This week the Year 10 have been experimenting with different light sources. They have learnt that white light is made up of lots of different colours; the colours of the rainbow. They have also used refraction glasses which separate the light sources around us.
September seems like a distant memory. It has been a long and busy Autumn Term. We are all looking forward to Christmas and our whole staff team would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
This term has been packed with activities, visitors into school, educational visits outside of school and of course many trips and visits. This has all been in addition to our staff and children working extremely hard to cover normal lessons ensuring our children all fulfil their potential, with the added complication of preparing to move a whole school!
Our school continues to grow with additional children starting all of the time which is a wonderful compliment and testimony to the team here.
The highlights for me this year were the amazing Christmas Show where over 150 people attended to watch fantastic acting and singing, and the Prizes and Awards afternoon. It was great to see the confidence in our children and the smiles on their faces. Again, these events enrich the curriculum and allow education to take place both inside and outside of the classroom.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all well at this special time of the year and hope 2024 brings you more amazing experiences in our brand new building.
Bamboozle Production
During their DT lessons students have been working on Hedgehog houses which will be positioned around the new school. We are hopeful that they will be inhabited by little hedgehogs in the very near future. The students have also been making some small Christmas gifts for their loved ones. They had a variety of figures to choose from.
On behalf of The Valley School we would like to extend a massive thank you to the Doolin family. They have very generously donated hundreds of pounds worth of tools and equipment to the DT department. The students have already started to benefit from this new range of equipment; using it regularly to enhance the quality of their projects.
Sky Class Make Jungle Scenes
This week Sky class has been very busy making 3D jungle scenes. We have practised our fine motor skills, cutting and colouring. We learnt how to curl paper strips with a ruler and make tube tree trunks using brown paper. Students have thought carefully about placement of their animals in the jungle, some have worked out how to make their monkeys swing from the trees.
Gold and Red class took a trip to the cinema on Tuesday to see Haunted Mansion. The students did so well and the trip was enjoyed by all. They represented our school amazingly and were the best behaved students out of the whole cinema! Well done Year 8!
Year 7 students have been busy creating reindeer with handprints in their Art lessons to decorate a tree. This will form part of the Stevenage Christmas Tree Trail and can be seen in one of the shops in the Westgate Centre in central Stevenage. Each tree represents a song, ours is one we are learning in lessons to sing in the Performing Arts Showcase on 7 December. Can you guess what it is? Thank you to The Stevenage Creative Network for offering us this opportunity.
From Tuesday 21st November students will have the opportunity to to use their reward money to buy s’mores and paracord bracelets whilst out in the woods at break time. They should also look out for exciting news about the assault course challenge and survival goodies that are coming up soon.
As previously advised we had a FoVS fundraising meeting last Wednesday, 8 Nov, and were thrilled to welcome some New Year 7 parents.
We are focusing our fundraising activities in the wider community rather than within the school community however, we would like to ask parents to investigate if their companies offer match funding opportunities.
Match funding is an arrangement between a company and their employee. Not all companies offer matched funding but those that do will pledge a sum of money relating to the amount their employee has raised for or donated to the charity of their choice. We would be grateful if parents / carers could reach out within their places of work to ask if fund matching is available to them as this could be a great way to increase our fundraising.
How match funding works
A parent who works for a company that offers match funding, volunteers to work on the refreshment stall at the PTA summer fair. The profit made by the stall is £100. The parent’s employer will then match this amount with a further £100.
Some organisations will match fund on a pound for pound basis, while others will stipulate what they are prepared to give. It is likely that an upper limit will be applied along with certain criteria such as the recipient organisation being a registered charity.
Some companies will also pledge time and resources instead of money, so enabling their employees to support a cause during their working week, or offering a tangible service such as the opportunity to print posters, programmes, newsletters and so on.
Alternatively, a parent may opt to make a cash donation to the PTA, which again could be matched by their organisation.
Headteacher: David Pearce | Contact: Iona Varol (Office Manager)
The Valley School, Broadhall Way, SG2 9BN | Tel: 01438 747274 | Email: iona.varol@thevalley.herts.sch.uk
Senco: senco@thevalley.herts.sch.uk
Headteacher: David Pearce
Contact: Iona Varol (Office Manager)
The Valley School, Broadhall Way, SG2 9BN
Tel: 01438 747274
Email: admin@thevalley.herts.sch.uk
Senco: senco@thevalley.herts.sch.uk