Category: Community Learning

Community Learning

Duke of Edinburgh Awards Ceremony

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On Tuesday we were delighted to see our first ever Duke of Edinburgh Award winners receive their Certificates at the Aberdeen City Award Ceremony. These young adults have now all left school however it was a pleasure to catch up with them and see how the confidence gained by completing their Bronze Award has supported them as they have moved on from school life.

We have another group of 6 S5 and S6 pupils working hard to complete their Bronze Award this year, culminating in their Excursion section at Whiston Lodge. They are all making excellent progress with their Skills and Volunteering Sections and enjoying all the practice sessions that will support them to complete their Excursion.

Our Eco Achievements

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Over the last year everyone at Orchard Brae has working very hard on developing our Eco awareness as part of our Eco Schools journey and we have participated in a range of activities based around the topics of Litter, Waste Minimisation and Food and the Environment.

We conducted litter picks in the local area as well as in the school grounds, planted seeds and bulbs and cared for the plants, and made soup from our bumper crop of tatties grown in the school garden. The work that classes put into the Rag Bag scheme and Orchard Brae Fashion Boutique was recognised with a nomination for the Aberdeen City Council EcoCity Waste and Recycling Champions Award and while we were not the winners of the categories, we were rewarded with a certificate for our hard work and effort.

We are absolutely delighted that all of our hard work and effort has been recognised and we have reached the gold standard and been awarded our first Green Flag!

The Green Flag Award is presented to nurseries and schools which have demonstrated a commitment to Eco-Schools Scotland programme and usually takes place over two years. We are so proud that our Eco work has managed to get our first Green flag awarded in just one year!

We have been truly amazed by the comments we received from the Eco-School Scotland Team who noted that our action plan and evidence ‘was innovative and engaging’, ‘demonstrated a true commitment to improve the environment’ and ‘our dedication to embedding sustainability within the curriculum’.  They also highlighted aspects of our work as ‘examples of good practice’ which may be used as future case studies to support other schools.

A huge well done to all the students and staff for their on-going work and effort in enabling us to achieve our first Green Flag in one year.

 

Class 6/7 Celebrate Chinese New Year

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Class 6/7 were very busy last week exploring Chinese New Year.  We enjoyed hearing the story of how the animals became part of the Chinese calendar and worked out what animal we were born under.  There were lots of different crafts throughout the week including colouring in and making paper dragons.  The best bit however, was our Chinese New Year snack at the end of the week.  We had the opportunity to taste a range of Chinese foods and used key vocabulary boards to make requests and comment.  Almost everyone thought the fruit and prawn crackers were the best bit.  YUM!

Lawman Piano arrives at Orchard Brae

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Today we were very lucky to receive a Lawman Piano which had been gifted to the school to help support all the amazing development and engagement work that takes place with our Music Therapist Emmeline. The Lawman Panio was created by Gordon Bell Pianos in conjuction with Passell designers to celebrate Aberdeen footballer Denis Law receiving the Freedom of Aberdeen City in 2018. The Panio has been on a tour of all the Football clubs that Dennis Law played for and on it’s return was auctioned off for charity. We are delighted to have been selected as it’s permanent home where we are sure it will be used by all of the pupils in school.

One of our Senior pupils really enjoyed the opportunity to make music on this amazing piano, which is fabulously decorated, including its light show and Dennis Law’s signature.

Rainbow Fruit Kebabs In Room 5

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Room 5 are reading The Rainbow Fish. One of our class celebrated a birthday. We enjoyed birthday cake and rainbow fruit kebabs for snack. We had red strawberries, green grapes and yellow banana on our kebabs.

Exploring Our Local Community With Room 4

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Room 4 have been very busy developing their awareness of our local area.   Every Monday, they have been walking to the HUB community centre, enjoying a social snack together and exploring the different resources on offer – the books that are available are a HUGE hit!

 

 

 

Celebrating Robert Burns with Room 12

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To celebrate Robert Burns, Room 12 did some Scottish artwork. We looked at tartans and designed our own using Interactive Weaver (www.houseoftartan.co.uk). We had to select our colours, then the order they went in and the thread count. We have printed off our tartan designs and displayed them outside our classroom. We also took a copy home.
We made a 3D kilt for Robbie Burns! We had to cut out and colour the Burns figure and then choose from a variety of tartans to make a kilt, which we folded carefully and attached. We could also add a sporran (although this looked equally fabulous as a hat!!)
We made thistles using bubble wrap, purple wool and green paint. We chose from a selection of purples, trimmed the wool and glued it on to card, then we used a circle of bubble wrap to print the main part of the thistle with green paint. We think they look very effective!

Room 17’s Burns Supper

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On Burns Day, Room 17 held a Burns Supper. We piped the haggis in, listened to a poem about the haggis, toasted the haggis and ate our haggis, neeps and tatties! We then danced a ceilidh dance we learned and finished our Burns Supper by singing Auld Lang Syne.

Robert Burns Celebrations In Room 11

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Children in Room 11 have been having fun and celebrating Robert Burns. They have been listening to Scottish music, tasting and smelling haggis, neeps and tatties. They have also been listening to famous poems “To a Mouse” and “A Red , Red Rose”. We were having fun singing Scottish songs and being part of the whole school Ceilidh! All children loved playing the fiddle too!

Class 10 Strike A Pose!

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Class 10 enjoy taking part in yoga lessons, where they watch and copy the poses from the interactive board in class.  Everyone joins in, has lots of fun and enjoys a good stretch!