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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.
Room 15 have had an extremely busy first few weeks back at school, working hard on our communication skills throughout the day and skills for regulation as well as jumping into our ASDANs for this year. At the start of the year we had a mini project to pop together a wee video for our former drama specialist Sam, and we’re very proud of the finished result! You can find the video here:
Our ASDANs have focused on the positive relationships we have at school and beyond. At the start of term we explored who is in our class and being able to recognise them and communicating our relationship with them – friend or teacher. We’ve revisited communicating how we feel, and this year we have begun to explore recognising emotions using zones of regulation as well as character portrayals from the film “Inside Out” (and some fabulous acting from the staff team!). We’ve explored what a good friend is through role play, and it has been wonderful to hear some of our learners applying this outside of school too. We’ve explored what rules we have in school and matched signs around the building to our own pictures, then practiced following these rules around the school. We’ve shared messages with our own in-class mail system.
The secret to Room 15 though is how much work we sneak in pretending to be play! We’ve been building our focused and shared attention skills as well as spontaneous communication with bucket time, and we’ve had bubble machines, talking birds, a flying snitch and skateboarding dogs emerge from the bucket so far this term! We’ve revisited our road safety skills practicing crossing the road as independently as possible. In role play sessions we’ve pretended we’re at the fairground and the theme park, using our communication systems to share our experiences. We’ve used daily group games to enhance our communication and team-work skills as well as showing fantastic progress with several numeracy skills (one of our learners has learned to say a new number, another is telling time to the hour with minimal prompting).
Liz and Grace have had a busy start to the session, working with many pupils across the school. In our primary classes pupils focus on experiencing foods with opportunities to handle, taste and talk about a variety of foods. Hygiene is also a very important part of the routine at all times.
In Secondary, pupils continue working on routine and hygiene, experiencing different foods. As they progress, skills and independence are developed. Pupils at Senior Phase make a range of snacks and meals, some showing great aptitude and skill. We use our skills in literacy and numeracy to follow recipes and practise measurement. We are very adept at cutting and chopping. We’ve enjoyed fruit pancakes and have made apple crumble, enjoying the seasonal produce available.
The children in Room 14 enjoyed doing some masking as part of an art activity in class. We used masking tape to create individual designs, painted over this and then peeled off the tape to reveal a lovely pattern.
Some pupils in the secondary department and pupils working at home have been busy colouring, painting, sticking and collaging panels for a collaborative rainbow display.
We have been collecting raspberries and brambles in the lane near school and making jam. Then a colleague, kindly, brought in plums and apples from her farm. So we all practised using a butter knife to chop up plums and apples to make more jam. Our favourite recipe is for plum and cinnamon jam.
We also used a traditional apple press to make our own apple juice. We all took turns to mulch and squash the apples it was hard work. “Don’t break it!” we were warned by one student. After that we all enjoyed the apple juice. Some quotes from the students:
At the start of term, Room 18 planted some seeds. We planted carrots, lovely red radishes, cress and some lettuce.
We have already enjoyed eating the cress with egg in sandwiches.
We have watered the plants using our watering can and kept an eye on them as they grow. This week we re-planted the seedlings into the sensory garden vegetable trough which one of our young men had painted. The radishes will be ready for snack very soon. Watch out for more carrot updates!
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.
Room 17 have had a busy few weeks settling back into a routine. We have enjoyed getting to know each other through our welcome routine in the mornings. We have been busy making displays for our classroom walls and making the most of the good weather by going out for local walks and enjoying our new sensory garden. Pupils have also had fun with some sensory play and music.
Class 13 are all together again after almost 5 months disruption. We are all glad to be back to something like normal.
One of our jobs this year is to collect food from Tesco at Westhill and take it back to school for distribution. We have had some teething problems but hopefully it will be a weekly enterprise for us in Room 13, alongside the students in Howes Hoose.
Here you can see us offloading the food from the school bus so that it can be classified.
