It’s been lovely to welcome everyone back after the holidays, all our Ochiltree pupils have settled in brilliantly and have been enjoying getting to know their new peers and staff. We’ll be sharing lots of our learning with you soon but for now we wanted to say welcome back and introduce you to the team!
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.
Ochiltree have had a fabulous year! I for one have loved every minute of it and will miss them very much!
It has been a year of fun and laughter, skills and attainment and the children have done themselves and you proud!
Alex and Fletcher have achieved their Asdan Transition Challenge and move onto their senior phase after the summer.
Mollie also moves into the senior phase class with one more year of her Asdan to go.
Brendan, Liam and Stanley will continue on their Asdan journey in Ochiltree with new friends joining them after the summer.
I hope you have all kept up to date on their journey this year through their Learners Journal and have enjoyed all the photos and videos of how fantastic they have been participating in all the wonderful activities we have had this year.
A special thanks to all who have supported all the youngsters in Ochiltree this year goes to: Madge, Alison, Tracy, Kerri, Ashley and Susan.
Have a fantastic holiday and look forward to seeing you at some of our school getharings next year. x
Spring is here!
Still cannot believe we have worked through another term – time has flown by with all the activities we have been up to this term.
Ochiltree have been out and about enjoying horseriding, swimming and creating at Potter Around and the Ochiltree team have loved every minute of it!
We have also been travelling around the World with Susan visiting an array of countries and experiencing the different cultures through sensory experiences, arts and crafts building well known tourist attractions and cooking snacks and meals to get a taste of where we visit – even snails!
The team have also been building on their skills using TD Snap for communication, rebound and PE cross class for their physical wellbeing as well as their favourites such as going out on the bike, drive deck or choosing from the choice box.
It has been fun participating in whole school events and seeing everyone at our cafe as well as learning for sustainability through litter picking and our Spring Clean.
Next term we look forward to getting outside more to participate in walking month, our topic of Forest Trails, Teddy Bear Picnic and of course Sports Day.
Thank you to everyone for another fantastic term!
Another year and another term over just like that!
What another wonderful term with the children of Ochiltree. We have been a busy bunch being involved with whole school events, Asdan challenges, Learning for Sustainability activities and having lots of fun!
We are so glad we invited our friends to join us for our St Andrews Day Ceilidh and we had a blast! We have continued to go outside in all weathers to make use of the Drive Deck, the playground and also the environment – nothing puts this lot off!
We are continuing to develop our independent skills during cooking activities, class jobs and our communication challenges throughout our school day and we have been lucky to add horseriding to the list too!
From all in Ochiltree have a fantastic Christmas and New Year and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
This week in Beatlie we recognised World Food Day by making sensory bottles with the focus ‘Water is Life, Water is Food. Leave No One Behind’
World Food Day takes place annually on 16 October and promotes awareness of hunger and action for the future of food, people, and the planet.
Take a look at how much fun we all had making the bottles and how great they all look now they are finished.
#WorldFoodDay
#ZeroHunger
#FoodSecurity
#SustainableAgriculture
#EndHunger
#NutritionForAll
#GlobalFoodChallenge
This term we have had fun settling into our new space in Music. Some of the lessons, the1-1 and small group sessions have taken place in the new GP room while other lessons have been taking place in the classrooms.
Lammermuir have sociably been joining Hopetoun in their classroom and have had fun choosing nursery rhymes to sing together. Lomond and Glendevon had more relaxed afternoon lessons to meet the children’s needs at that time of the day.
Pentland used the giant scrunchie to sing about The Great Big Turnip at the Bottom of the field and it became a big favourite. Tommy and Matthew found it hilarious when the different characters shouted for help and that the mouse had the biggest muscles.
All of the Primary classes also enjoyed the The Wheels on the Bus. This turned into something bigger, with everyone taking turns choosing the different things that are on the bus from a range of choices on cards. The result was like a different remix of the song each time as the order kept changing.
As we approached Scarecrow Festival time, all of the Primary classes of course enjoyed singing the old favourite Dingle Dangle Scarecrow.
In Secondary, the groups focused on playing tuned percussion instruments to rock backing tracks and there has been lots of interaction and engagement, which bodes well as we head into a musical project together. More will be revealed in due course!
October already!!!
We cannot believe how quickly the first term has passed – and how much we have squeezed into the time we have had!
Of course much of it was getting to know our new school and environment- and we are loving it. We have been so lucky to get to experience so much outside with the weather on our side. The children are experiencing all the wonderful playground resources as well as the natural environment and of course the bikes and wheelchair track. We have also been busy doing some Autumn gardening and hopefully we will have lovely blooms in the spring to bring some colour to our class garden areas.
Moving inside and we have been trying out all the lovely new equipment and areas around the school – a favourite being the multi-sensory!
We have all been working hard on our life skills and Asdan qualifications through fun and meaningful activities. We are enjoying lots of interaction with the senior class and utilising our secondary area for getting together for snack, dinner and cross class activities.
We will continue to keep you updated in all we do through our Learners Journals but don’t forget to check Twitter and the Blog for whole school updates.
We wish you a happy holiday and look forward to continuing into the next term with new challenges ahead.
