Dear Parents,
I would like to begin by wishing everyone all the best for the forthcoming National Day Holidays. Enjoy the break, but please continue to stay safe and follow the recommended guidelines on social distancing.
As I am sure you are aware, on Sunday 1st November we welcomed back most of our Year 13 students. Having students back on campus, after such a long absence, was a real joy and it was great to have some normality returning to our day-to-day operations.
Following on from the successful return of Year 13, we invited Year 11 to return on Sunday 15th November. As I am sure you will appreciate, having these two key examination year groups back in school has been a relief to everyone. In addition, and from an operational point of view, we have also benefitted from the fact that these year groups are slightly smaller than most of our others. This has meant we have been able to host all of Year 11 and Year 13 and stay within the guidelines supplied by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Education (MOE).
Indeed, since accepting students back on campus, we have been visited by the MOE and the MOH on several occasions and received extremely positive feedback with regards to our health and safety policies and operational procedures. Given the positive reaction from the MOE and MOH, we are now reviewing the return of more year groups to school during term 2. In the coming weeks, the Head of Primary and the Head of Secondary will be contacting parents with more information regarding this matter.
Looking forward, I would like to bring to your attention to the following important points.
- Term 1 will finish on Thursday 17th December and as is tradition, we will finish at 11:15 am for all year groups.
- Term 2 will start on Sunday 3rd January 2021. Please note, however, that to ensure the continued health and safety of our community, we have decided that the first two weeks of term (Sunday 3rd through to Thursday 14th) will be on-line learning for everyone. This will allow anyone who has travelled outside of Oman during the winter break to complete the necessary quarantine/isolation requirements.
- The IGCSE and IB mock examinations will take place as follows:
Year 11 (IGCSE) January 17th to January 28th
Year 13 (IB) January 31st to February 10th
The examinations will take place in school under strict social distancing protocols.
I would like to finish by offering my thanks to everyone for their continued support during these difficult times. As always, if you would like to discuss any of the points mentioned above, please do not hesitate to contact the school.
Stay safe.
Dr. Glenn Canterford
Principal
