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Working at Fox Chase Farm!
The Fox Chase Farm is an agriculture education facility hosting more than 30,000 visitors each year. The farm is a campus of the Philadelphia School District, serving all of Philadelphia school students and surrounding counties. The Agriculture Education Department at the Fox Chase Farm serves as the hub of agriculture education for the school district, engaging Pre-K through 12th grade in agriculture experiences. The farm is owned by the city of Philadelphia, and managed by the Philadelphia School District. The purpose of the farm is to educate the school children and families of Philadelphia about agriculture through hands-on experiences, on the farm and through the classroom. In the course of a year school children visit the farm as a field trip opportunity, school engagement events and through the Agriculture Empowerment Program. The Philadelphia School brings the experience of agriculture into the hands of the public first hand. Click the link above to see student Nathan Konde spending time with a "friend from work".
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Valley Day Students Learn About the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier With Army Veteran and Valley Day Driver Carver Coombs.
Valley Day's own, Army veteran Mr. Carver, poses with students who just learned about Veteran’s Day and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier . The book, 21 Steps, honors those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Click the link above to learn more about the Tombo f the Unknown Soldier..
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We Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts!
For Valley Day's first ever Fall Fling, students found fun in every room in the building. Our very own Ghostbuster oversaw the festivities in Room 8, which included Giant Jenga and Giant Connect Four! Click the link for an awesome video!
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Meet the Valley Day Gentlemen's Group!
"The truth of your character is expressed through the choice of your actions." - Dr. Steve Maraboli. According to Darnell Alford, a Behavioral Support Professional at Valley Day School, "Gentlemen's Group of Valley Day is a mentoring program that shows our young men the characteristics of being a true gentleman and also helps prepare them for life's challenges after high school." Click the link above for more images!
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Valley Day Teams With Soulful Blessings To Feed Those In Need
In Pennsylvania, more than a million people struggle to feed themselves. Soulful Blessings is a food pantry based in Bristol Borough. Located within Second Baptist Church, it's mission is to help feed those in need throughout the community. The pantry runs solely on volunteers, without whom it could not exist. Valley Day School is proud of the work our student's do in helping Soulful Blessings achieve its goal of feeding those in need. Click the link above to learn more about Soulful Blessings and its services!
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Meet Our Clinical Support Team!
Within our trauma-informed environment, clinical and behavioral support is critical for the personal and academic growth of our students. We believe the root of many behavioral issues students face can be linked to traumatic experiences. Our behavioral and clinical support teams play an important role in fulfilling our mission by helping students identify past trauma and learning new strategies for growth and change. About twenty percent of VDS staff serve in positions that provide our students with clinical or behavioral support. Click the link above to learn more about our Clinical Support Team!
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Meet Our Behavior Support Professionals!
Our staff behavioralists work directly with students to identify healthy behaviors and help students apply those behaviors in and out of school. When negative behavior occurs, our behavioralists will try to determine the causes of the behavior and work with the student, teachers, case managers, and family to determine a course of action to prevent further actions from occurring. In keeping with our philosophy, our behavioralists work within our school's positive behavioral support plan to reinforce pro-social student behavior. Click the link above to learn more about our Clinical Support team!
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Learn About Valley Day Leading Ladies!
Leading Ladies is a weekly group developed on the foundation of Education, Service and Mentorship. We LEARN about ourselves and how we are connecting and disconnecting with with others. We LEARN how to utilize conflict management skills. Finally, we LEARN how to maintain healthy friendships. As Leading Ladies, we SERVE our school and local community by collecting items and bringing them to local shelters. As Mentor our younger students through teaching activities and helping with peer mediation. Click the link above to see Valley Day School's 2021/2022 Leading Ladies!
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Facts and Opinions About...Spiders!!!
VDS students in Room 14 read a story about spiders and completed a reading comprehension activity about facts and opinions. Then, they crafted their very own 'spiders' to go along with the story!. Click the link above to see their creepy creations!
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Yummy Geography Cookies!
Students in Room 12 created physical geography cookies using frosting, sprinkles, and sugar cookies. They learned about valleys, mountains, hills, and other landscapes. Click the link above to see the end result!
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What is STEM Station?
STEM is a teaching philosophy that integrates all four disciplines together into a single, cross-disciplinary program which offers instruction in real-world applications and teaching methods. Makey Makey is a USB device that allows students to transform everyday objects into computer interfaces. During STEM Station, one of our students used this tool to create a circuit using conductive objects. Check out the video above!
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Pesto Sauce Ingredients From Our Garden!
Pesto is a bright green, basil based sauce that originated in Genoa, Italy. The word pesto comes from the Italian word “pestare” which means to crush, as it was typically made by crushing the ingredients with a mortar and pestle. Pesto will keep refrigerated for a week. When harvesting basil in late September and early October, you may consider making a large batch that you can freeze to use over the winter when basil is no longer in season.Freeze pesto in ice cube trays, store the pesto cubes in plastic bags, and then pop a pesto cube into savory dishes for an immediate flavor boost. When preparing pesto specifically for freezing, omit the cheese, and add it to the thawed pesto before serving. If you have Frozen leftover pesto with the cheese, whirl it briefly in the blender to improve its texture. Click the link above for the full recipe!
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Fall Harvest With Family & Consumer Science!
It’s Harvest Time at our Valley Day Learning Garden. The students have been busy in the learning garden, observing, exploring, planting, weeding, and soaking up the fresh air and sun. Now it is time to harvest! September found us harvesting tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, carrots, apples (both Gala and Red Delicious varieties), and fresh herbs: peppermint, lemon balm, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, chives, and basil. And there is so much more to come! Click the link above for the full article.
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Brain Based Research
Brain science teaches us that behavior is not categorized by being good or bad; it is a question of being healthy or unhealthy.
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Trauma Informed Care
We treat the whole student while taking into account their past trauma and the resulting coping mechanisms while attempting to understand their behaviors.
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Cutting Edge Technology
We believe that the effective use of instructional technology is vital to teaching today's students.
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Clinical Support
Clinical and behavioral support is critical for the personal and academic growth of our students.
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OUR MISSION
To teach students the tools they need to lead a healthy lifeWe pursue our mission by incorporating evidence-based best-practices throughout our organization so that VDS-enrolled students receive FAPE and IEP-fulfilling education in a safe, structured, and supportive trauma-informed learning community.
Each day we blend trauma-informed care, an understanding of neuroeducation, and cutting-edge educational technology to provide students with the skills, tools, strategies, and experiences they will need to make healthy choices and to lead healthy lives both inside and outside of school.
We provide VDS students with a secure environment in which they can feel physically, socially, and emotionally safe while learning to understand their own experiences and how to productively change the way they respond to these experiences.
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S2SS is designed to help students and school staff recognize risk factors and signals of those who may be a threat to themselves or others. From a student perspective, S2SS teaches students to treat every warning sign seriously and to act quickly to get help by talking to a trusted adult and/or by reporting it anonymously to the Pennsylvania S2SS Crisis Center via telephone, mobile device, or website.
