Category: Citizenship

Citizenship

Our Growing Garden

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Our garden is a very rewarding experience. 

We have created and actively maintain our own vegetable garden.

Gardening reduces stress and helps us cope with anxiety and frustration.

It also supports motor skills, enhanced creativity, increased social skills and improved self-confidence. Oh, and it’s fun!

KidsOut 2023

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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.

Room 8 Pupils Make a Difference on National Environmental Day

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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.

Orchard Brae Achieve Bronze!

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We are delighted to share that we have just gained the Bronze Rights Respecting Schools Award from UNICEF UK. This is the first official step in our ongoing Rights Respecting Schools journey.

The Rights Respecting Schools Award promotes understanding and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in schools. The convention itself consists of a range of articles that place a duty on governments, local authorities and all those supporting children to be ‘duty bearers’, upholding the rights of the children and young people in their care and ensuring that all those under 18 can access their rights, children being the ‘rights holders’. The convention underpins everything that we do as a school to ensure that all children and young people are valued, heard, and given opportunities to develop fully.

To gain our Bronze Award, a small group of teaching staff evaluated our progress against key outcomes before developing an action plan for moving forward as a school. We will look to sharing more news as we progress on our journey and would welcome involvement from families and associated professionals in taking things forward.

This poster provides an easy to read overview of the UNCRC. We will be sharing more information on these rights as we go forward on our journey, learning together.

Flying High In Room 12

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The pupils in Room 12 have been collecting data and making charts about the planes and helicopters we have seen flying overhead. We did this for 4 weeks. It was a great opportunity to talk about the idea of “more than”.

During Steam Week we had an amazing opportunity to visit a helicopter hangar, to see the size and scale of real helicopters as well as the details. We got to sit in the seats, try on their ear defenders and experience the noises and smells of the heavy machinery. Thank you to the welcoming staff at NHV!

Celebrating Burns Day In The Ladybird Room

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The Ladybird room children and staff had great fun celebrating Burns Day.

They started off the week by making special Ladybird tartan pictures. On the day itself they had the traditional meal of vegetarian ”haggis, neeps and tatties.” Some children appeared to enjoy it more than others.

We rounded off the celebrations on Friday with children and staff dressing in tartan and dancing to ceilidh music in the hall followed by having a very Scottish teddy bear picnic. All the children had taken in their favourite teddy or soft toy and were able to join us for an indoor picnic of traditional Scottish food such as shortbread, oatcakes, and cheese.

A great end to the week and lots of fun.

Futures Event

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Thanks to all parents, carers and partners for supporting the Orchard Brae Futures Event last week. It was great to be back in person for this annual event and there was a lovely buzz in the hall as you took the opportunity to network and chat informally to the providers in attendance. The presentation from the event is below. Feel free to get in touch if you wish to discuss anything further.

Orchard Brae @ Ashgrove Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

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The sun rose brightly on the day of our Platinum Jubilee Celebrations making for a fun and sun filled afternoon for our families. This was our first meet up with parents/carers since Covid began. What a wonderful afternoon was had by all – the children made Jubilee Crowns and there was a sensory activity with British coloured rice. They enjoyed British cupcakes, refreshments and strawberry marshmallow kebabs. The children and families participated in a singalong and then it was time for the certificates to be handed out: I Celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Drake Music

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Abi Sinar, a musician with Drake Music, has been working with students at Orchard Brae for the last two years, even throughout lockdowns, in developing the North East Digital Orchestra project. The ultimate goal of the project is to create a digital orchestra for school leavers and young adults, enabling them to develop their musical skills and create new music using a range of inclusive music technologies.

Pupils who have been involved in the project have been supported by Abi to develop their musical skills using a variety of accessible instruments and have created this video for you to enjoy, where they play Ode To Joy as well as their own additional compositions to the song.

Many thanks to Abi for her support and in making the film. If you would like to find out more about Drake Music and their work, please follow the link below:

https://drakemusicscotland.org/