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.
We are excited to learn that the newly formed Orchard Brae Staff Band have been rehearsing and will be making their debut performance at the Pupil Council Ceilidh on Thursday.
Thanks to everyone that has sent in items for our Clothing Exchange. Please remember that you’re welcome to pop in and browse any time. It’s a great way to save money and help the planet by passing things on that our children and young people have grown out of.
We’ve got clothing in a wider range of sizes now. All sizes of clothing are welcome as our pupils go from age 3-18.
Room 8
Room 8 took part in a scavenger hunt at Duthie Park. We were looking for various items, including fish, flowers and the big frog in the pond.
Some pupils were able to read the words and reinforce their numeracy skills by counting what they had to find.
Sadly, the turtles were being shy and we only saw 3.
Room 10
Room 10 pupils were exploring a farm path near Orchard Brae. We were exploring to see what we could find. Some of the pupils loved splashing in puddles so it was just as well they were wearing wellies!
Room 14
It was too cold to go out, so we did our outdoor learning indoors!
We looked at pictures of trees of trees silhouetted against a winter sunset, and then tried to recreate this on paper, using natural materials.
We used charcoal to rub over leaves and twigs to create the trees, then used various materials to make clouds. We stuck this down on a dark blue background, which looked very effective!
Room 18
Room 18 have been helping to dig over the sandpit.
The sandpit needed to be raked and dug over. We also needed to brush sand from the playground. The class used rakes to move sand, and the progress was amazing. Sand was moved from the edge back into the middle, where it was needed.
Room 7 have been enjoying a variety of activities in the build up to Christmas. They have enjoyed being creative making cards, crackers and have enjoyed listening to and interacting with artifacts about the Christmas story.
Three weeks ago, Room 3 started exploring the question ‘What is Christmas?’ as part of our Winter Festivals theme and as you will see from the photographs…we have certainly tried our hardest to answer it! We have been building on our prior learning and have used means of learning which are motivating to help us discover more about Christmas.
We have participated in many music sessions where we have used Christmas props and have been practising our Makaton signing – we look forward to performing some of the Christmas songs to an audience at the show tomorrow.
Exploration of a wide range of objects has happened through Sensology sessions as well as focussed turn taking games as we continue to develop our awareness of each other – Christmas pass the parcel was a lot of fun and we did so well at sharing what we found inside with our friends. We have explored exchanging money as part of a Christmas counting song where we bought mince pies at the bakers shop.
During free play we have explored a wide range of Christmas items and found some of them very interesting. One boy found it great fun to knock bells off his standing frame, meanwhile another young lady was delighted to find a chocolate coin hiding in the Christmas exploration bowl as you will see from her selfie! There have been many Christmas activities set up including festive playdough which we made together and our favourite exploration tubes which we have been motivated to request through vocalising or move towards by crawling or in our equipment.
There are so many lovely Christmas stories and poems and we particularly enjoyed learning about the ‘Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell’ – there was much hilarity as she swallowed bows, parcels, a sack and even a sleigh which we made fly across the classroom! We learnt about the Christmas story and joined up with friends in Rm 2 and 8 for this – we took on different roles, dressed up and acted the story out.
We have loved exploring Ian Bean’s online Advent Calendar with a daily activity we could do using the switch or eye gaze machines. The Christmas tree lights have been a real motivator to press the switch for too.
A real highlight was the sensory 12 days of Christmas…unfortunately there was so much fun and hilarity that it was tricky to get still photos but the classroom was very animated as we anticipated each item coming back – one boy was beyond excited about the 5 gold rings which he shook with gusto each time! There were lights flying, crackers cracking, tooters tooting, Christmas puddings and a beautiful dancing snowflake which sparkled on the tree.
We have been busy doing lots of crafts including using the salad spinners to make pictures for each season – this is definitely one of our favourite art techniques! We posed to take a picture for our Christmas cards and have done lots of crafts in art with Diane too. The room smelt amazing when we made jam to take home as a little Christmas gift.
We all looked fantastic today for our Christmas party before going to visit Santa and having a wee sing song with him.
Is it any wonder everyone is tired?! Yet another busy term in Room 3 with so much hard work. Enjoy your well deserved holiday and we look forward to what 2020 has to bring.
Today we enjoyed a fantastic trip to BA Stores.
When we first arrived at BA Stores we enjoyed a short walk around the Christmas display. The boys enjoyed looking at the Christmas characters and had a wee biscuit and drink.
We then enjoyed a great tractor ride around the farm track. This was particularly fun because we love the Barefoot book “Driving my Tractor.” The boys were so happy bumping along the road.
We then returned to the store and had the opportunity to meet Santa. The boys waited patiently in the line and got to meet the Big Guy himself. Together we met Santa who gave each boy a small toy and Christmas sweetie.
We had a wonderful time at BA Stores, their generosity and kindness to our class demonstrated the true spirit Christmas.
Merry Christmas from Room 5!
Room 6 have been enjoying exploring the community this term.
We walk to the ducks daily and have seen the number of ducks increase from in the teens to 34.
We have a weekly visit to the library where we enjoy investigating the DVD’s, sensory box and looking at books.
We enjoy playing on the toys at the park in Sheddocksley and have enjoyed exploring the ice when walking to the horses.
We are pleased to announce that we now have a Uniform Exchange in the front reception area of Orchard Brae. We have a small stock of clothing at present including footwear, trousers, school sweatshirts and polo shirts. We also have some bodysuits in smaller sizes. Free sanitary products will be available at all times.
You are welcome to come in and browse at any time, taking what you need for your child.
Donations of clothing (footwear, outdoor jackets or trousers, school uniform) are welcome and can be sent in with your child – please pop a note into the diary so that we know they are for the Uniform Exchange. Our pupils are aged 3 – 18, so all sizes are welcome including adult sizes.
Let’s help ourselves by saving money and passing on clothes that our children have outgrown, and help the environment too by re-using good clothing.
The pupils and staff in Room 3 headed into Aberdeen for our Christmas outing. We travelled on the school bus and our first stop was the Bon Accord Centre where we spotted all sorts of different lights, trees and decorations while listening to Christmas music.
We tried out the smells of different candles in the Yankee shop and practised our skills in communicating which ones we liked and those we didn’t – our reactions were very clear!
We took a little trip to the Disney store to look at the toys, one pupil loved giving the teddies biiiiig hugs and we were all given a special sticker.
After that we wrapped up very warm to head out to the Winter Village! There were lots of sights, sounds and smells to take in before we embarked on a little ice skating. Everyone loved having a turn to whiz around the ice and there were big smiles!
We headed to the Recharge café for our well-needed lunch who gave us lots of help and even brought some lovely sensory toys for us to explore. We enjoyed having some time to relax and socialise together.
Special thanks to the OB nursing team and Charlie House for their support in making our day out run so smoothly.
On Wednesday, everyone in room 5 enjoyed a fantastic end of term Christmas trip to the Vue Cinema to see Frozen 2.
We enjoyed watching this new story about Anna and Elsa unfold.
This was our second trip to the cinema and the boys did really well tolerating the new and different sounds and lights in the cinema.
We are looking forward to the New Year and planning more exciting class outings.
