Merry Christmas from Room 10

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Our learning has definitely embraced the festivities!

In literacy, our story took a festive turn as we explored “Supertato presents Jack and the Beanstalk” and “Supertato: Evil Pea Rules”, exploring pantomime and snowy themes!  We set up our own performance space and dressed up as different characters, engaged in a snow themed bucket time, and that’s not to mention the real stuff making an appearance!

In expressive arts we’ve been drumming to festive tunes, and our rhythm has been fabulous!  We’ve also been working hard on our Christmas show performance, practicing our dance moves (and letting supporting staff know what we like best to help us dance – we’ve been loving ribbons, pom poms, scarves and soft toy Santas!  We worked hard to make our Christmas video, which played in the background for our performance.  You can see our video here: https://youtu.be/Q7adWXCrDTc

We’ve also developed our classroom space, with a new sensory corner, cosy area and mini library, which are making for a lovely cosy atmosphere for the end of term!  We plan to make full use of this with a pyjama movie afternoon for the end of term!

Wishing all our families a lovely holiday!

Thank You

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Thank you to The Makaton Charity for our participation certificate. Huge thanks to the pupils and staff who participated – it is always a joy to take part in The Countdown To Christmas and we can’t wait until next time!

Ashgrove Room 3 Ladybird Room Autumn and Winter News

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The Ladybird room at Ashgrove have had a very busy term. We have been having fun in the outdoor area whilst experiencing the changing environment as Summer turns to Autumn and then Autumn turns to winter.    We have been playing in the falling leaves and lately been able to experience the snowy conditions.

 Earlier in the term we all celebrated harvest time when we went shopping for harvest vegetables which we then made into soup for snack. We have been learning about road safety whilst out for walks in the local community and learning to safely balance and climb whilst in the hall.

Now preparations are well underway with our Christmas festivities and are looking forward to our families joining us for our Nativity on Friday.  

The Nativity – Ashgrove Nursery (Butterfly Room 2)

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After lots of rehearsals, we finally had our nativity show. Parents were invited, we all had a lovely time. The children were all beautifully dressed and performed brilliantly well. We had Mary, Joseph, the kings, shepherds, wise men, donkey, camel, an angel and baby JESUS.

We all had fun singing Christmas songs and jingling the bells. At the end of our show, we had a grand visit from a very special guest. Santa came in with gifts for every child. It was so lovely to have our parents in to share our day with us.

Orchard Brae Nursery Howes Road – November News

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We have had a busy time in nursery in November. We participated in Bonfire night activities  painting with bright colours, popping bubble wrap with our feet, hands and wheels and activating light projectors using switches to make patterns on the walls. 

The children have been engaging in a variety of activities and discovering how they can make things move or make things happen. We did this by pushing, pulling, squeezing and tapping. We used a switch to activate the food mixer and the bubble tubes and everyone had fun playing the Apps on the Magic Carpet, to make the icons disappear and reappear through movement. 

We celebrated St. Andrews day over the week. The children enjoyed playing with oats, emptying and filling and pretending to cook with them. We dressed up using tartan, and danced to Ceilidh Music in the hall. We continued our theme of pushing and rolling using vehicles in paint to make Tartan patterns and then finished off the week making oatcakes and tasted them for snack.

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

Celebrations – Ashgrove Nursery (Bumble Bee Room 1)

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We have been busy learning about different celebrations in Nursery.  We explored lots of different crafts to help us learn about these:

  • We printed fireworks on black paper and added some glitter for sparkle.
  • We coloured in some Pudsey’s and used fingerprints to make spots for Children in Need. 
  • Printing and sticking to make poppies for Remembrance Day.  
  • We used cars to make tartan for St Andrew’s Day.
  • We have been busy painting, sticking and glueing for Christmas.

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.

Movement, mess and more in Room 10!

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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.

Letter To Parents/Carers – December 2022

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Dear Parents, Carers and Friends of the school

New Post

Mrs Karen Gebbie-Smith, Head of Primary will be stepping down to take on another new and exciting role within the ASN service. 

Karen started in June 2010 and has given dedicated service to both Woodlands and Orchard Brae Schools and although this is not goodbye, we will miss her not being around school daily.  However, I am pleased that we will still be able to call on her skills and knowledge to help support our ever-growing Orchard Brae ASN community.

Karen takes up her new post on January 16th and we wish her all the very best.

Retirement? Really?

Mr Jim Johnston will be leaving his post as class teacher at the end of this term.  Jim has worked with many pupils and families and has also given many years of dedicated service to both Orchard Brae and Woodlands Schools.

Orchard Brae staff, pupils and their families will miss Jim with his pupil centred, nurturing approach.  However, I am sure you will join us and colleague’s past and present in wishing Jim a long and happy retirement.

Performing Arts

Through the power of technology, we made an appearance at the Evening Express Carol Concert and this year, we also opened the Music Service Concert on Tuesday night.  Once again showcasing our talented group of signers, #proudheidie moment!

The adverse weather we have had recently has meant the postponement of our first live Christmas Show in 2 years until Tuesday 20th December, we have limited space in the hall so are only able to allocate 2 tickets per family.  I look forward to seeing you then.

And finally, a thank you to you, the whole team in Orchard Brae and our wider community.  Despite the many challenges we have faced, we do it together, this has been wonderfully exemplified by the care and thoughtful support provided recently by our neighbours at Heathryburn.  I wish them and you all the very best Christmas wishes and look forward to seeing what the new year brings

Elaine

Important Dates

Thursday 22nd December – last day of term

Monday 9th January -return to school

Tuesday 10th January – potential strike day – school closed to all pupils

Monday 13th February – Mid-term holiday

Tuesday 14th February – In-service day – school closed to pupils

Wednesday 15th February – In-service day – school closed to pupils