Key stage 4 Football competition – 29^th April

The final KS4 football competition of the academic year took place on Tuesday 29^th April, with The Valley School proudly hosting and organising the event. Five teams participated, including two representing The Valley.

It was a closely contested tournament, with just one point separating the top three teams. Pinewood emerged as champions, while The Valley and Brandles finished in joint second place. The competition remained wide open until the final whistle, with The Valley needing a win in their last game to secure first place — a result that narrowly slipped away.

The event was played in great spirits under sunny skies, rounding off the KS4 season with an exciting morning of football.

RRSA Update

The RRSA Steering group met last week to decide which Rights they wanted the school to learn about this half term. There are 42 Articles in the UN Convention of Children’s Rights, and all are equally important, so it is always a challenge to decide which ones we will focus on, but eventually we chose:

Article 2: No Discrimination – All children have all these rights, and no child should be treated unfairly for any reason

and Article 3: Best Interests of the Child – When adults make decisions, they should always do what is best for the child. 

The members of the steering group, led by Ms. Flynn, are going to teach the school about Articles 2 and 3 in an assembly on 16^th May.

The other exciting decision by the steering group, was to create a Rights Respecting Charter for the school, which will reflect our 3 school rules: Be Safe, Be Respectful and Be Ready to Learn. The purpose of the charter will be to show how Children’s Rights dovetail with our key school values and identify how both Duty Bearers (the adults) and Rights Holders (the children and young people) will uphold our school values through Children’s Rights. The steering group are going to work on the charter over the next few weeks so that we can present it to the school after half term. We are looking forward to sharing it with you in a few newsletters’ time!

Finally, we are very proud of the students on the steering group – Sienna, Destiny, Dylan, Katelyn, Rubie, Helen, Jack, Alfie, and Callum. They are so enthusiastic about promoting Children’s Rights across the school community and have contributed some wonderful ideas in the meetings. Thank you to you all for all your hard work!

VE Day

Gold Class observed the 2-minute silence whilst watching the King arrive at Westminster Abbey for the Commemorative Service. After recalling and reviewing our learning about World War II, the students tucked into jam sandwiches, summer fruit and madeira cake while listening to the tales of celebrations people had enjoyed on the day 80 years ago – including hearing about a celebration jelly made without any flavouring or sugar, which didn’t sound as tasty as our cake!

Year 10 BTEC Art

Students created these beautiful cityscapes reflecting in water.

The students painted their backgrounds and then used block printing techniques to create their city skyline.

Block printing is a printmaking technique where the students carved a design into a styrofoam tile and then pressed the tile onto their background surface to create an impression.