DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: 27th June Annual Art Exhibition 4th July Staff Training School Closed 8th July Summer Concert 9th July Year 6 Parent Evening 10th July Transition Day 15th July Careers Fair Year 10 & 12 17/18th July Shakespeare Evenings 23rd July End of Term (finishing times to follow) 2nd Sept Start of Autumn Term

26th June 2014

THIS ISSUE: SCHOOL

EXPANSION EXAM NEWS

NON UNIFORM DAY

UPDATE ON THE ‘EXPANSION’ PLANS It was good not only to see parents attend the public exhibitions held just over two weeks ago but that we have received comments and feedback. We continue to meet with architects and experts in various fields (including education) so that the plans can be submitted for planning consent over the summer. We shall know if we have been successful by the end of that month. As we continue along this journey, I am more and more convinced educationally of the fantastic opportunities and benefits of the All-Through model, which is becoming increasingly popular in many areas of the country and indeed worldwide.

‘TRANSITION’ NEWS It has been a great privilege this year not only visiting some of the children personally but also welcoming large numbers of parents and new Simon Balle students to out transition learning evenings. By now, all students will have been visited in their ‘home’ schools by a number of staff. Hannah Ahmet, whom many of you know as an excellent teacher, will be Head of Year 7. With over 800 Year 6 parents expressing a preference for the school, it was inevitable that we would fill all places and we have now 168 Year 6 students arriving. By the time you read this newsletter, we will have ‘run’ three out of our four transition learning evenings, with over sixty families attending each one. I am very grateful to my ‘busy’ staff who have organised a host of activities. Parents and students have loved them—Google maps in Geography, ‘Macbeth’ (drama), cakes and scones (food), music and even louder music, science experiments, beautiful aboriginal designs (art), IT (how we use it at Simon Balle) and more and more. The aims of the programme are for students to get an ‘exciting taste’ prior to coming and for parents to understand that they too are our partners in learning. Judging by what I have seen, highly successful on both accounts!

Alison Saunders

EXAM RESULTS Results will be available for collection on August 14th (A level) and August 21st (GCSE) from 9am. (Note on August 14th AS level results will be available from 10am) If you wish any other person (including family members) to collect your results on your behalf, you must give them your written authorisation for them to bring to school on results day. Candidates who wish to have their results posted home must provide the exams office with a SAE before the end of term. Candidates can have their results emailed to them. Send an email to boothc@simonballe.herts.sch.uk giving details of the email address to send them to. Please do not use your school email address. No results will be given out by telephone under any circumstances. POST RESULTS If you need post-results advice, teaching staff will be available on Results Day. COLLECTION OF EXAM CERTIFICATES Students will be able to collect their certificates from the exams office from November. Certificates will not be given to anyone other than the candidate without the candidate’s written authorisation and they will not be posted to any candidates as they have to be signed for. The school is only obliged to keep certificates for a period of one year after issue. If candidates do not collect their certificates within this time (or if they lose their certificates) they can only be replaced by direct application to the appropriate examination boards. This will require proof of identity (such as a birth certificate) and a substantial fee per examination board. You are therefore urged to collect your certificates as soon as possible and to keep them safely.

NON UNIFORM DAY – FRIDAY 11th JULY IN AID OF THE WORLDWIDE FUND FOR NATURE

Our students voted to raise money for WWF which is a unique organization playing a leading role in conservation. It sees the

bigger picture and does not run conservation projects in isolation. The charity aims to seek solutions, taking a positive and

constructive approach to conservation. Their achievements are impressive -

Helped create over 1 billion km2 of protected areas

Protects endangered species

Helped establish 500 parks and reserves

Initiated the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Initiated the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) 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 shorts). Those who come to school dressed inappropriately may be sent home to change. Mike Moss

SCHOOL UNIFORM This is a reminder that all Year 9 students going into Year 10 will need to purchase a maroon jumper for the new academic year. Similarly all girls (Year 7 to Year 11) will need to either wear the school tartan kilt or regulation black school trousers. Black skirts will not be acceptable. Stevenson’s, our school outfitters will be at the school on – MONDAY 14TH JULY FROM 3.30PM TO 8.00PM IN THE DINING ROOM All new uniform can be bought on the 14th, alternatively you can Phone: 01727 853262 Email: sales@stevensons.co.uk Visit: 131 – 135 Victoria Street, St Albans, Herts AL1 3XS (Mon to Sat 9.00am to 5.30pm)

THE RETURN OF THE MARBLE CAKE Back by popular demand - A bilingual production: MFL and Food Technology Und gerade wenn du denkst, dass es sicher ist wieder in die Küche einzutreten.... And just when you thought it was safe to enter the kitchen... Gugelhupf 2 ...in einem 9ten Jahrgang Klassenzimmer in der Nähe von dir! ...coming to a Year 9 classroom near you! Die Schüler aus Klasse 9 wollten alles auf einmal haben! The students from Year 9: They had their cake and ate it! Wie man einen traditionellen deutschen Schokoladenmarmorkuchen bäckt in einer Gugelhupfform bäckt. How to bake a traditional German chocolate marble cake in a Gugelhupf baking tin. See the video on the school website front page or via http://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/category/mfl/ Many thanks again to Mrs Jones and her team for making this possible! Diolch yn fawr unwaith eto i Mrs Jones a'i thîm am wneud hyn yn bosibl! Vielen Dank nochmals an Frau Jones und ihr Team, die das möglich gemacht haben! Richard Taylor

SBS 5K FUN RUN On Wednesday 18th June the school came together for the 4th annual 5k fun run. This event really was for the whole school community with students, staff and parents, competing in the Elite race and the remainder of the school competing in the fun run/ fancy dress category. Over 600 people started and completed the course in hot conditions. The coming together of the whole school was undoubtedly the highlight of the day, as well as many individual triumphs. The event so far has raised £5,000 through sponsorship, which will go towards the financing of the new school minibuses. Fancy Dress winners: Year 7: Geisha Girls Year 8: Parrot Year 9: The Avengers Year 10: Pizza Girls Elite Race results: Lower School: 1st Jacob Fenwick (17.56) 2nd Jean Nwahba (20.22) 3rd Matteo Tontodonati (20.44) Upper School: 1st Kallum Titchmarsh (17.31) 2nd Ben McKeown (18.01) 3rd Scott Glynn (20.29) Staff / Parent: 1st Matt Moring (15.36) 2nd Mark Duggan (16.42) 3rd James Kay (18.52) Thank you to all who took part and contributed to what was a fantastic day. James Pooley

FINANCIAL AND CAREERS EDUCATION To participate fully in life everyone needs a clear understanding of how to look after money. University or work, pay as you go or contract, spend today or save for the future? Financial capability is all about having the skills to manage money in the real world. This package will be combined with careers education to enable students to have a rounded education and focus them on their next steps. In the new academic year this is to be taught explicitly in half hour slots, especially to Key Stage 4 and 5. Below is a list of subjects we will be covering:

Year 10 Year 11 Year 12 and 13

What is a career? Being a consumer Taking a gap year

Job Roles Fair Trade Volunteering

Job Trends International impact of consumer deci-sions

Apprenticeships

Diversity in the work place

Banking – big picture and accounts Social enterprise

Learning Opportunities Interest Rates CV writing

Personal Planning Process

Loans UCAS

Curriculum Reviews

Pay day loans

University life -Cookery - Student finance - Budgeting - Banking - Fees - Making money

Interview Technique Mortgages

Employment Rights & Responsibilities

Savings

Wages & Salaries Applying for college, sixth form, appren-ticeships, etc

Taxes & Deductions

Mocks & Results Review

Living alone

Wages & Deductions – Pay slips, etc

Pensions Owning property

Budgeting and bills Self-employment Renting property

Risk & Rewards

Enterprise Skills

The Stock Market

Exchange Rates

Stock Market Day Preparation – real life scenario

I hope you will agree that these are essential skills for our students and will be taught in a variety of ways, including outside

business speakers.

Mike Moss

MUSIC NEWS Last Thursday we held a Taster Fair to promote wind and brass instruments to junior school pupils. Over 20 attended and enjoyed making lots of noise! Thanks to Mr Nunn and Miss Walker for making this such a fun evening and to our wonderful student helpers Abi Cousins, Clare Spooner, Rose Shepherd and Dominic Rugg-Gunn who shared their enthusiasm and expertise. Many have signed up for taster lessons in September but we do still have a few places so please contact the music office if you have a younger child who would be interested in this. Meanwhile our own musicians are focusing on end-of-year exams, recitals and concerts. Big Band were delighted to provide music for Sports Day, a good warm-up for their guest appearance at Millmead’s fete on Sunday. Our saxophone players are looking forward to a specialist workshop this Friday with an extra session for our diploma candidates. We are fortunate to have so many high-calibre musicians who will really benefit from this. As regards individual performances, some of Miss Harris’s singing pupils gave a lunchtime recital on Tuesday which was well-attended by both staff and students – we hope to put on more lunchtime recitals next term. We are looking forward to evening recitals from more of our singers next Wednesday and our pianists and keyboard players next Thursday. The following week sees our Summer Concert at Broxbourne Civic Hall on Tuesday 8

th

July (see poster below) where our ensembles will be joined by primary wind and brass players, some forty of whom are coming along for a workshop with Junior Wind next Thursday. We are holding the Summer Rock Gig at the Corn Exchange on Thursday 10

th

July. Preparations are also well underway for our tour to Holland and Belgium at the end of term, with a series of outdoor concerts planned. Finally good luck to all our exam candidates – more than seventy students have an exam coming up and we wish them all the best with their preparation for this. Please remember that plenty of sleep and breakfast are important as well as regular practice!

LIBRARY AND ENGLISH DEPARTMENT NEWS Follow us @SBS_Library for events and resources advice. SIMON BALLE SCHOOL GETS ITS OWN LITERARY FESTIVAL Our students are busy thinking up imaginative names for the title of our new book festival. Our annual Book Week in November has been so successful that we are developing it into a longer, literary festival of events including a writing challenge created by our own Writer-In-Residence, Melanie Taylor. Thursday 3

rd July is the deadline for getting your title

suggestion posted in the orange boxes at Reception and in the Library, where suggestion slips are available. There will then be a shortlist with forms voting for the winner to be announced on Friday 11

th July at Speaker’s Corner. The creator of the

winning name receives 3 House Points and a book token but everyone who suggests a title gets 1 House Point. We have a fantastic line up of authors and speakers for all students with the main events running w/c Monday 17

th November. More

details later.... VISITOR FROM HERTFORDSHIRE PUBLIC LIBRARIES On Monday 16

th June we welcomed Michelle Jolley, Young People’s Librarian, to our Year 7 Assembly. Mrs Jolley

encouraged all of our students to join their local library where they can borrow books, e books, dvds, magazines etc. In addition they can get a pin number which allows them access to a host of online databases 24/7 and all this for free! Over the summer holidays Y7s are encouraged to participate in the Summer Reading Challenge entitled ‘Mythical Maze’ and details can be found at http://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/ What better way to enjoy your holidays and keep up your reading skills?

AURASMA APP Some of our Student Librarians have been using this augmented Reality App to make interactive book reviews. Mrs Syme recently took part in the School Library Camp at the International Community School, Paddington where she met 25 school librarians from across the South of England. She demonstrated how SBS Library is using this App and how we are preparing to make our Year 7 Library Induction more interactive through it. Many thanks to Mr Grantham for his enthusiasm and assistance in this project.

TRANSITION EVENING FOR YEAR 6 STUDENTS On Monday evening both the English Department and the Library welcomed Year 6 students coming to the School in September. As well as getting the chance to mingle with others in their Year group they had an introduction to the Departments. In the Library the students played The Reading Game from Carel Press: books from different genres are on various tables and students have a map to write on showing which books have the best covers, blurbs and openings in their opinion.

LOWER SCHOOL BOOK CLUB Mrs Townsend has been leading this group of Y7 and 8 students as they have been shadowing the Carnegie Medal. This is the prize that all children’s writers desire and is decided by children’s librarians. Our Book Club recently attended the Carnegie Discussion Afternoon for local schools hosted by the Herts and Essex High School. Mrs Syme and Mrs Mullen led 2 of the groups that afternoon and it was heartening to see students’ confidence improve as they discussed the novels with book enthusiasts from other schools. After refreshments students voted their favourite as ‘The Bunker Diary’ by Kevin Brooks, a harrowing and disturbing story suitable for older readers only. Surprisingly this was also awarded the Carnegie Medal: more details at http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/ Here is a selection of reviews of Carnegie shortlisted books by our Book Club members: Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper I loved the history: this is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. The perfect combination of happiness, normal life and loss. It really tells you what conflict between two nations can change, in this case the American Indians and the English immigrants. (Shanna Hayes Year7) The Child’s Elephant by Rachel Campbell-Johnston A heart warming story about a little African boy, Bat, who adopts an orphaned baby elephant. As he struggles to understand that he needs to let her go, life gets harder. Thrilling read that hooks the reader from the start. It makes you feel like you’re there. Amazing book! (Emma Liddle Year 7) Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell Very interesting as it is all about this girl trying to find her mother but everyone thinks she’s dead. Very good and sweet. (Jessica Martin Year 7)

LIBRARY DISPLAY Our Library was successful in a bid to win display material from the publisher of new novel ‘A Boy Called Hope’ by Lara Williamson. Why not call into the Library to view our attractive display created by Mrs Klippel and find out all about this debut novel. SUMMER READING Why not try dipping into these websites for ideas for your summer reading? www.lovereading4kids.co.uk www.booksforkeeps.co.uk www.goodreads.com http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/ http://www.theguardian.com/books/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/ Popular novels at the moment include the moving teenage story ‘The Fault in our Stars’ by John Green and the ‘Divergent’ trilogy by Veronica Roth. (This is along similar lines to ‘The Hunger Games’.) Both have been made into films recently. For students keen on Dan Freedman’s Jamie Johnson’s series there’s a new title out to coincide with the World Cup: ‘Skills from Brazil’. Find these titles and many more in our School Library.

SPORTS LEADERSHIP AT SIMON BALLE Opportunities for students to develop as sports leaders has been amazing this term. We have many brilliant leaders who have impressed us and staff from other schools. As part of the PE curriculum all year 10's have followed a leadership course and then gone out to local primary schools to put this in to practice. So approx 130 students visited Morgan’s, St Joseph's, Priors Wood, Hertingfordbury and Hertford Heath. Students will be given their final grades next week. 25, year 9 students have helped over 2 events at Amwell view and were praised highly for their involvement and enthusiasm, with Dani Hills being acknowledged from one of the staff as one of the best leaders ever seen. 32 Year 8 students have helped out at Morgan’s sports day with another 16 helping out at Mill Mead sports day in July.

Our Year 9 girls have completed a cricket officiating course as well as 19 Year 10 GCSE PE students have recently

completed the Athletics Officiating award. This is a great effort from our students and as a department we are extremely proud of all of them.

COUNTY ATHLETICS LEAGUE

We have had another successful County Athletics League with all six rounds now complete. The U14 teams both finished

11th with these teams consisting of a large majority of Year 7 students, this surely puts us in a good position for next season.

Both U16 teams have qualified for the County plate final which takes place on Monday 30th June from 3.30pm at Jarman

Park, Hemel Hempstead. The Girls performed well this season finishing a comfortable 7th in the league with the boys

finishing 8th overall. Good luck to both teams.

COUNTY ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS A group of Simon Balle athletes competed at the County Athletics Championships at the beginning of the month at Hemel Hempstead in tough weather conditions. Performance of the day came from Jean Nwahba in the Y7 Shot Putt who, with his final attempt, threw 9.97m to become County Champion. His brother, Albert Nwahba, threw over 22m in the Discus to claim 3rd place.. Louise Reilly took silver in High Jump with a Jump of 1.44m. It was a fantastic achievement from these athletes to finish in the top 3. The rest of the results from Saturday are as follows; Josh Moses (Triple Jump) – 6th Sophie Rawlinson (1500m) – 6th Lily Jones (Long Jump) – 7th in a pb (personal best) George Jones (800m) – 6th in a pb Ben Thompson (100m) – 8th

CRICKET UPDATE The Y9 & 10 boys competed at the Calypso cricket tournament at Sele. On a glorious summers day the Y9′s had a great tournament winning three out their four matches convincingly to qualify for the semi-finals. They met a strong Richard Hale team in the semi-final only losing narrowly. The boys then went on to win the 3rd/ 4th play-off game against Stanborough to finish 3rd overall. The Y10 boys finished 8th in a competitive tournament. The Year 7 & 8 Boys went on to compete the following day and both remained unbeaten qualifying for their respective finals only to both lose out to Broxbourne in both matches, however it was a fantastic achievement by both teams to reach the final.

GIRLS CRICKET The girls put in a great performance at the recent calypso cricket competition The year 7/8s won 3/4 group matches only to lose by 1 run in the semi's. The 9/10s went one step further, winning all group matches and semi-final and lost on the penultimate ball in final. Almost all of the girls have been attending the satellite cricket club based alternative weeks at Simon Balle and Sele. England cricketers watch out!! ROUNDERS Year 7 have so far had a brilliant season. The girls have played 6 matches and are as yet undefeated. With 2 more matches and a tournament to go, I have high expectations that this talented group of girls will go far and I am keeping fingers crossed for the tournament. SPORTS DAY On Monday Sports day took place in excellent weather conditions. In the morning the Key Stage 3 field events took place along with tug-o-war and volleyball with Ashbourne and Mimram dominating the morning events. The Year 10’s had their morning sports on Friday. Students who finished in the top 3 received a ribbon which all wore proudly throughout the day. In the afternoon the usual track programme took place with a number of records broken, most notably Josh M running 24.3 for the 200m beating the existing record by 0.1 sec. The atmosphere was fantastic due in no small part to the ‘Big Band’ who were brilliant and will surely be welcomed back next year with open arms. A big thank you to all who supported the event. RUGBY UPDATE The Year 7 & 8 Girls participate in a County tag tournament at Hertford Rugby club.Senior boys training resumed a few weeks ago with a fantastic turn-out of 25. Training takes place on Thursday after school from 3.30 – 4.30, all are welcome.

SPORTS PRESENTATION EVENING

This year’s celebration of Sport takes place on Thursday 3rd

of July from 6.30pm in the

School hall with special guest Ian Rose, World & Paralympic Judo medallist. If you have

received an invite please bring back reply slips to the PE Dept by Friday 27th June. We

look forward to seeing you there.

UPCOMING EVENTS

District Athletics Championships – Fri 27th June

Sports Presentation Evening takes place on– Thurs 3rd

July

District Combined Athletics Events – Thurs 3rd

July