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.

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! 

The Art and Science of Flight with Room 12

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In order to experience and understand how different objects move through the air, we have been using lots of different skills. For example, we used fine motor skills for cutting, gross motor skills for flying a kite, our sensory skills for painting insects using sponge stamps, and our attentive skills for watching the paper birds flit about or the kites and their ribbon tails flow in the wind, or the paper helicopters spin down. We had to use our bodies for flying kites to help with the uplift. So, we are learning about creative design, about the science of flight and also about maths because when making paper butterflies, we folded our painted paper in half to notice symmetry. Each of these activities gave the pupils a chance to use communication skills to make choices: about colour, materials, and taking turns to show off what they have made.

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

November

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We invited our parents to come to our class to see how much we have been learning. Then we worked together to create a textured Pudsey picture. It was so nice to spend time together with our families in our classroom.

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.