The children in our room are learning to do lots of activities where they are sharing space and cooperating to work alongside each other.
Category: Primary
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.
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- Engagement
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- Achievement
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- Creativity
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- Learning together
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- Problem solving
We love exploring the moving world in Room 11
Children in Room 11 have been exploring different moving things around them. They have been encouraged to use their senses to look, touch, listen and feel sensory environment of the relaxation room. Some of them enjoyed playing with the sensory tunnel, some preferred playing games with catching lights, when some were loving looking at their mirror image. All of the children loved listening to music of their choice too!
Room 5 Visit The Cinema
The boys in room 5 enjoyed a class trip to Vue Cinema to see Wonder Park. Through “Into Film 2019” we got free tickets for everyone and when we got to the cinema we basically had it all to ourselves.
For some of the class, this was their first trip to the cinema and they all did really well, focusing on the movie and staying for the duration. It was a fantastic day and one which we all really enjoyed and we look forward to returning again.
Technology Time with Room 3!
The children in Room 3 are all working very hard on their targets in using technology. We use switches throughout our daily routines and are practising hard to develop our skills while using the computer, switch toys and even fun appliances such as the hair dryer! We all like iPads and use these to make pictures, create sounds and read stories. Some pupils are using eye gaze technology via the Grid Pad and concentrate hard while working on this particularly tricky skill. Each child has their own motivators and using particular games and stimuli encourage them to really concentrate, even when the work is a little bit tricky. Some recent happy stories include a young man who realised when he pressed the switch his favourite ‘twinkly’ song played and very quickly understood that he needed to wait for the song to finish before pressing again, children joining up together to share operating favourite songs on the screen and a young lady generalising her eye gaze skills to make cheeky sound effects in front of all her friends during a story session!
Out On The Bus With Room 6/7
Room 6 and 7 enjoyed an outing on Public transport last week.
We boarded the bus at the terminus and eagerly awaited its departure. We took the bus to the local shops to buy some supplies for our class snack. We are looking forward to making this a weekly event.
Christmas Fair: 30th November 2019
Room 12 are holding another doll raffle, to be drawn at the Christmas Fair on 30th November 2019, all proceeds to Orchard Brae.
Included in the prize is a beautiful wicker basket bed, bedding, the doll and several outfits – from a bride’s dress, to clown’s outfit to pyjamas and matching dressing gown and more. Doll donated and bedding and outfits beautifully made by the mum of one of Room 12’s class teachers.
Tickets to win all this are £1! Come and see us at the fair to buy your ticket!
There will also be many dolly clothes at our stall available to buy separately. These are unique, handmade and better than any dolls clothes you’ll see in the shops!
Art In Room 9
The pupils in Room 9 have been developing their observation skills during art by creating artwork based on real life objects in front of them. They are all very proud of their completed artwork so if you have a chance, ask them about how they were made and share your opinions with them!
A Busy Week In Room 5
Room 5 have been very busy this week exploring Our World Of Movement.
On Monday the pupils were learning how to make a Tornado in a bottle.
We filled a plastic bottle with cold water and added some washing up liquid and glitter.
We then worked together to shake the bottle in a circular motion creating a water vortex that looks just like a tornado.
On Wednesday, we enjoyed a trip to the Maritime Museum to investigate our World of Movement. The boys enjoyed walking around the museum and looking at the large boat displays. There was a large scale display of an Oil rig which was very interesting but the boys enjoyed looking out at the views of Aberdeen harbour the most. The boats were huge!
Outdoor Learning: Transforming our outdoor learning space
Outdoor Learning space
Last term we asked the council to come and cut down the weeds, to make an area where we can set up outdoor learning. They then delivered a large load of bark, which the pupils helped to take down to the newly cleared area. This area will now be developed over winter, to have bug hotels and hedgehog houses.
Making animals with natural materials
We used beech nuts and twigs to make scary spiders for Halloween. We used string to make the web, and then added our spiders.
Halloween In Room 3
The children in Room 3 have been busy having lots of spooky fun this week. We had our own (home grown!) pumpkin patch in class and enjoyed exploring the story of ‘Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin Picking Plan’. We went jumping in leaves after sweeping them up, had lots of fun picking the perfect pumpkin while taking in the sights and smells of the patch then it rolled all the way home! The children particularly liked our very interactive spooky singing session. We have explored lots of interesting toys and objects which might dance, sing, light up or blow bubbles – some amazing visual and auditory tracking has been happening. Halloween messy play was a big hit…we tried out jelly, gloop, spaghetti and rice crispies – some of us even tried it out with our feet! We participated in the school pumpkin carving competition and took great delight in getting hands on with a drill to make a starry night pumpkin. Everyone looked fantastic in their costumes on the big day itself and we even celebrated a Halloween birthday. Well done Room 3 for your very active participation.
