Author: Amy Dunnett

Thank You From Caroline

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Dear Parent/Carer,

I have been overwhelmed by your gifts and kind words and I cannot begin to express how grateful I am.

This week has been filled with tears of laughter as well as sad tears but I have so many fond memories to reflect back on.

I have left my gifts to the school with Elaine – a set of working traffic lights and some bird feeding poles for the outdoor areas in school and both the nurseries.

I am going to miss so much when I leave but I am looking forward to a slower pace. Orchard Brae will always have a very special place in my heart. 😊

I wish all a great summer and all the very best for the future.

Take care

Kind regards

Caroline 😊 XXX

Thank You From The Friends and Connect

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Our two parent groups, Friends Of Orchard Brae and Orchard Brae Connect, recently said a fond farewell to Caroline as she moves onto new adventures.

As a fitting tribute they gifted her a beautiful picture featuring the school logo and a special message in Makaton fingerspelling tiles.

They also presented her with four apple trees, two which she will plant at her house and two which have been planted in the school grounds. They also commissioned a special plaque which will be put up beside the trees in the school grounds.

Sweet Caroline!

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Today we had a very special presentation for Oor Heedie, Caroline, to say farewell as she moves onto her next adventure!

As part of our farewell celebrations, we were delighted to share this wonderful video of our pupils for our very own ‘Sweet Caroline’ and we hope that you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!

Huge thanks to Keith, Emmeline and all the staff for making this possible and if you missed the presentation, you can view it on the Whole School Events google classroom.

Health And Wellbeing In Room 6

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Pupils in Room 6 have been having fun participating in a range of Health & Wellbeing activities. We have been exploring the countryside, having foot spas for relaxation, and making jelly!!! One of our class also had a birthday last week so we had a party for her!!!

Big Pasta Creativity Challenge Day – Friday 18th June

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Are you ready for our Big Pasta Creativity Challenge Day on Friday? There will be lots of fun activities posted on the Whole School Events google classroom and you can join in the fun at home and school.

If you cannot access the google classroom, please contact your child’s class teacher for support.

And to get you ready for the big day, why not have a go at the pasta rap song by following the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J5484fQ7KE

Child Trust Fund Scotland virtual event: Tuesday 6th July at 7 pm

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Individual Child Trust Fund accounts were opened for almost every child born in the UK between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011. At the age of 16, they are allowed to take control of their account, and at 18 to access their money.

Unfortunately, very large numbers of young people are wholly unaware of the existence and whereabouts of their CTF accounts, which are being administered by a range of account providers. It is the most disadvantaged who are least aware, most often because they are either ‘addressee gone away’ or the account was never registered by the family following its opening by HMRC.

Recent feedback from account providers shows that c. 58% of 18 year-old CTF owners have yet to claim their accounts: in Scotland that’s already over 25,000 young adults who already risk losing access to their accounts, which are typically worth £1,000 or more. The Share Foundation (www.sharefound.org) is the registered charity which runs the Child Trust Fund and Junior ISA schemes for looked-after young people for the Department for Education. They have set up a programme of large-scale virtual events for young people aged 16-18, and a search process (https://findCTF.sharefound.org) linked to the account providers and HMRC, in order to ensure that as many as possible find their accounts. There are no charges – we just want to make the CTF scheme as effective as possible so that money set aside for young people does not end up as dormant assets.

These Zoom-based virtual events are being professionally co-ordinated, with pre-registration and recording, and they run for just over half an hour. They are being arranged with lots of participation, with break-out groups which include our CTF Ambassadors – volunteers who can explain and answer questions. New videos have been produced for the events, which are also accessible on YouTube.

For full details of the events, including links to the new videos, please visit https://www.sharefound.org/ctf-virtual-events A virtual event will be held for Scottish young people on Tuesday 6th July at 7 pm.

REGISTRATION LINK: https://www.sharefound.org/scotland-ctfs/

Numbers are limited for the events, but they will be running them each fortnight going forwards and the registration links for other events are included in the webpage above.

Foot Prints And Fun In Room 2

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Pupils (and staff!) in Room 2 had a lot of fun painting feet and making footprints on paper. All our pupils showed interest in the activity and then actively engaged, focussing their attention as they placed their feet on the paper. A couple of pupils decided to slide along and one pupil ran along the paper. We discovered that there are few tickly feet in our class!

Exploring Movement In Room 9

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Room 9 have been very busy this term exploring movement as part of their thematic work. Through their play they have been discovering the ways in which objects and toys move and learning about forces and their effects. As you can see, they had great fun investigating forces and their effects first hand and finding out the different ways they could make their bodies move at a recent visit to the park.