Category: Senior phase

Senior Phase is for pupils in S4-S6 and this is when we see the introduction of SQA qualifications, work experience and have a greater focus on life skills to support our pupils for leaving school and into positive destinations. We offer further opportunities such as Duke of Edinburgh and residential trips which allow all pupils to access activities that may be difficult for them and their families to access otherwise.

2023 Leavers

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Our Secondary Awards and Leavers Ceremony was held in school on Wednesday. Congratulations to all of the Award winners and thanks to the families that joined our celebration.

Today we bid a final goodbye to another fantastic group of young people who have all made huge progress over their years in Orchard Brae. It was an emotional day all round as we celebrated their success and wished them well.

Thanks to Nadine of Elm Music Therapy for making our Leavers video this year:

To our leavers, it’s been an honour and privilege to work with you all and we wish you all every success in the next stage of life. We will miss you all!

Room 19 Working Hard

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Coming into the last weeks of term Room 19 are continuing our good routines and embedding those relationships with both staff and peers. The pupils have been working hard to follow the class timetable this term and take part in all activities throughout the day around the school. 

We have been focussing our efforts and looking at Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood. We have been utilising resources from the https://rshp.scot/ website. For more information about supporting or reinforcing these lessons, adults at home can follow the link which provides a vast range of resources. 

When some of our peers were away in Bendrigg on their residential trip, we took the opportunity to come together outside for class novel time, music and enjoyed some fun in the sun. 

During the second last week of term Room 19 engaged in the Whole School Event of Safety Week. This focus was on valuable lessons before the summer holidays focussed on Water Safety, Fire Safety, Internet Safety and Road Safety.

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.

Welcome back to Room 19!

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Room 19

We’re only 2 weeks into the term and we are concentrating on establishing relationships and getting reacquainted with school life.  It can be quite busy in school so we have made sure to make time for relaxation too.  A particular hit for pupils and staff has been sensory massage songs.  These can be found on youtube, if you have 5 minutes and want to relax.  We Don’t Talk About Bruno, Sensory Massage Song

Our next focus will be to establish work experience roles for all pupils in class.  We’re starting with trying out different roles before appointing them.  The positions will include but are not limited to: 

  • Organising weekly CFINE food bank bags
  • Looking after the house plants in class and offices
  • Food waste recycling
  • Representing the class at assembly
  • Collecting and delivering messages

Bendrigg 2022

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Last week, pupils from Room 17, 18 and Howes Hoose embarked on our first trip to the Bendrigg Centre since 2019!

Pupils took part in a range of activities- Sensory Swing, Zip Line, Climbing, Canoeing, Caving, Archery and Biking. Thankfully there was a huge amount of food available to keep us well fed!

As you can see from the photos, all of our pupils worked incredibly hard and pushed themselves to try new things. We heard the words ‘I did it!’ and ‘keep going’ over and over again and the smiles on faces show exactly what it meant.

A huge thank you goes to the Bendrigg Trust for looking after us for the week and also to the Friends of Orchard Brae for supporting us with funding for the trip. We had a wonderful time and are already looking forward to next year!

Budding photographers

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Last year, Room 19 entered the ‘My Place Photography Competition’. Pupils were encouraged through the competition to explore their surroundings and share photographs. Room 19’s photos are being displaying in a public exhibition, you can see their photos here:

https://myplacescotland.org.uk/mpp-gallery/?ag=secondary&ye=2021&mi=225

The group took photos in school and out in the community using iPads.

I am sure you will agree there are some fantastic photos in the group.

Well done to all

Outdoor Learning does water play

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Over the last few weeks classes have been exploring water in Outdoor Education lessons.  We have poured, splashed, sprayed, puddled about and giggled.  Everyone found a way to play with water that they enjoyed.  Throwing large bucket of water around the playground and watching it fall and then make a loud splat noise was the grand finale for most classes. We hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed playing with water.