Celebrations at Vale Primary School

Staff and pupils at an Epsom Primary School returned from the holidays and launched straight into a celebration of its conversion to the Oaks Academy Trust.

The Vale Primary School is now part of The Oaks which is itself supported by the multi-academy GLF Trust, which has 30 primary and secondary schools under its umbrella across five local authorities. It offers support and development to enable each school to offer the very best in education.

A special mosaic was created by the school community as one of a number of events organised during Collaboration Week, held to mark the change-over and to encourage pupils to think about teamwork.

The Oaks Academy Trust was created in 2014 with Banstead Infant School and Warren Mead Junior School. It was upgraded to Sponsor status and The Vale officially joined on December 1.

Cathy Browne, one of the Co-Headteachers at The Vale Primary, said: “We are very excited to join Oaks Academy Trust – a family of schools with which we already work very closely with. The expertise and support available within the Trust will enable all those working in our school community to continue to achieve their very best.”

Approved by the Secretary of State for Education, the conversion will allow The Vale Primary to have more control over its day-to-day running within the support network of both The Oaks and GLF.

The Collaboration Week saw all the pupils developing their teamwork skills with many related activities.  

Children took part in a special assembly held to mark the conversion and felt that “Communication, Cooperation, Participation and Perseverance” were all going to be very important qualities to make the new team enjoy success.