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.

Fizzy Snowmen In Room 8

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This week, our weekly story was ‘Sneezy the Snowman’ by Maureen Wright. In this story, Sneezy the Snowman is cold. In trying to warm up, he makes choices that are not in his best interest! Room 8 found the humour in this story as they realized that the choices made have a negative consequence. This was a good way to talk about choices with the children. The story is also written with rhyming words which can help children develop listening and literacy skills.

There were a lot of fun, learning activities that were inspired by this book. Through hands-on activities, children:

• Developed visual discernment skills in playing snowman matching games
• Used higher level thinking and problem-solving skills to describe why their snowman melted when creating their own melted snowman during Science and followed the pattern to recreate Sneeze’s red and blue scarf.
• Discovered the ‘life cycle’ of a snowman, and snow or ice.

During Science, we made a melting snowman experiment that was both simple and festive. The first step was to mix one glass of baking soda with 1 tbsp of salt, 2 tbsp of hand wash and 4 tbsp of water. Next, we moulded three balls and stacked them. Then we decorated the snowman with paint and twigs. Finally, we used a pipette to add vinegar to the snowman and observed as it slowly melted.

Festive Fun In Room 5

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Pupils in Room 5 have been having a great time getting ready for Christmas. They’ve enjoyed parties with lots of games to take part in as well as dressing up and even a visit from someone very special aka Santa!!!

Have a look at their video to see just some of the fun they’ve had.

Countdown To Christmas

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Orchard Brae Advent Calendar: Days 15 and 16

Apologies for no Countdown yesterday (Santa’s mischievous elves were tampering with the technology!) so today we are sharing two special festive treats.

For Day 15, please join the pupils from Orchard Brae Nursery@Ashgrove as they show you their drumming talents!

For Day 16, we are delighted to share our Makaton Choir’s performance of ‘I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas’ which was shown at the recent Evening Express Carol Concert at P&J Live.