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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.
Today is World First Aid Day and the pupils in Room 5 have been very busy learning about first aid and helping others.
We are very boisterous and full of fun at Orchard Brae and sometimes we have bumps and falls when we are playing. We had fun learning some first aid to treat our bumps. We also celebrated World First Aid Day and found a free British Red cross App that our Mums and Dads can download so they know what to do if we have an accident.
The children in Class 10 are settling in after their long break. There are lots of new people in the room for us all to get to know and so we are taking things easy and doing some relaxing activities. We have done some big painting onto boards and windows. We have done some very friendly activities, such as playing games and taking turns.
As the weather gets cooler, classes have been making a bug hotel in the new sensory garden. We have been exploring different plants and textures to make a place where insects can keep warm over the winter. We have used grasses, thistle down and a variety of plants to create a cosy environment for our tiny guests to stay in over the colder months.
We have also been setting up tasks for pupils to help keep our playground tidy, like raking the sandpit. These jobs are great experience and provide a fantastic opportunity to be involved in real work.
We have also been establishing bird feeders outside class and in the new sensory garden.
We can’t believe it has been almost a month since we returned to school. But we are very happy to be able to see our friends and teachers. We, in Room 11, have welcomed three new pupils who have brought to our class laugh and mischievousness.
All children have been happily participating in activities in class and learning new routines. We have been having lots of fun completing number activities, enjoying art and online music sessions.
The boys and girls in Room 3 have made a fantastic start to the school year. We have welcomed some new Primary One pupils into the class as well as some old friendships being re-established. All of the children have been extremely enthusiastic about trying new activities as well as familiarising themselves with some they have not done for a while. Everyone is adapting so well to new routines and beginning to get to know their friends in class. These photos show just some of the fun we have been having!
The boys in Room 7 have been enjoying getting to know each other and settling in to our new classroom and outdoor space. We have been doing lots of art activities and have had fun exploring the feel of paint, glue, felt, wool and paper. We also looked at our reflections in a mirror to make little self portraits.
Room 6 have had a fab start to Term 1! We have been enjoying getting to know each other and are settling in well together. We have been working really hard every day, as well as doing fun activities as you can see from the photos!!
Wow! We’ve made it to the last week of what has been an unusual and difficult term. We would like to say thank you to all of our pupils for their ongoing engagement with learning from home as well as a massive thank you to the parents who have helped to support this while juggling the other daily demands of home and work life during a global pandemic – you are all amazing!
Your child’s teacher will be using Google Classroom to share activities with you this week but we are aware that some families are waiting on technology and other supports to enable them to access Google Classroom so we will still be posting a selection of activities here too. If you haven’t logged in yet or having difficulty accessing Google Classroom please contact your child’s teacher who will be able to offer you support and advice. Here is a short video to show you some of the exciting things happening on Google Classroom.
If you would like to share how you have got on with our activities, please share any photos via your child’s teacher, through Google Classroom, the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page or email Amy Dunnett (Principal Teacher Primary) adunnett@aberdeencity.gov.uk. Downloading videos from the Orchard Brae School Facebook Messenger page appears to be working again (fingers crossed!) however if you are having any issues, please send them using a free transfer site such as Dropbox or WeTransfer.
Aberdeen Reads Challenge:
Once again Aberdeen City Libraries will run a reading challenge during the holidays. Aberdeen Reads is open to everyone to challenge themselves to explore reading this summer and will run from 27 June – 29 August 2020. People can take part as an individual or as a group, so please register and get involved!
Although library buildings are closed Aberdeen City Libraries continues to provide services 24/7 via our digital offer. There is a wide range of ebooks, eaudio books, ecomics, emagazines and online resources suitable for all ages and abilities. They will also continue to deliver regular Bookbug sessions digitally via YouTube and Facebook.
The Challenge aims to support children to develop language and literacy skills by encouraging all kinds of reading – instructions, recipes, picture books, sharing stories with younger siblings. There are a series of suggested challenges; many of which can be easily carried out as part of a daily routine; on a range of topics to inspire everyone to try different genres and types of reading.
Children and families who register will be entered into a prize draw and there will be another prize draw for those who complete 3 or more challenges/reads.
Reading activity can be recorded on a Challenge card which be printed or downloaded from the Aberdeen City Libraries website to a mobile device. Information on the Challenge and how to register is on our website www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/aberdeenreads
Story Of The Week: We’re Going On A Beat Hunt by Michael Rosen
This week’s book study is a favourite with many of our our pupils – We’re Going On A Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. In this story, a family go on a fun day out, looking for bears and exploring a variety of wonderful places, but they’re in for a BIG surprise!
Below you can read and listen along to the author Michael Rosen retelling the story:
The book study below has some great activities for you to try at home based on the story.
Be Resilient!
Education Scotland, in conjunction with Aberdeen City Council, produced a Resilience Alphabet full of fun think, say, do activities designed to promote resilience and develop coping strategies. There are a series of activities for each letter of the alphabet, so pick a letter and give it a go!
Here is a learning grid for Life Skills. It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help develop and promote your child’s independence in a range of household and life skills tasks.
These activities are only suggestions and we would recommend that, where appropriate, you adapt these activities to meet your child’s ability level.
Learning Grid: Get Active!
Here is a learning grid for Getting Active! It contains 16 activity ideas for you to help promote physical activity both in and out of the home on a daily basis.
These activity are only suggestions and we would recommend completing one activity each day. However, we would love to see what other creative ways you and your family are using to Get Active daily!
Links to YouTube Channels and websites can be found below.
Huge thanks to Amanda and Salvi, our PE teachers and Scott, Active Schools, for organising our Virtual Sports Day, and thanks to everyone that took part. Pupils and staff have been joining in over the course of the week to complete up to 8 challenges. It’s been fun seeing how you’ve been getting on, how things have been adapted to support our individual strengths, and also to see some healthy competition within your families! We hope you enjoy the photos. If you’ve not had a chance to get involved yet, why not try out some activities over the weekend, or even in the summer holidays?
Beat the Goalie
We set up our own goals and took on a challenge. The different options suggested were:
Kick from further back
Kick backwards
Pass to someone before trying to score
Kick blindfolded
Obstacle Course
Your challenge was to be creative and have fun, using various objects around the house and garden to build obstacles.
Throwing
We practised throwing with different challenges for anyone finding it easy:
Throw from further back
Throw backwards
Throw under leg
Throw blindfold
Water Run
Always a popular activity on Sports Day, thankfully we’ve had some sunny weather! As you can see, some of us really entered into the spirit of things and got very wet! Trying out the different options, you can see we had some team work in action:
As a team
With obstacles
With holes in the cup
Add food colouring to water
Egg and Spoon
A sports day classic, this can be adapted by using a frying pan or plastic bowl instead of a spoon. All sorts of things can be improvised in place of an egg, such as a potato, a scrunched up sock, newspaper, and anything else you can think of!
The options included:
Race against each other
Add obstacles
Time yourself
Bowling
Our challenge was to practise bowling using empty plastic bottles as the target – a good way of re-using plastic. Keeping things safe for indoors, rolled up socks, a toilet roll or even a teddy were suggested alternatives to a ball.
Again, different options to increase the challenge:
Bowl from further back
Bowl from sitting
Bowl standing
Bowl blindfold
Running
The only event I personally tried, again there were options to make things a bit more interesting:
Have a race against each other
Run backwards
Shuttle run with toys
Run with obstacles (hurdles)
One inventive Grandad even encouraged running by turning on the garden hose!
Tower Building
This activity allowed us to be even more creative, using any number of objects to:
Build a tower and push it down
Shuttle run to build a tower
Build a tower as high as you can
Build a tower as a team
It looks like good fun was had by all.
A fabulous effort! We hope you had fun. You’re all winners!
