field at 8.30am. All parents are invited to

attend and watch. After drop off, please make your way to the school field and sit on the

spectator steps, ready for the children to arrive.

What is our Curriculum here at PDO School?

Recently it has been brought to my attention that some parents are still unsure as to the curriculum

we follow here at PDO School. To clarify, we implement the English National Curriculum for

Reading, Writing and Mathematics, which is the same as the British School here in Muscat, and we

also compliment this with a system from Australia for our literacy teaching called Primary Matters,

which is aligned with the English National Curriculum, but in my opinion, provides better structure

and support for our international learners. We have certainly seen the positive impact of this system

on the outcomes of children’s learning over recent months.

In addition, we use the International Primary Curriculum as a learning system, to teach the other

subjects of the curriculum. We believe the IPC is one of the best ways to teach children about

knowledge and skills in subjects such as geography, history, science and so on, as it supports the

children in making connections in their learning. The IPC is used in many schools internationally,

including the UK. The research and brain friendly elements of the IPC also prepare our children well

for independent learning and research when they transfer to BSM or ABA following P7.

For further information about the IPC, please visit www.greatlearning.com/ipc , visit the school

website www.pdoschool.com ,or come along to one of our future parent talks to learn more. Look

out for dates in our “Dates for Your Diary” section in future newsletters.

Thank you for your continued support.

Kind Regards

Joanne Speller

Head Teacher

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

International Market Day 11am – 2pm

Saturday 27th February

Our much awaited school calendar event is finally here!!

We look forward to welcoming you to school on Saturday to celebrate the cultural diversity that is

so evident here at PDO School. We have over 15 different stalls for you to wander around,

performances by children and parents, a bouncy castle on which to lose some excess energy and

information from both our chosen charity Dar Al Hanan and the RAHDP. Parents you are also

invited to have a go on the seatbelt safety simulator!!

A few reminders;

There will be no cash purchases – you will need to buy CHITS on arrival –look out for the PTA

CASHIERS stall to change your money

Come wearing National Dress

The children will put on a special surprise performance (this will be repeated throughout the

morning for everyone to see) so if you have a small flag of your country please ask them to

bring that

On arrival please pick up a PASSPORT for your children – we are encouraging the children to

visit each stall and answer the question in the passport. Once all questions are answered

they can enter the prize draw to win a dolphin watching trip!

PLEASE REMEMBER PARKING WILL BE MINIMAL – PLEASE READ SEPARATE EMAIL ON WHERE TO PARK

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND UNDERSTANDING

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

Book Week starts on Sunday 28th February!

We have lots of exciting things planned during Book Week to encourage our children to read and

to celebrate the enjoyment of reading.

All children can enter the following competitions as part of their home learning:

Design a bookmark.

Templates will be sent home by Class Teachers. Prizes will be awarded for the best 3 bookmarks in

each year group.

Photograph - reading in an unusual place.

Children should send a photograph of themselves reading in an unusual place! There will be a prize

for the most unusual place for Early Years and P2-P7. Send photographs to:

bookweek@pdoschool.com

Children in P2-P7 can enter the following competition:

Book Review Competition.

There will be prizes for the top 3 Book Reviews in each Milepost. Children need to login to Reading

Cloud: https://sites.google.com/a/pdoschool.com/pdo/ and complete their Book Review

electronically. Pupil usernames and passwords for this have been stuck into their Learning Logs.

To create a book review:

1. Pupil Learning Portal- Click on Reading Cloud -

https://sites.google.com/a/pdoschool.com/pdo/

2. Login - Students use the Username from the stickers in their reading logs.

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

3. Search for book title.

4. Select book and click ‘create review’

5. Write review and save.

The deadline for all competition entries is 2pm on Wednesday 2nd March.

On Thursday 3rd March, children should come to school dressed as their favourite book character.

We hope it will be an enjoyable week for pupils and staff.

Thank you for your support.

The Book Week Team

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

Reading Cloud and Book Week

Next week is Book Week, and part of the activities for students is to publish an online book review

using the school's Reading Cloud Website. This is a great opportunity for the children to see their

work online and also to share their thoughts and ideas with peers. Parents can also see which books

are in our library, a list of suggested titles or even search the database with the children to find

books of interest.

The school’s library database is accessible online through www.readingcloud.net. Every child from

P2 upwards has the ability to access this website, create an avatar, write reviews of their favourite

books and see what else is available to read. Each username and password (it’s the same number)

is located in the front of the child’s reading log. Children have already been shown in class how to

log in and use the site.

Students also have the ability to reserve books which are currently on loan. These will be reserved

upon their return to the library. Books that are reserved which are currently in the library, cannot be

set aside due to time limitations of the librarians. Help will be given to help students find these books

when they have their library sessions.

Thank you for your support

Hamish Scoggins – Leader for Learning Technologies

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

School Visit by The Moscow Rachmaninov Trio

22 February 2016

The Moscow Rachmaninov Trio is visiting Oman as part of The Muscat Chamber Music Series,

sponsored by Arabesque.

The "Moscow Rachmaninov Trio" is a musical ensemble well known to music admirers all over the

world. They have been playing together since nineteen years of joint creative work which brought

the musicians affection of the audience, respect of their colleagues and critical acclaim both in

Russia and abroad. They also have a long experience with conducting workshops.

Our P5 clarinet students were privileged to share a workshop and instrument demonstration with

them. Clarinetist Sergey Petrov was fascinated by the new child friendly design of our specialist

clarinets and was thrilled to see P5M perform Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star - well done them!

A further selection of pictures and videos can be found at the learning website:

https://sites.google.com/a/pdoschool.com/pdo/music/visiting-musicians/moscow-rachmaninov-

trio-visit---february-2016

John Talbot, Specialist Music Teacher

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

HSE Week 31st January – 4th February 2016

The ‘HSE Week’ focus this year was safety in and around the school building.

Thank you to all those children and parents who worked at home to create a ‘Safety Superhero’

poster and ‘I Comply’ signs.

The HSE team had a difficult job choosing the winning superheroes and I comply signs to display

and use throughout the school.

In the different mileposts children were made aware of the importance of being safe and how they

can help themselves and the people around them to behave in a safe manner.

Early Years

The Early Years children enjoyed HSE week by sharing a story and singing a song about the

importance of wearing their seatbelts. We talked about safety around the school during carpet

time and when we visited places around the school.

Milepost 1

P2 and P3 children worked together to take photographs on how to be safe around the school and

used these photographs to create Comic Life posters.

Milepost 2 and 3

Milepost 2 and 3 created videos showing how they could be safe both in and around the school

building.

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

Here are the winning ‘Safety Superhero’ posters from Early Years and Milepost 1.

Here are the winning signs that have been complied to make a PDO Schoo,l I comply poster.

The different signs stand for the following rules:

Walk through the building

Cross carefully at a crossing

Look both ways before crossing the road

Walk between the cars in the car park

Hold the rail along the stairs

Wear a seatbelt

Please go to the PDO home page, HSE week, to see other examples of the Comic Life posters and

the videos the children created. We appreciate your continued support in discussing ways that the

children can keep themselves safe.

The HSE Team

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

Computing Curriculum

We have a lot of advantages with technology learning at PDO School. We have excellent facilities

and resources, specialist teachers, dedicated lessons and children who experience a high level of

technology at home. This allows us to follow an ambitious curriculum, allowing the children to

experience a wider application of technology in their learning than most.

The curriculum that we follow has been designed to make the most of our advantages. In

dedicated computing lessons, the children learn six main strands by developing projects that are

either dedicated to learning specific skills, or that combine a range of skills and programs to

produce exciting and engaging outcomes.

However, the focus of all the learning is not on the quality of the game they make, or the Lego

model they build, but on the knowledge, skills and understanding developed along the way.

Above all, children are encouraged to be inquisitive, adaptable and to enjoy exploring how they

can use technology effectively. The specific skills we teach now may be outdated before the

children have left school. What we would like the children to gain more than anything else in

lessons, is an enjoyment of learning new technology and an understanding that they can empower

themselves to create and achieve better things by embracing new technologies. We would like

them to enjoy creating games as least as much as playing games.

Other than programs in the Microsoft Office Suite such as Word and Excel, all the programs we use

are free and many can be downloaded from the computing page of the children’s learning portal

at http://bit.ly/pdoschool .

How to use the internet responsibly and safely is taught directly in lessons using age appropriate

resources. If you wish to discuss such matters with your children you might find the resources and

information at www.thinkuknow.co.uk useful.

Dave Salt – Leader for Learning – Computing Curriculum

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

School Uniform

Please ensure your child is wearing school uniform daily. Our uniform consists of a PDO School Polo

Shirt (a choice of 4 colours), uniform shorts, trousers or a skirt and a sunhat. Items are available from

our school uniform “shop”. Please contact our admin team for more information.

Please do not send your child to school in jeans, denim jackets or non uniform items. If we are

currently unable to supply you with a specific size. you are requested to send your child to school in

a similar item in a plain colour.

We are pleased to announce that a new supply of sizes, especially smaller and larger sizes has

been ordered and will be in stock by June.

During the cooler weather, please provide your child with a plain navy blue cardigan or jumper.

Please do not send your child to school in bright coloured jackets with logos.

Please also note that wheeled trolley bags are not allowed in school.

Thank you for your support in helping our children to be proud of our PDO School team!

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 11

Dates for your Diary

Please find below important dates that are coming up soon, as well as an

overview of the dates for the next academic year. A reminder that all term dates

are available on the school website.

For further school calendar dates and dates for next

academic year, please visit our website:

www.pdoschool.com

Date Event

Saturday 27th February International Market Day

Week Beg 28th February Book Week begins

Wednesday 2nd March MPSL U9/U11 Boys and Girls Athletics at TSS

Thursday 3rd March Book Week Dress Up Day – dress as a book character

Parade on School Field at 8.30am

Tuesday 15th March P6 Bake Sale – details to follow

Wednesday 16th March PTA Coffee Morning 8.15am Guest Speaker Gerda Van

Loon, Repatriation – all welcome

Wednesday 16th March MPSL U9/U11 Girls’ Swimming at BSM

Thursday 17th March P4L Class Assembly 10.40am, Gym Hall

Thursday 24th March End of Term – School Closes at 3pm

Sunday April 10th Term 3 starts