Tag Archives: Article 29: My education helps me to develop my abilities to the full.

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!

Lomond Term 2

Another term goes past in a flash!

What a fantastic term we have had in Lomond going on a bear hunt and experiencing lots of different sensories.

It has been such a fun topic for all of us and the children have enjoyed participating in all the different activities. We finished up with a sensory walk going through different materials in our bare feet – fabulous fun!

We have also been busy with the run up to Xmas and have allbeen enjoying our PE activities – especially the sleigh rides on our sheets!

All the children have made great progress with all their individual targets and welook forward tocontinuing the good work as we go into 2025.

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and look forward to seeing you all again when we return.

Ochiltree Term 2

We’ve had another super busy term in Ochiltree and we’re all definitely ready for our Christmas break! This term we’ve been working really hard developing our communication skills and have been enjoying lots of opportunities to use these across the school using our individual communication aids to deliver lots of messages. One of our favourite days this term was Universal Childrens Day where Ochiltree took over from the 2 Debbie’s for the day, we were so busy and we were all very happy to swap back!! We’ve been busy exploring a variety of different kitchen measures in cooking to make lots of yummy snacks and we have been participating in some cross class groups with our friends from other classes for PE, health groups and more recently for our Christmas activity groups. We’ve been practising lots for our Christmas performance which we’re all looking forward to showing you this week.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Team Ochiltree

Drama in Hopetoun

We have had a great time in drama this term, especially with our horse riding sessions. Thanks to all our parents for getting involved and helping to think of names for the children’s horses.

Clopper, Sir Trot a lot, Shug, Stumpie and Bam Bam!

We all had fun trying to control these naughty horses. They would try and run away and we would have to try and tie them up. Freya had to tie Shug the Thug to her leg one week!!

Jackson had a hard time with Bam Bam throwing the hay everywhere. He made such a mess.  Indianna’s horse was very greedy and tried to eat all the carrots and apples.  Then Thea’s horse would not let her brush his mane. She found this very funny. Lewis loved switching the angry farmer who shouted at the horses for the mess they made of his field. Everyone enjoy racing each other too. Lots of hilarity, wonderful focus and fabulous interaction from our amazing children in Hopetoun with their horses and staff.

Will keep you all posted about our next drama sessions!

Lomond Class Term 1

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know the children and the staff team for our new Lomond class.

We are all getting to know our likes and dislikes and making our timetable work for all.

This term we have been enjoying the topic of the 3 pigs – we have enjoyed experiencing this through art, messy play, sensory play and story time.

We have also been making the most of all the resources in and around school and ensuring we all get to experience Rebound, bikes, drive deck and outdoor play.

Looking forward to further challenges and experiences as we move into the new term.

In the meantime have a wonderful break and look forward to seeing the children on our return.

 

Summer term in Lomond

What a fantastic end to the first year in our new school. We have had so much fun exploring everywhere. The weather has been a little bit nicer so we have made the most of being able to get out and about. We have had some very exciting walks and we even met a tractor with a very friendly driver who stopped to let us come close and see his tractor.

We have had lots of fun inside school as well, with our teddy bears picnic and clown doctors party both happening on nice sunny days. Even when it has not been as nice, we have still managed to make the most of our lovely new gardens, who knew that a poly tunnel was a great place to have a dance!

We finished our term with a lovely trip to Lochore Meadows country park where we had great fun in the play park then we had our picnic lunch, we even managed to have an ice cream before getting on the bus and coming home.

We hope everyone has a lovely summer and comes back to school looking forward to all the adventures we have in store for next year.

Term 3 in Duntarvie 23-24

Well Spring is here (hopefully when the rain stops!) And what a quick term it has been in the senior class.  We have all been busy working on our individual SQA awards including completing a charity upcycle project as well as S6 finishing bronze Duke of Edinburgh volunteering to organise and run a coffee morning.

We have particularly enjoyed opportunities to experience and participate in lots of different groups this term.  Just check out our photos:

  • Assembly
  • Clown Doctors with Hearts & Minds
  • Exercise Group at Polbeth Hub with Heidi McDonald Fitness
  • Musically Active Dudes with MUSAC at Crofthead Centre
  • Archery with Paul of No-Limits Sports Club
  • Multi-sensory
  • Music appreciation with Chloe and Callum from Live Music Now

We hope you have a wonderful Easter break and are well rested for a busy last term.

Update on School Developments

I can’t believe that we are approaching the last term in our brand new Beatlie building.  This year has been a whirlwind!

I want to thank our amazing staff who have embraced all sorts of new training and different ways of working in order to ensure we are maximising the use of all the new resources and learning environments we have available to us.

In terms of using all the technology we have, there has been a great deal of work and collaboration with trying to get this all up and running.   What we have achieved so far:

  • Drive deck – pupils are enjoying using this outside in all weathers. We have now started trialling this indoors and if all goes well, intend to have a path inside the school for pupils to use after Easter.
  • Immersive multi-sensory room – this is being utilised by all classes for a number of purposes including storytelling, mindfulness, drama. Training is ongoing and most staff now have a good understanding of how to make use of the technology within the room.
  • Life skills area in the secondary department – pupils have the opportunity to control coloured lights and blinds and Hazel has grand plans to create an xbox league for switch users!
  • Promethean panels – we are making great use of these in all classrooms to make learning fun and motivating for all pupils either through interacting with the touch screen or through switch access.

We also had a visit this week from an inspector as we were selected to be part of the national thematic inspection by Education Scotland looking at provision of mathematics.  This went well and the lead inspector cited very positive relationships between staff and pupils that is leading to high quality, motivating learning opportunities for all pupils across the setting from ELC to senior phase.

I would like to wish you all a very happy Easter and look forward to the summer term when we can really make use of our fabulous outdoor spaces.

Debbie Green(Head Teacher)

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!!