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.

We did it! Orchard Brae achieves Silver RRSA!

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We are delighted to share that today we had our Silver Accreditation visit with UNICEF to look at how we’re progressing our Rights Respecting School work. Our assessors enjoyed learning about the work that we do in Orchard Brae and the opportunity to meet with some pupils (thank you Room 19), parents and staff. A huge thanks to everyone that joined us virtually or in person.

Please enjoy the video that we shared to highlight some of our work.

We’ll share more about our next steps in future as we are keen to continue progressing, going for Gold in the longer term. For now, we’re delighted to have recognition as a Silver Rights Respecting School: Rights Aware.

Exploring our reflections – Ashgrove Room 2

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In room 2, we have been enjoying looking at our reflections in various ways. The children have had lots of fun looking  at their images in different postures in the mirrors all around the playroom.

We also engaged in arts and crafts. Painting and decorating CDs to reflect the sun shining into the playroom. The children have enjoyed looking at the decorated hangings. Making gloop in the mirror tray gave the children a lovely experience. They also explored lights and shadows.

We also extended our learning by setting up a hairdressing station. This was a hit among the children, sitting in front of the mirror, brushing their hair and some even saying, ‘hair cut’. We’ve had loads of fun this term.

Christmas in Nursery Room 1 @ Ashgrove

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It has been a busy few weeks exploring lots of Christmas themed activities.

We have been decorating our tree and making Christmas crafts, whilst listening to Christmas music.

Our sensory tray has been filled with tinsel, baubles and lights for us to explore. We had lots of fun with hot chocolate sensory play using angel delight, whipped cream and marshmallows to explore and taste our own creations.

We all had our Christmas lunch and the ice cream for pudding was a real treat, everyone enjoyed it.

Christmas Celebration with Active Schools: Thursday 14th December, 4-6 pm

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Active Schools & Sport Aberdeen are hosting a Young Carers and Care Experienced event. Although many brothers and sisters of our Orchard Brae youngsters may not consider themselves to be “Young Carers” we recognise the support that they give in everyday life and would encourage them to attend this fun event. Please register in advance.

Colour day in Butterfly room

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The Butterfly Room had a busy term before the holidays. We’ve been engaging in various activities and our colour day was a hit. The children had lots of fun pouring and watching the rainbow rice fall into the tray. They made beautiful handprints using different coloured paints, painted the autumn leaves and stuck them to the wooden tree. Using the pipette for colouring the cotton petals was a little bit tricky while the yellow, red, brown cooked pasta was quite sticky but the children manoeuvred their ways around them. 

Children enjoyed some lovely numeracy experience through sorting and stacking the various shapes according to their colours. The  beautiful balloons added more colour to the day. 

A Busy Term In The Ladybird Room

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We have had a busy start to the year in the Ladybird room. We welcomed some new children to the playroom and we are all very much enjoying getting to know each other. Everyone in the Ladybird room loves to be outside in the nursery garden, whatever the weather. When outside we all have an amazing time exploring and investigating the different areas of the garden. Being outside has many benefits and we are always thrilled by the ways in which the children use their imagination, creativity and problem solving skills while they naturally engage with the learning activities on offer, such as water play, den building, loose parts, a mud kitchen, sand pit, bikes and trikes to name a few. 

All about me!

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In Room 1 at Ashgrove Nursery for our first term we have been learning all about ourselves.  We have been looking at the different parts of our bodies and their names. We used our hands and feet to explore some paint and make prints with these. After we made footprints we tried out the foot spa to clean them, it was lots of fun. We have also been moving to music with body awareness to help identify our head, arms, hands and feet.

We also made family trees and displayed them for everyone to see.

Exploring Movement In Nursery

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The children at our Howes Road Nursery have been busy settling back into Nursery after the summer break and have done a fantastic job of doing so. We have been making the most of the beautiful sunny days with children engaging in their favourite activities both indoors and out thanks to the wonderful donations of parasols and a swing for our outdoor area. The children have been showing an interest in things that move and how we can make that happen. We used salad spinners, vehicles and tall flowers that were blowing in our nursery garden to create some lovely artwork and have taken part in baking activities making yummy round biscuits, round pizzas and cheese swirls. Some children enjoyed using a switch to activate the foot spa, splashing their feet in the bubbles they created. 

Celebrating Burns Day In The Ladybird Room

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The Ladybird room children and staff had great fun celebrating Burns Day.

They started off the week by making special Ladybird tartan pictures. On the day itself they had the traditional meal of vegetarian ”haggis, neeps and tatties.” Some children appeared to enjoy it more than others.

We rounded off the celebrations on Friday with children and staff dressing in tartan and dancing to ceilidh music in the hall followed by having a very Scottish teddy bear picnic. All the children had taken in their favourite teddy or soft toy and were able to join us for an indoor picnic of traditional Scottish food such as shortbread, oatcakes, and cheese.

A great end to the week and lots of fun.