Broad General Education
The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) is Scotland’s education framework for ALL learners; its main aim is to enable children and young people to develop the four capacities; successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. In Orchard Brae School each learner is enabled to become as independent as possible, developing skills for life, learning, leisure and where appropriate work. Our curriculum offer is personalised to each pupil throughout their learning journey, as we maintain a focus on positive future destinations.
Our learners in P1 – S3 work within Broad General Education (BGE) at a level and pace that is suited to their individualised needs. Personalised targets focus core skill development within Literacy and Communication, Numeracy and Health and Well Being. The ethos and life of the school community is structured to enable pupils to learn and practise life skills as part of their daily routines. Through interdisciplinary approaches and specialist courses, we offer real life learning contexts, deepening and practicing knowledge and skills within Expressive Arts, RME, Science, PE, Technologies and Social Studies. Interdisciplinary learning, through ‘Our world’ contexts over a 5 year cycle, facilitates pupils’ exploration, experience and learning which is practiced within community contexts, ensuring confidence and success is generalised and secure. Family learning is a vital part of our pupils’ success and, along with our termly learning challenges, we offer a range of workshops, activity nights and holiday schemes for families. Achievement and success is recognised and celebrated.
Room 5 had a busy morning, visiting our local library at Northfield.
When we arrived, we spent some time exploring the library. We really liked the computers and colouring in table! We then met the librarian who gave us a library card for our class and we chose some books to take back to school.
We can’t wait for our next visit to the library.
The children in Room 3 have been doing incredible work on their movement skills since returning to school! The children use their equipment daily as part of class routines and work so hard to stand up tall in their standing frames or take steps in their walkers. Twice a week we do focussed movement sessions where we use a range of floor based positions as well as equipment. On a Tuesday we focus on trying out activities in a range of positions, sometimes these are new or challenging but the children are so motivated. On a Friday we have a music and movement session which is linked to our story. We have been exploring all the animals’ movements from ‘The Animal Boogie’ while moving our bodies to different pop and Disney songs in a range of positions. The children work together in pairs or small groups throughout the week in their equipment and are further developing their awareness of each other…sometimes there’s a real sense of competition while we throw/kick balls or try to press the computer first but likewise sometimes it is nice just to lie together during a relaxation time or even help encourage a friend by holding up a favourite toy for them. Being active is great – amazing work Room 3!
This week the pupils in Room 3 came back to school and some of our pupils celebrated their first day of Primary One.
We explored the story ‘First Day at Bug School’ and the children engaged so well as we moved through the different classes that the bugs attend! We started the story and went through the grass (Pom Poms helped set the scene!) then listened to the ‘tiny school bell ring’ which took us into bug school. We started by doing the register where we hid under the cloths before pulling them off our heads just like we do in our class! In Spider science class we loved watching the water fall down the spout (there was quite a lot of splashing too!), in Ladybird maths class we spun the spinner before listening to/feeling on body counting to the same number, in PE class we worked hard to push the huge gym ball off our trays and it was so much fun to watch it bounce across the classroom and music class with the Crickets was a huge hit too! Almost as much fun as a day at Orchard Brae.
We are super impressed with how quickly the children have settled into the school routine for the first time/after the long holidays and are very excited for all the learning ahead of us in Room 3 this year.
Room 4 have been reading ‘The New Friend’ by Alex Scheffler for their book study this term.
In the book, the main characters Pip and Posy make a new friend at the beach and they work together to build a sandcastle.
We enjoyed the book so much that we thought we would have a go at making our own sandcastles! We visited the beach and worked together to build our own sandcastles. We thought we did a good job. What do you think? We even made our own new friend when we went looking in the rock pools!
This Summer there will a series of Arts Clubs being run by Keith Emmeline and Sam.
To book these please go to www.eventbrite.co.uk and search for Orchard Brae Summer school
or click on the image below.
The beginning of summer is upon us! As we head into the final stretches of the school year, everyone should take time to reflect on the highs and lows of the year. What worked? What flopped? How can you improve for next year? What from your old job will you bring to your new one? What must you definitely leave behind?
However, when we take time to reflect on our year and take stock of how we’ve grown and changed, we are more able to acknowledge the gifts of this passage and harvest our own learning for the future.
Let’s find out together our best moments.
This Summer Active schools will be running a Summer Camp for the 1st 4 weeks.
To sign up for activities please complete the survey link.
We are having a Musical activities week this year.
Click on the image to see the timetable.
Everyone enjoyed the Potted Sports organised by our PE Department on Wednesday. Thank you to everyone involved for the hard work that went into this, including our Howes Hoose pupils who supported at the stations. We all had a great time moving around in our class groups, finishing up with a running ‘marathon’ for any Secondary pupils wishing to participate. They were well supported by those opting to spectate.
