About Us

Valley Farm Public School is located in Pickering, Ontario and serves students in Kindergarten through Grade 8.

Mission statement

Valley Farm Public School will engage students, parents and staff in a culture of learning that advances a shared responsibility for academic achievement, individual excellence and a respect for diversity and community. Come Grow With Us!

Principal’s message

Welcome to Valley Farm Public School!

Valley Farm Public School was built in 1989 on farm land and serves a diverse community in north Pickering. The school is situated in a large residential area and is one of the larger schools in the Durham District School Board. Valley Farm is a JK‐8 school with an enrolment of approximately 655 students. Our families represent a rich diversity of cultural backgrounds and many of our families are new to Canada. Our families also represent a spectrum of economic levels. Our support staff of secretaries, custodians, early childhood educators and educational assistants work alongside 39 teaching staff members. Our dedicated and committed staff members support our at risk students and implement programs such as after school LLI (Levelled Literacy Intervention Programs), mentoring, homework clubs, career awareness, and school community service. We have a large English as a Second Language population that is served by our ESL Resource teacher, with additional resources provided through our partnership with the Settlement Workers in Schools initiative. In 2005 the school was highlighted in Today’s Parent magazine as one of the top forty schools in Canada. The school was recognized as an “All Round Cool School” for providing students with an outstanding learning environment both in and outside of the classroom. In 2007, Valley Farm Public School received The Garfield Weston Award for Excellence in Education – Honorable Distinction in the category of Improvement in Academics.

Valley Farm Public School has a dedicated group of parent volunteers who support academic programming in the school, co‐ordinate a Kiss‐N‐Ride program, fundraise and represent the community on the School Community Council. They provide moral and financial support to a variety of school programs. We have been fortunate to receive Parent Reaching Out Grants for the past several years. Through these grants, families are invited to participate in many events, such as Bring Your Parent to School Day, Bullying/Cyberbullying Awareness workshops, Family Math Nights, EQAO Parent Information sessions, and Family Fitness Nights, to name a few. These events have helped to foster a high level of parent engagement in our school. At Valley Farm, we provide a Breakfast Program through Durham’s Child Nutrition Project, and have the Schoolhouse Play Care, a daycare centre, attached to the school.

Valley Farm provides a variety of extra‐curricular programs to captivate the interests and enhance the skills of our students. Our leadership students have taken the initiative to support a variety of charitable organizations, such as the Starlight Foundation, the Terry Fox Foundation, Sick Kids Hospital, local Food Banks and the Red Cross. Also, students have a choice to participate in a variety of clubs and activities. Students can become involved with choirs, bands, art, athletics, library, community service, Me to We ,robotics, chess and other events. Students develop positive character traits and good citizenship through school‐wide courtesy camps at the beginning of the school year.

At Valley Farm, we continue to ignite learning amongst all staff, students and parents.