newSBytes 20th march 2014

20th March 2014 As a school we seem to be even busier than normal with so many exciting things happening for so many students. I have been thrilled with the huge opportunities and the infectious buzz surrounding National Science Week. From visits to conferences, competitions, and incredible practical investigations (honeycomb to dissection of mammals) everyone is aware of the importance of science.

Speakers Corner proved to be the appropriate vehicle to announce the start of the activities. Alumni, David Newstead, a physics graduate, who works at Jaguar Land Rover, used Skype to talk with our students about his job and his commitment to Simon Balle. It was as if David was actually in the library - students were captivated by the experience and were eager to talk to him.

Sport continues to take up many hours for so many students and I have been thrilled to see how the hard work of students and staff has resulted in so many experiences and successes.

I am equally looking forward to enjoying House Plays tonight and have not stopped raving about the fabulous Big Band evening.

I am very thankful too for the academic support and encouragement shown by so many of our parents with a number of parents’ evenings and core learning evenings. Brilliant attendance again - in some cases almost 100%.

Many of you will have seen recent adverts on line for various jobs at Simon Balle, as this is traditionally the season for recruitment. In order for us to appoint the best people, it takes much hard work and care in terms of advertising and interviewing. We know that this page gets many “hits” on our website; please continue to check this as either you may be looking for a new challenge or you may know someone else who is!

The Governors continue to listen and consult about the proposed expansion whereby Simon Balle School would eventually educate 418 year olds. The consultation is about the philosophy surrounding this. At the recent public consultation evening, which was very well attended, most of the objections focused upon the traffic problems. As the Director of Education stated, this will have to be looked at in great depth if the Governors, following the consultation, decide to move forward with the proposal. Other objections were questioning the actual need for additional places and the effect this expansion could have on other local provision. Several residents living on or near the Ware Road, stood up and expressed their support as Mums of nursery age children as they know that they will have real difficulty getting a place in reception in a school to which they could walk.

THIS ISSUE:  

Sports Relief 2014 National Science and Engineering Week Exam Invigilators Library and English Department News New Minibuses Music News Calling all Performers!

PSA News PE News

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: 20th March

House Plays

25th March

Y10 Parents Evening

29th March

String and Sing Concert

1st April

Rock School Gig

4th April

End of term

22nd April (Tues) Start of Summer term.

6th May

INSET Day

6th—9th May

Y7 Osmington Bay

26th—30th May Half term 4th July

Staff training day

9th July

Y6 into Y7 Parents Evening

10th July

Transition Day

23rd July

End of term

I am aware that I have not shared with our own parents my vision or views since the initial letter outlining the proposal and process. If however the Governors do decide to move forward, I will then do so.

As we approach the last few weeks of the Spring term, may I thank you again for your tremendous support. May I also pass on comments we received at recent interviews. Candidates without fail have been so impressed by our students; their sense of community and their enjoyment of learning. True ambassadors of the school.

Alison Saunders

NON UNIFORM DAY – FRIDAY 21ST MARCH – SPORTS RELIEF DAY We will also be supporting Sports Relief Day on Friday. The money raised is spent by Comic Relief to change lives at home and abroad. In the UK it is used to provide shelter to young people living on the streets and to protect those living with abuse.

Across the world the money raised helps children into education and provides communities with fresh water and life-saving vaccines. These are just a few of the many projects with which Sports Relief in involved.

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

Mike Moss Deputy Head

MODEL UNITED NATIONS This weekend 11 Simon Balle Students will be taking part in the Model United Nations (MUN) Conference at Haileybury College.

MUN is a three day simulation which gives students a unique insight into the work of the United Nations. It is designed for secondary students and is intended to provide an occasion for the delegates to discuss world issues, learn valuable public speaking skills and above all, meet new people from all over the world.

They will be representing the countries of Bangladesh, Ivory Coast and Laos.

David Oldridge

NEW SCHOOL MINIBUSES Simon Balle School recently took possession of two new minibuses.

These vehicles replace our two rather tired old minibuses which have done sterling service over the last ten years but were well and truly past their best. Both new minibuses are 17 seater Ford Transits. One of them has been fitted with some removable rear seats and a ramp to allow better disabled access and use. Like our previous minibuses they will mainly be used for relatively short trips but the first longer trip for one of them will be down to Osmington Bay with Year 7 in early May this year. The PSA is working hard to raise money to sponsor one of these new minibuses and we would like to thank them for their support.

Rob Woodcock

FREDDIE KNOLLER VISIT On Thursday 6th March, we were lucky enough to hear from Holocaust Survivor Freddie Knoller. He told us the story of his life in occupied France during World War Two. His account was truly inspiring and brought tears to many of our eyes.

Freddie showed us resilience, perseverance and determination which is something we can all learn from. Freddie enjoyed lunch at school, where he answered yet more questions and was wonderful company. During the day Freddie gave us the opportunity to buy his book 'Living with the Enemy' and to our delight personally signed every copy. It was a memorable day, and we are very grateful to the Holocaust Educational Trust for giving us this opportunity.

SCIENCE NEWS GSK Work Experience During half term four students from Simon Balle took part in a work experience week, designed to give the local students studying chemistry, biology or engineering at ‘A’ level or equivalent an insight into the work at GSK. At the end of the week Cameron (Biology), Edward and Isabelle (Engineering) and Samuel (Chemistry) made short presentations on the work they had been undertaking and graduated as Industrial Cadets at Silver Level. The Industrial Cadets initiative, which was inspired by HRH The Prince of Wales, is rapidly expanding across the UK, being implemented by many industry-leading companies.

Cameron said “A highlight of my experience is that I was fortunate enough to be of 4 selected to do microbiology- which was run over 2 separate sessions. In the first session we were taught ‘aseptic lab technique’ The samples were then examined in the second session and ‘gram stains’ were made. Gram staining simply helps us to understand the cell wall of the bacteria and ultimately the conditions a bacterium will thrive”.

Samuel said “The second day we were able to have a look at some of the more high-tech equipment GSK uses such as a Mass Spectrometer and an NMR. These are high tech pieces of machinery that allow chemists to predict the composition of a sample and the shape of the molecules in it”.

Edward and Isabelle said “We finished by giving a presentation on what we did to get a silver industrial cadet award, which was a great achievement.

We would highly recommend it to others looking to go on the same course, and would say that it was a fantastic experience” th

st

.Science week is 17 to 21 March Many activities are planned (please see next page).

Full write up and pictures next newsletter. Please see website regularly for updates Carolyn Kelleway

FOOD FOR THE MIND, POETRY FOR THE SOUL? STOFF ZUM NACHDENKEN, GEDICHTE FÜR DIE SEELE?

Students of German have been recently engaged in a variety of creative activities designed to help them expand their minds, literacy and oracy skills and potentially also their waistlines!

A Monster of a Project: After 6 months of German, Year 8 students have created a collection of descriptive prose poems on the theme of Monsters, inspired by slogan for the German trailer for the animated film Monsters University, “in jedem von uns, steckt ein kleines Monster!” (In each one of us is hidden a little monster). With an eye to both literacy and oracy, they then turned their new skills to dubbing film extracts of Wallace and Grommit and the Were-Rabbit into German from a script. This exercise focused on expression, fluency and pronunciation.

For the second year, with the kind collaboration of Mrs Jones, Year 9 German students have set to creating a traditional German Gugelhupf chocolate marble cake using bilingual recipes.

The GCSE course requires students to show creativity and use a wide range of expressive vocabulary. In order to develop these skills, Year 10 German students have been embarking on their own, somewhat more advanced poetic linguistic adventures on the theme of Home and Belonging using a poem by the 19th century North German poet Theodor Storm as inspiration.

The work of all 3 groups can be viewed on the school website either via Students/Learning Showcase/MFL or as one of the recent posts on the home page.

Richard Taylor Head of MFL

EXAM INVIGILATORS Exam Invigilators needed for the forthcoming summer exams. If you are interested in becoming part of our fantastic team of exam invigilators or you know anyone who might be interested, please email our exams officer Clare Booth on boothc@simonballe.herts.sch.uk with a copy of your cv or a short statement explaining why you think you might be suitable for the job and your contact details.

The exams run from May 12th to June 27th.

Clare Booth Exams Officer

LIBRARY AND ENGLISH DEPARTMENT NEWS Twitter for news on Library events and resources @SBS_Library

WORLD BOOK DAY CELEBRATIONS All students in Y7-12 received their £1 book vouchers to celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 6th March. These could be redeemed at bookshops for specially produced WBD books or used against the purchase of more expensive books or audio books.

During the Thursday lunchtime the Library showed ‘The Biggest Book Show on Earth’ from www.worldbookday.com on the screen which attracted quite a sizeable audience. Dick and Dom compered the event which included tips and guidance from authors and illustrators. Roberts Muchamore, Rachel Johnson, Terry Deary and Emily Gravett were amongst those who featured.

Y9 Senior Librarian Oliver reports on the main focus at SBS this year: Friday 7th March was the day the Library held a Performance Reading Competition following World Book Day. Nine students from different years and Ms Ellis read passages from their favourite books. The Library was thriving with students keen to support the students who were participating. Congratulations to Ash who won the competition with flying colours and who read from ‘Heroes of Olympus-House of Hades’ by Rick Riordan. Congratulations to the rest of the students and Ms Ellis who did a fantastic job in their reading.

For further details of the readings please see the blog on the SBS website.

SCHOOLS AND THE GREAT WAR CENTENARY: HOW SCHOOLS SHOULD BEST PREPARE (Arranged by Wellington College and The Wellington Academy) Inspiration and information flowed from the range of first rate speakers at this event last Thursday which Alison Klippel and I were privileged to attend. It was fitting that this significant event, attended by 600 schools, was held in Central Hall, Westminster, the setting for the first meeting of the United Nations in 1946.

Jeremy Paxman spoke of how The Great War was the event that made modern Britain and how we owe the fallen respect and remembrance. Ian Hislop gave an eloquent presentation on the Wipers Times 1916-18, the satirical newspaper of the trenches. But the climax of the day was children’s author Michael Morpurgo relating stories and singing mournfully “voices from the heart”. Through their individual stories all families have links to the War and it is the diaries, poetry, songs and fiction which speak directly to us all.

Representatives from the BBC, the Imperial War Museum and the Commonwealth Graves Commission detailed projects they are running to educate us all and students in particular. A Battlefield Tours Programme is the flagship event for 4,000 secondary schools and 3 months free access to www.ancestry.co.uk will help students connect with the First World War. An appeal to schools to help raise £1M for the British Legion was promoted and research into individual school’s history during the War encouraged.

If you wish to find out more please go to www.ww1andschools.co.uk and you can keep up with Twitter #WW1andSchools.

Interactive resources can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/ww1 including the innovative iWonder guides. The Imperial War Museum has created www.1914.org to locate WW1 events around the country (all not for profit organisations) and www.CWGC.org enables you to trace names on local war memorials.

As a school key staff are meeting together to discuss how Simon Balle can make The Great War relevant to our students and how we can honour the dead without glorifying war. We will keep you updated on developments.

BOOK REVIEW THRONE OF GLASS Throne of Glass is a thrilling book about assassin, Celaena Sardothien. She is captured and sent to Endovier. Then the Crown Prince Dorain asks her to be his tribute in a competition to the death, to be the Kings advisor. I think that this book is good for Year 8’s who love adventure books. Sarah J. Maas has created a fantastic world of fantasy, gore and magic to make one of the best books I have read. By Emma Y7

Janet Syme

MUSIC NEWS A busy end to the term as students prepare for exams and performances. See posters below for our Strings and Singing Concert on Saturday 29th March and Rock School on Tuesday 1st April.

Well done to those who took Musical Theatre exams on Tuesday. Candidates have to perform a programme of songs with appropriate costume and props and also have to discuss their pieces and techniques with the examiner. The group worked extremely hard with Ms Kemp to prepare for this and were very supportive of each other during rehearsals and at the exam venue at Haileybury, a great credit to themselves and the school.

PSA NEWS 

Those of you that have attended parents’ evening since January will have spotted that the PSA runs a quick raffle with a hamper as a prize. This initiative replaces the ‘Grand Prize Draw’ and is very easy to enter – simply donate a minimum of £1 as you sign in and your name will be entered for the draw! You could leave at the end of the session with lots of information about your child/ren’s learning …. and some other ‘goodies’ too! Many thanks to all that have entered. The next raffle will be run at the Y10 parent’s evening.

Winners – Y11 Mr & Mrs Shoard, Y13 – Mr & Mrs Wighton, Y7 – Mr & Mrs Lowe 

The latest PSA quiz was held on Saturday and was another busy and successful evening. Huge thanks should go to Mr Klippel and Mr Pooley for spending hours of their spare time creating the quiz and compering the evening. The title was won during a nail-biting final ‘Wipe-Out’ round by ‘The Luck of the Irish’ team.

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You will be aware of the new minibuses that arrived in school last week. The PSA is proud to contribute to the leasing costs of one of the buses, a fact reflected in the livery.

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The coin collection that we are participating in is going well with nearly 2 full collection tubs already. If you have any foreign coins/notes, pre-Euro currency, old British or Irish money, current sterling spare change, pre-decimal currency or completely obsolete currency the collection tubs are held in school reception. The collection will stop at the end of this term so please donate before Easter.

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We are in need of good second hand uniform – if your child has outgrown some of theirs why not donate it to the PSA? Items are sold for £1 each and the uniform rail is normally set out for parents’ evening. Any donations can be given in at the school office.

U16 COUNTY CUP FINAL V QUEENS The Y11 boys football team beat St Columba’s College in the semi-final of the County Cup 3-0. This is the first time the school have achieved this since 2000 – when most of this team had not even started nursery school! Our goals, scored by Sameer, Kallum and Jono, were complemented by a last-minute penalty save by goalie Dan. The attitude and commitment of all the team, who train every week, was amazing and as a school we should be proud of them…… I certainly am.

It all shows how far this group have progressed – their first fixture in Y7 was an 11-0 defeat in the same competition against Dame Alice Owen’s School. Five years later…..we reach the final. The final is to be played on Thursday 3rd April 7.00pm kick off at the Letchworth County Ground. It would be fantastic to see lots of staff, parents and students there supporting the team as they try to win the County Cup. [We are hoping to put a live text feed from the match on the school website so that those unable to travel can keep up-to-date with events].

U18 COUNTY CUP St Clement Danes 4 Simon Balle 2 aet The U18’s county cup run came to an end against a strong St Clement Danes side. The first half saw Simon Balle take the lead twice through goals from Marcus Rossi and Joe Carter. Unfortunately both times the lead was lost through a lack of

concentration, so Simon Balle were unfortunate to go in with the scores level. The second half saw Clement Danes put a lot of pressure on the Simon Balle defence but were unable to score. Extra time saw Clement Danes score with two excellent finishes and they now go onto play Cavendish in the final.

U13 REACH THE SEMI FINAL OF DISTRICT CUP The year 8 boys reached the semi final of the District Cup with two comfortable wins against Chauncy and Sheredes. The team performance was fantastic and this was completed with a hat trick form Jack Stodel in the first game and Cameron Mcleod who scored two in the second.

Mr Pooley

SIMON BALLE EXCEL AT COUNTY SPORTSHALL ATHLETICS FINALS

On Tuesday of this week Simon Balle competed at the County Sportshall Athletics finals and were representing Herts & Ware in three out of the four age-groups. This competition involved a series of running, jumping and throwing events where some athletes competed in as many as 5 events.

The Year 8 girls had a fantastic competition picking up the bronze medals. The Year 8 boys finished in 9 th place.

Performance of the night came from the Year 7 boys who finished as joint County Champions which is a fantastic achievement and is the first boys group from the school to win this competition. Well done to all who competed and this bodes really well for the summer term.

Girls Sport goes from strength to strength at Simon Balle in March Mrs Noblett Manic March is how can best describe the last few weeks in girls PE as far as extra curricular activities are concerned.

Below is a whistle stop tour of what has been going on.

GIRLS CRICKET We entered 2 teams in the annual Lady Taverners cricket competition. The 7/8 team exceeded expectations winning 3 out of 4 games. They failed to qualify for the final by 1 run so went in to the 3/4 play off and finished equal on runs but lost one extra wicket so finished 4th. A fantastic effort by all girls but special mention to Olivia Ware who was superb with bat and ball.

The 9/10 mirrored the younger girls, winning 3/4 matches and just missed the final. However they went one stage further and finished in 3rd position.

All girls were a credit to the school and a pleasure to spend the day with.

TRAMPOLINING We entered 2 teams this year. The step 2 girls performed very well finishing in 2nd position and qualifying for the county finals. This took place on Wed 19th March and were an absolute credit to us. They finished in 7th position in county against some very very talented trampolinists. However what was very pleasing was the fact they improved their overall performance by so much on the day.

The step 3 girls finished in bronze position in the district competition and although they were very disappointed in this to finish behind Chauncy and Sele, they should take heart from the fact that both these schools finished in top 3 at county finals.

NETBALL Over the last 2 weeks the year 9 and 10's have competed in the district netball tournament. Our year 10 team performed well convincingly beating Presdales and only losing marginally to national finalists John Warner and Haileybury.

The year 9's beat Presdales, Chauncy and Goffs and lost narrowly to Broxbourne and Haileybury. Next September we intend to combine these 2 talented teams for the county cup competition.

The year 7 A team won 2 and lost 2. The B team reached the semi's of their competition before losing to Presdales.

Year 8's will be competing next week.

HOCKEY We have had very mixed results in our district competitions.

Our seniors (11.12.13) finished joint winners.

Year 9 A team won 2/3 and B team 1/3 year 8 although losing 5/6 actually with the exception of 1 match had very close games losing 3 of them in the last minute.

Unfortunately we had to withdraw year 7's and 10’s from tournaments because of staff shortage.

So much sport going on at Simon Balle. Our students are competing so well across a number of different sports against schools with specialist coaches. However we feel we can hold our heads high and are so proud of the many girls who take part.

I would like to give public thanks to Linda Hill and Jules Hawkins two parents who give up so much time to help coach and umpire our teams often at short notice. Without them we would not be able to compete.

Girls sport is going from strength to strength.

GIRLS FOOTBALL Our Senior Girls won the recent 6-a-side tournament at Turnford, well done to all the girls.

DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY On Friday 40 athletes competed in the district cross country at Barclay Park. Outstanding performances came from Kallum Titchmarsh Y11 and Alice Steel Y7, both silver medallists. Bronze medals were picked up by Sophie Rawlinson, Danni Hills and Jacob Fenwick.

Despite not winning any trophies all our teams were visibly strong achieving top 3 in all girls’ age groups and the Intermediate boys. Well done to all athletes for competing, it was a tough course and you showed great determination.

Minor Girls Team 2nd Junior Girls Team 3rd Open Girls Team 2nd Intermediate Boys Team 3rd

HOCKEY TOURNAMENT JOINT WINNERS

Our senior girls team played a 7-a-side Hockey tournament on Wednesday against John Warner, Broxbourne and Presdales. The girls won against both Broxbourne and John Warner and drew in the closing minutes against Presdales. They therefore shared the tournament win with Presdales and SBS ‘Player of the Tournament’ went to Phoebe.

Well done to all the girls involved!

Y7 BROXBOURNE RUGBY TOURNAMENT

The Year 7 Boys competed at the local Broxbourne Rugby tournament on Friday the 7 th March. The boys played against Enfield Grammar and Watford Grammar schools and performed very well against tough opposition and the experience will serve them well in future years. Once finished with the group stages the boys played Goffs and won 19-5 which was a good turn-around from their loss to Goffs in December.

The Y7 Boys also played John Warner in the District League and won convincingly 50-5 with some fantastic performances from Ben Thompson and Albert Nwahba.

DISTRICT FOOTBALL UPDATE Year 7 boys SBS 1 Leventhorpe 1 SBS 3 Goffs 3 Simon Balle needed to beat Goffs to progress to the semi-final, however well done to the boys as they remained unbeaten in the District.

Year 8 Boys Through to the semi-final against Richard Hale Year 9 Boys SBS 1 Chauncy 2 Year 10 SBS 0 Broxbourne 4

SATURDAY FOOTBALL

We had four teams out for our final Saturday football fixture of the year last Saturday against Roundwood Park School. All teams were victorious with many of the Year 7B team competing in their first school match and as a result it was great to see over 60 boys experiencing competitive football on a Saturday morning, the results are as follows; Y7A – 4-0 win Y7B – 2-0 win Y8 – 3-1 win Y9 – 6-1 win

NETBALL UPDATE SBS Y8 and Y10 v Sheredes results Y8’s WON 17-2. We were only 3-2 up after the 1st quarter to, had a chat at the end of the 1st quarter about playing down to their level and they never conceded a goal in the next 3/4s!!

Player of the Match shared between Lexie and Evie 10s WON 25-2 Player of the Match Harriet Kealy. Linda Hill was there and umpired for the 10s.

Year 8 Girls Netball Tournament – Wednesday 19th March The A team won 2 games and lost 2 games The B team got to the semi-finals but lost out to Presdales Well done to all the girls who competed.

Miss Traynor

THE HERTS & WARE SCHOOL SPORTS PARTNERSHIP AWARDS 2014

The Herts & Ware School Sports Partnership Awards takes place on Thursday 3 rd April at Sele School. This is an evening where our Sports stars are awarded for their achievements throughout the year. Simon Balle have nominated the following individuals & teams; We will find out next week who has made it through to the last 3.

Award

Name of Nominee

Yr

7. KS3 Effort/Improvement

Jacob Fenwick

9

9. KS 4-5 Sports Leader /

Molly Smallwood-Conway

12

11. Elite Performer

Sarah O’Brien

12

12. Team of the Year

Y11 Boys Football County cup finalists

11

Sports Relief The Sports Relief mile takes place on Friday 21st March