Tag Archives: Article 29: My education helps me to develop my abilities to the full.
Numeracy Day
On Wednesday 17th May we celebrated National Numeracy Day.
Check out our video to see what we got up to…
Spring term in Lomond class
What great fun we have had this term. We have been lucky to be able to go horse riding and the weather was really kind to us. We have done lots of sensory exploration through water play, messy play and our sensory boxes. We have let our imaginations shine with some dressing up and some imaginary play with babies and water- what a great combination!
We are looking forward to going on some new adventures next term, hopefully the sun will continue to shine for us and we can spend lots of time outside.
Here are some of our highlights from this term.
Term 3 in Hopetoun
This term has absolutely flown by and we’re so excited to finally see the beginnings of Spring outside!!
We’ve had another busy term getting involved in our school Eco work, Fairtrade activities, Comic Relief and had the best time at our Burns Ceilidh. We’ve also been busy starting our new topic all about people who help us in school and have had fun taking photo’s of people we find who help us as well as getting involved in some of the jobs that they do and we’ll be continuing this topic after the Easter holidays.
We hope you all have a lovely Easter.
Team Hopetoun
Term 3 in Duntarvie
In Duntarvie class we have been very busy learning out in the community and have created some videos of our favourite things we have been experiencing and participating in this term – hope you enjoy them.
We are looking forward to getting to explore further on our bikes next term and making the most of the lovely weather (fingers crossed). We are also planning to get back to check on all our berry, fruit and vegetable plants at the community garden.
Have a lovely Easter break.
Science day, Beatlie 2023 – sensory connections
This year the theme for science week was connections so we decided to have a seaside and underwater adventure where we could explore all our sensory connections.
We had lots of fun exploring different elements of being at the seaside and a range of reactions to some of the sensory items we were using – hope you enjoy watching our video.
Autumn Term Music in Beatlie
In Music this term, we had fun once more sharing and playing music together with our friends.
One of the focus points across the school has been making choices in music. In Ochiltree and Duntarvie the children have been exploring genre, from disco to indie and rock, with more to come after the holidays. In mixed groups doing ASDAN and NQs, they selected from a range of music on switches and then chose instruments to play along with the selection, including drums and electric guitars. It was surprising to find out who are the secret rock and rollers in the classes!
In Primary and Lammermuir, we have been choosing from a range of nursery rhymes and instruments. The Pentland children had great fun deciding whether songs should be loud, quiet, fast and slow. At Halloween The Hairy Scary Castle song made a return, with all the spooky sounds inside, which the children always enjoy.
Across the school we continue to have opportunities for individuals to have short Music as Therapy sessions that allows an opportunity to focus on the particular needs of some of the children. While this is different from Music Therapy with Aisling, we do confer and ideas overlap. Importantly, it is an opportunity for the children to express themselves through music away from distractions.
We ended the term with music for the Christmas show, quite a change after the last few years, with lots of creative ideas. Next year, we will continue to have fun with new and familiar songs alike, and also take time to use music for wellbeing and to celebrate Scotland as we head to Burns Night.
Pentland – Term 2
WOW! Who can believe Christmas is here already!
We’ve had another very busy term in Pentland with lots of new learning and fun celebrations including World Smile Day, Diwali, Halloween, Bonfire Night, Scottish Book Week, St Andrew’s Day and, of course, Christmas!
We have really enjoyed having our families back in school to take part in the Live Music Now café, watch our Christmas performance and see us meet Santa.
Our topic this term was ‘Day & Night’. We had fun creating day and night skies in art, bathing and dressing baby dolls for daytime and night time activities, and taking part in some day and night drama activities, including putting on our PJs and then snuggling up with a teddy for a bedtime story! We also explored dancing to lively and calm music and played some time games including ‘What’s the time Mr Wolf’ and ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’. Some of our boys also explored day and night sequencing, sorting and opposites during our weekly maths group.
Here are a few photos of our topic work…
Our completed art gallery…
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all our families from Team Pentland.
Ochiltree Term 2
Ochiltree News Update – December 2022
What a year we are having so far! Very busy, busy, busy learning and having fun, fun, fun!
So what have we been up to……..
SQA: Luca and Duncan have been enjoying lots of different experiences working toward achieving new SQA qualifications including bowling, archery, cycling, looking after your home and adult relationships. Of course the boys love all the activities and could not say what is their favourite as they have been fantastic at trying out everything.
ASDAN: Everyone has been learning new skills and attributes through activities leading to their ASDAN qualifications – it is easy to say that Gordon and his music is everyone’s favourite – they have been loving listening and joining in with different genres throughout the session – maybe we will have a rock band by the end of the year! Alex and Fletcher have had challenges that they have worked hard on and are showing progression in communication skills, physical skills, interaction and independence in school and while out and about in the local community. Mollie has been an explorer of different textures. She has had fun with her friends exploring sensory baskets of rough and smooth material, hard and soft materials and also messy play with lots of different dry materials. Mollie is also being challenged to move her body in different ways – this is being supported through her Rebound, Horse riding and movement tasks in the class – she is very motivated by her keyboard!
Stanley keeps us on our toes – he knows what is happening and on what day and will soon tell us if we are not right! Stanley has been a real star in his walker and is so motivated to use it on a daily basis – he likes to go and have a chat with different people around the school as well as doing his recycling! Stanley has also been enjoying horse riding and getting out to the shops and library.
We love mixing with Duntarvie for lots of different activities especially for outdoor play where there are more of us to join in playing games, lots of us are trying out new things this year and having lots of fun! Thursday is our big mix up day for music, IT and PE/Floor Exercise and what can I say there is a bunch of superstars in the secondary department – We are blown away at the resilience and motivation to try and to build on skills to help them with future physical barriers. Another group we have been having is our boys and girls groups – what a bunch of independent superstars we have and the tolerance of all during this lovely happy relaxing activity – foot care, hand care and haircuts – what next?
Our big project this term has been Upcycling and what a job we have done! We held an open day for other schools to come along to upcycle old toys etc in exchange for a new toy to donate to the toy appeal – Alex and Fletcher went round each class once a week with their trolley to collect for the toy appeal and the food bank and were kept busy! Alex, Duncan, Fletcher and Aria also upcycled jigsaws to make different home accessories which are beautiful!
I could go on and on at how amazing these children are so let me just finish by saying Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all and look forward to a new term and new challenges that lie ahead.
