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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…

Bedtime!

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.

 

 

Term 2 in Dunratvie 2022

Pentland – Term 1

Ahoy Me Hearties from the Pentland Pirates!

What a busy (and quick!) first term here in Pentland. We started the year with a Pirate theme which we explored through various activities including art, cooking, sensory play, stories, dressing-up and physical games and activities…

Pirates was also the theme for our Class Charter…

We had a visit from Cool Creatures…

We looked for signs of Autumn during an Autumn Scavenger Hunt and used our senses to explore autumnal objects…

But our highlight has definitely been horse riding…

Our art wall so far with boats, treasure maps, treasure chests, leaf hedgehogs and shaving foam art…

Hope everyone has a great holiday and we’ll see you next term for the countdown to Christmas!!

Ochiltree Term 1

Ochiltree has had a fantastic start to the year and we have had a great time learning, having fun and getting to know each other.

We were busy the first couple of weeks making displays for our Class Charter and our Target work. Our theme being balloons. So we had a fun photo shoot to help make the display.

The boys have been enjoying our Boys Group that we have started – they are going to have the girls heads turning by the end of the year they will be looking and smelling so good! They have been really motivated and trying hard to help themselves with their own personal care and we are looking forward to seeing how well they come on over the year.

The children are working hard to achieve their IEP targets as well as ASDAN and SQA quaalifications. They are working well individually to carry out class jobs/home chores as well as physical exercises and trying out new experiences such as rebound, archery, meeting new animal friends and peers.

We hope you all have a great holiday and we are looking forward to the next term and all things Christmasy! x

Term 2 in Hopetoun Class

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of another term!

We have been VERY busy in Hopetoun exploring lots of seasonal themes, raising money for Children in Need and Save the Children, and celebrating Book Week Scotland and the UNICEF Outright Campaign. Phew!!!

Here’s a few snapshots of our learning….

And here’s what we got up to for Children in Need…

We would like to wish all our Beatlie families a happy and safe Christmas and we will see you in January 2022!

 

Ochiltree Memories from Term 2 2021

 

What a year it has been so far – lots and lots of fantastic achievements made in 2021! There are so many memories I wanted to share that I have made a Sway for each of the children!

We have also been enjoying sharing our good work each week when we are sending home our baking, craft work and plants – I think the escorts are beginning to wonder what will come next!

We are truly grateful that we have had the opportunity to participate in so many great activities this year both in our own class and with Duntarvie! Lets keep our fingers crossed that we will continue in the new year!!!

Christmas Wishes to you all from Ochiltree xcx

 

 

 

 

Ochiltree Term 1

I cannot believe that it is October already!

We have had a fabulous start to the year and have been enjoying our extended bubble with Duntarvie and participating in lots of new activities with all our friends from there!

So what have we been up to…..

We had a very successful litter pick around Craigshill but we were very surprised at how little litter there was about – the community have come together and have made fantastic changes around the area. We were also able to see how well our flowers have been growing at the street signs we planted before the summer – this caught on and there are lots of streets around doing the same now!

It was lovely to see Luca’s family and they had fun joining us for a walk around the Almond – it was a shame that you could not all join us but hopefully we will see you all soon at other school events.

We are all working hard on our qualifications this year – ASDAN and SQA projects as well as our IEP targets. William and Aria are doing lots together and are joined by Charlie for topic work, Luca is joining the Duntarvie class for lots of activities and Sophie is joining her friends from Duntarvie for lots of movement and sensory activities.

Catherine has been conducting the topic – Looking After My Body and the children have loved all the fun activities she has been doing – they especially enjoyed the smelling and tasting activity. Catherine has also been doing Drama which Luca and Sophie have been going to and they love it – hopefully we will be able to put on a show for you at Christmas or at the end of the year!

The children are all getting to try out new activities, experience new things and encouraged to be as independent as they can be building skills for adulthood! They are a great help carrying out their class jobs, Eco tasks and helping out in the community.

There are so many things I could rave about but I must leave space for some pictures.

Please click on the link below to see a fantastic video of our stars at work and play.

https://youtu.be/fdBzrA45otY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Term 1 in Duntarvie

WOW what a busy start to term 1 in Duntarvie we can’t believe it will be the October break next week!

We have been exploring garden maintenance this term and keeping Duntarvie garden clean and tidy through weeding, cutting the grass and leaf blowing.  We prepared the new kitchen garden area by upcycling some old tyres and compost from last year’s planting. We have already planted the seeds in the warmth of indoors and hope by the time Spring arrives we will have some lovey (hardy) herbs to plant outside.

To support our independence, develop our life skills and explore sensory development we have been completing class jobs including washing the windows, cleaning and putting away the dishes and sorting the laundry. Many of us have loved the new light weight hoover that we use to keep our class nice and tidy and it has even ventured round the school to ensure everyone is keeping their rooms nice and tidy!

A favourite class activity this term has been the sensory story of Boris the Bee – he has been a bit naughty by sneaking into the picnic basket and giving everyone a nasty sting!

It has been great to have new opportunities through our individual SQA work. This is the cooking group making all their health goodies to go home to parents and carers.  We are hoping to get out and about in the community more through further ASDAN and SQA work alongside starting our Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Hope you all have a lovely October week – Duntavie.