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.

Celebrating World Book Day

  By , , , , , ,

Yesterday was World Book Day and there was lots of fun as pupils shared their favourite books in class and some classes visited the book shop in town to spend their World Book Day tokens.  We were also fortunate to have received some lovely book donations which will enhance our school library and any books that we no longer use will be donated to Books2Africa to share our love of reading and books around the world.

Room 5 Feed The Birds

  By , , , ,

Room 5 went on a trip to ASDA to buy the ingredients to make bird feeders. We made them using nuts, lard and seeds. They were very smelly and felt slimy!!

We took them down to the duck pond and hung them from the trees for the birds. We hope they enjoy them!!!

 

 

Sensory Gardening With Room 4

  By , , ,

Room 4 have been experiencing gardening.

We are so lucky to have our own planter containers right outside our classroom. 

We dug, moved and patted the soil as we planted the crocuses.

 

Storytelling With Ailie

  By , , , , , , ,

This week we have been extremely lucky to have had Ailie Finlay from Flotsam And Jetsam join us in school.  Ailie is a fantastic multi-sensory storyteller based in Edinburgh and she has been working with five different classes across the school as part of the Aberdeen City Arts Across Learning Festival.

She has thoroughly entertained us over the last three days with her wonderful tales and we all had an amazing time exploring storytelling with her.

Thank you so much Ailie for coming to work with us and we hope to see you again soon.

 

Owl Babies With Room 8

  By , , ,

Room 8 pupils have been enjoying their Book study – ‘Owl babies” by Martin Waddell, a wonderful book to share with young children to help tackle anxieties and fears about temporary separation.

First, we read the story and described in simple words the personality of each baby owl. Also, we listened to a relaxing music having as a theme ‘Forest at night sounds – owls and crickets, rustling leaves and wind’. They touched all four characters – the owl mother and her three babies, counted them, and called their names, Sarah, Percy and Bill.

Secondly, we made cute pieces of art, showing all three owl babies on the same brunch. We used our fingerprints to symbolize the owls.

Our third step was to design an owl nest. We went to the pond to see the ducks and it was a great opportunity to collect the materials for the owl nest.

At the end, we explored  our characters and we spoke about emotions, happiness and sadness. This gave us the idea to use ‘happy’ colours drawing owls using pastel chalk.

We all have had an amazing time studying ‘Owl Babies’. Well done, room 8!

 

Drama in Room 11

  By , ,

Children in Room 11 have been enjoying drama sessions with Sam. This week’s theme was musicals. We have been listening to a various songs such as “Good Morning” by Debbie Reynolds and “Singing in the rain” by Gene Kelly.

All children loved dancing to the music and enjoyed sensory experience such as feeling rain (we used plastic bottles to squirt water) and wind (sensory umbrella).

A Musical Visit

  By , , , , , ,

Yesterday afternoon, we were extremely fortunate to have had a visit from Mary Raunikar Page and her harp.  We had a great time listening to her play the harp and there was lots of fun as we all had the opportunity to explore the instrument and make our own music.

Our Colourful World Of Art

  By , , ,

‘Our world of colour’ is our whole school interdisciplinary learning context this term and we are loving exploring a different colour every week. We choose one of three activities and are asked to try and sign the colour of the week. We have enjoyed creating with primary colours and secondary colours, tomorrow we are going to experiment with the tertiary colour brown, through cave painting, transient sand art and rubbings. Karen has attached her lesson ideas if you would like to use these at home.

Live Music Now

  By , , ,

Today we welcomed Lloyd and Danielle, student and graduate respectively of the Royal Scottish Conservatoire Scotland and members of Live Music Now Scotland. The pair will join us every Thursday until May. We have two groups of ten pupils nominated by their classes, who will join them to make music. The book ‘Ocean Commotion’ will be used as a platform for music making with a performance on their last week. Today we were introduced to their instruments, trumpet and tuba….what amazing sounds!