Life at Valley

All the Valley School children who have been wearing their pajamas inside out and backwards, and sleeping with a spoon under their pillow, have gotten their wish. Snow has fallen in Seattle! Valley opened at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 9 to celebrate their success at the Friday All-School Sing. Congratulations kids!

“If I were to ask you to describe The Valley School using single words or short phrases, how would you do it?”

Moira is a Valley third grader who is happy to be a kid in America, but she understands that not all girls in the world have the chances and opportunities that she has. When she learned about Razia Jan and her Ray of Hope Foundation, she decided this was a way she could make a difference.

Welcome to another great year at the Valley School! We are excited to begin the year with a renewed passion and dedication to our fabulous playground. We have formed a Playground Committee to help ensure that the children have an exceptional outdoor experience and they are able to use our “second classroom” in varied and exciting ways during the year.

“Some things you can see….Some things you can’t see. I am very proud of that.”

This is how Mike Miller (aka Maintenance Mike; aka Director of Facilities of the Valley School) describes the work he has done on the school’s behalf since October 2012 when he was hired, on a part-time basis, to help out with some light construction and maintenance.

On a recent weekday afternoon this spring, strains of jazz pianist Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” could be heard at the Martin Luther King Community Center, a short walk from the Valley School. This version wasn’t being played by a jazz ensemble, however, but by a group of fifteen Valley School fourth graders on steel pan drums, directed by their teacher and veteran steel pan bandleader, Michael Shantz.

This week Valley School second graders held a bake sale to benefit the Humane Society. We thought it best to let the students tell this story...

Sporting flags, bubbles, and balloons, The Valley School welcomed our community, including neighbors and next year's incoming families, to the second annual Valley Carnival on Saturday May 21st!

What do you get when you add an even number to another even number? How about an odd plus another odd number or an even number plus and odd number? This week our first graders traveled back in time to join Euclid's Secret Math Society and to test some of his mathematical theories.

Fifth graders returned from IslandWood (many students reluctantly), spilling over with information to share. They report the four-day trip was both educational and eye-opening. This annual trip for Valley School's graduating class is a capstone event, as they reflect on the transition to middle school.