ACSI/WASC Accreditation Visit
This week we've had some special visitors on campus. The visiting accreditation team commended Valley Christian Schools for our purposeful commitment to Christian education, our effective instructional practices that encourage student engagement, and our commitment to providing service learning opportunities for our students, and many more! The purpose of the visit is to show an outside agency the inner workings of the school, and to provide evidence of student growth. The team definitely saw what Valley is all about. We are thankful to our teachers, students, parents, school board, operations team, and Valley Christian Center for their hard work and support in this process. This week our aim to be One Valley really shined through.
Take a look below at the incredible ways our students are serving our local and global communities.
5th Grade Wax Museum at the Academic Fair
The fifth grade has been studying the American Revolution. At the Academic Fair they put on a Wax Museum, where they played the part of a person from the Revolution. Guests could give them coins for their wax figure to come "alive". They raised money for Lifewater International, a Christian organization that is working to end the global water crisis. They truly were the hands and feet of Jesus for people in our world that don't have clean drinking water.
The total that they raised for this incredible organization was $1840.30!
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity was on campus on Thursday for an amazing STEAM Playhouse Build. Eight playhouses were constructed and decorated by Valley Christian 7th and 8th graders over the course of 5 hours. Thanks to a generous donation by Simpson Strong-Tie, Inc, and our hard-working students, 8 underprivileged families received a new playhouse for their children.
Watch the video below to see our amazing students building playhouses and presenting them to the children to see for the first time!
6th Grade Service Project
Our 6th grade class took their service to a new level as the entire class went off campus to Kaleidoscope in Dublin to help with Spring Cleaning. Some Students raked, mulched, and fertilized the outdoor play area and garden while others were busy cleaning and sorting on the inside.
Elementary Fun Run Fundraiser
The Elementary School enjoyed an amazing morning yesterday for their FunRun! God blessed us with beautiful weather and great fellowship. The students, staff, and parents at Valley Christian all enjoyed one of our best Fun Runs ever! We are still tallying the final pledges and will have total figures calculated soon! Thank you to all who were involved!
San Francisco Day of Learning
On Sunday, March 19, two Valley Christian students had the privilege of meeting survivors of genocide face-to-face. Gloria Zhang and Hannah Johnson accompanied their Modern World History teacher, Mrs. Weber, to the 15th annual "Day of Learning" in San Francisco hosted by The Jewish Family and Children's Services Holocaust Center.
Hannah attended a workshop exploring the role of faith in the midst of atrocity. Later, Hannah joined a small group session with 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, Gloria Lyon. Mrs. Lyon amazingly endured imprisonment in seven different concentration camps ranging from Bergen-Belsen to Auschwitz. Reflecting on her time with Mrs. Lyon, Hannah commented, "She looks like my grandma, she could have been anybody's grandma, but she has this incredible story that I would never have known otherwise."
Gloria attended a different workshop about refugees and U.S. immigration policies, followed by a session with a survivor of civil war in South Sudan. Gloria's speaker, Richard Bakheit, lived in different refugee camps prior to emigrating from South Sudan to San Francisco. He is currently fundraising to start a school back in South Sudan and he challenged students to act as global citizens by staying informed about what is happening outside of the US.
Hannah, Gloria, and Mrs. Weber left the conference with a renewed appreciation for oral history. This experience added depth and meaning to their unit on WWII and the Holocaust.