Whole School Assembly

This morning we held our monthly whole school assembly with a focus on celebration and Rights Respecting Schools. This month, we looked at Article 31 ‘ I have the right to relax and play’.

We looked at the different activities people to to relax as well as types of toys we can play with and learnt some Makaton signs to support this

Here is a copy of our assembly slides, if you want to share them with your child at home.

We did it! Orchard Brae achieves Silver RRSA!

We are delighted to share that today we had our Silver Accreditation visit with UNICEF to look at how we’re progressing our Rights Respecting School work. Our assessors enjoyed learning about the work that we do in Orchard Brae and the opportunity to meet with some pupils (thank you Room 19), parents and staff. A huge thanks to everyone that joined us virtually or in person.

Please enjoy the video that we shared to highlight some of our work.

We’ll share more about our next steps in future as we are keen to continue progressing, going for Gold in the longer term. For now, we’re delighted to have recognition as a Silver Rights Respecting School: Rights Aware.

Whole School Assembly

Today we held our monthly Celebration and Rights Respecting assembly. It was great to say ‘well done’ to so many pupils for their hard work and efforts which included graduating from the MOVE programme, independent walking, building confidence and relationships, as well as developing life skills and enterprise!

We then focused on our right of the month from the UNCRC, which is number 27 – ‘I have the right to a proper home, food and clothing.’

We looked at the changing seasons from summer to autumn, and how this brings about changes in the weather and the types of clothing we need to wear. We also looked at how the change of seasons leads to harvest and the variety of foods available in autumn.

Here is a copy of our assembly slides, if you want to share them with your child at home.

Orchard Brae Achieve Bronze!

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.

Futures Event

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.

Rights Respecting School

Orchard Brae are beginning the journey to becoming a Rights Respecting School. In line with our vision and aims (https://orchardbrae.aberdeen.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Orchard-Brae-Visions-and-Aims.pdf), we aspire to be a school where children’s rights are at the heart of our ethos and culture, to improve well-being and to develop every child’s talents and abilities to their full potential.  Moving towards summer we will be working to put together an action plan to allow us to progress this work with pupils taking the lead as we go forward, our aim being to gain Rights Respecting School Awards through Unicef UK in recognition of sustained practice in this area.

Unicef UK is the world’s leading organisation working for children and young people and their rights. In 1989, governments across the world agreed that all children have the same rights by adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and earlier this week the Scottish Government reached agreement that the UNCRC will become be incorporated in domestic law. These rights are based on what a child needs to survive, grow, participate and fulfil their potential.

Pupils and staff will learn about children’s rights, with staff supporting children to access their rights every day. Rights and respect will be modeled in all relationships, supporting our children in developing their awareness of good citizenship.

We really hope that you will be able to support our school on the journey towards becoming a Unicef UK Rights Respecting School. Further information sessions will be scheduled for parents and carers next term.

A user friendly version of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/3rYe27f

The full UNCRC convention can be found here: https://cypcs.org.uk/rights/uncrc/full-uncrc/

For further information about Rights Respecting Schools please visit:  www.unicef.org.uk/rrsa

We look forward to sharing our learning with you as we move forward together at Orchard Brae.

Young Leaders Of Learning

The Young Leaders of Learning programme has been developed by Education Scotland with the aim of enabling and empowering pupils to have an increasing say in their education and school. As a school, we have been in the fortunate position of working alongside Maxine Jolly, Senior Education Officer for Education Scotland, in adapting the programme for use in ASN schools.

Yesterday, a group of secondary pupils participated in a training day at the Beacon Centre alongside colleagues and pupils from Bucksburn Academy ASN Wing.

The students worked together in identifying the key skills required to be an effective young Leader and had great fun designing their Leaders.

The students also spent time identifying and comparing key areas of the two schools and sharing their likes and dislikes.

We’re absolutely thrilled to be the first group of pupils and staff trained from specialist settings and we look forward to participating in the programme with Bucksburn Academy ASN Wing over the rest of this term.

Our Musical Activities Week

At the end of term, we had our annual activities week, which was kindly organised by Emmeline, our Music Therapist.  The week had the focus of exploring our right to access different genres of music, and what an exciting week it was!

On Monday, we were joined by Amy Strachan, a soprano singer and the B Naturals choir.  Both completely captivated us with their amazing vocal talents and many pupils continued to explore the operatic genre throughout the week in their classes.

On Tuesday morning there was lots of fun as we played and danced along with the Aberdeen Strathspey And Reel Society, listening to a range of traditional Scottish tunes and dancing a few reels too!  In the afternoon we were joined by the Confucius Institute who performed some popular Chinese songs as well as one from a Chinese opera as well.  Both of these groups allowed us to investigate and have a go at playing their instruments and well all loved the Chinese harp and flute as well as the fiddle and accordion.  It was a fantastic day allowing us to explore music from two very distinct and different cultures.

On Wednesday, we were entertained by Duncan and Bill who performed a range of folk music for us.  The hall was full to the brim and everyone had a brilliant time listening to Duncan and Bill’s wide variety of music.

On Thursday, we had hoped to have a picnic in the park but unfortunately the Scottish weather had other ideas!  Instead we had an improvised fourth of July picnic in the hall with musical accompaniments from the Fyvie Folk Club.  The Folk Club played a wide variety of music and their leader Bernie had even written us a specific song and poem in the spot!

On Friday we rounded off our musical activities week with a Makaton sing-a-long in the morning and a disco in the afternoon.

It was a truly magical and musical week which gave all the students (and staff!) the opportunity to experience a wide range of music genres and we all discovered something new and exciting.  A huge thank you to all of our special guests and performers and thank you to Emmeline for organising such an amazing experience for us.