The days continue to fly by as we make our way towards the mid – year holiday. So much seems to have happened in a very short time since the beginning of this Academic Year. I have had the opportunity to meet many of you at our recent events including the Parents’ Evenings, Concert and National Day Assembly and it was pleasing to see you support these events in such numbers. The monthly newsletter that is sent out  seems to have been well received by Parents and for those of you who for some reason have not had the opportunity to see them here are some of the main items of interest over the last few weeks.

Students From Sultan Qaboos University
We are pleased to welcome back students from Sultan Qaboos University who will be spending time in our Elementary Department as part of their experiential language course. It gives the students the chance to observe the Elementary staff in the class and see how a range of language is used to deliver the various subjects whilst also extending their own range of language.

After the mid – semester holiday each class teacher  issued targets for improvement  for each child in Grades 1 to 6. These targets  focused on both academic and non academic issues and will form the basis of your discussions with teachers at the Parent’s Evenings in October. Some of these will relate to the particular Grade your child is in whilst others will be specifically for your child. Target Setting for the student is not new and goes on daily in their classrooms with their class teachers.

A very successful course was recently held here at The Sultan’s School focusing on the teaching of English as a second language. Many useful strategies were discussed as part of the course which was attended by Mr Sean Griffin (Learning Support Coordinator) and Mrs Emma Wright (Grade 3). Both of these staff members successfully completed the course requirements and as a result of this are now in a position to pass on their expertise to other staff members during the next twelve months. I am sure all the staff and students will benefit from this initiative.

Curriculum Development has continued to take place in all the English and Arabic subjects. Areas for development have been identified including the introduction of a programme to develop  reference skills in both Arabic and English, a progressive list of possible Educational Visits as part of the work in Social Studies and the development of key investigative skills that can be used when solving problems in Maths and Science.

Next semester is a very long one and promises to be as busy if not more than this semester has been.
Best wishes for the holiday.

Ian Jones
Head of Primary

I was very pleased to meet with some of our Primary Parent Grade Representatives in November for what proved to be a very interesting, informative yet informal evening. As well as allowing us all to meet each other for the first time this Academic year it enabled us to reflect on last year and plan for the year ahead. It was pleasing to report that nearly all the Primary classes had a PGR and that it was the intention that by the start of the new semester all classes would be represented.

It was felt that it would be a good idea for the PGR to make themselves known to the class teachers and find the opportunity to discus ways in which parents could be of assistance either through spending time in school or in other ways. It was also agreed that we will try to put PGR details in the contact books for parents to refer to if necessary.

All the Parent Grade Representatives will be making contact with their fellow parents during the next few weeks to arrange an informal meeting where suggestions, concerns etc can be raised.
I share their optimism on what I hope will be a successful year ahead.

Ian Jones
Head of Primary