Category: Secondary Department

Welcome to the Secondary Department

The secondary department has 8 classes and pupils follow the principles of Curriculum for Excellence: a broad general education in S1-S3 and the Senior Phase in S4- S6.   The curriculum is varied, relevant, challenging, enjoyable and adapted to meet our pupil’s individual needs.  Pupils also visit a range of specialists, have access to relevant therapeutic inputs and participate in wider community events.

Fun In PE With Room 16

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Room 16 have had great fun at PE this term. We have been playing table football using switches to activate hairdryers that move the ball across to our opponent’s goal. Some of us have been climbing up steps, along benches and down a chute. We have also been playing tennis. Thank you to the PE staff for making our sessions fun every week!

Howes Hoose Fundraising Champions

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Howes Hoose Fundraising Champions 

Over the past month the pupils in Howes Hoose have been taking part in a fundraising project to raise money for those in need as a result of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Pupils were shown a variety of causes and videos to explain each then voted which one they wanted to raise money for. The majority chose the earthquake.

We did an Easter themed ‘guess how many in the jar’ fundraiser where we filled a huge jar with tasty chocolate treats and went round classes asking to make a guess at the total and collect donations. The last few pounds are coming in but we have raised roughly £60 which we are very proud of! Incredibly one member of staff guessed the exact number of eggs in the jar so that very fortunate person is all sorted for Easter! 

Howes Hoose Fundraising

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As part of our ASDAN work we have been raising money for a charity of our choice. Pupils were shown 3 videos of different charities then used symbols to select which one they would like to fundraise for. The majority of the class chose the Earthquakes in Syria and Turkey. We have seen this a lot on Newsound so it is a familiar story to our pupils.

 We are going to be doing an Easter themed  ‘Guess How Many In The Jar’ so we have been counting out lots of tasty Easter treats into a big jar. Some pupils took turns dropping the eggs in and others preferred to listen to the sound of them as they dropped in. One of our pupils was really keen to help us count out loud and impressed us with how far he could keep counting as we don’t usually talk about numbers that big in class! We are looking forward to visiting classes to collect guesses and donations over the coming weeks. 

Working with Assistive Technologies in Room 17

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As part of our SQA, ‘Working with Assistive Technologies’, Room 17 have been exploring lots of different ways of using assistive technologies to give us more independence whilst carrying out different activities, and making our learning fun. We have enjoyed using switch buttons for musical activities, and playing with different toys. We have also used different switches for small appliances, such as the popcorn maker, and the hand blender which we tried to carve different pumpkins with (it’s harder than it looks!).  We even used a switch for operating a hair dryer to paint with  – that was good fun! 

Festivals in Room 16

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Festivals in Room 16

Room 16 have had lots of sensory play to celebrate the Lunar New Year. As well as a visit from the Confucius Institute when we did lots of activities, such as calligraphy and making fish, we sponge-painted dragons and REALLY enjoyed exploring our sensory trays filled with rice, money wallets, special soup spoons and adapted chopsticks. We had great fun as a class playing a Chinese New Year themed game of Snakes and Ladders which we projected on to the whiteboard so everyone could see. Playing a game as a class was very successful – and competitive!

At the end of February, we found out about Mardi Gras parades and made our own masks while we listened to Mardi Gras music. We learned that the three Mardi Gras colours each stood for something:

Green = Faith

Purple = Justice

Gold = Power

New Horizons with Howes Hoose

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Howes Hoose have been working on their New Horizons Personal module. We have been talking about personal skills we are good at and ones that we want to work on. After selecting a personal challenge from a variety of symbols we got to work. Challenges included – learning to use the washing machine, deciding what is for snack each day, hoovering and keeping desks clean. We are going to be reviewing our challenge this week and deciding if we found it easy or difficult! 

Burns Day Celebrations with Room 15

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Room 15 have been super busy this week celebrating the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. We started by working collaboratively to paint a giant Scottish flag as a class which is now decorating the wall outside our class. We also practised our rolling and fine motor skills with salt dough to make models of the famous Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. Don’t worry, we will be painting them once they are fully dry and solid!

Then on Wednesday we celebrated Burns day properly by having a Burns Supper for lunch. We worked on setting the table with a tartan tablecloth and listened to the “Address to a Haggis” before we had a taste of haggis, neeps and tatties with our normal lunch. The haggis wasn’t for everyone but we did have some fans.

Happy New Year from Room 17

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Happy New Year! We hope all our family and friends had a lovely holiday! 

Before the holidays, Room 17 had lots of festive fun. We decorated our classroom, made some fun crafts to share with you at home, and played some games (it didn’t get competitive at all – promise!), and made some reindeer food and hot chocolate cones to sell at the school fayre. Phew, it was busy! We are looking forward to seeing what 2023 has to offer!

Happy Christmas

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We would like to wish all our pupils, their families, staff and associated colleagues a very happy Christmas. Have a wonderful festive season and t get you in the festive spirit, here are a few videos from our recent Christmas Concert along with our entry for the Evening Express Carol Concert.

Evening Express Carol Concert

Day 7: Room 7

Day 10: Room 10

Day 13: Drumming

Day 15: Room 15

Day 18: Room 18

Day 20: Howes Hoose

Futures Event

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Thanks to all parents, carers and partners for supporting the Orchard Brae Futures Event last week. It was great to be back in person for this annual event and there was a lovely buzz in the hall as you took the opportunity to network and chat informally to the providers in attendance. The presentation from the event is below. Feel free to get in touch if you wish to discuss anything further.