School unveils new £19,000 equipment funded by parents

A PRIMARY school in Henley has new play equipment thanks to the fundraising efforts of its parent teacher association.

The Valley Road School playground is on its playing field and the equipment, which includes a climbing wall and net, a slide and log bridge, replaces its old set-up which had been in place for more than 20 years.

The installation was finished two weeks ago and cost £19,000.

Headteacher Tim Coulson said that the new playground, which is set above recycled rubber flooring, was an improvement on what was there before.

He said: “It’s lovely having this for them to use. In the past we were using bark chippings, which were great but they blow away.

“The stuff we had before had been here for a long time, about
25 years. We get it checked every year. They said it was all fine, but it was getting old.”

Mr Coulson said the pupils on the school council were consulted to see what new equipment they would like and the final design was selected by the school’s PTA from a number of drawings. Parent Cath Drummond, who served as parent-teacher association chair last year alongside Natalie Postlethwaite and Victoria Montgomery, who are both still in the role, said it was nice to finally see the new apparatus up.

She said: “It’s amazing because it’s from the design the company made. We had a few sent to use and we really liked this one so it’s nice to see it go from a drawing to the real thing.”

Ms Drummond said the association had organised a number of events over the last year to raise the funds. These had included a stall at Henley’s Christmas festival where they ran a human fruit machine game, a black tie PTA ball and a Halloween disco. Ms Drummond said: “We did lots of events. I think the most we have ever done since I have been here.”

The school had also installed two new “friendship benches” which were donated by parents of the school’s Year 6 leavers who left the school last summer.

The wooden benches arrived shortly after the start of the school term and are positioned beside the main entrance. They are inscribed with the words “With love from Year 6 Leavers 2025”. The collection was organised by parent Kate Wigfield and the benches cost £200 each.

Mr Coulson said: “I was really kind and generous of the Year 6 leavers. It’s a lovely thing to do. The children can sit here, and it’s nice for the parents waiting before and after school drop-off.

“The Year 6 parents always give a lovely donation.”

Ms Drummond, whose daughter Melia left the school in Year 6 last year, said she wanted to give back to the school after a positive experience with her children.

She also has two other children, Seth, eight, who is in year four at the school and Joshua, 13, a former pupil who now attends Gillotts School with his sister.

She said: “We all contributed towards it, whatever we wanted, and then we had a vote to decide what we were going to buy. It came out tops for the benches.

“It’s just such a lovely community and the children are all happy, it looks like. The older children always look out for the younger children and the parents get involved and are a very active group.”

Ms Drummond said that she wanted to thank the administration staff in the school’s office, which included Debbie Haigh and Shyanne McDonnell, who worked to progress the playground project.

She said: “We had to rely on them to make it happen. I must have sent more than 100 emails.”

Valley Road School was recently featured in the Guardian’s list of 200 top primary schools, which was based off its latest SATS results.

This year 100 per cent of its Year 6 pupils achieved the expected reading standard, 96 per cent achieved the maths standard and 94 per cent achieved the writing standard.