Category Archives: Hopetoun

Autumn term in Hopetoun

We have had great fun in Hopetoun this term as we have settled in to our new class. We have enjoyed lots of different activities like gardening, going on the wheelchair bike and art. We have been exploring new foods during our messy play food group and some of us got messier than others! We are looking forward to seeing what the winter term will bring.

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

 

Summer Term in Hopetoun, Our Local Community Topic

Spring term in Hopetoun

What a busy term we have had, Christmas seems like a long time ago now! We have been very busy with lots of different activities since then. Our topic has been Looking After My Body- Hygiene and everyone has been involved in this through learning about our bodies and how to look after them. We have also taken part in lots of different activities for things like Red Nose Day, Numeracy Day and World Book Day as well as having visits from Happy Hoofbeats therapy ponies and live music now. Some of the pupils have also been to visit the Yard in Edinburgh and have been swimming at Bathgate pool. Hydrotherapy has also continued this term. We are looking forward to another busy term after the holidays. Have a lovely Easter and fingers crossed the sun continues to shine.

 

Winter term in Hopetoun

What a busy term we have had in Hopetoun class, there has been lots of lovely learning on display as well as lots of fun activities. This term we have been learning all about “my favourite sound” and we put quite a few of these together into our Christmas show with recording of some of these sounds like explosions, giggles,  and different types of music. We have also enjoyed drama this term where our naughty horses have caused chaos! We have also been out and about to see lots of different Christmas lights and listen to Christmas sounds. We even went into chocolate production!We can’t wait to see what learning we can do next term. Have a very Merry Christmas!

Harvest Cafe and Foodbank

Last week we celebrated harvest time by hosting a cafe for all our friends and families.  There were lots of visitors. The pupils made some delicious autumn treats to share with everyone. There was also a collection for the foodbank and a raffle. In total we made £134 and also had lots of donations of tins and packets of food. The secondary pupils are looking forward to visiting the shops to spend the money buying other essential items for the foodbank. Great work everyone!

Global Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing

Global Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Summer Music

It has been a busy Summer term in Music. In particular, secondary classes have focused on the culmination of a year-long project, with some of our young people working towards SQA National 1 Producing a Sound (alternative context).

For this, we have been choosing instruments and playing them correctly, then using our skills to tell a musical story. The story was a traditional tale from the Borders, that of Tam Lin and how Janet saved him from the Queen of the Fairies in the enchanted forest.

Ochiltree and Duntarvie had been working separately on the skills, but this term they came together  to create the sounds. We had a star guest as Carol Robbie came back to narrate the story.

It was a great success and has opened up options for other musical stories together and with others. We will certainly we doing this again, hopefully at a time that will be easier for friends and families to participate.

Meanwhile, primary classes have been having fun continuing to choose favourite songs to sing and play.

 

 

Hopetoun Roundup!

We can hardly believe that this time last year we were packing up the old school ready for our move and now here we are settled and thriving in our amazing new environment. We have enjoyed so many new experiences and opportunities and are looking forward to many more as we all move on. This term has been so busy and we hope you enjoy our video which highlights some of what we’ve been up to better than any words can!

Hopetoun News

This term has been absolutely jam packed with fun, it’s been lovely to welcome so many family and friends into school to celebrate different events with us and we’ve been enjoying lots of opportunities to get out and about. Some of our favourites events this term have been the Burn’s ceilidh,  Science week and Storytelling week where we’ve had the best time joining all our friends from across the whole school to take part in lots of different activities, anything that involves music and dance is a definite hit for Hopetoun!! We’ve also been doing lots of work exploring and promoting our Rights Respecting and Global Goals work, here’s just a small selection of what we’ve been up to!

Hope you all have a lovely Easter break, none of us can quite believe that we’ve reached this time of year already!!

 

 

Music Autumn 2023

This term we have focused on making choices in Music. Lammermuir joined Hopetoun for some fun for Hairy Scary Castle, first choosing spooky sounds from switches for Halloween and then using symbols to select animals to sing about for Old McDonald’s Farm. Pentland also made musical choices with instruments and symbols and appreciated movement and relaxation.

In Lomond the children greatly enjoyed coming together, singing nursery rhymes and  playing along with instruments. Sometimes this could be up tempo or more relaxed, depending on the needs of the day.
Glendevon focused on our regular routines, structure, and exploring instruments, including playing along on wooden instruments and dancing to a percussion track by Moondog – an American improvisational composer and performer.
Duntarvie worked towards their SQAs by playing different ranges of instruments for different moods and textures, such as tuned instruments in A minor or wooden instruments. This is to work towards a project in 2024 with Ochiltree, who followed similar lessons.
All the classes enjoyed some Song Massage with All the Leaves and then All the Snow as we got to December. The children had a great time moving to some Christmas songs and playing along to Jingle Bells. In case things felt too busy, we also had some sensory music time, taking some time to relax while exploring instruments to gentle music with subdued lighting and festive lights.