We have as Governors and staff been reflecting upon what it is exactly that we are trying to do! The world of education, like many other sectors is experiencing much turbulence and change and therefore it is essential that we hold fast to what we believe to be true. Our school like so many other good schools always want to be better and produce an excellent experience for all our students. Perhaps what is slightly different is our equal emphasis on the personal and social development of the students. We want them to be economically independent, healthy, active young people who have a real sense of worth and can adapt to the demands of twenty first century living. Staff have identified key attributes including; empowerment, tolerance, caring, ethicality, resourcefulness, curiosity, optimism, and resilience. What we have to do now is ensure that we actively create opportunities for this to happen for everyone as nothing happens in school purely by chance. Staff, parents and students need to model this behaviour so that it becomes the norm. So this time it has been exciting to see and hear that so much of this is already part of who we are and that people recognise it. In this newsletter again you will see what exciting opportunities are available and how proud we are of our students. Within six working days we have seen our students and families welcome complete strangers into their homes with the American homestay and thus raise over £2500 for school funds. I know that so many students really enjoyed meeting them. Then there was the fun run on the hottest day of the year to date. I can tell you running 5km or even walking that was no small task and yet everyone took part and had a great afternoon. (A plea for all monies to be handed in as we want to try and raise a further £1500). I must at this point thank James Pooley who has done a fantastic job organising both events. Positive reports have been received from the theatre trip to ‘We Will Rock You’, exam moderation praising us for both procedures and students work, and excellent feedback from all involved in the sixth form day when our students worked with the police and emergency services looking at the most graphic implications of drink driving and dangerous driving. Then there was the wonderful opportunity for Year 10 language students to work with the Year 4s from Millmead to devise language scenarios in French, perform German and I believe Chinese, and on Friday other primary schools attended music workshops. All of these events feedback into our vision. And the sum of this was then seen on Friday night when the Year 11 had their ‘Oscar’ event. I have never seen so many students come back, it must have been around 99% of the year group. All were dressed as if attending the real ‘Oscars’, all eager to see the awards presented, both those for academic achievement and effort, as well as the more comical ones ‘who will be a millionaire’, ‘who will get married first’, ‘who will be a politician’. Nicky Traynor and her team were rightly proud; Simon Balle students at their very best, as they stood together and sang ‘Wonderwall’. It was an emotional event, a real sense of community, inclusivity and fun. What is even better for me is that we will see many of these students at our sixth form induction, so they still have a further two years at Simon Balle. No wonder I am so proud and so passionate about our school and students! Alison Saunders

Dates for your diary 7 July Non uniform 13 July Transition evening 7pm 14 July Transition Day for Year 6 14 July Art Exhibition Ware Art Centre

(private view) 14 July PSA 2nd hand uniform sale 3-4pm 16 July Art Exhibition open Sat morning 18 July Stevensons Uniform Sale 3.30 -8pm 21 July End of School All students return to school on Monday 5th September 8.40am.

Uniform This is to remind all parents of Year 9 students that they need to purchase maroon jumpers/cardigans and the boys should have ties with logos.

SBS 5K FUN RUN – 27TH JUNE 2011

On Monday 27th June at the start of National schools sports week,

the PE department organised a whole school 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 800 people started and completed the course which was held on the school grounds, on what turned out to be the hottest day in 5 years. Each year group had a fancy dress theme and the outfits were amazing. 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 £2,421 through sponsorship, which will be donated to the PSA, who are currently supporting a project to refurbish the Lecture theatre. Fancy Dress winners: Year 7: Mat Paris – Hawaiian Year 8: Callum Morris Horne & Toby Lewis – 118 runners Year 9: Tom Bonfield – Bird outfit Year 10: Milly Pinder – Smurf Year 12: Grace Carter, Olivia Figgis, Kendal Francis, Chloe Jones – Caterpillar Elite Race results: Lower School: 1st Kallum Titchmarsh (20.17) 2nd Michael Philona (21.12) 3rd Zack Scott Gray (21.34) Upper School: 1st Shaun Munoz (18.00) 2nd Phil Murphy (18.15) 3rd Josh Brown (18.40) Staff / Parent: 1st Mr Brennan (17.02) 2nd Jamie Monk (18.19) 3rd Mr Fisher (18.49) Thank you to all who took part and contributed to what was a fantastic day. Mr Pooley

American Visitors The American Homestay visit, which took place last week was a great success, not only in forming good relationships between the students but also raising a substantial amount of money for the school. On Thursday evening 35 American students descended on Simon Balle school to be met by their host families. Thanks to the host families all of the stays were a success and I have received many positive comments. It was great to give these students such a wonderful experience. Friday saw the students visit Manic Ceramics in the morning and compete in a sports afternoon back at school. The sports included a gladiator joust, rounders, football (soccer) and dodgeball. To my disappointment, for once, we were beaten in sport, but it was very close. After a traditional meal of fish and chips in the school canteen the students went off to spend the weekend with their host families. On departing Sunday morning it was clear to see how many of the students had bonded over such a short period of time. Thank you to all hosts and host families for supporting the school. Rotary Design and Technology Recently I took 3 teams to the Rotary Design and Technology day at Broxbourne Civic Hall. Each team had to produce a crane device that could be driven down a 1 metre track then, using a small electronic motor, lift a weight, and then drive back to the start. The two year 8 teams did extremely well with the team of Maddy Twyning, Ellie Yeardye, Patrick Tarry and Fin Blackett coming third out of 18 teams only losing to two teams who have competed at a National level. The sixth form team of Harriet Carter, Sam Ring, Ben Adams, Jessica Ensum also did very well coming in at third in the advanced section. Congratulations to all the students who took part. Mr Curtis

Speaker's Corner to go Stateside! In June the Library hosted a visiting Librarian from Houston, Texas called Mia Steinkamp. Mia had heard about our nomination for a Library Design Award and wanted to see our Library for herself whilst she was visiting London. She recently wrote to thank us stating, "I loved learning about your library renovation and all the great educational innovations that are taking place at Simon Balle". We had talked about finding ways to develop this new relationship and Mia would like to start a Speaker's Corner at her school and even share these online. Watch out for further information about this developing relationship and Speakers from across the pond!

Language Festival 2011 & Young MFL Leaders On Thursday 30th June, Simon Balle School hosted the second Language Festival. This year’s format combined the previous Language Discovery Days with the Young MFL leaders Award. The day started with a class of Year 4 pupils from Mill

Mead Primary School engaging in language learning activities in Japanese, Spanish and Italian led by MFL staff. This was followed by 26 of our Year 10 Young MFL Leaders* preparing small groups of Mill Mead pupils to perform in a talent show in the hall at the end of the day for their parents. This event also marked the culmination of the Young MFL Leaders Award, which ran throughout the year, in which SBS Year 10 students planned, delivered and evaluated French, German and Spanish mini-lessons to Years 2, 4 and 5 pupils in Bengeo, Morgans and Mill Mead

primary schools. If successful, the certificates will be awarded at the end of term. The experience also enabled the Year 10 students to see the teaching and learning process from the other side. The day concluded with prizes being awarded to the three most creative performances. This was a successful and happy celebration of foreign language learning, which hopefully will become part of the SBS annual calendar. * Sarah Benham, Matthew Oliver,Tom Tatam, Alice Twyning, Monique Andrews, Ben Gould, Tim Habashi, Calum Mackervoy, Victoria Boulton, Alastair Easton, Sam Gould, Marcus Rossi, Amy Beadle, Oliver Fyfe, Charlotte Gettings, Sophie Hind, Violet Jones, Philip Murphy, Nadia Robinson, Scott Glynn, Laura Huttlestone, Nathan Liu, Josie Lumley, Declan McClean, Celia Wighton, and Alex Wing.

It has been yet another fantastic couple of weeks for Sport at Simon Balle. Last week saw National School Sports week take the school by storm with lots of activities both with fun and competitive elements. Throughout the week we also competed in County Athletics finals and also the District Athletics championships achieving unprecedented success. Also over the last 10 days Simon Balle was nominated at the East Herts Awards. District Athletics champions On Friday 1st July Simon Balle School became Overall District Athletics Champions. This was the first time in 14 years that a school other than Sheredes has won this cup. Twelve schools participated in this event so to win against schools of the calibre of Sheredes, Broxbourne and Cheshunt was fantastic and a result of all the work that has gone into training and the organisation of the team. Throughout the day Simon Balle School was very consistent reaching a number of finals and many top 5 finishes. Over 80 athletes competed for Simon Balle so everyone’s performance counted.

The Minor girl’s team had a fantastic day with some great performances from Victoria Hill in the 100m and Abbey Conroy in the Shot Putt. In their first championships the girls won the overall competition beating John Warner 2 points to become District Champions. The Junior Girls were also victorious winning well beating schools of the calibre of Presdales and Broxbourne into 2nd and 3rd places respectively with great performances from Chloe Ring in the hurdles, Sophie Rawlinson in the 1500m and Florence Fyffe in the 100m to name but two. The Senior boys were out in force also with Nathan Marvell just missing out on first place in the Pole Vault on count back. This was a very exciting competition with Nathan jumping 2.50m. In the minor boys Josh Moses in his first competition finished 2nd in the standing Triple Jump and Michael Sharp (Intermediate) finished an excellent 2nd in the 200m. The Junior Boys finished 3rd overall with good performances coming from Evan Cowler, 3rd in the pole vault and Garin Rogers finishing 3rd in the hammer. To conclude, a big congratulations must go to all Simon Balle athletes who competed with distinction and every point went towards the overall title. It shows that with a full team and consistent performances that anything is possible. To win the overall title by 12 points was a credit to all who took part. County League Athletics – U14 girls finish 3rd in the County League Cup Final Last Monday the year 8 girls reached the final of the County League Cup Final and performed very well finishing 3rd overall. Performance of the day came from Sophie Rawlinson in the 1500m having led all the way Sophie kicked strongly over the last 200m to win comfortably. This is a magnificent achievement as the girls began in a group of 25 schools finishing 2nd to reach the final. So overall the girls have finished 3rd out of 50 schools who originally entered this competition. The U14 boys reached the Plate Final by finishing in the top 8 in their group of 25 schools and went on to finish 7th, well done boys. National School Sports Week National School Sports Week took place last week. The week began with a very successful fun run on Monday afternoon in temperatures reaching over 30 degrees with the whole school completing the 5km course. On Tuesday we had a morning of taster touch Rugby sessions for the girls with over 70 girls taking part. It was then onto a day of Fencing, Lacrosse, Handball and Orienteering on Wednesday. Students had to complete a 1km orienteering course and there were a number of performances under 5 minutes. Students who participated in fencing had 40mins of excellent coaching with the opportunity to compete against each other at the end of the session. Throughout the week Inter-house Cricket and Rounders took place as well as a year 9/10 Quatro-ball tournament on Wednesday and Thursday lunch-times. This was the first time that National School sports week has taken place at Simon Balle School and what a big success it was. Simon Balle Sports Heroes recognised at East Herts Awards Evening A host of Simon Balle students attended the East Herts Awards and Celebration Evening on Thursday evening at the Hertford Theatre. The evening began with a presentation of medals to the Herts Youth Games winners. First up was the Year 8 Girls Athletics Team who successfully won the Regional Sportshall Athletics championships. Medals were then presented to the East Herts U13 Aquathlon team who won the Herts Youth Games Aquathlon last weekend where competitors had to swim 150m followed swiftly by a 1500m run. Of the 4 members of this team 3 were from Simon Balle, they were Patrick Tarry (2nd), Sophie Rawlinson (3rd) & Bethany Baxtor (4th). Simon Balle was nominated for two awards and won both. Alice Twyning (England Basketball representative) won the 'Young Sports Performer of the Year' beating a very strong field which included a swimmer ranked 3rd nationally. This was a truly deserved award for Alice. The year 8 girls, who have won an unprecedented number of championships in a wide range of sports were awarded 'Sporting Achievement of the Year'. Again another well deserved award. ALICE TWYNING – ENGLAND U15 BASKETBALL SQUAD We also had the wonderful news recently that Alice Twyning (Y10) has been selected to appear for the England U-15 Basketball Squad in their game against Wales on 9th July. Many congratulations to Alice on this chance to represent her country.

SPORTS DAY – WEDNESDAY 20th JULY Sports day will take place on Wednesday 20th July. The day will include the usual Sports Afternoon, however this year we will hold the field events in the morning with the day running as follows; Period 1 – Year 7 Field events Period 2 – Year 8 Field events Period 3 – Year 9 Field events Lunch – Year 10 Field events Period 4 and 5 – Track programme – Whole School This competition will conclude the House Sports competition which has been running throughout the year. Important Information

• New PE kit – The Year 7’s starting in September will wear the new PE kit – more information to follow in the next newsletter.

• Boys:New polo shirt & green rugby top • Girls:Fleece instead of rugby top, with the same polo shirt as the boys. • Please check all fixtures on the PE website

Megadrive says “1 in 5” On Wednesday 29th June, the students of Year 12 were educated about the importance of road safety. With so many of the year group already driving, or learning to drive, the staff brought

in members of the Police Force and Fire Services, as well as members of HAPAS (an organisation that deals with drink-driving offenders) and paramedics from a local base.

Highlights from the day included the hard-hitting talk from police officers concerning the severity of road accidents, and the truth behind their causes. Students were shocked when told that in the first 2 years of being able to drive, 1 in 5 would be involved with some degree of road accident. The day was topped off by the re-enactment of a road accident caused by drink driving. No doubt the rest of the school was startled by the arrival of a police car, fire engine and ambulance; but the sixth formers found the procedures highly educational. “It was definitely an eye-opener seeing the complexity of the damage caused in such a simple road accident” commented Charlotte Boulton, 12SB. This event was followed by a harrowing speech from a parent who explained the extent to which her life had been altered following the death of her son in a road accident. This closed the day, leaving the students to reflect on how their driving could affect their lives, and the lives of those around them. Damini Kotecha 12KE

‘We Will Rock You’ – Review On the evening of Tuesday 28th June a large group of Year 10s went to visit ‘We Will Rock You’ at the Dominion Theatre, in London. ‘We Will Rock You’ is a musical based around the songs of the rock band Queen and was written by two of its members – Brian May and Roger Taylor as well as help from Ben Elton. It is a futuristic tale which tells of a massive company which sends computer-generated music to all of the people on the planet. Singing, musical instruments, and any expression of creativity, are banned. A group of rebels (the Bohemians) seek to discover the lost music. The two heroes, Galileo and Scaramouche, discover musical instruments buried in rock, which they use to get rid of the head of the company (The Killer Queen) and send the Power of Rock around the world to free the people, enabling them to be musically creative once again. This was a fantastic evening, full of entertainment and comedy as well as including many modern references such as X Factor. By the end of the evening, everyone was on their feet waving and clapping their arms to the well known songs. A thoroughly enjoyable evening. Celia Wighton 10AJ

Our Adventures at Bude This year Year 7 pupils visited Adventure International, Bude. We had a great time and we are going to write about the amazing experience. Where: Adventure International is located in Cornwall. Cornwall is in the South West of England and is on the coast. This is a large advantage because it gave us the opportunity

to participate in activities such as surfing, bodyboarding, kayaking. Who: The majority of the year group took part in the trip. The instructors were all very friendly and kind and helped us with our activities.

What: There was a range of activities including an early morning run or swim, dragon boating, mountain boarding, caving, abseiling and canoeing to mention just a few. Each evening there was also entertainment.

Why: Year 7 visited Bude to make new friends, have fun and work as a team. Grace Wing, Zoe Lomas and Andrew Austin 7TR Music News 5th July was the date for an unbelievable concert at the Civic Hall in Broxbourne. Many primary school musicians joined us, and the sell-out event was one to remember. The transition choir, directed by Jenny Finch was superb and they performed with so much enthusiasm. The massed bands numbered over 110 musicians on stage at once performing together! As well as all the bands, we had contrast with the choirs, orchestra, cellos, guitars and more. Already, emails have commented on the high standard, and how we continually achieve fantastic concerts! Thanks must go to the music team who tirelessly work for the benefit of all students. Pictures will be on the website this week.