We celebrated World Down Syndrome Day at Beatlie by joining a live link to a giant clubbercise. Lots of fun, dancing, disco lights and of course odd socks! Thank you to everyone who sent in a £1 donation. We raised £45 to send to Down Syndrome Scotland. Well done.
Another term has flown by!
It’s been so lovely to be outdoors more often again, appreciating our amazing school grounds and enjoying sunny outdoor play times, gardening, and community walks and outings.
As ever, we have been super busy completing our ASDAN and SQA awards. Our ASDAN pupils have been enjoying lots of community experiences and finding out about the jobs people do here at Beatlie – completing work experience, and assisting our much loved nurses, janitors, the Lorraines at reception, and Angela and Lynne with the lunches and keeping our school clean and tidy. They’ve also enjoyed cross class play sessions with their friends from Ochiltree and shared their interests together. Our SQA senior students have been exploring Healthy Eating, their individual Appearance and what makes them unique, and working towards their award in Sensory Perception. All pupils have been having lots of fun exploring drama and music, and working towards their awards here too.
We were very lucky to experience some Live Music Now sessions this term which went down a treat, and which pupils came away from very relaxed and happy indeed.
As the senior end of the school, we continue to access our community groups and experiences, and in addition to these, many of us have also had the chance to experience bowling and golf at the driving range with Louise. These have been amazing and very enjoyable sessions! Most recently, some of our pupils represented Beatlie at a dance festival, and others took part in the Classrooms for Malawi Unicef Outright Campaign. Such a variety of worthwhile and memorable opportunities!
We look forward to our experiences and achievements in the coming term.
We wish everyone a lovely, restful Easter break,
Team Duntarvie x
🎶 A Busy and Joyful Term in Music
This term has been a wonderfully busy one for Music, filled with creativity, participation, and plenty of joyful noise. We’ve been fortunate to continue our partnership with Live Music Now, whose visits always bring excitement, inspiration, and high-quality live performance experiences for our pupils. Alongside them, our Music Therapists have continued their invaluable work, supporting children through personalised, expressive sessions that foster communication, confidence, and emotional wellbeing.
Our younger learners have also enjoyed a rich musical experience this term. Caterpillar Music visited Hopetoun class, with Lammermuir joining in for a series of lively themed sessions full of songs, actions, instruments, and sensory play. Early Years music has also included further activities focused on movement, choosing favourite nursery rhymes, and opportunities for gentle musical relaxation. These sessions have supported early communication, turn‑taking, and joy in shared musical experiences.
Our Dance Therapy sessions with Charan have also been a highlight. In addition to regular groups, a special Thursday lunchtime session has been running, where Charan collaborates with Gordon, who provides flute accompaniment.
The combination of gentle melodies, soft percussion, and expressive movement has created a calm and relaxing space for the children. It’s been lovely to see pupils engaging in this soothing environment, with singing and vocalisation in response to the calm movement and sounds.
Several of our secondary pupils have been working hard toward their ASDAN awards, focusing on skills such as making choices and expressing preferences in Music. Using switches, students have been selecting pieces of music and choosing which songs they’d like to hear in full.
The range of musical tastes has been fantastic—from rock classics and ABBA favourites to Gigglebellies, Louis Armstrong, and more. The sessions have often been full of energy, with pupils showing good attention and engagement. Scarves and ribbons have added extra fun as the children move, sway, and dance along to the music they’ve chosen.
It’s been a term full of creativity, expression, and meaningful musical moments. We can’t wait to see what next term brings!
On Thursday 19th March we had a family night at Beatlie with a live Fischy music performance. There were pupils, siblings, staff, family and friends who all came along to sing, dance, listen and enjoy each other’s company. They sang lots of our favourites such as ‘You are a star’ and ‘Build Up’. We can’t wait to welcome them back next term to work in some of the classes.
What a busy term we have had in Hopetoun. We have enjoyed some of our regular activities like messy play when we have had lots of chances to get messy and taste some new foods. We have been learning how to look after babies and we had a visit from Baby Koa. We have been going to the local library to choose some books and we can check them out ourselves. We also had great fun doing some science experiments and we made some bang bag monsters and watched them explode then we made some giant bubbles in the garden. Some of us have been horse riding
For St Patrick’s day we went on a shamrock treasure hunt to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We had to follow the clues to find the next shamrock all the way to the pot of gold (chocolate) coins at the end .
This week we have made some Easter bonnets and had an Easter egg hunt as well as making some cakes. Have a lovely holiday everyone and we look forward to seeing how much fun we can have next term.
What a busy term in Lomond this term.
We have been loving every minute of it! We have been enjoying the experience of upcycling and how we can reuse recycled materials to make a new piece of clothing. We have got to enjoy some sewing, spray painting, gluing with a glue gun, using an iron and exploring lots of different recycled materials.
At the start of the year we all joined in the Burns Ceilidh enjoying being part of the whole school and showing our dancing skills.
We had fun in February baking for the Healthy Eating Cafe and making our Love Heart valentine card with melted crisp packets.
On World Book Day we went on a book hunt and made some chocolate puddle milkshakes the same as Peppa Pig. We all loved using the switch to make the mixer work.
This week we are helping out the school and community while participating in our spring clean week. Lots of fresh air while helping the environment!
We are now looking forward to our Trashion show tomorrow to bring an end to the term.
Have a lovely holiday and look forward to seeing you all over the summer term. x
We’ve had another super busy term in Ochiltree and have been working hard to complete lots of our ASDAN challenges. One of our favourite challenges was learning about jobs that people do in school and we think we did a fantastic job of helping out with them all. We also enjoyed our latest challenges which were all about being out in the community and we had lots of fun visiting the shopping centre, the Lanthorn library and the café at Excite. We got very creative when designing our own tartan sashes for the ceilidh and when making and painting our fruit bowls with the help of Potter Around. We’re loving the arrival of the better weather and are looking forward to more fun and adventures!
Happy Easter from Team Ochiltree!
Part of our UNICEF Outright Campaign this year is about raising awareness of international aid particularly in relation to climate change and education and today we were thrilled to have a visit from Tina and Maureen from the charity ‘Classrooms for Malawi’. We really enjoyed learning about some of their projects and we loved exploring the items they brought along which included materials, tools, artwork and toys. We learned about the gift bags that the charity give to children in Malawi which typically contain a small tennis ball, a woolly hat, and some toiletries and we watched some video clips of some of the songs and games the children enjoy.
We’re really excited to start planning a special gift that we are going to make for them to take to Malawi in June when they go to start building their next classroom.
Well, What a busy term! Glendevon have been busy as usual and our topic this term has been technology and software. All the children have been exploring various ways that we can use technology. We have been using switches to operate lots of fun toys. Skeletrics tracks, musical toys, vibrating cushions to name a few. We have enjoyed some competitive races using the skeletric track!
We have used technology in cooking as well. We have been making lots of nice things and using switches to operate our equipment such as the food mixer. We made smoothies, cupcakes and popcorn cakes.
Others ways we have been using technology is by using our eye gaze and smartboard to play games and make up stories as well as mark making. Everyone enjoyed making their own picture. Some of the children have been using their switch to control the drive deck to move around the school and playground as well and having game time on the Xbox and controlling our lights as the Indepen’dance’ DJ.
The focus of our sensology sessions this term has been about a kite – what a great piece of technology that is and latterly we have had some wonderful days to explore our kite in the sunshine – we are hoping for more sunny days in term 4 when our topic is Spring.
We have had music live in with us on lots of occasions this term too which has been great. The children in Glendevon all love music so it something the whole class can enjoy together. Some children have had music therapy too and others clown doctor sessions which have been great fun. Every pupil has been going to a cross class group where all the primary classes mix together and split into various interest groups. Some have enjoyed sensory stories, some walking and dancing and others art and messy play. It has been nice to see all our friends from other classes and this has been a great way for us to continue to build our Beatlie community.
We have enjoyed special events such as the healthy eating cafe, Mother’s day, World book day, Burn’s ceilidh, odd sock day and are looking forward to our Spring Clean week.
Everyone is looking forward to a well earned Easter break for some rest recovery and chocolate eggs!!
We’ve had such a wonderful and busy term in Pentland Class, filled with hard work, laughter, and lots of new experiences. The children have explored so many activities, from horse riding and swimming to relaxing hydrotherapy sessions. Music has been a big part of our weeks too, with Live Music Now visits and group music therapy bringing songs, rhythm, and plenty of smiles.
We’ve also enjoyed cooking and baking together, trying drama games, and getting creative with art and messy play. Switching toys, sensory exploration, and outdoor play in the garden have given the children loads of opportunities to learn and have fun in their own ways, especially when the weather has been kind to us.
We’re incredibly proud of everything the children have achieved and delighted to see their confidence and curiosity grow each day. Thank you for your continued support — we can’t wait for more adventures next term!
