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.

Duke of Edinburgh Award

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Our pupils in Room 19 and Howes Hoose having been working hard on their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. We have some pupils doing their Bronze Award and some working towards the Silver Award. We have now completed our Skills and Physical sections and continue to work on our Volunteering.

Our sandwich enterprise has in Room 19 has been very successful and we have made lots and lots of sandwiches!

We have been playing table tennis and practising yoga for our physical section.

We have volunteered at Airyhall Community Centre and helped in various roles in and around school.

Well done to everyone involved!

Room 18 Pom Poms: Decorating the Fences

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Room 18 have been learning to make pompoms using a pompom maker. We have been using our new skills to decorate the fencing outside our classroom. We used lots of different types of wool and tried out different colour combinations. They really do brighten up our outdoors!

Room 14 Feeding the Birds

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Room 14 have been making bird feeders as part of their ASDAN work. We all enjoyed feeling the bird seed and playing with it. Then we covered pine cones and cardboard tubes with lard and rolled them in the seeds. We have hung them up so we can see them from our classroom window and have been having a great time watching the birds enjoy the treats!

Room 17 Enjoying Duthie Park

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On Monday, Room 17 enjoyed a trip to Duthie Park. We had something to eat in the park’s café and then had a wander around the beautiful gardens. There are lots of daffodils at this time of year. The class enjoyed the sensory experience of visiting each section of the garden.

We also met one of the park’s rangers whilst looking at McPuddock the Frog. He was using a powerful magnet to scoop up the coins that visitors throw into the pond around McPuddock. He explained to us how all the change collected goes back into maintaining the gardens.

 

Enjoying the Outdoors: Room 13 visit Burn O’Vat

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On Friday Class 13 went on an all day trip to the Burn o’Vat near Dinnet.

We had a wonderful day out and the weather was excellent for exploring and walking.

There was also an information station on site which we found very interesting and informative.

We had a picnic, albeit on the bus, but we tidied up well afterwards!

A very pleasant day out was had by all!

Using Figure Notes In Music Therapy

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Some of our pupils have been learning to play piano with our music therapist Emmeline using the Drake Music programme ‘Figure Notes’.

Figure notes uses colours and shapes to help facilitate people to learn music in a different way. Our pupils have experienced a wonderful sense of pride learning to play; ‘Twinkle Twinkle’, ‘Frere Jacque’ and ‘Ode to Joy’.

 

Drumming At SQA National 3

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Here is a wow moment we would like to share from one of our senior students who is currently working on an SQA National 3 in Music: Performance Skills with a focus on drumming.

He has been working with our instructor, Keith on developing his confidence in reading music, following tempo and he is currently working towards putting on performance in school.

Well done!

Room 12 Celebrate Chinese New Year and Burns Night

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Room 12 have been learning about Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival). It starts on 25th January and goes on to 8th February and we have learned that it is the Year of the Rat.

We watched and listened to the story of the animals race on the whiteboard.

We made rat masks by sticking fur and felt on to the rat faces. We also investigated our sensory trays, which are filled with rice, money bags, easy-grip chopsticks and Chinese soup spoons. We had clothes and hats to try on too.

We also celebrated Burns Night. We designed our own tartans using the interactive weaver and made thistles by printing with green paint and then gluing on wool in different shades of purple. We think they look very effective!

Support Orchard Brae via your local Coop!

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If you shop with Co-op, please consider choosing us as your cause to support when you shop.  Join here…

https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/41483

 

Room 16 Science: Investigating Magnets

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This week in Science we investigated the properties of magnets using magnetic construction kits. We found that pieces moved by themselves if we held them close together. We picked pieces up using magnets and were surprised by how much weight one magnetic piece would hold. We also enjoyed knocking models down and seeing how the pieces remained together despite having been squished flat on the table.