Please hand vouchers in at either reception
May - Apple Blossom
This term the Y8 Spanish students have been learning how to speak and write about the Simon Balle community.
They were recently given the challenge of using their iPads to give a virtual tour of the school, using only Spanish, and they have shown themselves to be fantastic Spanish speaking tour guides!
Take a moment to listen to Eleanor (Y8) speaking in Spanish about Simon Balle – ¡Buen trabajo Eleanor!
Mi insti Eleanor from Simon Balle on Vimeo.
On Saturday we held phase 2 of the ‘Satur-dads and Super-mums’ community day in the Larch Centre. Organised and led by Eileen Robinson (from Robinsons Garden Care), along with parents, staff and children, we worked together to develop an area of the playground for the students to use at playtime and lunchtime.
You will be able to see from the photos below just how much was done to enhance the school. Planters, seating, archways, painted stones, fencing, screens, weeding, enhanced play areas, welcome area and addition of summer plants may seem a short(ish) list but so much was achieved…!
It was a proud day – the community that we have here at Simon Balle is extra-special. A huge thank you to Eileen and to all of the parents who contributed financially or gave time to help us on the day. Ghost Productions made a significant donation as well as the PSA who collectively enabled the project to take place.
I wonder what next year will bring?!
It is always nice to receive thanks for good deeds done. Please see below two recent thank you letters we received after recent non-uniform/jumper days. Our students decide which charities will benefit each year and it is pleasing that the time has been taken to make us aware of the difference the fund-raising makes to charities – both national and local.
(Please click on the images to see larger versions)
It’s rare to have tied scores!
Congratulations to the String Quartet who performed at the Hertford Mayor Making at County Hall. They are pictured as people started to arrive. It is a very important event in the year of the Town Council and the quartet performed very well.
Well done to Anya, Millie, Jacob and Elspeth.
Over the last few weeks the Y12 chemists have been carrying out independent projects.
They had to choose an area of interest to them, carry out a literature review on current research available, plan and carry out a practical and then analyse and evaluate the data collected. These projects ranged from investigating the solubility of aspirin to the amount of protein in a range of dog food. Other projects included making gold nano particles, the rate at which bananas ripen other fruit, the comparison of DNA of kiwi, strawberries and human saliva and which acid decomposes bicarbonate of soda the best. The photos below show them during their practical work
This project was aimed at allowing students to develop the individual CPAC skills. These skills are assessed throughout the two years of the A Level course and evidence collected supports the pass of the practical endorsement.
At Simon Balle we think teaching students to be politically aware is an important part of ‘creating tomorrow’s citizens today’. Each time there is an General Election the A level politics students are asked to organise a mock student election – run along the same lines as an actual vote.
They have organised themselves into political parties and are organising hustings and campaigning ahead of Thursday 8th June. One of their tasks is to run opinion polls – you can see the results of the first one below. It will be interesting to see if the results change before polling day! (please click on the images to see larger versions)
During the Easter break the PE department took 80 students from Y8 & 9 to the Netherlands for a week of sporting action. The girls took part in netball and the boys were polishing their football skills.
The boys teams were put through their paces in morning training sessions before heading off in the evening to play against local Dutch opposition, recording some impressive wins, with lots of goals scored. The girls worked hard, training for 4 hours each day as well as being treated to a Q&A session with one of the world’s leading umpires Gary Burgess!
All players then took part in tournaments on Thursday, pitting themselves against other English opposition and putting their training into practice. All of our teams acquitted themselves really well with Y9 girls, Y8 and Y9 boys all winning their tournaments!
There were also special awards handed out to Megan E, Lucy M, Phoebe E, Matt B, James S, Adam W and Thomas M for their exceptional performances on tour.
Well done to all students who represented the school and we hope for more sporting success for these year groups over the coming years.
Just before Easter students in key stage 3 were invited to take part in ‘Readathon‘. This is a national event to raise money that will provode brand new books and storyteller visits for children in hospital.
This year the students raised a fantastic £600 with special mention going to our top 3 fundraisers:
Roberto Hollis (Y8), Emma Whiteland (Y7) and Alice Osborne (Y7)
Thank you to everyone who took part. You have all helped to make a difference!
