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.
We have had a wonderful activities week as we prepare for the summer holidays!
On Tuesday we enjoyed an Orchard Brae ‘Proms In The Park’. Unfortunately, the weather meant that we couldn’t enjoy a picnic outside but as you can see from the video below, everyone had a great time listening to the live music provided by the Fyvie Folk Club.
On Thursday, we all took part in our Animal Themed Sports Day. Use the QR code or link below to view a Thinglink showing all the fun!
www.thinglink.com/scene/1596498655605424129
And finally we would like to wish you all a very happy and relaxed summer holiday. Have lots of fun and we can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to what you’ve been up to when we return in August!
We welcomed Mums and Dads, Grannies and Grandads to our end of year celebrations. The children moving onto Primary 1 graduated from nursery with a Graduation Certificate, Graduation hat and a book.
Our guests had juice and biscuits and Mrs Thomson visited and handed out the Graduation Certificates.
The children returning next year received bubbles and at the very end were surprised with helium filled balloons bringing big smiles to their faces.
We had a lovely day celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with lots of the Mums and Dads.
The sun rose brightly on the day of our Platinum Jubilee Celebrations making for a fun and sun filled afternoon for our families. This was our first meet up with parents/carers since Covid began. What a wonderful afternoon was had by all – the children made Jubilee Crowns and there was a sensory activity with British coloured rice. They enjoyed British cupcakes, refreshments and strawberry marshmallow kebabs. The children and families participated in a singalong and then it was time for the certificates to be handed out: I Celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Orchard Brae Advent Calendar: Day 22
It’s the first day of the Christmas holidays!!! Today, we bring you a festive treat from the pupils and staff in the Nursery @Howes Road.
Orchard Brae Advent Calendar: Days 15 and 16
Apologies for no Countdown yesterday (Santa’s mischievous elves were tampering with the technology!) so today we are sharing two special festive treats.
For Day 15, please join the pupils from Orchard Brae Nursery@Ashgrove as they show you their drumming talents!
For Day 16, we are delighted to share our Makaton Choir’s performance of ‘I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas’ which was shown at the recent Evening Express Carol Concert at P&J Live.
The children in Howes Road nursery class have been exploring lots of ‘Things That Go’ in their play and have been engaged in a series of art opportunities.
We have explored painting with balls of different sizes and textures on a big and small scale – a big group session where there was lots of fun throwing, dropping and rolling and as individuals where we used trays – some children chose to move the balls in the paint independently and others had lots of fun tipping the trays to make them roll.
Driving toy cars through paint and using rollers of different sizes had us working hard on controlling our hands as well as watching and tracking the movement. Toy cars on the ramps outside combined with paint was a great experiment too… ‘ready steady go’ and lots of laughter could be heard from afar!
There has been so much creativity and a lot of very active participation in these sessions as you can see from the photographs.
Last Friday, we held our whole school Big Pasta Creativity Challenge Day. Lots of activity ideas for both home and school were posted on the Whole School Events google classroom, but here are some pictures of just a few things that staff and pupils got up to on the day!
We had a great time last week at our Super Hero Sports Day! In all honesty, we’re not sure who enjoyed the day more – pupils or staff? Thanks to Salvi for putting together this ThingLink so that we can relive the fun that we had. To access, follow the link (https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1463847446361669634) or scan the QR code:
On Friday 23rd April, Orchard Brae will participate in some fun Kiltwalk activities. Pupils and staff will be dancing and walking, along with potentially other fun activities. Pupils can wear something tartan to school that day if they wish. There is no expectation of fundraising or donations.
However, if anyone is keen to fundraise, Friends of Orchard Brae still have Kiltwalk places available for both adults and children to help raise money to further develop our Outdoor Learning Area. Registration for these places is free and if interested please e-mail: friendsoforchardbrae@mail.com
All money raised through this year’s Kiltwalk will be topped up with an additional 50% from The Hunter Foundation.
