Newsbytes 19 december 2013

19th Dec 2013 IN THIS ISSUE:  Year 11 parents Go4Schools  Y9 Wicked Trip A big thank you for excellent support we have received during this  Art Department News long term. There have been a huge number of events,  Staffing Update musical evenings, meetings and PSA activities that have all been so well attended. Parents keep in constant contact with the school  Y7 Panto Trip  Library and English Dept News and we are often overwhelmed by the many positive generous  BT email address comments that come in, providing feedback on how well things  Music News are going. Of course, sometimes things do not go so well and  PE News once again thank you for the way parents handle this and see

Dear Parents,

how we try to sort things out as quickly as possible.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: 20th Dec

School ends (times on next page)

6th Jan

INSET joint training with teachers from Abel Smith, Millmead, Wheatcroft and Morgans School

The past week or so has been particularly busy. More students than ever bought school Christmas meal tickets. What a great occasion this was. Mrs Klippel aided by some wonderful Y9 and 10 students decorated the tables. Live music played and staff served the food.

7th Jan

School starts for all students

Many parents took the time to talk with me at the evening carol service at All Saints. I was reminded that to so many of our Simon Balle families, this annual event ‘marks the start of Christmas’ and they look forward to the variety of music, traditional and modern and the seasonal readings. Once again everyone commented upon the sheer size of the bands, orchestras and choirs. This is so unique in secondary schools.

And what was especially wonderful was to see a number of last years A Level students in the congregation, all coming back to ‘their school’.

Staffing continues to be a challenge to Hertfordshire secondary teachers; when staff leave mid year or are unfortunately sick, it is difficult to recruit good quality staff. Thank you for the support in this matter and we do ‘hold out’ to try and get the best people available.

Christmas is a special time is and we were reminded this year of the Christian message through the words of Nelson Mandela’s Christmas message. Many of us, both young and old have been deeply touched by this one man, his life, his actions and his words. Perhaps therefore there is only one way to end this

10th Jan

Year 11 ‘mock results’ morning

16th Jan

Year 11 Parents Evening

17th—21st Feb

Half Term

2013 newsletter; Kofi Annan (Secretary general of the UN 1997-2007) said “The only adequate way in which we can truly express our gratitude for Nelson Mandela’s lifetime contribution is for everyone of us to seek to follow his example”.

Therefore, may we in 2014 have that courage, tenacity and dignity; his deep sense of moral purpose and drive to stop injustice. Also a ready willingness to embrace and reconcile with those who we perhaps do not get along.

May I wish every student, member of staff and family represented here at Simon Balle a peaceful, happy Christmas.

GOODBYES & THANK YOUS We wish every success and happiness to the following staff who are leaving us this December: Mrs Newstead (French) Ms Duddridge (HOY/French/RE) Mrs Martin (Front Office) Mrs Thurgill (Science Technician)

END OF TERM ARRANGEMENTS Time Period 1 (910am) Break (1010.20) Period 2 (10-20 – 11.20am)

Year7 Normal lesson

Year8 Normal lesson

Year9 Normal lesson

Year10 Normal lesson

Year 12 and 13 Normal lesson

Assembly (10.50 – 11.20) Subject teachers to bring students

Assembly (10.20 – 10.45) Subject teachers to take students back to class

Normal lesson

Normal lesson

Normal lesson

Period 3 (11.20 -12.20pm)

Normal lesson

Normal lesson

Assembly (11.20 – 11.45) Subject teachers to take students back to class

Assembly (11.50 – 12.20) Subject teachers to bring students

Normal lesson

Period 4 (12.20 – 1.20pm)

Form Time

Form Time

Form Time

Form Time

Home

Dismissal

12.55 pm

12.55 pm

12.50 pm

12.45 pm

FOO

Alison Saunders

YEAR 11 PARENTS AND GO4SCHOOLS As you are aware your child has just finished their mock exams to help them prepare for the summer. In order to give students the fullest experience of exams and a results day, the Go4Schools system has been switched off to Year 11 parents from Wednesday 18th December until Monday 13th January. The Mock Results Day will be on Friday 10th January and students will collect their results as they will on the results day on 21st August.

Andrew Grantham Assistant Head

YEAR 9 DISCOVER THEIR “WICKED” SIDE! Thursday 5th December saw the long awaited reward trip for Year 9 students. Those who had very good behaviour and attendance from Year 8 were able to opt to see the West End show “Wicked” at the Victoria Apollo Theatre.

There was an excited atmosphere (noisy) as the students boarded the coaches and this only increased as the miles passed by. The theatre (which originally was a cinema from the 1930’s) changed to its current use in 1981 and has been the home of “Wicked” since 2006. After a much needed loo break and snack and souvenir purchase, the students were able to take in the beautiful Art Deco interior before taking their seats in the stalls.

The show proved to be a superb choice for our age group with a different perspective on the well-known story of “The Wizard of Oz”. The first act resulted in a mixture of laughter and astonishment; the second act was just as amazing, but was a lot more serious. The music was mesmerising and fitted in with the production sublimely. The costumes were just as brilliant and helped to embody the characters. All in all an amazing production!

The students were very well behaved which is appropriate for a good behaviour award! Well done to everyone for getting to school on time the next day and at least pretending not to be tired.

Thank you to Miss Traynor for organising the trip and all the staff members who came along. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Jake Orpin – 9KH

Stato Corner Coaches 2, Students 104, Staff Members 8, Time of Departure 4.35pm, Outward Journey 115 minutes, Show Time 7.30pm, Length of Performance (including 20 minute interval) 165 minutes, Return Journey 95 minutes, Return Time 11.50pm Price of Programme £7 (way too much!), Price of ticket and coach £25 each, Normal Price of show £55 (Not including transport, therefore major bargain), Attendance Percentage Required 97% (and good behaviour)

NEWS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & DESIGN With Christmas fast approaching and the autumn term coming to an end it seems an ideal time to reflect on all the many activities that have been taking place within the art department.

Year 7 has been designing personal logos, looking at the colour wheel and studying the Fauves, whilst years 8 and 9 have been studying portraiture and perspective respectively.

Earlier on in the term year 11 visited the British Museum. There they soaked up the atmosphere, viewed artefacts from around the world, produced some sketches and collected resources for their GCSE mock exam (which they enjoyed having last week!).

Year 12 (and a few year 13) art students last week had a life drawing session, run by a visiting artist: they were able to study the human form at first hand and develop essential skills. This was a wonderful opportunity to also produce pieces for their portfolios and will be invaluable for those students going on to study art at a higher level after leaving school. Year 12 also recently participated in a printing workshop.

A2 art and photography students are continuing to work hard on their contextual studies and I am sure will be making the most of the Christmas holidays to finish off these exciting personal investigations!

We have been very lucky this year to benefit from some AS and A2 students sharing their skills with those lower down the school. Georgia and Emilia (yr 12) have assisted Mrs Mackervoy all term with her 7JAM class and Mel (yr 12) has been helping with Mr Trueman’s 7DAB class. Sophie (yr 13) has taken the year 7 art club during lunchtime each Monday this term.

The art department has also hosted two work experience placements this term. At the beginning of term Faye Surtees spent two weeks helping within the department as she was considering teaching as a career. Similarly we currently have Jess Barnet, a former student of SBS, volunteering each Tuesday.

I do hope you all have a lovely Christmas and get a good rest. However … if you have time to visit an exhibition during the holidays … the art department’s current gallery of choice is the National Portrait Gallery. Here you can see, amongst many others, Jonathan Yeo’s wonderful paintings whilst also visiting this year’s fabulous Taylor Wessing photography prize exhibition!!

HAPPY

CHRISTMAS TO YOU

ALL!

STAFFING UPDATE You will be aware that we have had some changes in staffing in the English department this term. Mr Hollerin and Mr Salmons left at half term to pursue roles in other schools, but I am pleased to confirm that we have appointed Miss Rixson and Miss Davies, both experienced English teachers, to fill the vacancies they left. These two colleagues will be with us until the summer and we are very pleased to be working with them. Mrs Cooke will be acting in the role of Head of English from January, ably assisted by Mrs Townsend and the rest of the department staff.

Another staffing change to let you know about is in the RE department. From January, Miss Hill will be taking over as Head of Department. This is a permanent appointment and we know that the department will continue to thrive under her leadership.

Liz Ellis Deputy Head

CELEB STAR TURN RAISES THE ROOF AT LOCAL PANTO Year 7 visited Hertford Theatre last Thursday to see a production of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ as a reward for their excellent start at Simon Balle. We were greeted on arrival in the foyer by staff wearing berets and Breton jumpers; a Christmas tree decorated with baguettes and croissants completed the Gallic atmosphere of this traditional French fairy tale. The students threw themselves into the show with great gusto, booing the villain, cheering on the innocent Beauty and doing their bit to prevent violent attacks by shouting ’She’s behind you’ so loudly that paint started to peel from the walls.

The highlight of the show was undoubtedly the unscheduled appearance on stage of Mr Trueman who was selected from the hundreds of showbiz hopefuls to deliver a stirring, albeit discordant, rendition of the Proclaimers’ ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’. Mr Trueman currently has no plans to give up his day job.

Year 7 displayed that lovely combination of great behaviour and enthusiasm which characterises them. Throw an ice-cream into the mix and a good time was had by all.

Graham Davies (Head of Year 7)

LIBRARY AND ENGLISH DEPARTMENT NEWS BOOKBUZZ BOOKS DISTRIBUTED TO ALL Y7 STUDENTS. All Y7 students ordered a book as part of the Bookbuzz scheme and they have been received and given out in English lessons recently in time for Christmas. Both the Library and the English Department pay towards this initiative which is organised by the charity Booktrust. For more information please go to http://www.bookbuzz.org.uk/ and http://www.booktrust.org.uk/ In addition, all of the titles available through this programme can be borrowed from our Library.

Fantastic Statistics!

Our Library Management System Statistics show that 7% more boys are using the Library after Book Week than before. Similarly there has been a 4% increase in girls taking books out of our Library.

Congratulations to Y7 students who have taken 162 more Accelerated Reader quizzes at this stage of the year than last year’s students . They have also passed 127 more than 2012-13 too.

REVIEW OF HATCHET BY GARY PAULSEN The book Hatchet is about a thirteen - year old boy called Brian. Brian is a city boy, who is not used to living rough, until his pilot has a heart attack and his plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness. All Brian has is a hatchet which was given to him by his mother and a desperate will to survive. In the wilderness Brian will learn to live the hard way. Or die‌ This is one of my favourite books because it has a constant feeling of suspense to it throughout the book, and something dramatic happens on nearly every page. It is a recount of Brian trying to survive and him hoping for a rescue plane to save himself. Each page you read you would want to read on.

So if you like recount/diary books with dramatic twists, this is the book for you.

By Will from Y7

THE BOOK CLUB The book club are currently reading the Red House award books and are thoroughly enjoying them. Each week it is a mad scramble to pick up another.

So far, we have read a book each and are rating them, on average: 8/10.

Once all of the books have been read we will discuss and rank them to decide on a winner; at this rate, it's going to be a challenge to choose!

INTOUCH AND BT EMAIL ADDRESS We have been made aware there is a problem for parents with BT email addresses receiving communication from the school via InTouch. We apologise for this and if you have another address you would like us to use then please send it to admin@simonballe.herts.sch.uk. On this occasion we have sent students the link to the newsletter advising them this publication is now available

MUSIC DEPARTMENT CELEBRATIONS Rock School held a fantastic gig at the Corn Exchange on 3rd December. Bands from Year 7 to Year 13 impressed the audience with their confident and enthusiastic performances. There will be a Rock School meeting on Tuesday 7th January at 5pm for any students who are interested in forming new bands, all are welcome to come along and find out more.

Our community choir Take Note held their winter concert at St Andrew’s Church last Saturday, raising money for Isabel Hospice and the Red Cross. The programme included songs from Abba, Rutter and Chilcott plus a selection of wonderful Christmas music which you can hear on the school’s website. Anyone interested in joining the choir next term should contact the music office for more details.

Coro members showed that they are just as talented at cooking as they are at singing when they held their BakeOff this Monday. The thirteen entries included a gingerbread Christmas tree, mini penguins and a very surprising red and green cake. Highly commended were Katie’s cupcakes and Grace and Beth’s chocolate orange cake.

The winner was Simeon’s Hummingbird tropical fruit cake with vanilla buttercream and pecan nuts. Congratulations to everyone who took part and made such a difficult but delicious job for our judges Mr Fisher, Mr Lovell and Mr Willis.

Well done to our exam candidates on their great results in the Rockschool and Trinity exams this term, and thank you to their teachers and families for all their support. A special mention for Matteo who achieved 97% in his first drum kit exam!

NAME

FORM

INSTRUMENT

GRADE

RESULT

ALEX MURPHY

8BIM

CLARINET

2

MERIT

KATIE GRESTY

10JK

CLARINET

5

MERIT

CHARLIE SUTTON

10DB

CLARINET

5

MERIT

CHLOE PITCH

10DB

FLUTE

4

PASS

GEORGIA WHITEAR

12SDP

FLUTE

6

PASS

TOM BONFIELD

12JL

JAZZ FLUTE

7

DISTINCTION

EVE O’CONNOR

8DA

GUITAR

1

MERIT

GEORGE BRENCHLEY

8JT

GUITAR

2

PASS

LAUREN CRADDOCK

12JL

GUITAR

2

PASS

THOMAS FREDERIKSEN

8JT

GUITAR

3

PASS

JOE LEGGETT

11BF

GUITAR

3

DISTINCTION

DANNY FROST

13SR

GUITAR

8

MERIT

SARAH KENWAY

9JS

OBOE

3

MERIT

JOSEPH VINTON

10LMC

SAXOPHONE

3

PASS

LUKE DAVIS

11EN

JAZZ SAX

6

MERIT

IMOGEN TURNER

12LJ

JAZZ SAX

6

PASS

SARAH O’BRIEN

12JL

SAXOPHONE

7

MERIT

STUART BOWDEN

12LJ

JAZZ SAX

8

PASS

NIAMH PARRIS

12LJ

SAXOPHONE

8

MERIT

CHARLOTTE YATES

8LCS

VIOLIN

2

PASS

ROCKSCHOOL EXAMS FORM INSTRUMENT

NAME

GRADE

RESULT

JAMES ASPINALL

10IW

BASS GUITAR

1

PASS

JOE LEGGETT

11BF

BASS GUITAR

3

DISTINCTION

JAMES RIDER

10IW

BASS GUITAR

3

MERIT

BRADLEY PALMER

12GJ

BASS GUITAR

6

DISTINCTION

MATTEO TONTODONATI

8BIM

DRUM KIT

1

DISTINCTION

TOM MARQUES

10JK

DRUM KIT

4

PASS

LUCAS MEDWAY-SMITH

10DB

DRUM KIT

4

PASS

DOMINIC RUGG-GUNN

10JN

DRUM KIT

4

PASS

OLLY BLAKE

11JM

DRUM KIT

5

PASS

ROSA NOXON

9MD

DRUM KIT

5

MERIT

ELLIOT CARR

12AMP

DRUM KIT

6

MERIT

IZZY MORRIS

12AMP

DRUM KIT

6

PASS

EVENING FRIDAY MARCH 7th

What a great December this has been for Sport at Simon Balle with success at District, County and National level. The 9 girls again remain consistent at National level along with 3 boys teams qualifying for the Quarter Finals of the County Cup. In Athletics, there was more success at District level which bodes well for the upcoming Indoor Championships in January. Inter-House Sports ran smoothly without any weather interruptions for the first time in a few years. Finally plans are now in place for a new Athletics club at Simon Balle School. Please read on…

SPORTSHALL ATHLETICS TRIPLE SUCCESS On Thursday the Y8 Girls and the Y7 and Y8 Boys sportshall athletics teams went to Wodson to compete in the Herts and Ware Sportshall Athletics tournament. The teams performed brilliantly with all teams coming 1st and receiving a gold medal. The teams will therefore go on to the County Finals in March 2014. Well done to all those who took part. The next major athletics fixture that takes place is the District Indoor Championships at Pickett’s Lock on the 15th January 2014.

Y9/10 GIRLS NATIONAL CUP SUCCESS Last Friday the girls travelled to Havering to play Marshalls Park School in the 5th Round of the National Cup. This team reached the semi-finals last year so it was always going to be a tough draw. In a tightly-contested match the girls won a penalty in the last minute of normal play with Tor Hill converting the kick to win the match 1-0.

The girls are now through to the last 16 in the country and travel to Great Yarmouth to contest the next round.

Well done to all the girls and good luck in the next round.

BOYS COUNTY FOOTBALL SUCCESS

Three boys teams have progressed through to the Quarter finals of the County cup. Let’s begin with the Year 7 boys. On Wednesday they travelled to Mount Grace where the boys played on very wet pitch. Ollie Clarke got

the boys off to a great start scoring 2 goals in the first half. This was followed with goals from Jean Nwahba, Jack Smith and Marc Ainge with the boys comfortably progressing by 5-0.

The Year 8’s played Rickmansworth on Monday. This was a very exciting game which ended 2-2 and then went to penalties. The boys won on a sudden death penalty to go through to the Quarter final stage.

U18 COUNTY CUP

The 1st XI reached the quarter finals with an 8-5 win over Freman College. In a game which was an advert for attacking play the score was 2-2 after 10 minutes with Joe Carter twice giving Simon Balle the lead. Freman then scored twice before a rare goal from Phil Murphy made it 3-4 at half time.

Andrew Clark equalised early in the second half, but this didn’t last long as Freman took the lead from a corner.

However, Simon Balle looked dangerous every time they attacked and three further goals from Andrew Clark and one from Marcus Rossi sealed the victory.

(Mr. Stobbart)

BASKETBALL UPDATE The Year 8's have had a very busy few weeks competing in the District Basketball league and the National League competition.

District League results to date: v Turnford Lost 20-14 v Richard Hale Won 32-16 v John Warner - Won 34-14 v Chauncy - Won 41-21

NATIONAL LEAGUE v Queens Lost 63-38 The boys still have St Columbus and Sandringham to play in the national game and 2 more games to complete in the district.

Well done to all boys involved.

(Mr. Pooley) The Year 7 Boys have been progressing very well so far in their District competition winning seven out of eight matches so far this year, only losing out to a point to Richard Hale School in their only defeat. Out of a squad of ten players Jack Smith and Arthur Twyning have been the stars of the show so far with other notable performances from the Nwahba brothers, Albert and Jean. These boys are definitely stars for the future and have worked very hard training every morning before school honing their skills. Their final match takes place tonight against St. Marys School at home with the game due to start at 3.45.

RUGBY NEWS Last Friday the Year 7 Boys took part in the annual Year 7 Richard Hale tournament. The boys were grouped with some of the best teams in the county, however this proved to be a great learning experience for them. They played Berkhampstead, Richard Hale and Hitchin Boys and scored 5 tries throughout the tournament with the Nwahba boys making a fantastic impact scoring a few tries.

The boys then travelled to Goff’s School the next day (Saturday) to play their first game in the District league.

Due to the intensity of the previous day’s games the squad was a little threadbare with a combination of injuries and tiredness, Goff’s proved too strong around the breakdown to come away as winners, however man of the match Albert Nwahba managed to continue his scoring run with a fantastic try with Marc Ainge converting. The boys should be congratulated for the effort that they put in over the two days.

The Year 10’s played their final game of the season also against Goff’s school losing 17-62, with Zack Abdelhamid again scoring to round off a great season for him. It was also good to see the return from injury of Matt Parris who also played a fine game. The boys now look forward to Senior Rugby next year at Simon Balle.

SENIOR BOYS HOCKEY

The Senior Boys played their first game of the season against a strong John Warner team. The boys led throughout the match only for John Warner to draw level with the game finishing at 5-5. Man of the match was Jasper Carr.

GIRLS HOCKEY Hockey continues to go from strength to strength at Simon Balle with large numbers attending the training sessions. Unfortunately with the number of matches being played each week on our astro quite a few of the training sessions had to be cancelled. All year groups recorded some excellent wins especially Year 7,9 and 10 beating Presdales. There is a full programme of matches next term and we look forward to continued success.

Special mention and congratulations to Year 8 student Lucie Blackman who has been selected for the county team. We wish her every success.

ARCHERY AT SIMON BALLE

The Celtic harmony group ran an Archery Day at Simon Balle on Tuesday to Year 8, 9 and 10’s. All students thoroughly enjoyed this experience and as a result of this there will be an Archery club starting on the second Tuesday back after the holidays from 3.15-4.15pm. If you are interested please e-mail Mr. Brennan as there are still places available for the club.

GIRLS RUGBY This term girls have started rugby both in lessons and extra-curricular. We have had a coach in from the RFU to help develop girl’s rugby in the school. Year 7, 8 and 9 girls have been involved. Year 9 girls went to an international tag rugby tournament at Allianz Park the home of Saracens rugby club. The girls had an amazing

day and where really inspired to continue playing rugby. Coming up next year the year 9's have a mini rugby festival in January and then all years 7, 8 and 9 have their main rugby festival taking place at Hertford Rugby Club against a number of schools in Hertfordshire.

(Miss Ansell)

INTER-HOUSE SPORTS This half terms Inter-House sports ran successfully without any of the usual problems with the weather. The winners were as follows; Year 7 Boys Bench-ball – Mimram Year 7 Girls Tag Rugby – Lea Year 8 Boys Football – Beane Year 8 Girls Basketball – Mimram Year 9 Boys Football – Rib Year 10 Boys Football - Beane

THE SIMON BALLE Spring Term PE EXTRA-CURRICULAR PROGRAMME 2014 MONDAY

Lunch-time clubs 1:25pm - 2:05pm Tues 1:25pm – 1:50pm Squad Training Girls Trampolining Y7-10 (JN) - Gym

After school clubs 3:30pm-4:30pm Swimming (KA)

GCSE PE Club (DB)

Y7 & 8 Boys Basketball – Gym (JP) Hockey Training or matches (Girls)

1st XI Football (GS)

Year 7 Rugby (DB) – Field

TUESDAY

Volleyball Club

Y 8 & 9 Girls Indoor Cricket (GYM)

WEDNESDAY

Swimming (KA) – 7.30am

Archery Club (Netball Courts) Kick Boxing Club (LB) - Hall

Y10/11 Basketball (JP)

Hockey Training or matches (Girls)

Y11/ Sixth Form Fitness

Gymnastics Club (KA) - HALL

Year 8 Football (JP)

Hockey Training or matches (Girls)

Y7 Rugby (DB) - Field

Satellite Athletics Club – (LEJ) – Starts February with Herts & Ware AC Year 7 Boys Football (DB)

THURSDAY

Y11/ Sixth Form Fitness Year 9 Basketball (GS)

FRIDAY

Sportshall athletics (KA & LEJ) Year 11 Football (Astro) (JP) Year 10 Football (DB) Year 9 Football (GS)

Girls Football 7 & 8 (Mr Carter) Astro Boys Hockey (All years) – ½ of Astro