newSBytes 7 nov 2014

THIS ISSUE:

7th November 2014 Dear Parents, Welcome back for our second half term this school year which is full of events and no doubt will go very quickly.

Website I do hope that all parents continue to check and indeed read our website several times a week as it is the website which reports the actual news of the school.

Firstly our website is quite unique compared to other Hertfordshire schools and this is a deliberate choice. Before choosing a new format (over three years ago now) we thought carefully about the purpose of the site. We want our website to be a “window” into the life of the school; something that records and reflects what we do and how our ethos underpins everything. It is not a brochure about the school. It is not a record of our policies. It is not a noticeboard of urgent messages. It changes. It develops. It evolves. It celebrates the work of our students. It is for parents, or community and even casual browsers who want to know more about teaching and learning.

The DFE now has put great emphasis upon school websites. Prior to inspection, they are scrutinised by inspectors to gain a better view of the school and to then take up issues which may appear on the website. We no longer have to publish prospectus; all information must be online.

Whilst other schools have changed the format of their sites regularly, ours remains constant because our ethos has not changed. What changes however are the examples of how we live out that ethos in our daily lives.

No doubt more will be added and one of the challenges facing us at the moment is how we keep one website for our All Through School, as we do not have currently separate divisions for each key stage. So do keep up; the students feel so pleased when I approach them with praise after reading of their achievements on line. What a great platform for publicity. So please get the word out and bookmark our site as one of your favourites.

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Primary Phase Applications Car Parking Non-uniform Day Armistice Stevensons Library and English news PE News Drama Music updates and events Sixth Form Live Drawings and Gallery Day PSA news DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

10th—14th Nov : Year 12 Geography Trip to Swanage 14th Nov : Non Uniform Day 15th Nov : PSA Quiz Night 17th—21st Nov : Book week 17th Nov : Year 13 English Trip to British Library 24th Nov : Year 9 Parents Evening 25th Nov : Autumn Concert at Broxbourne Civic Hall 26th Nov : House Plays 27th and 28th Nov : Occasional Day 1st Dec : AS Technology Trip 3rd Dec : Year 10 Parents Evening 4th Dec : Year 8 Geography and Science Trip to Natural History Museum 4th Dec : UCAS Talk 16th Dec : Carol Concert 17th Dec : Christmas Lunch 19th Dec : Christmas Jumper Day

Which takes me on to perhaps one of the most significant things that happened last half term- the re-launch of the House System- results recorded of course on the school website! The students and staff are “a buzz” with it and eager to see who is winning each week- and how it changes. However, for those of you who missed the House Music competition on Thursday October 23, you missed a great treat. House music in the past, although enjoyable was somewhat limited in scope. This however was on “another stage”. The quality was amazing and the sixth form House Leaders carried out an incredible and creative role. The performances were so varied and included students from every year and also for the first time staff! Jon Whitehouse our Business Manager, an ex professional rock artist himself, was the judge and carried out this role diplomatically.

The atmosphere was electric and so uplifting as students although supporting their teams, supported each other too. So, a difficult call but well done to everyone especially MIMRAM who won the overall event.

An evening to remember!

Alison Saunders

Primary phase applications The date for applications to join our reception class in September 2015 is from 10th November to 15th January 2015. Please refer to the County’s primary on-line publication for application details. To discover more about this unique opportunity to join our allthrough school we will be holding information coffee mornings on – Wednesday 12th November at 10.00am Tuesday 18th November at 10.00am Monday 1st December at 10.00am This will give you the chance to find out about our ethos and values, facilities, teaching and learning and the curriculum. There will also be question and answer sessions. No need to book, just come along and find out more. Children are welcome and refreshments will be served.

We look forward to meeting you.

IMPORTANT NOTICE Can we remind parents to follow the one-way system when dropping off and collecting children. If you are parking on site please park with consideration and do not park on corners or block the route for other vehicles.

Students can be collected from the car park in London Road which you may find easier. Thank you for your cooperation.

Sixth form students should not be parking on site unless there are extenuating circumstances. If this is the case they should come to the school office and apply for a parking permit.

Non Uniform - Friday 14th November CHILDREN IN NEED Children in Need is the BBC’s UK charity. Since 1980 it has raised over £650m to change the lives of disabled children and young people in the UK. The charity funds over 2,600 projects 365 days of the year.

We would encourage students to bring a minimum of £1.00 to support this very worthwhile charity. The canteen is donating ‘Pudsey’ cakes and biscuits and students should bring cash if they wish to buy any.

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

ARMISTICE DAY As you will be aware this year is the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and this has meant an even greater emphasis on remembrance nationally and within school.

On Tuesday 11th November we will be holding an outdoor ceremony to mark Armistice Day and remember the courage and sacrifice of those involved in the Great War and other conflicts since.

On a practical issue, as it is November the weather could be cold and/or wet and therefore students should come appropriately dressed with warm coats.

Update from our school uniform suppliers We are aware that there were a number of issues with school uniform this summer and we thought it would be useful to give you an update. Stevensons have enhanced their current customer service experience     

In excess of £300,000 has been spent on store upgrades An improved phone system has been installed Store opening times were be extended during August An on-line appointment system was introduced allowing parents to book ahead with some appointments out of hours to give parents a 1 to 1 service Click and collect was introduced

Like other uniform retailers Stevensons faced certain difficulties with suppliers and manufacturers this year due to a large schoolwear provider in the Midlands going into administration at Easter. A large number of schools had to change provider at short notice and because of this, the demand for products placed on suppliers was greatly higher that projected, leading to stock shortages. Stevensons place their orders at the end of the previous year for delivery in May and because of their forward planning they were not affected to the extent that other providers were, but unfortunately there were still some areas in which they suffered as a result.

Looking to 2015 Improvement will include –  A new £2m distribution centre to triple stock holding capacity  Over £250,000 invested in bespoke IT software to improve visibility of customer orders  Stock holding to be increased by £500,000 at peak season  Increased support in the customer services department.

We hope this helps to explain some of the issues which were experienced this year and hopefully as a result of the improvements outlined they will not happen again.

LIBRARY AND ENGLISH DEPARTMENT NEWS

BOOK BANTER: A FESTIVAL FOR READERS AND WRITERS We are all looking forward to our literary festival – judging of the Writing Challenge is under way and Winners and Highly Commended students will be announced at Speakers’ Corner this Friday 7th November.

This week has also seen the Poetry by Heart workshop open to all students and staff keen on learning a poem by heart. A special performance of the poetry will take place on the final day of the Festival.

The week commencing 17th November we will be welcoming our visiting authors and writers and details of these will be sent home shortly. All students, staff, parents and alumni are invited to the literary event in our Library to be held 15.15-16.15 on Tuesday 18th November (refreshments from 15.00). Andy Hobson, (Arts Editor of the Daily Mail) will be talking about his writing and career as a journalist. There will be an opportunity to ask questions also. Please order free tickets from the Library desk or by emailing symej@simonballe.herts.sch.uk

Year 10 & 13 Trip to ‘Macbeth’, 15th October 2014

On 16th October, the Year 10 and Year 13 English Literature students went to watch a modern adaptation of Macbeth in the Mercury Theatre in Colchester. It was an interesting interpretation which encompassed the tone and language of the original play, whilst addressing aspects of modern life and war; rather than being medieval warriors with shields and swords, Macbeth and Banquo were dressed in contemporary military uniform and armed with sub-machine guns.

The adaptation opened our eyes to the relevance of Shakespeare in the modern day, with its focus on the corrupting effects of ambition. For the A-level students the gothic aspects of the play, which were evident due to the staging and characterisation, complemented our study of this key exam text. A particularly impressive scene was the appearance of Banquo’s ghost during the feast, in which the audience’s attention was drawn to the illusion of the ghost suddenly rising, in all its gore, from behind the banqueting table.

This was an inventive production, which incorporated striking visuals and music.

Emma Jackson, Year 13

PE NEWS Rugby Update Senior Rugby The Senior boys have a received a bye into the next round of the U18 Herts Shield where they will now play John Warner School or Freeman College in the next couple of weeks.

The boys played Broxbourne on Wednesday 22nd where they recorded their first win of the season, winning a closely contested match 19-12. Luke Wilde controlled the game very well with a good display of kicking. With man of the match Matt Parris and Captain Lewis Tuson having fantastic matches. Good luck to the boys for the rest of the season.

Year 8 Rugby The Year 8 Boys played Goff’s on Monday 13th October away. The boys flew into a 4 try to 0 lead. However Goff’s came back strongly with Simon Balle eventually coming out on top with a 38-22 win.

Year 7 Rugby The Year 7 Rugby Team locked horns with Sele School in a test match on Wednesday 22nd October and produced a fantastic display of courage, determination and flair to run out 30-10 winners. 22 players turned out showing the outstanding commitment to Rugby that this year group has made. Many parents watched from the side-lines and commented on how well the students had developed their understanding of the game in such a short time at Simon Balle. The most pleasing aspect of the match was our team's ability to ruck over and protect the ball each time a teammate was tackled. Their next match is on Saturday 8th November vs Broxbourne.

Upcoming matches Y7, Y8 & Y9/10 (combined) v Broxbourne – Sat 8th November Games start at 9.30. Meet at Simon Balle School at 8.15am or at Broxbourne School at 9am.

Michael Owen Visits SBS On Wednesday we had the pleasure of a rugby master class from Michael Owen, former Welsh captain and British & Irish Lion, who worked with the Y8 & 9 boy’s rugby teams. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the session with the Haileybury Director of Rugby, where they worked on offloading in the tackle and support play through games.

Football Update Congratulations to the Y11 girls won the district six a side competition before half term winning all their games without conceding any goals.

Year 7 Football The Year 7 Football Team took on Sele School in a friendly match on Monday 20th October. They dominated the match from start to finish and put in a particularly impressive first half performance. In the end they ran out 8-0 winners scoring some great goals along the way. The most pleasing aspect of the game was the boy's short passing which carved through the opposition at times and their movement off the ball. The players played with plenty of composure and this match should give them a real boost in Confidence ahead of their second round County Cup match vs SJL on 13th November.

Year 8 National cup On Wednesday the Y8 Boys played Haverstock School from Islington in the third round of the National cup. In a closely contested first half Simon Balle lead by 1-0. However through the boys’ hard work and determination they finished off winners by 4-1 with 2 goals from Albert Nwahba, one each from Ollie Clarke and Ben Thompson.

Year 10 County cup result Simon Balle 3 Kings Langley 2 Year 11 County cup The Y11 boys played Sir John Henry Newman on Tuesday in the County Cup. At full time the score was 4-4, with Simon Balle having led 3 -1, however the boys dug deep to score an equaliser in the last seconds of the game. After extra time the score was still level at 5-5 and went to penalties. Unfortunately the boys lost out by 1-4 on penalties, however they should be very proud of their performance. Man of the match Conor Laurella scored a hat trick with Jamie-lee Marshall also having a very good game in midfield. The boys will now play in the District cup.

1st XI County cup result Simon Balle - 3 Goffs – 1

Hockey Update The Year 10 girls got off to a flying start in their Hockey season with a 4-3 victory over John Warner. The game was a fantastic contest throughout but the girls played superbly as a team to score the winner in the last minute.

Many thanks to Jonny Goodson (Y12) for umpiring the game Miss Traynor

Girls Rugby Results

Year 9 and 10 girls won 40-5 against Freeman College.

They also secured and great win 25—0 against John Warner yesterday.

ASHBOURNE

MIMRAM

LEA

BEANE

RIB

NEW

Inter-House Sports – Round one The first round of Inter-house sports took place this week in a mixture of weather and sports which included Basketball, hockey, rugby and bench ball.

Results, combined girls and boys are as follows Year 7 Joint 1st - Ashbourne and Beane 3rd Rib 4th New 5th Mimram 6th Lea

10 pts 7 pts 6pts 5pts 4pts

Year 9 1st Beane Joint 2nd Lea and Mimram 4th Rib 5th New 6th Ashbourne

12pts 10pts 6pts 5pts 3pts

Year 8 1st Mimram Joint 2nd Ashbourne and New Joint 4th Beane and Lea 6th Rib

11 pts 7pts 6pts 5pts

Year 10 1st Ashbourne 2nd Beane 3rd Lea 4th Rib 5th Mimram 6th New

12pts 9 pts 8pts 6 pts 4pts 3pts

Overall Result yr 7 - 10 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

Beane Ashbourne Mimram Lea Rib New

37pts 32pts 30pts 28pts 24pts 21pts

Well done to all players, there were some fantastic matches and all played in a great competitive sporting manner!

Loughborough University Visit We were privileged to take some Y12 and 13 students to Loughborough University last week. Molly Smallwood-Conway reports below: “We were treated to a full day of activities and workshops. In terms of their sporting ability, Loughborough is the most iconic university to be at. Their sporting facilities are world class and we all felt very privileged to be able to see and witness them first hand. After lunch we began the afternoon with a sports psychology session where we had to define certain aspects of sport psychology from our knowledge learned from our AS and A2 courses. This was then followed by a volleyball session. The last session of the day took place in the sports science lab with one of the employed sport scientists. For the A2 students, this was the most important part of the day as it linked directly to an aspect on the A2 course; exercise physiology. Ben Moses and Sophie Rawlinson were lucky enough to be able to complete the VO2 Max Test which measured the maximum amount of oxygen that they could take in and use while doing exercise.

On the whole, it was a very inspirational day and was enjoyed by all students and staff!

Miss Jones & Molly Smallwood

Drama News Schools Shakespeare Festival Our Year 10 GCSE students (ably directed by Mrs Palmer) gave a great performance of ‘The Merchant of Venice’ at last week’s Shakespeare Festival. Performing at the Gordon Craig their piece of Drama shone out as a piece of well-choreographed ensemble work.

They were commended for this as well as their abilty to create the characters and deliver the Shakespearian verse. Well done to all of those involved and big thank you to the attending parents.

House Play Competition This event is taking place at 7pm on Wednesday 26th November. This year’s event is being steered by the AS Drama students and rehearsals are well underway. We will be viewing an offering from each of our houses who have been given a strict 20 minute slot. As always there will be an overall winner and prizes for best individual performance and our audience appreciation award. House points will be awarded accordingly!

Tickets for the event will be available on the door at £2 for Adults and £1 for students.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Music

Audioboom – Simon Balle Music Department https://audioboom.com/channel/simonballemusic For the past year, the Music Department has been using Audioboom, an online audio website for sharing audio.

Audioboom is used by the BBC, Media companies and other large organisations.

Every student in Years 7 – 9 have an Audioboom account, where they ‘post’ audio from their learning in music.

They create playlists of content they have created or like. Recordings from instrumental lessons are also posted.

Many recordings are to our channel. Do use the link above to listen to work. Search for their username (numbersurnameinitial – as with user logins) to find their work. It really is worth a listen to hear what they have created and to celebrate their work.

Recordings from concerts are also put on the channel. It is worth a browse!

House Music The House Music competition was a roaring success as year 13 leaders put together six sets showcasing a huge variety of musical talent for a large and very appreciative audience. Each house had to include at least one ensemble item and there were also individual performances from singers and musicians.

Judge Jon Whitehouse, our new Business Manager, was particularly impressed to see so many Year 7s taking part. A number of members of staff also revealed hitherto unknown talents including Mr Finch (King of the Bongos) and our very own Kurt Cobain, Mr Preshous. Individual certificates were awarded to Sam Trendall (who organised his entire house by himself), Georgia McIntyre (a stunning vocal solo) and Josie Pearson (best instrumental solo).

So much work had gone into preparing the sets that choosing a winner was no easy task, but the overall winners were Mimram, led by Charlotte Adams and Jazz Nesbitt-Larking, who produced a spine-tingling vocal set which included dazzling dexterity from some of our younger students in The Cup Song. Beane were runners up with Rib in third place.

Congratulations to all the performers who provided such a great evening’s entertainment and especially to the Year 13 leaders who worked so hard to audition and prepare their houses.

We have a number of performances coming up this half term. See our ensembles and choirs in action later this month at our Autumn Concert on Tuesday 25th November at 7pm (poster below) Our Rock School bands will be taking over the Corn Exchange on Tuesday 2nd December. Next week we have recital evenings for piano and keyboard on Tuesday, and drums and acoustic guitars on Thursday.

Finally a reminder that students can start instrumental or singing lessons at any point during the year – further details and application forms are available from the music office or email music@simonballe.herts.sch.uk.

SBS – SIXTH FORM LIFE DRAWING SESSION Recently our AS and A2 Art students were given the opportunity to go to a life drawing class hosted by local artist, Jane Davalle, who works at the well-known Courtyard Arts in town (along Mill Mead Way).

Jane Davalle teaches life drawing at the Courtyard Arts’ studios and other places around Hertfordshire. She has been influenced by a number of artists: Van Gogh, David Hockney and Peter Doig. We all felt privileged to be able to venture to her personal studio (where we met our model, Katie) and to have the opportunity to work closely with her. She greatly helped us to develop our portfolios. Ensuring that the environment was comfortable, she pushed us to do our absolute best, talking us through a few warm-up sketches and then a couple of longer poses. Walking around, she gave us pointers and advice on our “hoping-to-be-portfolio” pieces.

I have to say, I feel as though my portfolio will be thicker, as will many other students. Thank you to the teachers, who organised it, our model, Kate and Jane Devalle, for using her time to help us improve our work and portfolios.

Bethany Baxter, year 12.

SBS SIXTH FORM GALLERY DAY Art and Photography sixth-formers thoroughly enjoyed their gallery day at the end of last half term. Visiting both the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A they were able to soak up all the artwork held in these two world -renowned galleries. Many students made the most of their day out by visiting exhibitions of special interest.

For some this was the Virginia Woolf exhibition in the NPG, whilst for others it was the Constable exhibition in the V&A. All visited the V&A’s Horst exhibition. Primarily known as a fashion photographer, this exhibition contained work which demonstrated his diverse talent and was truly inspirational.

It was wonderful for our sixth form students to have this opportunity to view such a wide range of art and photographic work. As well as having the opportunity to be fully immersed in a rich, inspiring and diverse range of work, they were able to gather evidence for their personal investigations. As one of the four assessment objectives this is an essential component of their studies.

Science News Year 12 students investigate how science is used at a zoo.

Students studying A-level Applied Science recently visited Colchester Zoo to help them complete a detailed survey on how science is used in the day-to-day running of a zoo. They attended 2 hour-long sessions with the Educational Officer at the zoo where they were fascinated by the forensic science involved in tracing poachers and were able to handle rare items such as white rhino horn that had been confiscated by customs. Students were also able to see how DNA analysis is used to maintain species diversity by careful selection of breeding pairs. Despite the weather the students remained enthusiastic and managed to gather lots of useful information, interviewing a variety of staff and students.

Big Bang National Finals As you will remember, last year a group of our current Y10 students took their science projects to the regional Big Bang fair at Duxford Imperial War Museum. Both groups represented the school exceptionally well and have since been invited to take their projects to be judged at the national Big Bang fair in March. The plans for the trip have started with letters being written to local councillors for funding and work to improve their projects is well underway. Watch this space for how the group do on the national stage.

PSA Quiz Night & Give As You Live

You are warmly invited to come and test your general knowledge by joining the PSA Quiz night on Saturday 15thNovember 2014 in the School Hall.

It is advisable to buy your tickets early as this is always a very popular evening!

Adults £6 Students £4 - Teams of up to 8 people Nibbles provided – but please feel free to bring your own food Licensed Bar available – all proceeds to PSA funds. Please do not bring your own alcohol.

Raffle Tickets available from the School office or online at www.simonballepsa.org.uk

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