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.
This term we have been practicing using round bladed knifes more accurately. We’ve made faces and animals with fruit so far.
Our class have been looking at the amazing NuArt all around Aberdeen and wanted to come up with our own contribution for an outdoor piece of artwork. We looked at some videos that showed yarnbombing all over the world and thought this is something we could adapt and put our own stamp on.
Yarnbombing is a type of street art that shows displays of knitted or crocheted wool, yarn or fibre. It can also be called yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting or graffiti knitting.
We started with some knitted backgrounds and chains that Allison, our EYP made and then made some wool wrapped twigs, learned how to use pompom makers and made tassles and attached them all to the trees outside our window. We think they make a lovely display. It’s a work in progress – there are many trees in our playground we can yarnbomb!
Official Yarnbombing Day is 11th June.
After a very busy week at the senior residential trip to Bendrigg, one of our pupil’s from Howes Hoose managed to find the energy to walk 5 miles for the Aberdeen Kilt Walk! He collected his sponsor money for AFC Community Trust that runs his football sessions on a Saturday morning and he managed to raise almost £500!
What an amazing effort and a huge well done on raising such a fantastic amount.
On Friday 3rd of May our merry band set off from Kingswells to walk back to school, a distance of 6km. We were expecting the weather to be wild and interesting with a touch of hail. As it turned out the weather was more than kind and we had an absolutely fabulous day. The hail did come but only once we were safely back at base with a nice cup of tea! The whole class were amazing, not one grumble, no sore feet and everyone managed to cook themselves a tasty lunch although Barry’s pudding of Mars Bar followed by half a tin of sweetcorn might not be to everyone’s taste! A huge thank you to Toby from Duke of Edinburgh for supporting us and a very huge well done to all the pupils (and staff) in Howes Hoose for their achievement. Next stop Wiston Lodge on the 12th-14th June for the final push towards our Bronze Award.
The pupils in Room 15 very much enjoy their right to play. We have fun in the school playground and out at the park. Our friends in Rwanda have the right to play too. They don’t have the same play equipment we have. We looked at some photos of our friends in Rwanda playing. In Room 15 we played with a banana leaf ball made by some of our friends in Rwanda. We also enjoyed playing with a banana leaf doll made by our friends in Rwanda. We had lots of fun.
Room 14 have been looking at various stories and songs this month and then doing a variety of activities connected to these stories.
This week we were listening to road safety songs and considering how to cross the road safely. We followed this up with some science exploring cars moving down ramps. We also coloured some pictures of our favourite cars.
We have looked at the Story of St George, using CBeebies to support our understanding. We explored riding horses and saving people from dragons.
We have also been reading stories relating to summer such as ‘Jaspers Beanstalk’ written by Nick Butterworth, and ‘Little Grey Rabbit’s May Day’ written by Alison Uttley.
Room 18 continue to expand their horizons with new work experience opportunities. We now have a young person working in the kitchen on Thursday mornings, supporting the catering team with food preparation and serving at lunchtime. We have young people working with our Janitor, and we continue other jobs around the school including watering the plants and recycling. Our Sandwich Enterprise continues and we provide a great service for staff on Tuesdays, making and delivering sandwiches.
Aside from hard work, we do enjoy opportunities to relax during break and lunchtime. Finding the balance in life is good!
As a reward raising our first £1000 through ragbag for the school fund, the class had a day trip. We went bowling then for lunch, followed by a short walk along the prom. As we ate one pupil signed “It’s nice here!” A great day out for all. Well done Room 16!
Remember if you have clothes or bedding to be recycled, there is a Ragbag container in school reception. Many thanks for your continued support in our textile recycling fundraiser.
One of the pupils in Room 13 found a poem, The Owl, by Alfred Lord Tennyson. As he was reading it and showing interest, the class followed up with some additional learning around owls. They have used mixed media to create some lovely art work. This has included natural materials and textures such as bark.
In Room 16 we have been working on our John Muir Award all year. This focuses on Outdoor Education.
In order to achieve our Bronze Award, we have to do 4 days work in our chosen outdoor space. We chose our playground, as we felt it was a bit bare and it was readily accessible to us.
Our plan was to blur the boundaries between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
But we are not quite finished yet. We are in the process of making some more interactive and noisy sculptures for the playground.
We would like everyone to be able to enjoy using the outdoor spaces in school more, so here’s hoping for some dry weather!
