A massive ‘thanks’ to Tracey and her staff at the Blair. They extended a warm welcome to our staff and children on Monday morning following a special invite. We had lovely shortbread and hot drinks. Tracey also presented a cheque for £750 following their annual ladies day to raise money for a local charity. This money will be put towards the savings for our new school minibus. We sincerely appreciate this very kind donation.
Click on the link above to download useful advice and guidance as to how to prepare children and young people with Autism for Christmas.
Yesterday, Mrs Ward led a special St Andrew’s day assembly and Mr McKeand joined us with his guitar singing a variety of Scottish Songs. Today the Seniors prepared the hall for a special Scottish snack, Jura entertained us by demonstrating some dances and PL performed a Scottish poem.
Click on the link above to view our December Calendar. You can print it off to help prepare your child for all of the events that will be happening during the month.
http://ginadavies.co.uk/parent-carers-shop/
Gina Davies, a very experienced Speech and Language Therapist spoke at the Medica CPD Autism Conference yesterday. She has a deep understanding of Autism and works very closely with parents in putting into place effective interventions. She has a website which has some great video resources on the following topics:
Behaviour – Let’s Tackle some!
Food – Let’s Eat some!
Toilets – Let’s flush some!
The videos are available to download for a small cost of £7.
Luke Beardon, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield also presented at the conference. He had good information about managing obsessions and rituals. Here is an overview:
PASSIONATE INTERESTS
They can be socially inappropriate
Need boundaries … It’s okay to have them but restriction of activity is required
Parents/Carers should recognise that obsessive behaviours can be used as coping mechanisms.
Ian Bean Resources
Click on the image to get some great resources for use at home. For those parents who attended the using visuals at home course, there are lots of free symbols that can be used at home. If you didn’t manage to attend the course, don’t worry. I have uploaded a copy of the presentation to the For Parents tab under Parents guides.
Well done to our termly certificate winners. Termly certificates are awarded to those learners who have demonstrated very good progress during the course of a term.
CMcC, Primary 1 – for very good progress in attending and responding throughout school day.
CH, Primary 4 – for very good progress in communication.
GF, Primary 5 – for good progress in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.
JMcD, Lower Secondary – for increased active participation in accessing my community outings.
KD, Senior Phase – for increased engagement in a range of curricular activities across the school day.
WELL DONE EVERYONE!
As part of our ongoing school improvement, we have audited and replenished our numeracy resources. Mrs Rose visited Kilwinning Early Years Centre to research good practice. They achieved a Scottish Education award for their work in delivering early level numeracy experiences. Mrs Rose has made some great resources and the staff had the opportunity to look at the new resources ordered to help in the delivery of: number, money and measure and shape, position and movement.
Well done to the seniors for their efforts in setting up the hall for the Christmas Fayre tomorrow morning. The school is looking lovely with a variety of Christmas themed decorations and displays. Thank you to our parent council members too for helping to prepare the bottle stall and wrapping the cuddly toys. We hope that we have a good turnout of people and raise lots of money.
