Blog
The End of Another Era
It's the end of another era this week, as we say a fond farewell to our Year 11 cohort, and wish them all the luck in the world with whatever's next for them.
We're half way through our first-ever Transition fortnight, and last week saw team-building activities, contributions from post-16 providers, and even a Dragon's Den competition supported by local business.
It was important to us to mark this rite of passage well for Year 11. After all, they have had such a peculiar Key Stage 4 experience, stretching right back to March of Year 10, and taking them right through to the challenges of the teacher-assessed grading processes, and the worries that all the 'what-ifs' have generated. It was important to us that students' last memories of senior school should not simply be handing in their last assessment paper and walking away.
Why? Because school is as much about the relationships contained within its walls as it is about exams and assignments. That isn't to down-play education in any way, suffice to say that a student learns best when feeling happy, safe and secure.
I'm so proud of the progress achieved by our Student Council since September, as they have been doing exactly that: forging high-quality relationships, sometimes in tricky circumstances. In fact, a complete intricate cobweb has been formed, as students consult their form group reps, who feed into the main Council - and we feed back, too, an example being from our Year 8 reps, who have had a litter challenge to solve recently.
We are encouraged to have heard from a small group of parents/carers last week who are interested in forming a Parent Voice panel, with the same intention.
We can't expect to get everything right all the time, although it'd be wonderful if we could, but hopefully our discussions will lead to better levels of understanding and, and a result, a school that better serves its community and moves forward with a purposeful and collective will.
Postscript:
Our Student Council elects representatives annually and there is still an opportunity for families to participate in Parent Voice:
Email manager@valleypark.viat.org.uk if you are interested in taking part.