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The health and wellbeing of each learner is central to the life and work of the school and in partnership with families and multi-agencies, we work hard to ensure that they are safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included (SHANARRI). This is reflected in the ethos and life of our school, where relationships, kinship and community are held in high regard. Health and wellbeing skills are practiced across all curriculum areas and throughout the day. Every pupil works on targets to develop their unique skills relevant to their age and stage. Pupils participate in a wide range of activities with peers from across the school ensuring contexts for developing and deepening relationships and practicing working with others, vital skills for learning, life, leisure and work. Pupils learn to understand themselves physically, emotionally, socially, economically and sexually. Our pupils where appropriate recognise and manage risk, take increasing responsibility for themselves, their choices and behaviours and make positive contributions to their families, schools and communities. They develop self-esteem and become effective citizens and confident individuals who proudly take their part in society.
Room 16 have been continuing to work on their use of household appliances for their SQA award. We have been having great fun learning to use an electric fan and blowing things around our classroom using the different settings. We experimented with throwing leaves into the fan and feeling them land back on us. Spraying water into the wind was definitely a firm favourite and we ended up with a lot of wet faces! At least we had a fan to blow us dry again!
In Room 15, our hard-work culminated in getting to enjoy the party we have spent the last 8 weeks planning and preparing for as part of our ASDAN Transition Challenge work. Some of us needed no encouragement to party, and we all joined in with time. It was a fun way to celebrate our achievements and wind down for the end of term!
We’ve also expanded a lot of our ASDAN New Horizons work on emotions to apply some of the regulation skills we have been learning about throughout our school day and explore practical applications of our learning. Music is a definite favourite in our class!
A special shout out has to be made for the progress made with everyday routines – from coming to sit with the group independently for familiar activities, to following modeled instructions for the first time, to trying new foods, to eating more independently, to spontaneously using a new communication element (such as a new sign or communicating for a new function) – the team are incredibly proud of how hard you have worked. Well done Room 15!
As we move forward this term we’ll be exploring time as we learn about when special events occur (we can definitely expect a messy bucket time for fireworks day!) and use technology to prepare for them.
Room 18 has been enjoying PE outside this term. We have been developing our ball and racquet skills by performing various drills. Our tennis skills are developing nicely.
On a Tuesday afternoons, Room 2 pupils have been learning how to participate and engage in relaxation sessions as part of promoting their Health and Wellbeing.
During these sessions, we have explored using a range of activities and equipment to see which we prefer to help us relax.
This has included pulling the class blinds down and using sensory lights and blankets to change the lighting, yoga mats and PE mats to change the sensations of what we are sitting and lying on, and there is also relaxing music and imagery on our interactive board.
Some of our pupils have also enjoyed having a hand massage or a leg massage while others enjoyed the opportunity to just be on their own to help them calm and relax.
Room 12 had a great time picking brambles and making jam. Pupils used the bread maker to cook the jam. Pupils also made their own labels before taking their jar of jam home to share.
Over the last few weeks classes have been exploring water in Outdoor Education lessons. We have poured, splashed, sprayed, puddled about and giggled. Everyone found a way to play with water that they enjoyed. Throwing large bucket of water around the playground and watching it fall and then make a loud splat noise was the grand finale for most classes. We hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed playing with water.
We have been getting back into the swing since returning to school.
One thing we have enjoyed is our Wednesday yoga sessions. Here we see one of our young people really enjoying the one to one yoga with Hannah who understands the needs of our class perfectly. One of our class always greets her with “Namaste”, now without prompting!
We have been choosing what we would like to do in class time. This can be through use of symbols, pictures, signing, verbally or in the case of this picture, by switch. Here, one of our pupils is choosing the song he would like to hear.
We’ve been very happy to see the majority of our secondary pupils returning over the last couple of weeks. Pupils have enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with staff in school and see some of their friends again. Staff have been delighted to welcome pupils back and to return to some semblance of our normal routine. We do hope this will continue after the holiday, but as detailed in the letter from our Chief Education Officer, we have to await further guidance on next steps.
We’ve been very busy in the time that we’ve been back in school. Here is a selection of what we’ve been doing:
Learning Outdoors
We’ve been making the most of the good weather and enjoying learning in the fresh air. Some of us have enjoyed local walks and outdoor play.
Others have been busy in the grounds with gardening and litter picking. Room 14 particularly enjoyed the litter pick.
Health and Wellbeing
It has been great to see so many of our young people observing the safety rules around school. We’ve all become increasingly independent in maintaining good hand hygiene. Target work has continued and we have also been working on our ASDAN units. We’ve also had lots of fun!
Working Hard
We’ve been delighted with how well our pupils have settled back into their routines. Lots of learning is taking place, with good use being made of games and technology.
Who could fail to be happy to return when learning is so much fun?
If you’d like to engage in some messy activities at home our advice is:
Take it outside OR get your child involved in the tidying! It’s never too early to work on independent living skills.
Qualifications in the Senior Phase
Our senior phase pupils have continued working towards their ASDAN and SQA qualifications and we thank everyone that has supported in this during our period of remote learning. Room 19 have been successfully working on SQA Science: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. They’ve created some beautiful instruments.
Happy Holidays!
While some pupils have just returned to school, others have been supported throughout the lockdown period. We’ve had lots of learning going on remotely and thank all parents, carers and staff for supporting our pupils with this. In speaking with families, I know that there have been differing levels of engagement for a host of reasons, and we would like to thank all of you for the support you’ve given during this challenging time. Google Classrooms will remain ‘open’ should you wish to make use of activities during the holidays, but please do take a break if you can, relax, enjoy time outdoors, and focus on well-being.
