We aspire to provide all our learners with access to the highest quality of learning and teaching alongside a mix of evidence based Autism specific approaches in order to maximise their success and encourage achievement in its broadest sense.
Our aim is to help all our pupils be the best they can be as:
Just before the Christmas break, we were working really hard on our enterprise projects and managed to generate profits of £320 across all of our classes. This week, our amazing pupils agreed unanimously to donate every penny of that the the Ukraine relief fund being coordinated and promoted by the Edinburgh Ukrainian Club. This was money that they were going to re-invest and then use to fund some nice treats and trips so it is such a self-less thing for them to do. To put this into context, £70 will buy a food and hygiene pack for a family for a month. These young people have done A LOT of good and I have genuinely never been so proud!
At Meadowpark and Knox, we are also going to be collecting items to send to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are in desperate need of help. If anyone would like to send in any items, we can store and get those items to the various collection points. The types of items that are being requested are: Sleeping bags / blankets, camping mats, tinned food, dried food, cat and dog food, Oxo cubes, Tea, Coffee, chocolate / energy bars, Nappies and wipes, Toiletries, sanitary products and first aid supplies. Please feel free to send in items with your child if you are able to and we will do the rest.
It feels a little odd to be celebrating anything with the deeply sad and distressing news that is going on around us but we did "celebrate" World Book Day this week. We have had a number of activities going on to promote the love of literature and books including our Reading Tree, doors decorated as book covers and a read-a-thon to name just a few. I chose Mr Grumpy for my door - proving that my GCSE Art grade E was very unfair, but alas I was not the winner. I suspect positive discrimination but I'm not bitter...
Congratulations to: Clyde class in 3rd place for their James and the Giant Peach door. 2nd place was Esk and How to Train a Dragon. The winners were Tyne class for their Dr Who Tardis door. Amazing efforts were made by all classes though and the doors look brilliant!
We would like to say a very big thank you to all of the people who supported our Enterprise projects this term. Classes have been hard at work learning about business, as well as developing various Christmas themed craft skills. With your support, the all classes have been able to repay the school investment and now have a healthy budget from which to start their next project!
Thanks also for supporting the Christmas Jumper Day. This year, we raised £31 for Save the Children.
Thanks to the Stephen Gallagher Foundation, a number of young people have been accessing some golf tuition at Castle Park Golf Club, Gifford. The feedback from the coaches has been excellent and as we have come to expect, our young people have really impressed them with the way they have engaged. We have also been told that we have more than our fair share of natural golfers!
A few weeks ago at Meadowpark, we launched our Meadowpark enterprise projects. This essentially involved me having to get my hands in my pocket and and give each class some money from which they would develop their enterprise business. Since then, each class has been using their enterprise lesson to learn about business and to produce items to sell. We are going to be holding a Covid safe "Christmas Fair" before the end of term where people can order some of the amazing things that classes have been producing. For example, Esk class have been making Gonks, which are those super cute Scandanavian bearded gnomes that have become really popular. We also have Leven class making 2022 calendars and Clyde class are making Christmas decorations etc. More info to follow on this.
Today has been a non uniform day with proceeds going to Children in Need. Thanks to everyone who supported this and I'm very happy to be able to send £24 to them!
Lots of classes have been continuing their work around Armistice Day and finding out about WWI. Some classes visited the memorial to pay their respects and have also produced some amazing artwork.
It's been lovely this term to be able to start doing some things that we've really missed over the lock downs. On Thursdays, we are able to visit the swimming pool at the Aubigny centre and all of the young people have been fantastic here. They've demonstrated their independence and mature attitudes and supported each other brilliantly. Other groups have been demonstrating the same during their visits to Aubigny gym.
We were all amazed by the ingenuity of Esk class this week, who have been demonstrating their design and engineering skills.
Here they are with their completed kites which flew magnificently.
Some of our groups this week managed to start their block of sessions with Martyn Pegg from the outdoor Education team.
Bush skills and fire safety was the focus of week 1.
It was fantastic to be back swimming this week. We had a superb first session and I was really impressed by everyone’s positive attitude and independence. Even the staff!
We have a number of people who are attending college twice per week now. So a very well done to Danny Stewart who has really taken well to college life and impressed us with his level of independence.
A big well done also to Cameron Graham and Douglas Whiteside for their fantastic start to college.
Clyde class have really impressed all of us with their inclusion lessons at Knox. They’ve managed these extremely well and have been a real credit to us.
They've even had time to hold their own Olympics!
With pupils now back into their regular classes, we should have lots of great work to show you and exciting developments to report on the run up to the summer break.
Over the last few weeks, we have been running a recruitment campaign in school for a number of pupil jobs. Following interviews on Friday, I am delighted to announce the appointments of:
Congratulations to them and a very well done for their superb interview preparation and performances. Very professional indeed!
More congratulations to Daniel Murray who on top of his admin role, has become a Children in Scotland Inclusion Ambassador. Amazing. If you would like to know more about that organisation, please look here.
Our links with Our Community Kitchen are well known, and the kitchen garden is nearing completion and ready for planting. I want to just “plug” the Community Kitchen’s 50/50 Club, which is a great way to support them. This from Elaine Gayle (founder / manager):
The person with the winning number in April received £300!
INTERESTED?
This is a monthly cash prize draw where you can buy a unique number for £5 per month. 50% of the income generated makes up the monthly prize and 50% goes to OCK to help us to continue our work. You can buy as many numbers as you like and the more numbers sold, the bigger the prize! Help us to fundraise and win cash prizes at the same time!
You can choose your own individual numbers from the ones still available, which will be your unique numbers that you can keep. The winning number will be chosen randomly by a much loved and respected local lady Jan Wilson, using an app named Random UX. The winning number will be announced on the last Friday of each month.
For more information or to apply to join please email Ock5050club@gmail.com
