Dear Parents,
I hope you are all safe and well and looking forward to the weekend.
Qatar, like most other countries, is experiencing a slight rise in COVID infections at this time and I wanted to reassure you that we are re-doubling our precautions to ensure that we are all following the rules and regulations for keeping safe in school. The picture alongside this text – taken this week as students arrived at school in the morning - exemplifies the responsible practices our students and staff are observing. I am very proud of the attitudes adopted by the whole school community to keep us all safe whilst in school. There isn’t a 100% solution or guaranteed protection against infection, however to date we have recorded only 1 case of transmission of the virus within the school since last March. This is an excellent statistic considering many schools in Qatar have suffered multiple such cases and several have had to close temporarily due to high transmission of the infection. My special thanks go to Ms. Julie and Ms. Kithlyn, our school nurses, who are working tirelessly often at nights and weekends to make sure we continue to be fully compliant with the MoPH regulations and to deliver such high-quality service to the students and staff at Oryx.
Parent Survey
Thank you to those parents who have completed the Orbital Education survey. The period for doing so has been extended until 1st February so if you have not yet had the chance to complete the survey, you still have time to do so if you wish. You can find the link to the survey in your email, please check your Spam mail folder.
Newsletter: An Upgrade!
We have been reviewing the newsletter over the past year and I am pleased that it remains the main source of information for the school (39% of total usage). In order to make this even more effective in terms of communication and also to include a wider spectrum of articles from the school community, we will be inviting monthly input from parents, staff and students on a range of topics. We will send more information after the mid-term and I look forward to your future contributions.
CIS Pre-Accreditation Visit (24th -28th January)
As I mentioned previously, this week we have welcomed (virtually) two evaluators from the Council of International Schools (CIS). I am very grateful to those parents, staff and students who took time to ‘meet’ with them and to discuss all areas of the school’s provision. The result of this process will now form the basis for our school ‘Self-Study’ leading to the final accreditation stage in 12-18 months’ time. When I receive the report from CIS, I will share with you the main findings, which will include areas of commendation as well as some recommendations for areas of development.
Regards and best wishes,
Mr. Derek Laidlaw
