We have been settling in to the new classroom, with familiar faces and new faces. In PSE we talked about what we like to do with our friends and made a poster to decorate the classroom walls.
This year we have a new class, Room 19. In Room 19 we are Senior Phase pupils (S4-6) and we are following a timetable that will allow us to progress on to the learning experiences offered in Howes Hoose, our Leavers Class.
Our learning focuses on developing independence and life skills. In our morning meeting, we chat about our day and our targets. We also practise life skills through setting the table, preparing snacks and tidying up. We take turns following a rota for chores.
We are often out and about in and around school. Our literacy and communication skills are being developed through our newspaper, the Haddo Herald, a joint venture with Howes Hoose. Some of us write the news and we use it to practise talking to others and asking questions. Going around classes to deliver the paper helps us to communicate with less familiar people and to practise using equipment such as our talkers.
Our numeracy skills are developed through wider learning opportunities such as our sandwich enterprise. We go shopping for ingredients and this lets us practise our money skills, as does managing our budget and payments. We also work on time and think about this in relation to our daily routines.
Some of us are also doing work experience this year. This begins in school with opportunities such as supporting younger pupils in Outdoor Education. We also have a young man working regularly in the school kitchen, preparing food and doing dishes and we have young people doing grass cutting, gardening and working in community centres and shops.
We think it will be a good year in Room 19!
This week the pupils in Room 3 came back to school and some of our pupils celebrated their first day of Primary One.
We explored the story ‘First Day at Bug School’ and the children engaged so well as we moved through the different classes that the bugs attend! We started the story and went through the grass (Pom Poms helped set the scene!) then listened to the ‘tiny school bell ring’ which took us into bug school. We started by doing the register where we hid under the cloths before pulling them off our heads just like we do in our class! In Spider science class we loved watching the water fall down the spout (there was quite a lot of splashing too!), in Ladybird maths class we spun the spinner before listening to/feeling on body counting to the same number, in PE class we worked hard to push the huge gym ball off our trays and it was so much fun to watch it bounce across the classroom and music class with the Crickets was a huge hit too! Almost as much fun as a day at Orchard Brae.
We are super impressed with how quickly the children have settled into the school routine for the first time/after the long holidays and are very excited for all the learning ahead of us in Room 3 this year.
We have a new Makaton Word Of The Fortnight – MORE!
Below you will find a short video clip demonstrating how to sign MORE as well as an activity sheet with ideas for ways to incorporate the sign into a range of everyday tasks and games.
We also have a new Facebook page for designated Makaton Support which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/orchardbraeschoolaberdeenmakatonsupport/
Happy signing 👐
Copies of the school lunch menu can be downloaded from the Aberdeen City Council website. This menu will run until the October holidays
Click to access Primary%20School%20Meals%20Menu%20Summer%202019.pdf
Please note that the May Day holiday for this academic year has been moved from Monday 4th May 2020 to Friday 8th May 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day in 1945. Consequently, the planned in-service day on Tuesday 5th May has been moved to Thursday 7th May to extend the weekend.
It has been a very busy day as everyone returned from the summer holidays and started to settle into their new classes.
We hope all our pupils and their families had a wonderful summer holiday and we’re all looking forward to a great year at Orchard Brae.
Pinnacle Fitness contacted us to share information on their Fitness Academy sessions for people with additional learning needs. These are for secondary age pupils.
At the end of term, we had our annual activities week, which was kindly organised by Emmeline, our Music Therapist. The week had the focus of exploring our right to access different genres of music, and what an exciting week it was!
On Monday, we were joined by Amy Strachan, a soprano singer and the B Naturals choir. Both completely captivated us with their amazing vocal talents and many pupils continued to explore the operatic genre throughout the week in their classes.
On Tuesday morning there was lots of fun as we played and danced along with the Aberdeen Strathspey And Reel Society, listening to a range of traditional Scottish tunes and dancing a few reels too! In the afternoon we were joined by the Confucius Institute who performed some popular Chinese songs as well as one from a Chinese opera as well. Both of these groups allowed us to investigate and have a go at playing their instruments and well all loved the Chinese harp and flute as well as the fiddle and accordion. It was a fantastic day allowing us to explore music from two very distinct and different cultures.
On Wednesday, we were entertained by Duncan and Bill who performed a range of folk music for us. The hall was full to the brim and everyone had a brilliant time listening to Duncan and Bill’s wide variety of music.
On Thursday, we had hoped to have a picnic in the park but unfortunately the Scottish weather had other ideas! Instead we had an improvised fourth of July picnic in the hall with musical accompaniments from the Fyvie Folk Club. The Folk Club played a wide variety of music and their leader Bernie had even written us a specific song and poem in the spot!
On Friday we rounded off our musical activities week with a Makaton sing-a-long in the morning and a disco in the afternoon.
It was a truly magical and musical week which gave all the students (and staff!) the opportunity to experience a wide range of music genres and we all discovered something new and exciting. A huge thank you to all of our special guests and performers and thank you to Emmeline for organising such an amazing experience for us.
Our highlights of the year have been …
Our class enterprise: we made and sold sandwiches every week throughout the year. We donated money to Charlie House (£800), made a donation to the Bendrigg Trip and enjoyed a class outing.
We loved our time at Bendrigg.
This week we went to Hazlehead Park. We saw the Gruffalo and the Oor Wullie statues that are around Aberdeen.
We have also enjoyed work experience opportunities in and around school, including work with our Janitor and working in the school kitchen with the Catering Team.
We have had a great year and look forward to building on our learning next year, developing our skills and extending our experiences outside school.
