What a fabulous year this has been! We’ve had lots happening here at VPA to keep the children (and staff) on their toes. Our let RIP learning has continued to be Real, Immersive and Powerful right throughout the year!
Some of our highlights:
September 2014 – started off our ‘let RIP learning’ with our Big Adventure. This is when the whole school went to visit Edgmond Hall in Shropshire, linking their activities to our NICER Curriculum Challenge Packs. Later on in the month, Ballot Street Spice was born out of our school’s already popular Spice Academy.
October 2014 – Mrs Mahal’s Masala was created and has been sold all around the country! Our brand new Sunflower Seeds Breakfast Club was opened and numbers have grown steadily throughout the year.
December 2014 – We were visited by our Spice Traveller Archibald Google and his well travelled camel – Humphrey! This experience helped the children to produce some superb writing outcomes for our ‘Everybody Write Day.
February 2015 – As part of World Book Day celebrations, children and staff dressed up as their favourite story book characters.
May 2015 – The whole school voted and elected our new Changemaker Party ‘The Achievers’. A few weeks later we held our very prestigious Great Garden Party launch.
June 2015 – Our Academy 3rd Birthday took place and we travelled around the world in 80 days. Classrooms were transformed into the 7 continents of the world; teachers dressed up in-keeping of their continent theme and the children took part in various activities pertaining to life in the countries of the continents they visited. Ballot Street Spice took our Spice Ambassadors and Humphrey the camel for a Spice Walk around the streets of Smethwick. The sight of the children and the camel prompted much public and media interest. The Ambassadors were out and about to promote Ballot Street Spice’s enterprise initiatives including their new spice blend masala tea, aprons and mugs. The highlight of this month without a doubt was our hot air balloon ride! Children and staff were invited to ride in a tethered hot air balloon over the school field – it was the culmination of our birthday celebrations; it was an amazing experience for everyone – one NEVER to be forgotten!
July 2015 – We have embraced the Government’s ‘British Values’ and as a school we have adopted a selection to work on during our new academic year. We took part in an inter school sports day against RPA where the majority of our year groups won medals and we came back with the winners trophy!
Throughout the year we have raised hundreds of pounds for various charities through all of our fundraising initiatives, we have held a successful Christmas and Summer fair and many year groups have held enterprise events which have incorporated their NICER enterprise challenges. All year groups have completed fun and educational off-site visits and we have continued to work collaboratively throughout the year with Shireland Collegiate Academy; where we look forward to many more exciting ventures next year. Last but not least, we have been incredibly proud of our Year 6 students who have worked hard this past year and achieved record breaking SAT’s results – we wish them and their families all the very best for the years ahead!
All staff at VPA would like to take this opportunity to wish all children, parents and members of the wider school community a very happy, safe and restful summer holiday. We would like to thank you all for your continued support this past year and we look forward to welcoming you all back in September to create some more fabulous memories and learning experiences.