Simon Balle School

Many thanks to Y10 student, Samuel who gave an interesting talk last Friday lunch time in the Library. He spoke enthusiastically about The Steam Train World Record by Mallard on 3rd July 1938. We had a fantastic audience of students and staff and there was some good questioning at the end of the talk.

We look forward to Oliver’s timely presentation tomorrow on ‘The Assassination of JFK’.

Take a look at one of many great pieces of work completed yesterday using a wide range of independent learning skills, planning and feedback.

This piece was created to reflect the sounds and beats of the 1960s.

Well done Y7 – A great standard of work completed.

Music from the 60s from Simon Balle on Vimeo.

Grateful thanks to Dr and Mrs Patel of Ware Road Newsagents who have just retired after 30 years of service to our School. They have arranged our newspaper deliveries continuously over that time and many of their delivery girls and boys are from Simon Balle.

On behalf of all staff and students we wish them a long, happy and healthy retirement.

Our Y7 students have been busy improving their core skills today.  See below for a video of one group’s musical instrument session.  The teachers are tweeting throughout the day with comments and pictures.  Search for #SBSILS within Twitter.

Y7 Core Skills Day from Simon Balle on Vimeo.

Thursday 5^th December saw the long awaited ‘reward’ trip for Y9 students. Those who had very good behaviour and attendance from Y8 were able to opt to see the West End show “Wicked” at the Victoria Apollo Theatre.  Please see below a short write up from Y9 student Jake.

The show proved to be a superb choice for our age group with a different perspective on the well-known story of “The Wizard of Oz”. The first act resulted in a mixture of laughter and astonishment; the second act was just as amazing, but was a lot more serious. The music was mesmerising and fitted in with the production sublimely. The costumes were just as brilliant and helped to embody the characters. All in all an amazing production!

The students were a credit to Simon Balle and very well behaved (which is appropriate for a good behaviour award trip!)  Thanks to all the staff members who helped make the trip a success.

In October we celebrated Y12 Student Adam Gill and his success in being accepted as a National Citizen Service leader.  As the first part of his service Adam had helped to raise £1,000 for local  CHIPS charity – the YouTube video about it can be seen here.

During half term Adam attended the leadership training where he learnt how to lead successfully and acquired skills required in any leadership role such as assertiveness, resilience, and perseverance.  Adam was then invited to the Cabinet Office in London to take part in a government focus group on the employability of young people.

We are delighted to announce that Adam has also been invited onto the National Youth Board – only 20 out of the original  50, 000 applicants were asked to be involved at this level so it can be considered a real honour.  He will be representing the East of England’s NCS participants in shaping how the service is run and how graduates of the NCS can stay involved. As chairman of the Regional Youth Board Adam will be able to take any regional views to the National Youth Board.

We’d like to wish Adam every success as he takes this role forward – we’re sure that the experience gained will serve him well in his future education and career.

Alison Saunders’ latest blog: ‘December Preparations’ has been published and can be viewed by clicking here.

Congratulations to the Yr 13 drama students on their fantastic performances on Monday night. The pieces were created and performed by the students and showed the tremendous talent they have. They portrayed their social and political messages in a powerful and thought provoking manner. Well done to Sarah  Cornell too, as they could not have created these without her teaching expertise over the two years.