Vallis First School

As we enter the season of goodwill and nativity plays, it is hard to believe 2017 is already drawing to a close. And what a busy year it has been at Vallis First School!

This year the entire school learned to make felt pictures with artist Bessie Bidder, to produce a beautiful nature scene that takes pride of place in our school hall. Apart from learning important lessons about team-working, each child can take pride every day in seeing how their individual handiwork has contributed to a beautiful tableau.All our children learned songs from around the world with the inspirational Caroline Radcliffe from Jackdaws Music Trust and performed them for parents as part of our Big Sing project. Many also took part in an opera The Love Potion, which they performed in the Cheese and Grain.Our older children recently took part in ‘Evacuee Day’, dressing as children did during the war, making spam sandwiches and doing the Lambeth Walk, as part of their WW2 topic. The children also undertook independent research in the town library, Frome Museum and by talking to elderly relatives to uncover important facts about our town, like the location of all the air raid shelters and discovering that there was an armaments factory on Adderwell Road.

Our Year 4 pupils enjoyed their residential trip to Kilve Court, where they took part in lots of outdoor activities, which nurtured friendships, team-working skills and resilience. Our pupils also visited Bristol Museum to learn about Stone Age Britain, and Longleat to discover more about the animals there and how to care for them. Our Key Stage One children enjoyed spending time in our field discovering the habitats a ‘Bog baby’ might live in. Back at school, they planted beans, watched butterflies hatch out and enjoyed a visit from the BBC’s Simon King who shared lots of great stories about his wildlife adventures.

Our youngest children in our Reception Classes enjoyed their trip to Bath City Farm and learning about looking after animals and growing food in their veggie boxes.

We were delighted that our Forest School and allotment both won prizes in ‘Frome in Bloom’, thanks to the hard work of the staff and children.

As part of our nurturing provision for children with emotional or social needs, we have introduced the children to caring for their nurture base fish. Alongside their class friends they have also learnt how to care for all sorts of pets including ponies and a bearded dragon. This has had a very positive effect on the children’s well-being and helped them with the vital skills of caring and empathy.

Keeping fit and active is very important to us at Vallis and all our older children have had swimming lessons (very important in a town with a river running through the middle of it!) The whole school took part in our sponsored Family Colour Fun Run on our sports field. The children have also been expanding their physical skills from bat-and-ball techniques to ceilidh dancing!

Our very active Vallis School Association raised much-needed funds to convert part of the playground to an all-weather terrain so the children can play outside whatever the weather. They also raised significant amounts for the school at the Summer Fair and annual Bingo evening.

Being part of our local community is very important to us as a school and this year we donated all the proceeds from our Harvest Festival to Fair Frome and wrote letters to Mayor Sheila Gore about the graffiti and dog poo problems in Frome. In the spring our Year 4 pupils will be visiting the elderly residents of Rossetti House to build empathy and companionship skills.

We’re also looking forward to working with Jackdaws Music Trust again in 2018 to celebrate The Year of Brass and we are excited about welcoming the Young Shakespeare Company who will be performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the school in the spring.

We have enjoyed our busy year of learning together and look forward to all that the new year holds!