Year 8 Outdoor Learning

Year 8 have been working hard in their outdoor learning sessions, gaining valuable hands-on experience in the allotment area. They have been learning to identify the difference between weeds and flowers, an important step in maintaining a healthy garden. Using the correct tools, students have been carefully weeding the allotment and preparing the space for new growth. They have also laid down fresh soil, getting the area ready for planting a variety of new flowers and vegetables. Their efforts are helping to create a thriving and sustainable garden space for everyone to enjoy.

Maroon Class’s First Trip of the Year!

Maroon Class kicked off our first adventure of the year with a visit to Waste Not Want Not nursery and recycling centre. Excitement filled the air as we pulled on our wellington boots and wrapped up in warm coats, ready for the day ahead.

Rob, our guide, gave us a fantastic tour of the site, showing us around the sheds, greenhouses, and polytunnels. One of the most fascinating facts we learned was that the centre is home to half a million honeybees, living in hives at the top of the site!

After the tour, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Our task was to lay a new path in one of the sales areas using wood chippings and bark. We filled wheelbarrows, tipped out the contents, and carefully spread them with rakes to create a safer walkway for visitors.

Once our hard work was done, Rob treated us to delicious hot chocolate. While waiting for our drinks, some of us spotted a Christmas tree and couldn’t resist decorating it with baubles and sparkly pipe cleaners—it was a lovely festive touch, even if it’s a little early!

We’re already looking forward to next week’s activity: making winter hanging baskets!

Rights Respecting School Silver Award

I am delighted to be able to share the news that on Tuesday this week we were successful in achieving the Silver Rights Respecting School Award.

This was the culmination of nearly a year of hard work, and showed that the whole school community has made good progress towards embedding children’s rights into the learning, policy and practice. The Assessor spent the morning interviewing a group of students as well as some of the teachers, support staff and governors, and commended The Valley on being a very happy and safe school, with enthusiastic learners who enjoyed talking about their Rights in a positive and thoughtful way.  Our journey to Gold Award will take up to 2 years, but we have lots of ideas to work on and are excited to see how the school continues to develop through our Rights Respecting journey.

Year 9 Art Award

During the Spring Term, in their Art lessons, Year 9 students researched an artist and experimented working in the artist’s style.  Their final pieces go towards their Explore Arts Award and they are absolutely fabulous.  Copies of their final pieces are attached for you to see.

Seussical Brings the House Down!

‘Amazing’, ‘unbelievable’ and ‘such fantastic fun’ have all been used by audience members to describe our colourful production of Seussical! The enthusiasm and talent of the students was amazing. The quality of the performances was exceptional and there were so many stand out moments. The ‘fish’ scene under ultraviolet light was a firm favourite and the Cat and Things certainly enjoyed getting the audience wet during the storm. The soloists all showed off their beautiful voices and enjoyed getting into their characters. The ensemble executed the choreography with confidence and the tech crew ensured that each performance ran smoothly. It was wonderful to see the whole school community come together and celebrate in each performance.