Dear Parents

Welcome back to school and Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed the holiday and were able to spend time with family and friends.

2019 will be a very exciting year for Oryx International School as we continue to build and develop a five-star school. Already we have laid some of the foundations for this and we are now in a position to start implementing many of the initiatives we had planned. We aim to hold our official opening event this term, now that our wonderful auditorium is available for use, and we are liaising with Qatar Airways to agree a suitable date. This is the last facility we were waiting for to be completed and have already started holding assemblies in the auditorium. It is an impressive facility and one of our school showpieces.

The school continues to attract many enquiries from more Qatar Airways families and our admissions team are already receiving several requests for visits. In order to manage the expected increase in volume of applications most efficiently, we will be employing an additional Admissions Officer and HR Assistant.

I am pleased to welcome Miss Sue Tedesco (SEN), Mr James Goodall (History), Mr Moses Karl (PE) and Sra Ester Rams (Spanish) who have joined us this term and I wish them every success in their new posts with us at OIS. We will also be appointing a new part time teacher of Arabic and replacement EAL teacher in the next few weeks. I will be starting a 4-week recruitment drive this month in order to secure teaching staff for the increased numbers of classes we expect in September. I have received almost 1,000 applications for teaching posts, from all over the world which demonstrates the level of interest in our school. We will only recruit and retain the highest calibre staff and I look forward to welcoming more new staff after the summer. I will, of course, keep you informed of new appointments as they are confirmed in the year.

Following on from the success of our Winter Fair, we will start preparations for International Day (date tbc) as well as Earth Day (April 22) . Once again I thank Mrs Laidlaw and the PTSA in advance for their support for our community events. Our swimming pool, gym and other sports facilities are now available for use/hire by Qatar Airways staff. Please contact Jefferson Cadacio at school if you are interested in using our facilities after 4pm or at weekends. After School Activities continue this week as last term, we will be changing over the activity rota in February.

I look forward to sharing many good news stories over the coming weeks and meeting you at some of our school events.

Regards

Derek Laidlaw

Executive Principal