Category: News

Thank You

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We are delighted to reveal our newest additions to the school and we’re sure that they are some familiar faces you will recognise. Welcome to Alvin, Simon, Theodore and Turbo who will all take pride of place in our school.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the Play Specialists at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital for their amazing donation to the school. We know that they will certainly be well loved and enjoyed by all at Orchard Brae.

Aberdeen Reads: Join the Summer Reading Challenge

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Aberdeen City Libraries have announced an exciting new reading challenge for the summer. Starting tomorrow (27th June) and running until 29th August, everyone is welcome to register as an individual or family / group. Register for the challenge online: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=aw-pJD2_E02ip4k2nOs16xSlCSTRm75Nn6t-EpSexzdUN0kySlJWRlpJUEdRSEdZUlhLRTczUDZDTSQlQCN0PWcu

There are 9 reading related challenges and you can choose those that appeal. Full details of all the challenges are on the Aberdeen Reads website:

Click to access Aberdeen%20Reads%20final%20form.pdf

 

There is something for everyone!

 

Some ideas of how you might use the challenge are:

 

Places

Read some of your favourite stories that are set in other countries (real or imaginary). Two of my personal favourites are:

Where The Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak), a lovely picture book for younger readers, and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (C S Lewis) for older readers.

 

Get Creative

Across the school we’ve seen lovely photos of our children and young people engaging in Life Skills and Arts & Crafts during our period of remote learning. Why not challenge yourself to bake or cook something new? You might find a no-cook recipe that will encourage even greater independence. Try a new craft project and make something useful, or use some of your old junk to create something inspired by a book. Lots of exciting crafty projects can be done using recycled materials and this helps our environment.

 

Ec0-Friendly

Use recycled materials to create a favourite character or a scene from one of your books. One young man from Room 14 did this previously, creating his favourite scene from Harry Potter.

 

Cover Versions

Some of our Secondary pupils enjoy the Harry Potter books. These are magical stories to escape into and are very enjoyable to read aloud. Why not compare the film and the book to find out which you like best? Horrid Henry is always a favourite and episodes can be watched on TV. Do you like the TV episode or the story best? Popular with many of our younger pupils is Disney Cars or any other Disney movie. Again, see what you like best – the film or the book. There are also lots of E-comics on the library website, including Disney.

 

Favourite Place

Try reading in different places and find out what your favourite place to read is. I like to read in the garden, particularly on a fine day.

 

Let us know how you get on and feel free to share with your teachers the stories that you have enjoyed.

 

 

 

Information For Parents/Carers

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On Tuesday, John Swinney, the Depute First Minister (DFM), made a statement in Parliament which detailed the ambition of The Scottish Government for all children and young people to return to school full-time in August 2020. The DFM stressed that it is an aim which the Government is now working towards but it “remains conditional and dependent upon ongoing scientific and health advice.”   

 You’ll be aware that all schools were asked to develop a Plan to detail the arrangements made for ‘blended learning’, this plan now acts as our Contingency Plan.  The Plan details all of the arrangements made to keep our children safe and outlines a number of new arrangements to ensure physical distancing.  The Plan also outlines how children will access in-school learning if we are asked to deliver education in this way in August. 

 We now know that this plan will only be enacted if the scientific and health advise determine that it is unsafe for children and staff to return to school full time.  We currently await further guidance in light of the DFM statement yesterday and plan to share contingency arrangements with you as soon as we can check our approach against updated guidance. 

 We still have some work to do to ensure our contingency school recovery plan is finalised and we will be sending out a survey to gather information about transport.  

 The response so far to the introduction of Google Classroom has been very positive and we would like to thank you all for working so hard to enable this to happen. 

 We will be in touch soon with further information regarding our school recovery contingency plans.  

Google Classroom App

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We are now into our second week of digital learning via Google Classroom and we are delighted with the number of pupils accessing their classes.
 
Following the parental online learning survey, it has been highlighted that there are difficulties with using Google Classroom across different devices. There is an app available which will allow you to access Google Classroom and other GSuite applications via mobile devices which may be helpful to many of our parents. Links to download the app can be found below.
 
Apple Store:
 
Google Play Store:

Children In Scotland Webinars

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Children In Scotland have secured funding from the Wellbeing Fund to deliver five free webinars aimed at parents and carers of children with additional support needs.

The webinars aim to provide a space where people can connect, share and learn together under the guidance of expert trainers. They are also continuing to develop an accessible and varied programme to support children, young people and families.

The online webinars are held throughout July and the topics are listed below.
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Tuesday, 7 July 2020, 10.30am-12pm (FREE)
Discussing coronavirus and lockdown with children/teens with ASN
Delivered by Corrie McLean, Three Sisters Consultancy
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Monday, 20 July 2020, 3pm-4.30pm (FREE)
Supporting children/teens with ASN to manage health anxieties
Delivered by Corrie McLean, Three Sisters Consultancy
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Thursday, 23 July 2020, 10.30am-12pm (FREE)
Understanding children’s rights and additional support requirements
Delivered by My Rights, My Say
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Tuesday, 28 July 2020, 10.30am-12pm (FREE)
Creating positive home routines for children/teens with ASN
Delivered by Corrie McLean, Three Sisters Consultancy
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Friday, 31 July 2020, 3pm-4.30pm (FREE)
Supporting children/teens with ASN with their transition back to schooling
Delivered by Corrie McLean, Three Sisters Consultancy
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Sessions can be booked via the Children In Scotland eventbrite page (link below) along with further details of their upcoming webinars

Children In Scotland Eventbrite page

Book Bug Online Library Session

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Our colleagues at Aberdeen City Libraries are continuing to deliver Book Bug sessions digitally via their Facebook page and YouTube channel every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday while libraries are closed.

They had planned to have Gill White author of “Leo and the Lightning Dragons” deliver a sensory storytime as part of the Bookbug Week celebrations but sadly that had to be postponed. However Gill has kindly recorded a storytelling session and a version signed in Makaton which will be shared this week (week beginning 22 June) to mark Childrens’ Hospice Week. The library service will also share activities related to the book and highlight stories which help children explore their emotions and develop communication.

Please feel free to join in by visiting Aberdeen City Libraries website and social media

Secondary Update: Wk Beg. 22nd June 2020

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We had a very successful start to the use of our Google Classrooms last week with a large number of pupils getting involved and lots of positive feedback. Some of our Senior classes have very much enjoyed catching up on Google Meets and it’s been lovely for our staff to see you all ‘in person’ and chat with you as we’re all missing the social contact and communication that is such an integral part of what we do at Orchard Brae.

This week is our Virtual Sports Day for the whole school. Running for the whole week there are a range of activities for us to join in with and everyone is welcome to join in the fun. Please do share your photographs through the Virtual Sports Day ‘classroom’. Everyone that has signed up to Google will have an invitation waiting in their Gmail account if you’ve not already signed up to participate.

Over the last week we’ve engaged in a range of activities across the Department.

 

A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

Barefoot Books are a favourite of many Orchard Brae pupils. Room 12 chose to base their learning around the Barefoot Book, ‘There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea’. Pupils enjoyed listening to the song and produced some amazing art work in response. It was lovely to hear how focused this young man was and how well he concentrated in order to hold his paintbrush and work on his pictures.

Here is the song if anyone wishes to watch and listen:

 

 

Life Skills

This week we tried making fruit smoothies. Smoothies are a great way to use up any extra fruit. We also made Father’s Day biscuits. I think one Dad is in for a very special treat. These look delicious!

 

 

Enjoying the Outdoors

It’s great to get outdoors and to see the sunshine. We have been exploring a range of outdoor spaces around our local areas. Have you managed to get out and about?

 

We hope you all have a good week. Keep the photos coming and have fun with our Sports Day activities!

Happy Birthday!

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We would like to wish a very happy birthday to our pupils who are celebrating their special day next week.

Here is a very special song to each of you from our Music Therapist, Emmeline – trust me you wouldn’t want to hear the rest of us sing!

We hope you all have a wonderful day.

21st June

22nd June

24th June

Online Learning Survey

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We’ve now been learning remotely for more weeks than we care to remember! This week is particularly exciting with the launch of our Google Classrooms (GSuite) and it’s great to see so many families getting involved with this.

As always, our aim is to support our children and young people as best we can, and we have a Leadership Group working together to focus on how do this as we move towards ‘blending learning’ from August. In order to support their work we’d really appreciate your thoughts on what we have offered so far, any issues or difficulties you’ve experienced, and what you would like to see as we move forward.

All feedback is welcome so please take a few minutes to share your views if you have not already done so. Thank you.

https://forms.gle/oparbBDTDzYbex8Z7

 

We Too! Magazine

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We Too! magazine are publishing a lockdown edition for the summer which will being posted directly to people’s homes. If you are interested in receiving a copy, please register your interest via their website using the link below.

We Too! Magazine