Category: Health and Well Being

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.

Festive Fun

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It has certainly been a busy week at Orchard Brae and we have enjoyed participating in a range of festive fun and yesterday was the busiest day of all!

In the morning, the Primary department had a dress rehearsal for their Christmas Show, which we will performing next Friday.

A big thank you to Lynn and the catering team who put on a splendid Christmas lunch for us yesterday.

We all enjoyed tucking into our turkey and all the trimmings and festive shortbread and ice cream for dessert while listening to some Christmas tunes.

In the afternoon, we were joined by the St Margaret’s School choir who performed some Christmas tunes for us.  We would like to say a HUGE thank you to the pupils and staff from St Margaret’s who joined us.  This has become an annual event and it is one which we always look forward to.  The hall was packed and everyone enjoyed their performance immensely.  Thanks also to Room 9 staff and pupils who hosted a short snack and get together with them afterwards.

After such a hectic week, we look forward to seeing what excitement next week will bring!!

 

PE With Room 4

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PE is always such a big hit for the children in room 4!

Physical Education offers so much to our children:

Social skills, turn taking and collaborative team work are just some of the benefits of a balanced physical education program.

Basketball Coaching Clinic

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One of our Senior pupils from Howes Hoose has been very busy this morning.

He participated in a basketball coaching clinic at Oldmachar Academy run by Active Schools.  This clinic was open to teachers, senior pupils, coaches and volunteers and designed to give them an overview of how to structure basketball sessions along with offering a range of activity ideas, drills and practices.

We can’t wait for him to put these new skills he has learned into practice in school!

 

Halloween In Room 3

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The children in Room 3 have been busy having lots of spooky fun this week.  We had our own (home grown!) pumpkin patch in class and enjoyed exploring the story of ‘Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin Picking Plan’.  We went jumping in leaves after sweeping them up, had lots of fun picking the perfect pumpkin while taking in the sights and smells of the patch then it rolled all the way home!  The children particularly liked our very interactive spooky singing session.  We have explored lots of interesting toys and objects which might dance, sing, light up or blow bubbles – some amazing visual and auditory tracking has been happening.  Halloween messy play was a big hit…we tried out jelly, gloop, spaghetti and rice crispies – some of us even tried it out with our feet!  We participated in the school pumpkin carving competition and took great delight in getting hands on with a drill to make a starry night pumpkin.  Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes on the big day itself and we even celebrated a Halloween birthday.  Well done Room 3 for your very active participation.

 

A Busy Term in Room 15

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This has been a busy term in Room 15, with lots of new experiences!

We have lots of fun with messy learning in Room 15. In our Secondary Department, all S1-S3 pupils complete the ASDAN New Horizons course – we have begun with building our communication of key information about ourselves.  We have hidden under blankets and revealed ourselves when our name is called (activating a switch talker to announce “I’m here!”), we have practiced our Makaton signs for our names (and those of our friends) and (best of all!) located our photos in sensory resources and written our names in mixed media.

We’ve also introduced bucket time to Room 15. This activity looks to build focused attention – and it seems we’re more focused the messier it gets!  We have used bucket time to build our spontaneous communication too – ready, steady and … “go!”

We have been using intensive interaction to build our communication skills in a variety of different contexts – we’re speaking and using more signs since the start of the year already!

We have been working a lot on life skills, particularly road safety. We use our eyes and ears to look out for traffic, and use our communication devices to say when to stop and when to go.

We have also begun to explore using talking mats to share our thoughts about our day – what we liked, what we didn’t like, and what we’re not sure about. On the whole, we’re liking our school day!

Norma Buist Swimming Gala

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Our senior pupils had a fantastic day at the swimming gala! We are very proud of them all for working hard to achieve the times required to represent Orchard Brae at the gala, and for swimming their best during their events.

They returned to school with a number of achievements. For some, it was their first gala and they swam brilliantly, doing their very best for the occasion. Another pupil, also at their first gala, attempted to compete but found the water was too cold … maybe next year.

Those fortunate enough to win medals came away with quite a haul between them:

Bronze Medal for 25 m Backstroke for a pupil competing in their first gala;

Gold Medal 25 m Backstroke for one of our more accomplished swimmers;

Gold Medal 25 m Front Crawl for a youngster at their first gala;

3 Gold Medals for 25 m Front Crawl, Backstroke and Breaststroke, again for a more experienced competitor;

and finally, 3 Gold Medals for 50 m Front Crawl, Backstroke and Breaststroke for an advanced swimmer.

Congratulations to each and every one of our swimmers for going to the gala and competing at a high level! You were all stars!

 

 

Our First Week In Room 3

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This week the pupils in Room 3 came back to school and some of our pupils celebrated their first day of Primary One.

We explored the story ‘First Day at Bug School’ and the children engaged so well as we moved through the different classes that the bugs attend!  We started the story and went through the grass (Pom Poms helped set the scene!) then listened to the ‘tiny school bell ring’ which took us into bug school.  We started by doing the register where we hid under the cloths before pulling them off our heads just like we do in our class!  In Spider science class we loved watching the water fall down the spout (there was quite a lot of splashing too!), in Ladybird maths class we spun the spinner before listening to/feeling on body counting to the same number, in PE class we worked hard to push the huge gym ball off our trays and it was so much fun to watch it bounce across the classroom and music class with the Crickets was a huge hit too!  Almost as much fun as a day at Orchard Brae.

We are super impressed with how quickly the children have settled into the school routine for the first time/after the long holidays and are very excited for all the learning ahead of us in Room 3 this year.

A Trip to the Beach With Room 4

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Room 4 have been reading ‘The New Friend’ by Alex Scheffler for their book study this term.

In the book, the main characters Pip and Posy make a new friend at the beach and they work together to build a sandcastle.

We enjoyed the book so much that we thought we would have a go at making our own sandcastles!  We visited the beach and worked together to build our own sandcastles.  We thought we did a good job.  What do you think?  We even made our own new friend when we went looking in the rock pools!

 

 

 

Looking Back And Moving Forward With Room 8

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The beginning of summer is upon us! As we head into the final stretches of the school year, everyone should take time to reflect on the highs and lows of the year. What worked? What flopped? How can you improve for next year? What from your old job will you bring to your new one? What must you definitely leave behind?

However, when we take time to reflect on our year and take stock of how we’ve grown and changed, we are more able to acknowledge the gifts of this passage and harvest our own learning for the future.

Let’s find out together our best moments.