newSBytes 13th October 2014

THIS ISSUE: Dear Parents,

13th October 2014

A big thank you to all students and their parents for the excellent support yet again for our Open Morning. This is now the second year that we have run this and to be honest, it was a great success.

So many of our students came back to work within departments or to act as guides, whilst others took part in sport or played in the band.

The sense of community and enjoyment permeated throughout the morning with so many of our staff, teaching and non teaching alongside parents, working hard to prepare the school and welcome our guests.

Once again the sun shone and this in many ways makes such a difference as families can really enjoy the campus. Parking on site enables our guests to feel less stressed too.

We received so many positive and affirming comments including praising guides individually for their remarkable tours.

This year for the first time we were able to make use of the classrooms in the three storey block, showing parents what a great learning environment they now provide. Of course last year, this building was still in a state of repair. Perhaps I should comment now on the poor condition of the exterior panels on the building which faces the astro turf as I have received queries as to why we have not painted these. The answer is simple- we can not!! They need specialist work on them and as we are continuing to bid to the EFA for grants, we need evidence of poor condition.

Simon Balle will become an All Through School It is with much excitement that we want to announce to parents that the All Through School will go ahead. The Governors and I are intending to send home a separate letter to explain why we feel so privileged and committed to this in educational terms.

We will be welcoming our reception classes (2 form of entry) in September 2015 and the building work will start after half term.

We are putting on Open Mornings and Afternoons for prospective parents of reception age children. They will apply for the places through the normal county council process and will then be a full member of the Simon Balle community, for the following 14 years if they so wish, until year 13!

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Thank you for Open Day support Simon Balle the All Through School Walk to School Week Non Uniform Day Belgium Battlefields Trip Launch of Book Banter Hertford Theatre Gala Book Banter Calendar PE Music PSA

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

Tues 14th Oct

Y11 Expectations Evening

Thurs 16th Oct Trip

Y10 & 13 Theatre to Macbeth

Thurs 23rd Oct 7.00pm

House Music and Classical Guitar Platform

Mon 27th to Fri 31st Oct

HALF TERM

Walk to school week.

This week out House Captains will be holding house assemblies to promote Walk to School week which takes place from Monday 20th October. It will be very similar to the one we held last term, but as well as vouchers for the winners there will also be house points up for grabs.

Free Your Feet is the walking challenge for secondary schools from Living Streets, the national charity for pedestrians. There are lots of benefits from walking to school – burn calories, exercise, catch up with friends. We could all help the planet by walking to school. 20% of rush hour traffic is just doing the school run. If we walk to school instead of getting a lift we will be making the streets quieter, safer to cross and more pleasant to walk near.

We want to encourage as many students (and staff) to walk to school on the 20th to the 24th and hopefully they will carry on after the challenge has finished.

Non uniform day – Friday 24th October in aid of Water Aid

United Kingdom

Our Year 8 students voted to raise money for Water Aid which was founded in 1982 as a charitable trust. In the last 30 years the charity has gone from strength to strength to become one of the most respected organisations dealing solely with water, sanitation and hygiene issues.

Without safe water or sanitation, people are trapped in a cycle of poverty and disease. Across the developing world, millions of women are wasting precious time collecting dirty water, children are dying from preventable diarrhoeal diseases, and communities have open sewers running through them.

WaterAid works in 26 countries worldwide, transforming millions of lives every year with safe water, sanitation and hygiene projects.

We would encourage students to bring a minimum of £1.00 to support this very worthwhile charity. Students should dress sensibly and not wear anything which may be deemed inappropriate (please note that girls must not wear shorts). Those who come to school dressed inappropriately may be sent home to change.

Mike Moss Deputy Head

Year 9 at the Belgium Battlefields Year 9 and the History department have arrived home from two successful trips to Belgium!

9A, 9B and 9N were away 1st-2nd October and 9L, 9M and 9R were away 8th-9th October. Students have been studying The First World War in their history lessons with a key focus on the origins of the war and the nature of trench warfare. The trip gave the students a fantastic opportunity to experience history up close. On the first day of the trip students visited Passchendaele Museum at which they went down into a twenty foot dug out. They also visited Tyne Cot Cemetery and Hill 62 Sanctuary Wood.

Ash Dalton, James Rollins, Charlie K, Abby Wilcox and Natasha Walsh were a credit to Simon Balle School when they laid wreaths at the Last Post ceremony at Menin Gate in front of a gathering of 800 people. On the second day students visited Langemark Cemetery which allowed them to compare this German cemetery to the Commonwealth they visited the day before. To complete the trip, students went to Essex Farm Cemetery where John McCrae wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields� and also to the museum in the famous Cloth Hall in the centre of Ypres.

A fantastic trip enjoyed by all. Thank you to all students and staff involved, it was an absolute pleasure.

Vicky Cleevely

LIBRARY AND ENGLISH DEPARTMENT NEWS

BOOK BANTER By the time this newsletter is published Book Banter: A Festival for Readers and Writers will have begun. On Friday we welcomed our Writer-in-Residence, Melanie Taylor to a special Speakers’ Corner where she revealed the title of the Writing Challenge. For more details and a flyer giving instructions about the Challenge please call into the Library. There is also a post on the School website’s blog giving more information. Students now have 2 weeks to write their short stories – the deadline is 9am on Friday 24th October.

Please see the calendar for Book Banter giving dates and times of the various author talks, workshops, awards evening and Poetry by Heart events. The titles of visiting authors are now in the library to whet your appetite! We hope many of you will take part in this literary festival. Tickets for Andrew Hobson’s talk will be available from Monday 3rd November – please just email library@simonballe.herts.sch.uk Hertford Children’s Book Festival comes to SBS Our library was delighted to host the famous author of the TimeRiders series, Alex Scarrow on Thursday 2nd October as part of this year’s HCBF. Alex was very informative and entertaining and all Year 7 students welcomed him enthusiastically. He threw HCBF T Shirts into the audience and students asked him some very thoughtful questions. David’s Bookshop Letchworth provided a popup bookshop for the event and students could buy the books and get them signed by Alex. All 8 volumes of the series can be found in our library and the 9th book is published next month. For more details please go to www.hertfordchildrensbookfestival and follow @HCBF_bookfest

Hertford theatre gala Evening On Thursday, 2nd October, Year 8 were treated to a very special night at Hertford Theatre.

With Hertford book festival about to start some lucky Year 8s went to see a wonderful performance of reading, poetry and even a play. When we got to the theatre we were overjoyed to meet Martin Freeman and Simon Pegg, with a chance for some of us to get a selfie with him.

In the first half of the performance we were treated to readings by actors and writers, including Simon Pegg and ‘Geek Girl’ author Holly Smale, of their favourite book. One of our favourite performers was John Hegley when he performed a brilliant poem about a guillemot where we all got to join in. But of course they were all fabulous.

The other reason these authors where there was to promote a new book or series that they had released. And indeed during the interval we all got the chance to buy a book and then the author would sign it. A treasured memory for ever.

In the second part we were treated to a very good performance of ’Private Peaceful’ by Michael Morpurgo. It was performed by a single and truly talented actor who had learnt the whole story off by heart and recited it with brilliant enthusiasm and meaning.

Book Banter Calendar All events are in our Library and last for an hour unless stated otherwise.

24 October 09.00

Writing Challenge deadline

5 November 13.20-13.55 7 November 13.30-13.55 11 November 15.00 14 November 14.25 17 November 11.05 Year 6 12.05 Year 7 14.25 Year 8 18.30 - invited audience

Poetry by Heart workshop in the Lecture Theatre Results of Writing Challenge announced at Speakers’ Corner Workshop for Writing Challenge winners

18 November 09.45 Year 7 11.05 Year 6 14.00 Year 8 15.15 Year 12/13 & Parents, Alumni, Staff, Students 19 November 20 November 09.45 Year 9 11.05 Year 10 21 November 08.45 Year 11 09.45 Year 9/10 13.25-14.25 All Years & Teachers

Workshop for Writing Challenge ‘Highly Commended’ students Lyn Gardner Lyn Gardner Sally Nicholls Writing Challenge Awards Evening at the Leaf Café with Sally Nicholls Jamie Buxton Jamie Buxton Jamie Buxton Andrew Hobson (tickets available from the Library 3rd November onwards) Bookshop all day in the Library with Brenda Parkhouse. All Year 7-9 classes to visit bookshop in slots during lessons.

Tim O’Rourke Tim O’Rourke Bali Rai (In Hall) Bali Rai (In Hall) Poetry by Heart event Festival ends

PE NEWS Rugby Update 1st XV rugby training

1st XV v Freeman College

The 1st XV rugby team have now played 3 fixtures this season against Roundwood School, Sandringham and most recently Freman College. Simon Balle made a strong start with Callum Scutt scoring a try within the first 10mins. However Freman College proved strong opponents winning a good contest 19-5.

Year 7 Rugby: 12 Year 7 students represented Simon Balle at the Cheshunt Development Rugby tournament on Thursday.

The boys produced some excellent displays in small sided games and after starting slowly they raced in 5 tries in their final game. This was a very promising start to the competitive rugby season.

Upcoming fixtures; U18 Herts Shield v Knights Templar – Weds 15th October 1st XV v Broxbourne – Weds 22nd October Y7, Y8 & Y9 v Broxbourne – Sat 8th November

Football Update Congratulations go to Callum May who made the Herts U18 team. Danni Hills was selected for the Herts U15 girl’s team and she has also been selected for England trials which take place in London at the end of the week.

The Year 8 boys played Turnford in the 2nd round of the National cup last Friday. The boys played very well winning 7-2 with man of the match Albert Nwahba scoring 4 goals. Ollie Clarke, Jack Smith and Arthur Twyning were the other scorers. The boys now play the 3rd round at home against either Haverstock School from Islington or Brampton Academy from Newham.

The Y8 boys also progressed to the 2nd round of the County cup beating Roundwood School 4-2 and will now play Sir John Lawes or Marriots.

Good luck to the boys in the next round.

Y7 National cup v Chobham Academy : 0-1 Y10 National cup v Knights Templar : 0-4

Cross Country League fixtures Tues 14th Oct – Simon Balle (limited parking – only for mini-buses) The Aquathlon that was due to take place on the 13th Oct at Simon Balle has now been cancelled.

Year 8 Netball Year 8 netball has had a very popular turnout once again. Many girls have attended training and are very committed. So far, the A team have had one game, which they won. Last year, they won all of their matches apart from one. There are more games to come this year, which everyone looks forward to.

(By Lucy Heald 8M)

Cheerleading at Simon Balle This year, Simon Balle School have been lucky enough to have two Saracen cheerleading coaches come and prepare a routine for us to perform. This has been on Thursday mornings.

We have had a massive turn out, over 40 enthusiastic girls turned up. So far, we have learned many tricks (such as clean position) and lifts. We were put into groups of size to ensure our safety and were successful. We look forward to learning many more new and exciting moves.

(By Georgina Reilly Y10)

From Music for Newsletter This week saw the first rehearsal of our Primary Wind and Brass Band, a new initiative to enable primary pupils to experience ensemble playing. This came about as a result of requests we have received following our popular workshops. Pupils began work on pieces which have been specially arranged for them, showing great enthusiasm and focus, and were able to produce a recording of Pirates of the Caribbean. We do have spaces for wind and brass players, please contact the music department if you would like more details.

Primary players will be joining our ensembles for our Autumn Concert at Broxbourne Civic Hall on Tuesday 25th November at 7pm. Please see the poster below – tickets will be on sale after half term.

Meanwhile auditions and rehearsals are underway for the House Music Competition which will take place in the main hall on Thursday 23rd October at 7pm. Tickets will be available on the door. Do come along to see the six houses in action – a wide variety of musical entertainment is guaranteed, including performances from members of staff whose talents may surprise you!

PSA @ parents’ evenings The PSA are normally in attendance at parents’ evenings where we organise a raffle and sell second hand uniform.

Raffle – when you sign in you’ll be asked if you would like to take part in that evening’s raffle. Costs £1 a number and you could leave at the end with a nice hamper of treats. Please give it a go and support the minibus funding – you have to be in it to win it!

Second hand uniform - good quality, clean, sized, cheap 2second hand jumpers, shirts, trousers, PE clothes and other items for sale at Y7-11 Parents Evenings. Upcoming dates for 2014: Thursday 6th November (Y8), Monday 24th November (Y9) and Wednesday 3rd December (Y10) Please remember that you can pop down to the 6th form lobby even if it isn't 'your' parent evening - uniform is on sale from 5-7 pm Donations of clean second hand uniform are gladly received at the school office.

PSA Quiz Night The ever-popular PSA Quiz Night is back - Saturday 15th November 7pm for 7:30 start Tickets (£6 Adult, £4 students) are already available via the PSA website http://www.simonballepsa.org.uk/ and will go on sale after half term from the school office.

A great evening – and tickets always sell quickly!