Outsourcing Update

Dear PDO School Children, Teachers and Parents,

Welcome to the start of the 2011/2012 School Year! I hope you’re as excited as we are about this school year – not only meeting up with friends and teachers, learning new and interesting things, and once again experiencing the energy and fun that is PDO School, but the exciting prospects of new initiatives and new developments.

On behalf of the PDO Management Team and the School Board, we are thrilled to welcome Peter Wassink as he starts as Headmaster. With a vast experience in the operation of schools in and outside the Shell network and most recently running the Singapore International Dutch School, Peter will surely infuse some great and fun ideas. Additionally, he will lend his expertise to ensuring a smooth transition of educational operators as well as the construction of a state-of-the-art school in the years to come.

Let me take an opportunity to provide a short update on those mentions:

• The site of the new PDO School has been finalised as being in the Sayyala Terrace area. As many of you have seen, work to remove the rock and bulk earth from around this area has commenced.

• Following several discussions with ABA and BSM and a major tender board presentation, PDO has opened up the tendering process to GEMS International and WCL Group. These two extra tenders were issued and a site meeting held with both of them. Both GEMS and WCL are international players in the operation of international schools. At this stage, we await their competitive offers by mid-September. With those submissions, we will analyse all options and plan to reward the contract by early 2012.

We plan to engage parents on the high level plans at a parent information afternoon meeting to take place 13 September – further details shortly.

Once again, welcome to your new school year! We hope you have fun learning!

Best regards,

Mundhir al Barwani

PDO School Board Chairman

September 2011