Our Campus History
The Valley School Campus
The Valley School campus is located in what was formerly an old Madison Valley orchard in Seattle. The campus has experienced growth over the past 30 years and currently occupies eight city lots for classrooms, a library, an art room, a meeting hall, an outdoor classroom and administrative offices inhabiting 5 building structures. The scale of the buildings is in character with the neighborhood in which the school resides. As the residential nature and origination adds character to the classrooms, necessary updates have been made to all buildings to make them excellent learning environments.
The centerpiece of the school is our magnificent outdoor play space, which offers endless opportunity for invention by children: trees can be climbed, boats can be “rowed,” barrels can be wheeled around for construction. Faculty consider the Valley School play space an integral part of the school curriculum.
Valley has two main play areas, the upper school playground, which is used mostly by grades three through five, and the lower school playground, which is used by all students. The area for the upper grades features monkey bars, a treehouse, and a paved area for basketball and four square. There is also a ramp and ample room for riding various scooters and carts, and for favorite activities such as soccer. The area for the all grades has two playhouse structures, a wooden rocket ship, swings, a water pump and trough, a track, and extra room for impromptu games of soccer or kickball. Students have access to buckets, tools, building materials, and riding toys. In addition, children often develop their own their own gardening or construction projects on the "undeveloped" parts of the playground.