Parent Support Groups

One of our main aims is to support families across the city through creating safe space where like-minded parents/cares could meet, have a chat and feel understood. In order to make it happen we have been liaising with schools and setting up Parent Support Groups in 5 primary schools (Stoneywood, Fernilea, Kaimhill, Glashieburn and Woodside). All groups are led by AOR staff and they meet monthly. Parents make suggestions what they would like to discuss and if they would like to have guests (SALT, OT, School Nurse, SW, charities). We are looking at setting up more similar groups in different schools in the future.

If you would like to join one of the groups and meet parents, have chat and enjoy a cuppa, please get in touch with Alex Polanska.

Movement, mess and more in Room 10!

We’ve been as busy as ever in Room 10, with core focuses on sensory regulation and communication throughout our daily routines.  We’ve been exploring organising activities as part of a sensory circuit, and did a brilliant job engaging with tasks which required more planning and thought to complete.  Alongside our immersive communication approach with our existing AAC, we’ve also recently been using the Sounding Board app more – this has been great for supporting engagement and has enabled more opportunities to share pupil voice.  We’ve also been loving free movement and dance activities, including dance with specialist Katie and class discos, giving sensory regulation opportunities through movement breaks as well as a brilliant means to build relationships with those around us.

We’ve been continuing our Book Study with the Supertato series, which has provided lots of fabulously fun and messy opportunities to engage with the plots – we’ve had mashed potato sensory play, frozen pea sensory play for “Supertato: Veggies Assemble” (oh, the smell!), which alongside being fab to run our hands through we also discovered made for a slippery slide to walk through!  For “Supertato: Carnival Catastro-Pea” we had paint messy play, with paper down across the whole classroom floor – however, aside from a few exceptions, we were impressed how reserved everyone was for this!

Any Room 10 families wanting to can find out more about any of what we have been up to on our Google Classroom.

All of these have been fab opportunities to link back to our communication aims too – making choices, sharing likes and dislikes, requesting more and naming what we can see around us.  The progress with speech and AAC use has been phenomenal, and we look forward to continuing to build on this in the new term.

Making some noise in Room 14

We play music with Scott, experimenting with different instruments and the sounds they make. One of our pupils is really fond of the drum sounds what this drum machine makes. We practice to identify emotions and how to recognise them. This will help us to better understand how others and we feel.

We are ordering the numbers from one to ten to practice our numeracy skills. 

Clothing bank is back again

Orchard Brae have restarted the clothing bank. We can provide preloved school uniform items for our pupils. This can also include warm jackets and blankets, depending on what we have in stock. Please either pop into school to view our collection or contact the school office directly if you wish us to send something home with your child. Alternatively you can email Ru Mason or Gill Moffat directly.

We are also gratefully accepting donations of good quality school uniform items that your child might have outgrown. Please send these into school and ask for them to be passed along to the office or Room 17.

gw20masonruana@ab-ed.org – Ru Mason

gw09moffatgill@ab-ed.org – Gill Moffat

The benefits of playing shop in Room 8


Pretend play makes up a very important part of our class activities. It allows our group to play different roles and test our pupils’ reactions and responses to different situations. Playing shop is great for this type of activity-based learning.

Our pupils had as much fun setting up the shop as they did playing shop, and they learned an awful lot too!

Children had fun being supported writing the main shop sign, collecting things that can be ‘sold’ in the shop.

We had a little play-till for our shop and the kids loved punching in numbers and calling out the prices of things. They priced things with labels and practised writing numbers too. They started to understand how price and value differ from item to item.

We used play money giving coins (£1 and £2) and notes (£5 and £10) in exchange for items that they ‘bought’ from the shop. This was a great way to introduce the concept of money and trade.

Of course, every shop needs to be in good order if the customers are going to be able to find things! Perhaps all the food should go on one shelf and toiletries on another. Therefore, we got some great plastic food items like fruits and vegetables that helped the children to play and identify, or sort, different items.

Next step for our pupils is to use some real fruit and veg, bread and cans to get ready them to ‘buy’ themselves a healthy snack/lunch.

In Room 8 we know the value of pretend play, and encourage the fun times and learning experiences that activity-based play can bring. So, you could help us upcycling some household items and collecting some baskets and paper shopping bags for our learner’s very own shop. Thank you in advance.

Letter To Parents & Carers – 17th May 2021

Dear Parent/Carer,

Today we move into protection level 2 which has been long awaited by everyone. I have listed below what this means as a guide as I know how confusing it can get trying to keep track of what is and is not permitted within the different protection levels.

At Level 2:

  • you can meet socially in groups of up to:
    • 6 people from 3 households in your home or theirs – and can stay overnight
    • 6 people from 3 households in an indoor public place like a café, pub or restaurant
    • 8 people from 8 households outdoors
  • under 12s do not count towards the total number of people or households meeting outside but do count towards household numbers indoors
  • you do not need to physically distance from family and friends in a private home
  • you can travel anywhere in Scotland in Levels 0, 1 or 2 but must not enter a Level 3 or 4 area unless for a permitted reason
  • you can travel to England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands – before you travel you must check the travel rules in those countries
  • you can provide informal childcare, for example to look after a grandchild
  • up to 50 people can attend weddings and funerals
  • tradespeople can carry out any work in your home such as painting, decorating or repairing
  • you should work from home where possible

What can open at Level 2

Places and business that can open at Level 2 include:

  • cafés, pubs and restaurants
  • all shops and stores
  • all close contact services including hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons
  • gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools
  • tourist accommodation
  • visitor attractions
  • public buildings like libraries and community centres
  • cinemas, theatres, concert halls, amusement arcades, casinos, bingo halls, bowling alleys and snooker/pool halls
  • stadiums and events – with maximum numbers

What must close at Level 2

Places and business that must close at Level 2 include:

  • soft play, funfairs, nightclubs and adult entertainment

This is not a full list. You can get more information in the sections below.

Full details can be found in the link below.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) protection levels: what you can do – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Once I have received the updated school’s guidance from the Scottish Government, I will update our Covid-19 risk assessment and share it with you.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact school.

Take care

Kind regards

Caroline