April 2007

Dear Parents, Students and Staff

After what has been one of the busiest half-semesters on record, we write to bring you up-to-date with our news and developments.

Congratulations to the entire school community who participated this year in our Annual Carnival. In terms of funds raised, this was the best ever Carnival in the school’s history. We are delighted with – and, indeed, most appreciative of – parents’, students’ and sponsors’ generosity.

After such a resounding success, now comes the very pleasant task of designating institutions who will benefit from the funds raised. We intend to support local Omani charities. Do, note, please, that a portion of the Carnival proceeds have already been set aside for more computers for the school – a most worthy cause. Another very pleasant task is to thank the P.T.A. and all those sponsors who generously gave to the occasion. Individual thanks will follow on from this newsletter.

Again, it was most encouraging to see that so many parents and prospective parents turned up for Open Day. We appreciate for the supportive comments that guests wrote in our visitors’ book. However, it was disappointing to see that the number of parents attending Al-Dhad Day was significantly fewer. We hope for more enthusiastic attendance at our next function. Many, many thanks to Mr Adnan Khalil and his department for all the stimulating work they did for this special occasion.

It is very encouraging to see that the number of students on roll this year is 11% up on last year. Every sign indicates that this trend is continuing into next year. Many thanks to all our new parents for choosing to bring their children to M.I.S. and special appreciation to all established parents in our school family who have promoted the school so supportively in the community.

We had a very enthusiastic response to both our productions this year, and we extend our congratulations to Ms Vicky Oliver, Mr Ibrahim Nossair and to their teams of staff and student helpers. Not least, of course, we congratulate our performing students who all proudly stamped their mark on school history.

Again, a splendid effort! The continuing high percentage of top grades scored is very encouraging indeed which, of course, bodes well for the full-blown A/S exams in May/June.

Please note in advance that Graduation Day is set for Wednesday, 30^th May, 2007. Students eligible for graduation are those who will have successfully completed 12 gainful years of education.

More details about Graduation Day will be sent to you soon.

These are due out today and should come home with your children accompanying this newsletter. Please ensure that they are safely received and that signed acknowledgement reply slips come back to the form tutor early next week.

In a drive to make our parents more aware of the seriousness of students arriving late at school continuously and being detained for poor behaviour, we are enclosing this information, where appropriate, also on the school report.

Please note the meetings for parents of the following students:

Current Grade 8 going into Grade 9 IGCSE: Sunday, 22^nd April at 6.30 p.m. in the Theatre

Current Grade 11 going into Grade 12 A/S:

Monday, 30^th April at 6.30 p.m. in the Theatre

This has been set aside only for specific parents who will be individually called for appointment on Tuesday, 24^th April from 6.30 p.m. until 8.30 p.m. Further details will follow.

You may have noticed, if you are readers of the Youth Observer, how highly profiled our M.I.S. students have been in the community through their projects for the newspaper. We are very proud of all our budding journalists and happy to see them promoting both our own school events and events in the community at large so articulately and enthusiastically.

Further developments to our new Cambridge International Primary Curriculum will be cemented at a workshop which the Principal will spearhead on Thursday, 26^th April here at school. Colleagues from the Department of Private Education and from selected other schools will be joining staff from M.I.S. to focus on English and Science developments.

In March the Principal was invited to join eight other delegates from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Kuwait and Oman on a tour of Australian universities. Essentially the trip was a fact-finding mission, but also was an opportunity to promote Omani education abroad. It was an excellent occasion for Mr Melen to catch up with former M.I.S. [M.P.S.] students who are currently on undergraduate or post-graduate study in the Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth regions. We all very much appreciate Australian Education International selecting Mr Melen to represent Muscat International School on this unique occasion.

In our objective of internationalizing our curriculum both in the Omani community and on the world circuit of international schools, we have decided to slightly lengthen our school day next year. In this way we are able to offer more option choices at both the IGCSE and the ‘AS’ level phase and we will be able to incorporate activities for Grades 1 to 8 inclusive into the daily timetable rather than have them tacked onto the end of the school day, as is the case at present.

More specific details will follow closer to the end of term. In the meantime, we very much appreciate the input of our parents and staff into our making this decision.