School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

Newsletter

Date: 4th February 2016 Issue: 10

Dear Parents,

Coffee Morning

Thank you to all of you who attended our first Coffee Morning in the new school on Wednesday, in

association with our PTA. We were very pleased to welcome Gerda Van Loon as our guest speaker

on the topic of Third Culture Kids. Gerda provided a very helpful insight into the challenges and

opportunities of being a TCK and described the ways families living as expats can support their

children, and help them to grow develop as emotionally well balanced and grounded young

people. Gerda will return to our next Coffee Morning on Wednesday 16th March at 8.15am to share

her thoughts on how to support our children with repatriation. An event all families will need to

prepare for at some point in the future. All welcome. Save the date!

Our learning including, HSE Week

This week we have enjoyed another very busy week with lots of P.E. experiences for the children,

including the Early Years Fun Day. Our older children have participated in a Peace and Justice

workshop and the whole school has focused on Health and Safety as part of our HSE week.

Children have been learning how to keep safe in and around school, especially in terms of crossing

roads safely and the importance of wearing a seatbelt in a car

I hope you enjoy reading about the children’s learning experiences in this newsletter.

Kind Regards

Joanne Speller

Head Teacher

PDO School

PO Box 81, Muscat 100

Sultanate of Oman

Website:

www.pdoschool.com

Tel: (+968) 24675864

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

Early Years Fun Day !

Children and staff in Nursery and Primary 1 classes enjoyed a wonderful morning of fun and

activities on Tuesday 2nd February. All the children took part in a carousel of fin, physical events

supported by the Early Years Team. It was wonderful to see so many parents on school supporting

the children.

Here are a few photographs of the event:

Miss Sarah and the children have fun with the parachute Such concentration!

Crawling through the tunnel Taking turns to throw the bean bags

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

Mile Post One Sports Day

Children in P2 and P3 will be participating in their annual Sports Day this year on Wednesday 10th

February. The event will be a carousel of activities that display skills learnt in PE lessons.

Sports Day start time – 08.30am

Sports Day finish time – 10.00am

We would like to invite parents to come along and watch your child participate in various running,

throwing and team building events. The event will take place on the P.D.O School field and all teams will

begin to assemble on the grounds at 08.30am. Children should still arrive at school at 07.55 and go to

their classrooms as usual.

Please note all pupils will need to wear their PE kit to school, apply sun screen, bring a bottle of

water and wear their school hat. They must also bring their school uniform to change into after

Sports Day.

We hope you and your children will enjoy the day.

If there are any queries please contact Jamie Kemp or Andy Pounds (PDO School PE teachers)

Email: jkemp@pdoschool.com

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

Time for School!

Please remember school starts promptly at 7.55am for our children from P2 to P7. Children from Pre

Nursery to P1 are allowed a little more time to allow them to settle in, but should be in class by

8.15am.

Please ensure your child is on the school premises on time. Teachers begin lessons straight after

registration and we are finding some children are regularly arriving late. Arriving late in class disrupts

not only your child’s learning, but that of the other children too.

Did you know that arriving late for school by 10 minutes each day adds up to 50 minutes of lost

learning per week? Over a school year, your child could have missed almost 6 full days of school by

being 10 minutes late every day!

Please ensure your child arrives on time and ready to learn. Build in some extra minutes to your

journey time for heavy traffic, and remember, access to the car park takes longer at busy times just

before school starts. Allow extra time for this – set off earlier so that your child arrives on time.

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

WARCHILD

P6 APPEAL!

War child is a charity that works with refugees, particularly children, to help rebuild their

lives. The charity believes that the best way to help refugees and displaced people is to work

on projects that will be continued by the local community once the charity has left.

War Child goes to places which other NGO’s don’t want to go to. They base their projects on

the needs and wishes of the children of war themselves. They set up temporary schools

provide training for teachers, school uniforms, pens and satchels.

P6 have made a commitment to raise money for this very worthy cause through a number of

different events. The first of these will be a non-uniform day on Thursday February 4th.

Students are invited to come to school in their own clothes and pay OMR1 for the privilege of

doing so. All money raised will go directly to the charity.

WHAT DIFFERENCE CAN YOUR RIAL MAKE?

3 OMR could buy a small toy for a Syrian Child who fled their home with nothing.

30 OMR could help to transport a child to War Child’s safe spaces for a month.

50 OMR Could provide blankets and coats to help protect 10 children from a freezing

winter.

500 OMR can help to put 26 children in school for a year.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO ONE CHILD THAT CHANGES THEIR WHOLE

LIFE!

COMING SOON….

Bake Sale and T-Shirt Sale – March 15th

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

News from the P.E. Team

We have had a very busy couple of weeks in PE and we are very proud of so many of our young

athletes. Last week we took a team of Under 11 boys to The Sultan's School for a football

tournament. They showed great resilience and teamwork, but were just overpowered by many of

the larger schools in town. Great job boys! And thank you to Jose and James' moms who drove the

children to Seeb.

This past Monday we hosted 2 former NBA Basketball players from Mosaic Sports. The 2 coaches

joined Miss Janet's P6 and Miss Naomi's P7 class, along with a few MPSL children. We all learned

new drills and skills and had a lot of fun. Hopefully they will join us again in the future to improve our

knowledge of basketball.

Mileage Club began with great success last week, having runs on Sunday and Tuesday at lunch

break. This is open to ALL P4 & P6 students and is a fun way to get into shape, enjoy the fresh air

and earn some prizes! Ask your child all about it! Children must change into PE type clothes (not

necessarily PDO PE kit).

There were many red and tired faces on Wednesday morning, as the Early Years Fun Day was held

on the field. It was a great event that showcased the learning that the younger children have

been working on in PE. Thank you to all parents who came out to watch and assisted in making it

so much fun for the students.

We are off to BSM tomorrow for an U11 Basketball tournament - we will let you know how we make

out. Keep Fit and Have Fun!!

Miss Jamie

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

Peace and Justice Project

On Wednesday 2nd February we were honored to welcome the Dutch Ambassador, H.E. Barbara

Joziasse into school accompanied by international artist Mr Sajeev Majeed. Following a short

speech on peace and justice from the ambassador, the children of P6 and P7 were invited to a

workshop with Mr Sajeev to create drawings of what peace and justice means to them. The

drawings will be used as part of an international display of illustrations of peace and justice in the

Netherlands. The children demonstrated great creativity and resilience and used their personal

goal of thoughtfulness to achieve successful outcomes for what is quite a complex task. Well done

P6 and P7!

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

Growth Mindset Creating a Growth Mindset at home

In our last newsletter we introduced the idea

of Mindsets. For the rest of the year, each

newsletter will now have a section dedicated

to mindsets. It will help you understand this

important philosophy further, and give you

strategies for creating a Growth Mindset in

your home. I hope you will find these as

valuable.

Ideas for Creating a Growth Mindset Environment at home PART 1:

We can’t expect our children to have a growth mindset if we don’t have

one ourselves. Recognising fixed mindset thinking in yourself and talk

yourself into a growth mindset. This can also be done out loud so that

your children can hear how you are changing your mindset.

For example: “I can’t figure out how to fill in this document.” Then

quickly rephrase it to add, “I think I need to check on the website or call

the banks so I can ask some questions, then I am sure I will be able to fill it

out accurately.”

Be aware of your own fixed mindset statements such as “ I’m a terrible

cook,” “I was never good at math either”, or “I wish I could play the

piano like you do” (You can, with practice and perseverance!)

Be careful of blaming genetics for anything – both positive and

negative.

For example – “You are naturally good at tennis”, or “You are smart” –

they are good at tennis because they practice, and they are smart

because they put in a lot of effort into their learning.

School Year 2015-2016 Issue 10

Be careful not to compare your children to brothers or sister, or other

children.

We want our children to enjoy the process of learning – not just be

successful. Model this concept at home. For example, after something

that has not gone right trying to bake something challenging, you might

say, “I really learned a lot making those cookies”, rather than “Uggg,

stupid me, what a waste of time. I will never try that recipe again.”

Please email jweekley@pdoschool.com with any feedback or questions.

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.

Dates for Academic Year 2016 2017 The School Board is in the process of approving dates for next academic year and these dates

will be circulated next week.

Thank you for your understanding.

Date Event

Thursday 4th February P2A Class Assembly – 10.40am

Saturday 6th February Kinderfest

Monday 8th to Thursday

11th February

Independent School Assessment Week (ISA) details to

follow

9th and 10th February Parent Teacher Consultations – details to follow

Wednesday 10th February MP1 Sports Day

14th to 18th February Mid Term Holiday – SCHOOL CLOSED

Saturday 27th February International Market Day

Week Beg 28th February Book Week

Thursday 3rd March Book Week Dress Up Day – details to follow