It was lovely to meet the parents of pupil transitioning to Primary One in August this morning.
Please find below the presentation that was shared.
Aberdeen City Libraries are delighted to be hosting Sensory Story Time sessions especially for children and young people with additional support needs, in conjunction with Ailie Finlay, at Mastrick Library on the 9th of August. These sessions will be in high demand and booking is essential. Please book using the link below;
Last week many pupils in the Primary department enjoyed participating in the annual KidsOut Fun Day which is organised by the Rotary Club.
The event, held at the Gordon Barracks, saw 450 children from across Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire come together to take part in lots of fun activities including bouncy castles, emergency service vehicles, magicians, horses, owls and other small animals including The Critter Keeper!
Here are a few photos of the fun we had.
The pupils of Room 8 showed their dedication to the environment by actively participating in the celebration of National Environmental Day. They took part in a unique activity held in nature, focusing on collecting plastic waste littered around their surroundings. With bags in hand, the pupils scoured the area, picking up every piece of plastic they could find.
Their efforts were rewarded with a delightful treat—a well-deserved 20 minutes of playtime in the nearby park. After their diligent cleanup, the pupils happily embraced the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, playing games, running around, and simply reveling in the beauty of nature.
By engaging in this littering activity, the pupils contributed to a cleaner environment and learned about the importance of responsible waste disposal. They gained firsthand experience in understanding the impact of plastic pollution on our planet and how small actions can make a significant difference.
The Room 8 pupils demonstrated their commitment to creating a better world and setting an inspiring example for others. Their active participation and enthusiasm made National Environmental Day a memorable and impactful event.
Our topic this term is “Houses, Homes and Buildings”, which we’re exploring through the story “In Every House, On Every Street”.
We started the term with a big focus on understanding the concepts of “house” and “home”, including playing communication games with our photos on the symbol for home and making cereal box houses. Our numeracy focus for this term is building with blocks, and the engagement with communication resources for this topic as well as the understanding of directional language has been brilliant. Our favourite prompt is definitely “knock it down!”
We’ve explored what we do in the kitchen, with communication games exploring who is in the kitchen (“me!”), moving to songs about baking, food art and craft and some fabulously messy sensory play! Bucket time that week whisked up a bowl of bubbles, had a cake splat and a flying balloon of flour!
We’ve also used this theme as a chance to understand our daily routines. We’re learning about what we need to have to go home, such as our bags and coats, and building independence with accessing them.
What makes a house a home? The relationships! We’ve built our confidence talking about the people around us and our comfort sharing preferred activities and taking turns, and have been developing our shared attention skills with our Attention Autism sessions.
We’re only just getting started! Look out for bathroom week, we’ll be making a splash!
Here are some pictures of the work we have been doing on the topic of Houses and Homes.
We have made both 2d and 3d constructions. We recycled materials to make a colourful village.
We used Google Maps to find our own houses and then made a map of our own.
We used large cardboard boxes to explore den-making and imaginary house building.
We have been out and about, visiting Doonies Farm to see how animal homes are different from ours.
We have also been looking at nests and bird houses. Then we used crackers, suet and bird seed to make some small edible bird houses for our school garden.
Room 4 recently had a trip out to Hazlehead Park! We were very lucky with the weather and all of the children had a fantastic time. We are very proud of how they managed the trip. I will let the photos do the talking!
Light The Blue is Aberdeen Performing Arts annual multi-artform festival celebrating the creativity of young people aged 5-25 across Aberdeen and beyond. Created for young people, by young people 2023’s festival takes place over the course of eight days across Aberdeen city centre with an electrifying line up of theatre, dance, film, music and more. We are delighted that Orchard Brae are again participating in events throughout the week.
Aberdeen Performing Arts in association with Orchard Brae School
The World Through My Eyes installation has been created with pupils from Orchard Brae School and visual artist Jenny Hood, accompanied by live performances by pupils created with drama artist Saffron Gilles will be going live on Tuesday 13th June at 1pm in the Big Sky Studio at the Music Hall. Tickets to this launch are by invitation only and available to parents, carers and friends. If you would like to attend, please contact the school to note your interest and we shall share the booking code when it goes live.
The World Through My Eyes installation will be open to the public throughout Light The Blue, exploring how we navigate the world from the perspective of a young person with complex needs. You can visit on Wednesday 14th – Friday 16th June, 10am – 5pm, and Saturday 17th June, 10am – 11am and tickets can be booked using the link below.
https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/whats-on/light-the-blue-2023-the-world-through-my-eyes/
Other events that may be of interest include pop-up performances on the Bon Accord Centre Roof Terrace and Soundplay Projects have their sensory space set-up in the Music Hall on Saturday 10th June, On Saturday 17th June, the Big Gig at the Music Hall features Orchard Brae’s Makaton Choir. More information about the festival and events happening across the week can be found via the following link.
https://www.aberdeenperformingarts.com/light-the-blue.
Please find below an updated progress report from HMIe for Orchard Brae School.
Thank you for celebrating with us the Autism Acceptance Week. We have received entries from:
Glashieburn School,
Walker Road School,
Brimmond School,
Bramble Brae School,
Stoneywood School,
Orchard Brae School,
and Lochside Academy.
Our Jury (Senior Pupils at Orchard Brae School) had been presented with a difficult task to select 3 pieces of work. After careful consideration and discussions they made final decision and we are delighted to announce the Winners of the competition!
1st place – an individual piece of art from Glashieburn school
2nd place- an individual piece of art from Lochside Academy
3rd place- a group piece of art from Stoneywood School
Well done!!!
We have a prize for the 1st place and certificates and they will be shared with schools 😊
