Last Friday 10 of our Year 9 students visited Wisley to take part in the Green Plan It Challenge, a 10-week project where the students are asked to think about role of  plants and green spaces in our everyday lives.

Working in a team they will research and plan a concept for a new garden, before building a model of the garden and presenting it to a panel of assessors at the celebration event in December.

The students from year 8 and year 9 who have been studying Latin travelled to Fishbourne Palace in West Sussex on Thursday.  Fishbourne is the largest Roman residence found in Britain. The students enjoyed a workshop on Roman life, which involved handling genuine Roman artefacts and discovering what they tell us about life at the palace. They were able to explore the remains of the villa and gardens, including seeing the impressive mosaic floors which have remained intact.

It was a great reward for all the hard work they have put in to their study of Latin this year.

Last Friday, our Year 8 Yes Futures cohort arrived with their suitcases ready to embark on the ‘Into The Wild’ residential trip, the final step in their rising futures program. The students stayed at the PGL camp in Swindon and on arrival they met their coaches and mentors were briefed for the action-packed weekend. With barely any time to unpack the students were put into their groups mixed with three other schools, and whisked off for their first day of activities. Throughout the day the student’s were doing all sorts of adventurous tasks including climbing, abseiling and high ropes courses which gave them a chance to get to conquer some of their fears whilst supporting and encouraging new friends in their groups. Hoe Valley Students got off to a flying start with taking risks, helping others and displaying our all-important Circle Values. After a busy first day, the group went back to their dorms to recover and recharge before another fun-filled day at PGL.

One member of the Yes Futures team said “we are really proud of how each student from Hoe Vally did it was lovely to see some of the quieter students come out of their shells and there were so many examples of them stepping outside of their comfort zones and achieving more than they thought possible.”

Last Thursday 3 of our students took part in the Arete Poetry by Heart competition. They memorised a World War One poem and recited it in front of a panel of judges. All of the students worked incredibly hard at this and we are very proud of them.

Please click the link below to find out more.

Arete Poetry by Heart

Year 7 students visited the University of Surrey on Friday 8th June.  They learned how plasmas can fuel interstellar travel, unpicked whether time travel into the future is currently possible and debated whether the development of artificial intelligence is a good thing.

Students also received a tour of the campus and discussed university life with the student ambassadors.

For more photographs please visit our gallery page.

Yes Futures provided HVS students with a fantastic day filled with exploring the King Games offices, getting to know the ‘Kingsters’ and developing their knowledge and understanding of what it is like to build an animated game from scratch. The students took part in a networking event where they quizzed the ‘Kingsters’ on what it is like to work in computer animation, coding and design and they found out exactly what was needed to become one of Kings’ employees in the future. One of our students shared her designs with the computer animators and they thought she had incredible talent and hope to see her working for King Games in ten years time!

To see more photographs please visit our gallery page.

It is with huge pride and pleasure that we can inform you that the handover of our building at Egley Road took place on Friday 25th May. Our very first design meeting took place in November 2014, followed by our consultation with the community in May 2015. We are all therefore delighted to be here three years later with the completed building.

​We will be working hard over the summer to make sure all the furniture and equipment is in place ready for teaching at the start of September. Our student site ambassadors remain a really important element of getting the school ready, and recently we took them over to SJB to sample the catering from our chosen partner, Innovate. Happily, they were very satisfied with what they saw and tasted. After half term they will be helping us design our internal signage for the building to make sure it is tailored for students’ needs.