Date: 25 January 2012 Issue: 11

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1 PDO School, PO Box 81, Muscat 100, Sultanate of Oman. Tel: [+968] Website: Newsletter Date: 25 January 2012 Issue: 11 Dear Parents, We wish all of our Scottish families and friends a wonderful Burns Night. The famous Scottish writer and poet Robert Burns is known around the world for his famous song Auld Lang Syne. We hope you enjoy the dancing, speeches and of course the day cannot be complete without some Haggis. New children Welcome to Bashaar in Pre-Nursery and his sister Hanan in IP5 and Zulqar in IP7. We were happy to welcome these new children into our school community and hope that they will have a great learning experience in our school. Leavers We have to say goodbye to Fleur, Sofie and Niels who are leaving for Moscow. We hope that the children will settle quickly into their new school and enjoy the winter time in Russia! PTA To request minutes of the PTA meeting you can pdoschoolpta@gmail.com or for any other contact with the PTA. Chairman vacancy The chairman of the PTA is leaving so there is a vacancy. It is important that the PTA has a chairman as we need a motivated person who is able to become part of this enthusiastic group. Please contact the PTA or the school office if you are interested. Thank you Thank you to the team who are working on the development of our International Mindedness. From the PTA Janice Sage is involved, Ahlaam Mubarack, a PDO School parent, and from the school Claire Bonham, Johanne Weekley and Peter Wassink. Great Learning Great Teaching Great Fun School year Issue 11 Page 1

2 International Market Day We are looking forward to seeing all of you at the International Market Day. There will be many stalls selling food and tradition items from different countries. Here are a few examples: Snacks and sweets from RO to 4 Vegetarian and non-vegetarian complete meals : RO to RO 5 Curries : RO 3 to RO 6 Handicraft items like handmade jewellery, table mats, jewellery pouches, scarves, kurtas, dupattas, wooden toys, silk sarees : RO 1 to RO 10 pure silk sarees: RO 40 to RO 60 There will be cakes, sandwiches, waffles, tea and many more things that will satisfy your taste buds! We hope you can all come and enjoy this great PTA event. Learning in DP5/6 Over the past few weeks DP5 have been learning about Rainforests, while DP6 have been learning about Fit for Life. During Geography DP5 used atlases to find out where we can find rainforests in the world. They learnt that tropical rainforests are found between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and why. The children researched animals during science. They turned out to be real zoologists as they were classifying the animals into the correct categories. They now know about mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects and birds. During science they also turned themselves into biologists and worked on their research skills and found out about the food chains and the importance of plants and photosynthesis. As a class we dedicated our Golden Time to creating a rainforest display outside our classroom. It shows our learning of the different layers of the rainforest; the forest floor, the understory, the School year Issue 11 Page 2

3 canopy and the emergents (the tops of the tallest trees). Of course you will find lots of animals in our rainforest as well. Come and have a look! DP6 is learning about how to stay fit. They have started Wednesday Wake-up Walks to keep themselves in shape. You might see them walking around the camp on a Wednesday morning. They started their unit off by organising crazy games for their classmates. It was lots of fun! Their creative thinking skills were fantastic, but we realised that we could work on our practical thinking skills to improve the instructions and logistics of the games. During Physical Education they learnt how to measure their heart rate and they found out what happened to their heart rate while exercising. They did research on different groups of people and which physical activities would be suitable to them, e.g. young and old, house-bound, disabled etc. We looked at some sculptures and paintings representing people busy with some physical activity during art. The children had to judge these pieces of art and give reasons as to why they liked it or not. They then had to use this information to plan and create their own piece of art. The art room turned into a buzzing area where the children were trying to challenge themselves to improve their art skills. For some this meant their drawing skills, while others focused on working with clay and trying to get their sculptures to stand up. School year Issue 11 Page 3

4 Of course we have also been developing our Numeracy and Literacy skills as well as gaining new knowledge and learning new skills. In Literacy we are learning about persuasive text. We have been analysing texts and we have been practising writing powerful arguments. In Numeracy our focus these last few weeks has been on several skills; adding and subtracting till 1000, multiplications with tens, telling the digital time and calculating how much time has passed etc. The children have made a good start to their second term in DP5/6 and we hope they will continue to share their learning with you at home. Welcome to this the first article designed to help you gain a greater understanding of how IPC works and why it is such a valuable tool in helping your children to become better learners. We would like to begin at the beginning, which as all students know at PDO School is the entry point. But what exactly is an entry point? An entry point is perhaps best described as having the WOW factor. They are the moment in which each student embraces their new unit of learning and they are designed to create a buzz. Whether they take the format of a treasure hunt, a child planned sports day or an international catwalk; they are often one of the key events in the year that your child will remember for years to come. Entry Points can last from one hour to a week, depending on the age of the children and the appropriateness of the activity. Can you name your child s entry points? School year Issue 11 Page 4

5 Sports day Please be aware that the After School Activities for the teachers are cancelled on Sunday 29 th January as well as the Football activity. On 29 th January Milepost 2 and Milepost 3 (Years 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) will have a sports day. This will take place on the sports field from 16:00 to 17:30. We hope parents can come and watch their children. After School Activities Although we were too late to offer this in time for the After School Activities, we are happy to be able to offer you Violin Lessons as an addition to our current music lessons on offer. We have a Violin teacher, his name is Amine Trabelsi. He would be happy to teach your child. He can teach in school or at home in private half hour sessions. If you are interested, you can contact him directly and arrange a time slot. His name is AMINE TRABELSI, Tel: amine30579@gmail.com Important Dates January January PTA International Market Day 29 January MP2/3 Sports Day February 4 or 5 February Prophet s Birthday date to be confirmed 13 February MP 1 Fun Day 14 & 15 February Holiday 18 & 19 February Parent-Teacher Conferences 29 February PTA Leap Year Party March March Last week of After School Activities 24 March Reports to parents 31 March 11 April Holiday School year Issue 11 Page 5