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Category: Early Learning and Childcare
Orchard Brae Early Learning and Childcare department have 2 developmental nurseries on 2 separate sites. Orchard Brae Nursery at Howes Road is based within the school site, while Orchard Brae at Ashgrove is based within the Ashgrove children’s Centre. Places at both nurseries are allocated on application through the Educational Psychology service in conjunction with NHS Health Visitors. Placement meetings take place in June, November and February with pupils starting in the term after their 3rd birthday, depending on the availability of spaces.
Both Nurseries have pupils with a wide range of additional support needs. The aim of the Nurseries is to support pupils to develop the skills required to allow them to reach their full potential. A place at Orchard Brae nursery does not assume a place at Orchard Brae school as many pupils will gain skills that allow them to start Primary 1 in their zoned Primary school or Mile-end ASN provision.
Chinese New Year, also referred to as Lunar new Year, is the Chinese festival which celebrates the New Year on the traditional Chinese calendar. This year it falls on Friday the 12th of February. Every year in the Chinese calendar is represented by an animal, 2021 is the year of the Ox.
Below are some activities to help you celebrate at home. Don’t worry if you do not have all the exact items you need, you can replace them with whatever bits and pieces you have at home.
Hope you have fun and Happy Chinese New Year!
This is a story from about how the twelve zodiac years were named by the Jade Emperor.
Cbeebies also have some fun things to make to help you celebrate.
This video shows you how to make a Chinese lantern that you can decorate and hang up.
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week, led by the charity Place2Be. This year’s theme is Express Yourself and is ideal for all of our learners. There are lots of lovely ideas for creativity and self expression with links on their website such as the art ideas below. Every activity has stories and music in addition to the art ideas so there really is something for everyone.
The sample below is from the Colour Project. Click on the links for more information and a sample of what is on offer:
Our colleagues at the Educational Psychology Service have recently launched their Digital Hub. This is available online and is well worth a look for supporting both you and your children. These are tough times for everyone so it’s important to care for yourself too. One of my personal favourites is the Circle of Control, a reminder to try not to waste time and energy thinking about about things I cannot control or change.
Explore the Educational Psychology Hub further here:
Finally, for staff there’s an opportunity to engage in free training around supporting the mental health of our children and young people. Please follow this link:
Sometimes, when you have a child with an additional support need, working out what they are trying to tell you can be difficult!
Your child may be beginning to develop some behaviours that challenge you, or they may already have behaviours that challenge you.
There are often complex reasons behind a child’s behaviour and it is rarely anyone’s ‘fault’.
All children are different and there is often no single answer as to why the behaviours are happening.
There is no ‘quick fix’ but hopefully this presentation will give you some ideas, strategies and advice and show you that there are lots of ways you can help and support your child.
At the end of the presentation there are lots of links to additional resources that you may find useful!
Scottish Autism is the largest provider of autism specific services in Scotland and a leading authority and advocate for good autism practice.
In supporting families, Scottish Autism, have produced an online support programme.
The Right Click programme has been developed specifically for parents or carers of individuals who are on the autism spectrum who are in particular need of information or support.
The Young Child programme is focused on providing support to parents or carers of young and recently diagnosed children. The programme includes topics such as: eating, sleeping and toileting.
When you sign up for Right Click you will complete a registration form and then receive a confirmation email. You can then log in and get started.
As well as the Activity Sheets in the previous post we wanted to share some more videos from Sense Scotland on things you might like to try at home.
The ideas can all be adapted to suit your child and can be made using items and objects that can generally be found in the home without having to go out and buy specialist equipment or items.
If you do decide to make, or try, any of the activities or ideas that we have posted we would love to know how they turned out and how much fun was had. If you would like to, get in touch and let us know, if you get the chance you could always send us some photos too!
This next video is from Easy Peasy and Fun and is how to paint with ice!
Sense Scotland have a section on their website of early years ideas and activities. Below are a few of their sensory ideas and activities that you may wish to try out at home.
Today may be known as blue Monday but we have something special that will brighten up your day! We are delighted to share the final nativity performances from our Nurseries and we hope you enjoy them!
Sense.org.uk is a charity that supports people with complex disabilities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Sense Scotland is part of the Sense family and works with children, young people and adults who have communication needs in Scotland.
Sense has developed a set of play toolkits for parents and professionals to provide information and advice on enabling children with complex disabilities to enjoy inclusive play.
The toolkit for parents contains simple ideas, suggestions and practical tips on making play fun and fully accessible. You know your child best, you know their likes and dislikes, so not all the activities and ideas may be suitable for your child but hopefully there will be some inspiring ideas for you to try.
Sense have also produced a series of videos to go along with their play toolkit which we have linked below.
During the current restrictions we know that you may not have, or be able to get, a lot of the items in the videos. The videos have simply been added to hopefully give you some ideas of things that you might want to try with your child, using or adapting, whatever items and objects you do already have at home.
Our lives are full of sensory experience. We all respond to sensory information. We touch, move, see, hear, taste and smell. It is important to recognise that the sensory information we process can have an impact on how we feel, how we think and how we behave and respond. Any of the senses may be over, or under sensitive, or both, at different times.
These booklets will give you some ideas and examples of things that you can try to help you support your child with their sensory experiences.
Making Sense of Sensory Behaviour – Falkirk Council
Sensory Approach for Parents and Carers – Falkirk Council
We have set this page up for all our parents and children of Orchard Brae Nursery at Howes Road and Ashgrove.
We hope this page will provide you with easy access to any guidance, resources, advice and ideas specific to the early years that we think you might find useful!
The staff will still be in regular contact but we wanted you to have a page that you can access at anytime to suit you and your family circumstances.
We will update with new resources as and when we can, so please check back regularly to see what’s new!
To get us started, the following booklet published by Falkirk Council, gives some practical advice and information for parents and carers with young children at home.
