At this time of the term we would usually be preparing for our Leavers to leave school with all the celebration they deserve: lots of events, a party or two, an Awards Ceremony, some hand-shakes, hugs and a few tears! This year we cannot do this before the end of term, but we can say a huge and heartfelt Thank you to all our leavers and wish them good luck for the future.

Room 17

To all the wonderful pupils in Room 17 – Thank you! You have been an absolute pleasure and joy. Although I was only your teacher for a short amount of time, it was an absolute privilege to get to know all of you and to teach you. You have all worked hard this year and tried your very best. We couldn’t ask any more of you and we are all so very proud of you.

To the parents and carers, thank you for all your support this year, especially during these more recent times. I have really enjoyed getting to know you and hearing all about how our young people are getting on at home. I have especially enjoyed seeing all the photos and hearing about all the personal stories, and I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you for sharing those special memories with me.

We are all really going to miss you. I wish each of you all the luck in the world and hopefully, I will hear from you again in the future and how you are getting on. Take care, from Ru and all of us in Room 17.

Room 19

To our young men – two years have flown by but that is what happens when you are having fun! For all staff in Room 19, it has been a joy and a privilege to work with you both and support your deserved progress. We have learnt together and my goodness we have laughed; both of you have such wonderful senses of humour which have kept everyone in Room 19 smiling – thank you! You should both be proud of your achievements and successes; you have faced fears, overcome challenges and made enormous progress throughout your time at school – you are stars!

To your Mums and Dads – thank you for your constant support. It has been lovely getting to know you and working in partnership with you has resulted in your wonderful sons achieving so much.

So, you are young men moving on to the next chapter in your lives; keep on believing in your abilities, keep on learning and keep on having fun!

We are so proud of you both! Good luck in the future and please remember to pop back and let us know about your continuing successes.

Be proud of yourselves and take care.

Miss S, Carol, Jill, Lisa, Noreen and Sharon.

Howes Hoose

To the pupils who have been in The Hoose I want to say a huge THANK YOU!! You have all been absolutely amazing. We have had some serious times and some silly times! We have worked hard but also had time to have fun. You have achieved so much and should be so proud of yourselves. You have grown into exceptional young people, young people who are able to meet a challenge and be as independent as possible. Each one of you has pushed yourself and taken on tasks I am sure you never thought you would do and I cannot tell you enough how proud we are of you all.

Also to you, the parents, thank you for trusting us with your most precious gifts. Without your support and faith we would not have been able to challenge the pupils and show them what they are capable of. Opening the door and letting our young people walk through is very scary, together we have given them the key.

So our Howes Hoose Heroes, you are ready to go, to open that door to the next stage in your life and make it your own!

You are all amazing, don’t ever forget that.

From all of us who have had the privilege to work with you over the last 2 years – Sharon, Catherine, Grace, Lynn and I, THANK YOU SO MUCH and good luck.

Missing you already!!

Smithy

Welcome to the final week of term! We enjoyed the sunshine last week, perfect for our Virtual Sports Day activities, and there was lots of fun had by everyone that participated. We also had a range of activities ongoing through our Google Classrooms with remote learning taking place across the classes. If you’ve not yet engaged with Google Classroom but would like more information please contact the Class Teacher. Here are some of the fun activities from the last week.

Literacy

One of our classes read the story of the Rainbow Fish and produced some art work in response to the story.

Some other pupils have been reading the Picture News each week and completing a range of literacy activities connected with it. This week, the focus was on Zoos. One of our young people designed her own zoo. She also did some research into Sea Turtles and learned lots of interesting facts.

As we move into the summer holidays it would be good to see reading continue. Did you see the post on Friday about the Reading Challenge from Aberdeen City Libraries? It would be great to get involved with, either individually or as a family. Have a look for more information:

Aberdeen Reads: Join the Summer Reading Challenge

Science

It was hot last week and we had some appropriately timed Science activities in one of our classes. We painted with ice cubes!

Life Skills

We continued our Home Economics. One class made a Caterpillar Salad to practise using a knife for cutting.

Homemade ice lollies were also on the menu, perfect for the sunny days that we had!

If you’d like to try making your own lollies, have a go by following one of these recipes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cnKNWjgH06Q8oRPPCOjZZIeXNxeNp_Vx/view?usp=sharing

We also continued our Life Skills around the home. It’s great to see so many young people becoming so independent!

Transitions

Looking ahead, we’ve been putting plans in place for transition of pupils to their new classes, staff sharing information with one another in virtual meetings where pupils are moving on. It may be that there are things about your child that have changed during the time at home. We’d be really grateful if you would share this with us – information such as any changes in likes or dislikes, motivators, sensory needs, communication or diet. These will be passed on to the new teachers.