Category Archives: Glendevon

A Musical Journey Across Our Classes 

đŸŽ¶ A Musical Journey Across Our Classes 

It’s been a busy and creative time in our music sessions, with learners across the school exploring sound, rhythm and technology in exciting ways. 

đŸŒ©ïž Primary and Lammermuir Classes 

Our younger learners had great fun bringing songs to life. We sang Mr Macarella with enthusiasm and explored the sounds of weather through I Hear Thunder and Rain Rain Go Away. Using a range of instruments—including drums, thunder drums, rainsticks and accordion—students experimented with loud and quiet sounds, creating their own imaginative soundscapes. 

đŸŽ” Pentland Class 

Loopimal interface (c) Yayatoy

Pentland class combined music and technology to create pieces that were both energetic and calming. Using the Loopimal app on iPads, learners built lively beats by swiping shapes onto a timeline, creating music to move to. Afterwards, they used the Bloom app to compose gentle, peaceful soundscapes, perfect for relaxing and unwinding. 

The interface of the Bloom app. A tap creates an circle and corresponding sound that then gently repeats and fades like ripples in a pond. (c) Generative Music

đŸ„ Secondary Cross-Class Groups 

Our secondary learners explored music in a hands-on and playful way using boomwhackers. They investigated how sound is created by looking, listening and experimenting—tapping the tubes on their bodies and classroom surfaces to produce different tones. They also stepped into the world of digital music production, creating uptempo backing tracks in GarageBand, experimenting with genres from rock to house. 

🌟 Soundbeam Adventures 

Soundbeam switches, sensor and console (c) Soundbeam

A highlight this term has been the introduction of our new Soundbeam kit. After staff training, students had the chance to explore this innovative technology, which uses switches and infrared beams to create music. One of the most popular activities was the Jungle scenario, where students triggered animal sounds and video clips while using Soundbeams to play flute and percussion sounds. 

This exciting new resource has already been a big hit, and we’re looking forward to developing our skills and creativity with it even further next year. 

It’s been wonderful to see creativity, curiosity and collaboration shine through music across all classes! đŸŽ¶Â 

Therapy Continues to Inspire 

Around the school, our Music Therapists, Sophie and Ellie, continue their fantastic work with the children, providing engaging and meaningful sessions that encourage communication, self-expression, and wellbeing. Through music-based activities, children are given opportunities to explore sounds, develop social skills, and build confidence in a supportive and nurturing environment. 

Alongside this, Charan’s Dance Therapy sessions remain as popular as ever. The children thoroughly enjoy taking part in movement-based activities that promote creativity, coordination, and self-confidence while offering a fun and energetic way to express themselves. 

Our school choir has also continued to flourish, helping children grow in confidence when using their voices. By taking turns using the microphone, pupils are developing their speaking and singing confidence, while action songs and call-and-response activities encourage participation, listening skills, and teamwork. It has been wonderful to see the children engage with the opportunities to perform and take part. 

These therapeutic and creative opportunities continue to make a positive impact across the school, helping children develop confidence, communication skills, and a love of music and movement. 

Glendevon and Pentland P7 Graduates 2026

What an incredible year for all the P7 pupils.  We have had some wonderful adventures and been working hard throughout the year.  We can’t believe that this is the end of our primary school career! We are all looking forward to the new adventures that secondary has to bring including ASDAN, SQA and DofE.

We thought we would leave you with not just our highlights from this year but from years gone by – just click or copy the link below and enjoy.

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MATP Challenge Event 🏅

On Monday afternoon we hosted our second Special Olympics Motor Activity Training Programme (MATP) Challenge Event.

Once again, our athletes from Hopetoun, Lomond, Pentland and Glendevon were absolutely phenomenal! 🏅

They shone with confidence and energy, proudly showcasing the incredible skills they’ve been working so hard to develop in training. Their effort and determination were fantastic to see — we couldn’t be prouder! đŸ’Ș👏

We also loved reading the positive feedback about the skills your young athletes worked on – it’s fantastic to see their hard work and progress being recognised!🌟

Thought he done amazing.

It was good to see him trying to do something that requires coordination.

Great to see Matthew making such an effort to roll over and knock down the bottles!!

Really good to see Theas legs being worked and from bench.

It was such a busy afternoon, so a huge thank you to the parents and carers who shared photos — we loved seeing all the special moments captured! 📾

Finally, a special thank you and well done to one of our senior pupils who took on the important role of equipment assistant – your help made a real difference! 🙌

🌟 Well done to everyone involved – you were amazing! 🌟

A Busy and Joyful Term in Music

đŸŽ¶ 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.

🌈 Early Years Musical Adventures

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.

😌 Dance Therapy: Movement, Music, and Mindfulness

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.

🎧 Making Musical Choices: ASDAN Awards

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!

Term 3 in Glendevon 2026

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!!

Glendevon end of term!

What a busy term it has been! Our topic this term has been Emergency Services.  All our children have enjoyed exploring the Topic box.  We have had Doctors, Nurses, Fire fighters, Ambulance drivers and Police officers.

Tommy favoured being a policeman and enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror! Hira happily explored the police cars and fire engines while Angel loved looking though all the doctors’ bags and trying out some of the equipment.  Peter liked listening to everyone’s heart beats with the stethoscope and also enjoyed the matching game. Hafsa and Matthew both enjoyed dressing up as well and they both found it funny being part of the role play with members of staff too.

This term we have been working really hard on our MATP activities each week with Louise  and we all did really well at our performance in the hall for all the parents and carers.  We have all been learning new skills and we look forward to extending these skill next term too.

We have all been enjoying outdoor play in various forms this term too.  Peter has been doing really well on his bike and working on navigating some road signs such as stop and go.  Tommy has been having a blast playing with the football, passing it to a member of staff and scoring goals. Angel enjoys exploring the playground and loves to spin on the basket swing and has also been working on bike skills  too. Matthew and Hafsa have been using the drive deck to get around by using a switch to make it start and stop. Hira has been using her walker outside at times but also likes going out in her wheelchair and seeing everyone and using some of the equipment and loves singing songs on sunny winters day in the colour tunnel.

Glendevon went for a day at the football too to celebrate Scotland progressing in the Fifa World cup.  We had the smells of the grass, the strip to wear,  noises of the crowd cheering and of course the goals themselves.

We have had lots of different art activities to do this terms too, our themes have been around fireworks, Remembrance day, our topic – Emergency services and Christmas.  This have given us the opportunity to explore a variety of materials much as paint, glue, pens, and lots of glitter! We also had the Clown Doctors in to help us during one of our art sessions – you can imagine how much glitter that day!

We have been spending time exploring games and stories in different group settings and enjoyed some pop up pirate and also exploring the immersive 3 little pigs story as part of storytelling day across the school.

We have all had individual tasks that we have been working on throughout our week and we  have been doing really well.  Some of us have had hydrotherapy, horse riding, swimming, Innowalk, music therapy and rebound to mention just a few of the exciting things we have been up to. We have enjoyed sessions with the clown doctors individually and also as a group too and some of us have had sessions with Charran as well.

We have also been in full Christmas mode from November with Tommy starting us off by signing for Jingle bells to be sung most days! We have been Christmas crafting and preparing for our show and parties too. We are looking forward to a well earned rest over the Christmas break. We hope everyone enjoys the festivities and we look forward to the new term ahead in 2026!!

 

 

MATP Challenge Event 🏅

This term we hosted our very first Special Olympics Motor Activity Training Programme (MATP) Challenge Event.

Athletes in Hopetoun, Lomond, Pentland and Glendevon had the opportunity to showcase the skills they had been working on during training for their family and friends.

Every athlete did absolutely amazing and handled the spotlight so well! 👏 🌟

A HUGE thank you to everyone who came along to support our athletes and make the event such a success. I loved all the cheering, signs, posters and t-shirts ❀

We asked for some feedback and this is what our parents said…

 

Halloween activities Glendevon 2025

We have had fun over the last couple of weeks in the run up to Halloween.  We have explored the changes happening around us and made Autumn leaf pictures.  we have explored slime, zombie brains and pumpkin inners in messy play – we had to rescue all the eye balls from the slime! We have experienced spooky stories and made our own Halloween ghost biscuits. As well as carving our class pumpkins.

Here are a few of our photos to enjoy.

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Term 1 Primary PE

Our athletes in Hopetoun, Lomond, Pentland and Glendevon have been working hard, training towards our first ever MATP Challenge Event on Monday 1st December. They can’t wait to showcase their unique achievements to family and friends (more details will be shared closer to the time, but I am excited to see everyone supporting their athlete with posters, banners or maybe even personalised t-shirts!).

What is MATP?
The Special Olympics Motor Activity Training Programme (MATP) is a unique programme specifically designed for athletes of all ages with Profound and Multiple, Physical and Intellectual Disabilities and/or Complex Support Needs.

It focuses on developing individual skills and abilities rather than direct competition, ensuring each athlete can achieve personal bests and celebrate their achievements.

It is made up of 4 core sport specific MATP skill areas:
‱ Mobility (gross motor skills)
‱ Dexterity (fine motor skills)
‱ Kicking (lower body skills)
‱ Striking (upper body skills)

 

MATP enables our athletes to increase physical activity, improve motor skills, build confidence, increase participation in sport activities and foster a positive self-image.

Hopetoun Athletes

Lomond Athletes

Pentland Athletes

Glendevon Athletes

 

Glendevon Term 1!

We have had a very busy term.  We have been settling in and getting to know each other and getting into a routine with all our activities. We have been learning about night and day for our topic. We  made some night time sensory bottles using food colouring, glitter and stars and also painted some day and night pictures using paint. All the children have enjoyed some stories about day and night and also some multisensory sessions with a day a night theme.

We have also been looking for signs of Autumn by going on local walks to collects leaves.  We used our leaves to make a collage in art and we also enjoyed multisensory Autumn themes too. We have  been getting into the Halloween spirit a little early with the upcoming break.  We have had messy play with pumpkins and slime and also made pictures using Halloween stickers!  We have some more Halloween fun when welcome back to look forward to as well.

What a busy start to the year! We are looking forward to a rest and reset, ready to start back for another action packed term!