1st March 2018
Already the new half term has begun in earnest with three residential trips happening within the first two weeks. Two year nine groups are visiting the First World War Battlefields in northern France and Belgium. As a history teacher, this visit I know makes such a lasting impression upon young people and is one of those trips that I think everyone should make at least once. For those not able to attend, we have arranged for them to visit the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. The Languages visit to France is also taking place; we have chosen a new venue for this, northern France, as it is nearer and more affordable, whilst still a trip of interest and the opportunity to both speak French and understand culture. We hope to arrange a trip to Spain in 2018- 2019. Another “new” but highly successful trip occurred during the half term break, when a sports tour was arranged for Year 12 footballers to Spain. Trips in schools take a long time to plan and whilst wonderfully enjoyable, they are dependent upon staff time and energy. We are very fortunate at Simon Balle that the whole community pulls around a trip in terms of actually going and then covering the lessons for staff who are accompanying the students. These trips can involve significant numbers of staff going, both teaching and non-teaching. Still to come this half term this will be our geographers out on their field study tours, whilst Year 2 are visiting “Windsor Castle” as part of their project. On a slightly different note, but equally pleasing, some of our teams have been highly successful in national competitions. Once again a testament to the joint passion and hard work of students and staff. On the 7th February Mr Andrews took Andrew, Matt, Alex and Ant from Y10 to the Design Ventura Competition in London to exhibit their product, Drop Charge, which was a humorous wrap to keep cables tidy, made to look like a bungee jumper. The boys placed 8th out of 320 schools. They should be very pleased with this fantastic result.
A group of our scientists will attend the final of the “Big Bang” Science Competition held at Birmingham over 2 days in March (another residential). This year we have 3 teams who have made it through the national to find the UK's Young Scientist and Engineer of the Year. There are two year 8 students who are trying to increase awareness of the plight of the slow worm, a native legless lizard whose population has plummeted. We also have 2 teams of year 10 students. One team has made their own piezo-crystals (crystals that generate electrical current in response to pressure) and researched if this is a viable source of renewable energy. The second team have developed an app to reduce the blue glare from a phone, switch off notifications and encourage mindfulness. They have also investigated whether sleep has a negative impact on school performance. All students have to present their work to a team of judges, moderators and the general public over a period of two days. As parents, hopefully through the participation and involvement of your children and friends , you will appreciate and see just how much happens on a daily and weekly basis alongside the core purpose of the school which is to ensure that your children get the very best education in terms of their learning. Weekly sport fixtures (often Saturdays), music (many evening events), art, drama, community volunteering, lectures, and so much more! And so thank you especially to the Year 10 parents who recently met with staff for the highly positive feedback about how happy their children are at Simon Balle and how pleased as parents they are with the quality of learning (an amazing 99.4% turnout). Thank you too to the Larch Parents for their wonderful feedback on the E-safety sessions delivered by our EduTech team. All of this confirms that our special ethos whereby there is no conflict between academic excellence, high aspirations and a focus upon the whole person. This is indeed the path to successful happy young people. On March 1 the “New Year 7” parents will hear whether they have been allocated a place in the first round and once again over 868 have put us down for 180 places. Record numbers have equally selected us in primary – 239.
Vacancies We are currently looking to appoint a primary teacher, a Spanish/French teacher and a Food Tech teacher (full-time/part-time) and a science technician All details are on our website http://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/vacancies/ We will also have a stand at the annual Hertfordshire Teacher Recruitment Fair organised by Teach in Herts. There will be a wide range of workshops, advice sessions and exhibiting schools. Hertfordshire Teacher Recruitment Fair – Saturday 10th March 2018 – 10am to 2pm Location: Hertfordshire Development Centre, Six Hills Way, Stevenage, SG1 2FQ These recruitment fairs are an essential event for experienced, new, returning or overseas qualified teachers or for anyone interested in teaching as a career. The event is free to attend.
Non-uniform day We are delighted to report that we raised £1608 for the ‘Young Minds’ charity. Our next non-uniform day will be held on Friday 23rd March in aid of ‘Sports Relief’. More details to follow nearer the event.
Dates for your Diary Thursday 1st March - World Book Day Thursday 1st-2nd March - Battlefield Trip 2nd Group Tuesday 6th March - EPQ evening Y10 information evening and geography field trip meeting Friday 9th March - Big Band Evening Monday 12th March - Reception conversations Wednesday 14th March Reception conversations Tuesday 27th March - Y13 Parents Evening Saturday 17th March - String and singing concert Wednesday 21st March - Y2 trip to Windsor Friday 23rd March non-uniform day – Sports Relief Monday 26th March - Y10 geography field trips Tuesday 27th March - Reception trip to Paradise Wildlife Park Wednesday 28th March - Stevenson’s uniform sale 3.00pm to 5.30pm Thursday 29th March - End of term (early finish) Monday 16th April - Term starts Thursday 19th April – Y7 Parents evening Friday 20th April - Haworth trip Saturday 21st April - Wind and brass concert
Careers Fair 2018 On Tuesday 28th February, a very successful careers fair took place at Simon Balle from 1pm onwards. Students were very well prepared with booklets on their iPads and a number of sessions delivered during the past week from form tutors. Nearly 30 companies were in attendance from the fire service to the University of Herts to Deloittes. This gave students a wide range of sectors to explore and they did just that with enthusiasm. The day gave Y10 & Y12 students an opportunity to network with employers, ask questions about apprenticeships and career entry, as well looking at the possibility of gaining work experience.
Competition time-What do you do to keep fit? Do you like to go walking, cycling or running around your local area or even dancing, skipping or hula hooping? If so we have a competition just for you! We would like you to bring to school a picture, drawing or painting (size A3 or smaller) that shows us what you do to keep fit and healthy, as well as showing us what makes Hertfordshire so special (this could be a favourite place you visit to keep healthy in Hertfordshire.) This competition is being run by Hertfordshire County Council and Hertfordshire Agricultural Society with prizes and runners up prizes to be won. All entries need to be in by Thursday 29th March. Good luck! Please bring entries to the Larch Centre.
Balls Park Can parents please note that Harrison Lane through Balls Park is a private road and should not be used as a rat run for parking to either drop off or collecting children. Thank you for your co-operation.
Safeguarding Please note that you must collect your child from the school office and sign them out if you are taking him/her off the school site. It is not safe to arrange to meet them in the car park or somewhere in Hertford. We know you will support us in ensuring our students safety at all times. Thank you Internet Safety Day On Tuesday 6th February the whole school took part in Safer Internet Day 2018. This year’s theme was “create, connect and share respect” and there was some wonderful work that came out of the day. KS1 took part in an assembly discussing how to be safe online and learning about CEOP’s superhero SID! The school hall was turned into a carousel of activities for all KS3 students. Each activity was developed and delivered by our team of EduTech ambassadors and all students got really involved in the day. In KS4/5 the focus was breaking down barriers with parents and some fantastic discussions took place in form time. Keep your eyes on the school website over the coming weeks for some videos and photos taken during this day. We also hosted some E-Safety talks for KS1 parents on Tuesday 20th February. These talks helped outline to the parents what the students were currently learning in regards to e-safety and how they can be vigilante and build strong relationships with the children to ensure everyone is safe. The talks were a great success and we will be putting on more session like this over the year. The PowerPoint from the talks will be available on the school websites’ e-safety page.
PE News U15 Girls reach County Finals
On Monday both U13 and U15 girls travelled to Hertfordshire Sports Village to compete in the Lady Taverner’s Indoor Cricket Festival. U13 girls played in the morning and after a few weeks of training they were really excited to play their first competitive games. The girls made it into the 3rd and 4th play-off and unfortunately lost to John Warner in that game finishing a respectable 4th. U15 girls played in afternoon. They had a tough pool, but with a draw and a win they went into the 1st and 2nd play offs. It was here that the girls really demonstrated their excellent cricketing skills and beat Queenswood quite comfortably in the end to take victory. The U15 girls now go to the County finals in March - watch this space. Miss Davison
Sixth Form Football tour to Spain The senior football team recently took part in a football development tour at Valencia CF. The group of 28 students were given the opportunity to experience a professional sporting environment and train in some of the best facilities in the world. Pupils enjoyed a variety of activities such as; a behind the scenes tour of the Mestalla Stadium, watching a local derby between Valencia and Levante, playing matches against Spanish opposition and took part in 5 training sessions at the Valencia training ground with official academy coaches. Everybody who came into contact with the boys from our school from the hotel staff to the stadium tour leaders were hugely complimentary of the respectful and courteous students on the trip. They were mature and sought to take the most from the experience as possible. The boys also performed extremely well in the training sessions, the coaches were full of positive feedback for me to pass on. The trip was a once in a lifetime experience that I hope the boys will remember for years to come. We wanted to provide the opportunity for our students to train in and experience a professional sporting environment, from match day, to meals and training. We wanted to raise aspirations and try to instill the mindset that 'this could be you'. I hope that all of the students involved can now see a pathway in sport, as a player, coach, or in any other capacity. I would also like to pay thanks to the supporting staff on the trip: Mr Poley and Mr Kelleway who helped to make the tour possible. Mr Norcross
Year 7 Football make District Semi-finals This year we have had 2 Year 7 teams represented in the District cup across 2 groups. The teams that finish top of each group make the semi-finals. The B team played on Monday in challenging conditions against Haileybury Turnford, unfortunately losing 4-1, however due to injuries there were a number of key players missing. However the ability to put a team out demonstrates the depth of quality football players that we have at Simon Balle, with a number of players representing the school for the first time, they played very well. A big thank you to Mr Poley who has taken the team this year. Last Thursday the 7A team played St. Mary’s from Cheshunt, needing at least a draw to progress into the semi-finals and the boys did just that scoring 2 early goals to win 2-0 and they now play Richard Hale next week. Good luck to the boys. The Year 9 & 10’s are still to complete their group games so there is still a possibility of three teams being represented in the semi-finals. This Saturday we are due to play Samuel Ryder School in a Y7-10 block fixture.
Sports Bytes Congratulations to Trixie Wraith who ran 2.14 over 800m a couple of weeks ago to become one of the fastest athletes in the UK.
The District Sportshall Finals take place on Weds 28th at Wodson Park with Simon Balle represented in the Y7 Girls and Y8 boys competitions.
The District Cross Country Championships take place at Simon Balle School on the 15th March from 4pm.
The Year 9 Boys Basketball team have qualified for the County Plate semi-finals.
The Year 10 Boys Rugby team have reached the County Shield final for the 2nd year in a row and will play at Woollams on March 14th at 6pm.
Y7 Trip to Bletchley Park On Monday the 5th of February all of Y7 enjoyed a trip to Bletchley Park, where we learnt that this was where most of the code breaking had taken place during the Second World War and where famous mathematician Alan Turing had worked. We started with a tour of the site and were told how the government had secretly purchased the vast site in the 1930s because of its prime position close to London and because it was half way between Oxford and Cambridge, where the best to recruit were. We visited Hut 8 where Turing worked and saw in detail the different ways in which the code breakers had used their mathematical skills. During the tour we were shown pictures of the people that had worked at Bletchley park, some of us were surprised that there were many more women working here than men. We also learnt that before working there people had to agree to secrecy and were not told anything about Bletchley until they got there ready to work. Later in the day, we took part in a workshop where we had to use our problem solving skills and applied mathematics to a variety of codes we needed to decipher. The students looked at Morse code, the Caesar wheel cipher, number grid cipher, pig pen cipher and the rail fence cipher. Some more complicated than others! They showed great resilience and team work when completing this part of the day. The highlight of the trip was seeing and using the Enigma machine, used by the Germans in WW2 to send their daily messages. The students could not believe the enormity of the task facing the code breakers at Bletchley as there were over 15 billion combinations of how the messages could have been encrypted. We saw a working Bombe machine that was developed to help with this task. We were even able to use an enigma machine to encode our initials despite the machine being worth over a quarter of a million pounds today! It was a fantastic day and the students were fully engaged throughout, the staff commented on how many had asked insightful questions. Great work Y7 and well done to Miss Robinson for her fantastic organisation of the day.
Thank a teacher – send a card campaign The National Teaching Awards highlight the positive impact teachers and school leaders have in our society – with pupils, parents and the wider community, and show teachers how much they are valued. The influence of a good teacher lasts a lifetime. The National Teaching Awards wants to recognise amazing teachers and how their work makes all the difference at school. A thank you card shows how much you appreciate their hard work and dedication. Say thank you to an excellent teacher and the Pearson Awards will send them a lovely card through the post, with your personal message, for free. Anyone can send a card; children, students, parents, grandparents and colleagues can all say thank you to a teacher, teaching assistant, headteacher or team of staff. To celebrate 20 years of the Pearson Teaching Awards, they are giving away 20 signed copies of Flamingo Boy, the new book from Michael Morpurgo, and 10 pairs of tickets to his award-winning play War Horse especially for you to win! Just Thank a Teacher before 9th March and your name will go into a prize draw for you to receive one of these prestigious signed first editions, or win a coveted pair of War Horse tickets for your favourite teacher! To thank someone, simply go to http://www.teachingawards.com/thankateachercard/ All thank you nominations received by 9th March are also eligible for entry in the 2018 Pearson Teaching Awards. Entry for the Teaching Awards must be submitted by 16 th March. Simply follow the link. http://teachingawards.com/enter_now/ Thank you in advance for your support of this worthwhile initiative. #thankateacher Yvonne Adshead Assistant Headteacher