THIS ISSUE:
14th January 2015 Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and successful 2015 Welcome back to the Spring term and the month of January. I am sure that many of you have over the past few weeks been reflecting on the past year and wondering what is to come. In school we have been doing the same but obviously this newsletter is mainly looking back. Indeed, in the ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past. Even in secondary schools those few weeks leading up to Christmas are incredibly busy, against a backcloth of a plethora of family and community events. This is one of the reasons why we place our extended weekend in November to give a little space for everyone before December arrives. The newly established tradition of Year 7, 8 and 12 attending the local church for a carol service before returning to school for the Christmas Lunch, is a really special occasion. It is an ideal time for all students and staff to hear and appreciate the musical talents of so many of our students but also to reflect upon the Christmas message. A big thank you must be given to the music department but also to the School Manager for organizing this huge challenge! New staff and parents who know the traditions of other schools are surprised to learn of our community Christmas lunch. More students than ever bought tickets this year; both the hall and dining room and tables were seasonally decorated and the students enjoyed listening to Christmas music played by our own strings group. Staff serve the students as they eat with friends and enjoy crackers and hats. Over 400 traditional meals were served. A big thank you must go to Lorraine Gregory and her catering team and Alison Klippel and her team of faithful creative students. Staff started the new term, meeting with teachers from four of our local primaries (Abel Smith, Mill Mead, Morgans and Wheatcroft) as part of our teaching and learning partnership. The theme this year was “Challenge” and we looked at how we ensure all students are empowered and not set limits on their learning.
Welcome Back Year 11 mocks Primary Expansion Update Fund Raising Parking and Dropping Off SBS involved in United World Games Year 7 Panto review Library News Music Updates PE News Artist in Residence New Pocket Money App PSA updates Are you eligible for free school meals? DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:
Term Dates Spring Term : Half Term :
5th Jan to 2nd April 16th-20th Feb
Summer Term : 20th Apr to 22nd Jul Half Term : 25th-29th May January Thurs 15th : Mon 19th to Fri 23rd : Tues 27th :
Year 11 Parents Evening Year 13 mock exams Holocaust Memorial Day—Year 9
February Mon 2nd to Fri 6th :
Year 12 exams
Fri 6th :
Non-uniform day
Wed 11th :
Year 7 Humanities trip
Thurs 12th :
String Recitals and UCAS talk at 7pm
Wed 25th :
Year 10 Art Trip
Thurs 26th:
Year 13 RE Trip and Year 13 Parents Evening
March Mon 2nd :
Full Governing Body Meeting at 7pm
Thurs 5th :
Year 12 Parents Evening
Fri 6th :
Big Band Evening at 7.45pm
Thurs 12-14th :
Year 13 Geography Trip
Mon 30th :
Year 10 Field Trip
Some parents may know of the work of Dame Alison Peacock at The Wroxham School in Potters Bar; Alison is well known to many of us as she lives in Hertford, sent her girls to Simon Balle and has worked in Hertford schools. It proved to be an excellent and stimulating morning; each school is now looking at how they can ensure the principles are embedded and also how we can continue to work together across the learning community.
Alison Saunders
Year 11 Mocks On Friday 9th January the Year 11 students collected their results for the exams they sat just before Christmas. The purpose of this was to give the students an experience of what it will be like in the summer. There were some fantastic individual results from students and many should feel very proud of their efforts. Following the collecting of results, students listened to ‘Action Jackson’ , a motivational speaker who focused the students on what they needed to do next. It is now important for the students to reflect on this experience and use the advice given at Parents Evening on Thursday this week, to ensure further success in the summer. Well done Year 11’s.
Primary expansion update We thought it would be useful to update you with regards to the primary phase expansion. Although the site was closed over the Christmas period the build is currently on time to open by September this year. Next month the lorries will be arriving on site with the prefabricated parts of the building which will then be assembled. This is a fairly quick process. We have started the specialist recruitment process and hope to appoint key positions before the end of this term. If you, or someone you know, are interested in finding out more about the opportunities we have please visit our website www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/vacancies/ We will be investigating before and after school care providers and again plan to appoint an external company by the end of this term. The closing date for primary applications is Thursday 15th January and we will know our final numbers on 16th April. We will of course keep you regularly posted on developments.
Christmas Jumper Day Thank you to all students and staff that took part in our Christmas Jumper day on 17th December. There were some very interesting jumpers on display! A fantastic ÂŁ1511.99 was raised for the Lottie Moss Campaign. Your contributions have been greatly appreciated by Lottie and her family.
Our next non-uniform day will be on Friday 6th February in aid of Red Nose Day.
Welcome back Mrs Bonfield who has been on maternity leave for the past 12 months. She will be taking over a variety of history and geography lessons.
DROPPING OFF AND PICKING UP Please do not park or stop near the new entrance as this causes major traffic problems and could lead to a potential accident. It is best to use the park and stride next to the fire station while the building work takes place. Thank you for your cooperation.
On 2 February 2015 East Herts Council will launch a mobile parking enforcement service dedicated to the enforcement of parking restrictions outside schools. The launch of this initiative is in part a response to reports and complaints from members of the public concerning dangerous and inconsiderate parking outside schools and is in line with the Council’s overall parking enforcement strategy. When surveyed in 2010, sixty-nine per cent of East Herts residents identified safety-related parking enforcement such as this as their highest or second highest enforcement priority. The new mobile service will be dedicated primarily to schools in towns and villages where, due to resource constraints, attendance has, prior to now, been limited. The emphasis will be on deterrence, although a Penalty Charge Notice will be issued where a parking contravention occurs. The Council proposes to develop and refine the service over the first few months and we will keep you updated. This is an initiative that we as a school fully support.
Five Simon Balle students have been put forward by Hertford Hockey club to attend the United World Games this summer held in Klagenfurt, Austria. Leah Hawkins, Elizabeth Moore, Lucie Blackman, Gemma Moses and Monique Gettings will be representing England, with hockey being played for the first time at the games. This competition is supported by UNESCO and involves over 6,000 young people from all over the world and is structured like a mini Olympic games covering 8 sports over a four day period. This is the 11th year the games have taken place and have grown year on year with more events being included and now involves over 400 teams from 30 countries. The town of Klagenfurt hosts the stunning EURO 2008 stadium with many facilities for the children to use giving them a real Olympic style experience. We are very excited that we have these Simon Balle students involved. Good Luck for June.
Year 7 Panto Review On Monday 8th December, Year 7 went to Hertford theatre to watch Cinderella and the Glass Slipper. We entered the auditorium and everyone was buzzing with excitement. As the performance started everyone was silent. It was grand. The show was extremely entertaining with the way the characters acted and spoke. The costumes were ….. Different from what we had seen before. When the Fairy Godmother was casting a spell to change Cinderella’s scruffy rags into an elegant ball gown with Glass Slippers, it put us all into confusion, as one minute she was on stage in rags, next she was in an immaculate dress walking down the stairs behind us! The show was drawing to an end, when the person who played ‘Buttons’ asked who wanted sweets; everyone, of course, jumped in the air shouting “Me!” but luckily enough he chose Jack Philpott and I. He invited us on stage and to our surprise we had to do a dance they had just performed to us to the song ‘Footloose’. This was followed by Mr McGovern taking part in ‘You’re the one that I want’ on stage with the Ugly Sisters. It was great fun and a good experience. Everyone enjoyed themselves, leaving great memories. Yolander Robson
Library News Would you like to try a MOOC? Why not take a look at the Massive Online Open Courses offered in various subjects through FutureLearn? Last year many of our EPQ students in Year 12 signed up for one of their courses entitled ‘Developing your research project’. Courses are free of charge, led by staff from well known UK and international universities and encourage independent learning, use of digital technology, peer reviewing etc. For more information please go to https://www.futurelearn.com/ Sixth formers planning on going on to higher education may find the course ‘Preparing for Uni’ starting on 26 th January and taught by the University of East Anglia most helpful. All courses involve 1 or more hours each week and provide certificates on completion as required. For further advice or tips about MOOC’s please ask Mrs Syme, Librarian. 46,000 Free e books Just a reminder that Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ consists of thousands of books now out of copyright which you may read online or download free of charge. Year 7 and 8 students looking for a challenge in their Accelerated Reader programme will find many classics there as well as famous children’s books. Here are a few examples: Louisa May Alcott Little Women (AR 7.5) J.M. Barrie Peter Pan (AR 7.7) Frank L. Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (AR 7.0) Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol (AR 6.7) E. Nesbit The Railway Children (AR 5.5) Newspapers in our Library We do encourage students to stay up to date with current affairs by reading the news regularly, either online or through newspapers. The Library has been reviewing its newspapers and now takes regularly: The Times, Saturday Times and The Sunday Times, i newspaper, the Mercury and First News (the colourful weekly newspaper for Year 7 and 8s). Please also note that there is an excellent App for the London Evening Standard (free of charge). Book Review Thanks to Year 7 student, Phoebe Evans for the book review printed below. She has earned Lea one House Point by writing this. Why don’t you submit a review to the Library Team or email library@simonballe.herts.sch.uk saying what the book is about, who would find it appealing and why you liked/ didn’t like it? You would earn yourself a +1. Stay Where you are and then Leave by John Boyne This book was very good. As I read the book there were so many emotions portrayed: it was almost a key emotion in every chapter. If you like war stories this is an amazing read! For 11+
Attention all Harry Potter Fans Watch for details coming out soon about our Harry Potter Quiz on Friday 6th February in the Library at lunch time. Do start refreshing your memory with interesting facts about this amazing series in readiness for the event! Our Library has recently bought copies of the new editions of the Harry Potter books: they have beautiful illustrations on the covers.
Music A busy term was rounded off with our two carol services at All Saints’ church, which was packed on both occasions. Everyone enjoyed the seasonal music, readings and carols. Thanks to the PSA for serving refreshments which were especially welcome on a cold winter’s evening. Our adult choir Take Note celebrated their first term with their new conductor Miles Knapman with their winter concert. The varied programme included old favourites such as Irish Blessing and The Sound of Silence alongside new numbers and Christmas favourites. The audience enjoyed the chance to join in with the singalong which rounded off the evening. Many thanks to our sixth form students who gave solo performances and to St Andrew’s Church for hosting this popular annual event. Proceed are being donated to Help for Heroes. New singers are always welcome to attend one of the rehearsals on Wednesdays from 7.45pm. All adults are welcome, no connection with the school is needed so do please mention this to any family, friends or colleagues who may be interested. There is no formal audition and you do not need to be able to read music, just come along and enjoy singing with this fun and friendly group. Congratulations to all our candidates on their excellent Trinity results. We were also delighted that three pupils from Hertford Heath school who have started lessons as part of our primary liaison project all passed their Grade 1 clarinet exam.
NAME
FORM
INSTRUMENT
GRADE
RESULT
CHARLIE SUTTON
11N
JAZZ CLARINET
6
PASS
JOSH BRADFORD
12R
FLUTE
5
PASS
EMILY O’BRIEN
11N
FLUTE
6
PASS
LOUIS MITCHELL
8L
GUITAR
2
MERIT
LAUREN CRADDOCK
13L
GUITAR
3
PASS
BEN SKELTON
8L
GUITAR
3
MERIT
JOE LEGGETT
12B
GUITAR
4
MERIT
KALLIE BATCHELOR
8R
KEYBOARD
1
MERIT
LUCY CHAPPLE
8R
KEYBOARD
2
MERIT
JESS GRAY
8A
PIANO
1
MERIT
OLIVIA VEALE
9L
PIANO
2
MERIT
LUKE DAVIS
12N
JAZZ SAX
7
MERIT
OLIVER SALTER
13N
TROMBONE
5
PASS
KATHERINE SEARLE
8L
VIOLIN
3
PASS
Finally, a reminder that our Big Band evening takes place at Wodson Park on Friday 6th March. Tickets will go on sale at the start of February.
Catering and Food Technology If you still have your sweet and biscuit tins taking up room at home we would really welcome them to use in Food Technology. Please drop them into the Food department or the school reception. Thank you.
PE NEWS
Innovation schools in association with the Youth Sport Trust (YST) Simon Balle PE Department has been selected as one of the 10 Innovation schools in Hertfordshire. Simon Balle will be one of three schools focusing on promoting high quality teaching, leadership and initial teacher training. We will be using the power of PE and sport to improve young people's aspiration, attainment, achievement and employability. This will run for the next 3 years and will involve a number of projects and collaboration with other schools across the County. Exciting times ahead! As part of our involvement in the YST, Miss Ansell will be speaking at the Youth Sport Trust Conference in February in Telford. She will be outlining to a national audience how Simon Balle School has embraced the new curriculum design as well as speaking about the new innovative PE assessment process at our school.
Rugby Update
The Simon Balle 1st XV Rugby Team played Freeman College on Monday in the Herts Trophy. At half time the boys were 19-10 down, however they came out fighting in the second half to score first with a try by Callum Scutt. The boys battled hard and just lost out 17-19. It was a great performance in tough conditions and with 10 Y11’s playing the future looks good.
Y8 Boys SBS 45
JWS 14
Well done to the Year 8 boys who beat John Warner School last week with excellent performances from the Nwahba boys and with a number of debutants, the boys played very well. This is the Y8’s 3rd win of the season after wins against Goffs and Levanthorpe. The Year 7 Boys are due to play away to John Warner on Monday 19th January.
Football Update District Cup – by February 13th 2015 – More details can be seen on the LVSSA website. Result: 1st XI – Freeman College 0-5 Saturday Morning Fixtures: Year 7-10/ Venues and times
BROXBOURNE JOHN WARNER RICHARD HALE
Sat 17th Jan Sat 24th Jan Sat 31st Jan
SANDRINGHAM TURNFORD ROUNDWOOD
Sat 28th Feb Sat 7th March Sat 14th March
Y8 Boys Progress to the last 32 in the country ! The Year 8 boys played away to Edwinstree Middle School on Wednesday 17th December. This was a closely contested game with the score tied at 2-2 at half time with goals from Jack Smith & Albert Nwahba. With 10mins to go with the score still level Jack Smith scored a free kick from close to the half way line, this was followed by 2 more goals. Jack Smith scoring a hat-trick and was a well-deserved man of the match. The last 32 match is against Shenley Brook school from Milton Keynes on Tuesday 13th January. Good luck to all the boys involved.
Year 8 County Cup result Stanborough - 4, Simon Balle - 3
Girls Football Results Y8 County cup SBS 6 St. Mary’s 0 District Cup SBS 3 Goffs 1
Basketball update Year 8 Boys Results SBS vs. Turnford – Simon Balle win due to Turnford conceding game SBS vs. JWS – 26-9 win. SBS vs. Sheredes – 54-14 win SBS vs. St. Mary’s – 21-26 loss SBS vs. Chauncy – 40-48 loss The Year 8 Boys have now finished their season, well done to all who have represented the school.
Hockey Update Y7A v Presdales – lost 0-5 (player of the match was Julianne Gager) Y7B v Presdales – lost 1-4 (player of the match was Phoebe Evans)
Sportshall Athletics The Year 7 & 8 Boys and Girls Simon Balle teams start their season on the 22nd of January at Wodson. The 2nd fixture takes place on the 12th February with the finals on the 12th March. Good luck to all those participating. Simon Balle PE staff are organising this year’s competition.
Abi Knott, one of SBS’s own year 13 art students, has set up in the corner of Mrs Mackervoy’s room to work (in between her studies) as our “artist in residence”. This has proved to be highly successful and has truly captured the imagination of many of the students lower down the school, who are able to appreciate both the techniques she uses and the high quality of her work. Abi has been a student at Simon Balle since year 7 and it is wonderful to see how her art has progressed. Of course the recipe for her success has been hard work, determination and … plenty of natural talent! It really is wonderful to have an artist at work in our art rooms: truly inspiring for all those who are lucky enough to be able to watch her at work. All the art teachers are loving it too! The other year 13 art students are also working on equally exciting pieces of work. These will all be displayed for viewing at the SBS Annual Art Exhibition. Keep the date free: Thursday 25th June 2015.
We have been sent a letter from Wroxham School informing us of an exciting new app that has been developed by three of their Year 5 students last year. The students followed an App development course from Apps for Good as part of their ICT lessons and entered their ideas into a national competition. One of the teams won in their category! Part of the prize was to have their idea developed into an App and have it released to market. Their App idea is called Pocket Money Pig. Pocket Money Pig is a virtual piggy bank. No longer do parents have to find cash for pocket money from week to week. No longer do children have to nag their parents for their pocket money. No longer do parents have to keep scraps of paper to remember who owes who what from that last trip to the shops. No longer do children have to keep breaking into their piggy banks to count up how much they have to spend. Pocket Money Pig will do all of this for you – and more! The App will be available on Google Play, free to download for Android devices from sometime in January and the official launch will be in London on February 5th. Follow us on Twitter to make sure you have the latest information on this exciting venture (@pocketmoneypig). You may find this useful for your families!
PSA Do you have any goodies left over from Christmas? If so, the PSA is always grateful for donations that can be included as raffle prizes at our events—chocolates, alcohol or even vouchers! All donations can be dropped off at the school office. We are currently working in conjunction with Weston Homes plc and a local company Norbury Fencing to refurbish the outside classroom—as part of the work we need volunteers to help tidy up the bedding and revarnish the structure. The main work will be done during the February half term—if you are interested in giving a few hours to this worthwhile area (possibly at a weekend), please email Adrian Lawson on
psa@simonballepsa.org.uk
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