Friday 8th January

Co-headteachers’ welcome

Welcome back to Spring 2! We do hope that everybody had a restful and enjoyable half term, despite quite a lot of rain across the UK! I am reliably informed that the next time we will experience a sunset before 5pm will not be until October 27th 2024 – I am sure we are all looking forward to longer and lighter days, and the promise of all that spring will no doubt bring.

Hope is such an important value for us at Simon Balle All-through School, and yet this value can be so hard to teach with news across the world at this time difficult to read, to comprehend and certainly to explain to our young people. Yet, of course, young people bring a hopeful outlook to every new day – their smiles, their commitment, their ambition and more. ‘Creating tomorrow’s citizens today’ could never be more important and I am delighted to bring a glimmer of what is going on pastorally, right now, across our all-through school in the opening to this newsletter: 

• On Friday last week, an insightful Talk and performance – Drug Education, Mental Health and Healthy Lifestyles – for Years 7 – 10
• Broadening horizons  is always a focus – a wonderful Berlin history trip for A level students last week, an enriching Hertford museum trip for Year 3 linked to their Stone age learning, and, OCR sports students focussing on outdoor activities, just to provide a few examples
• Our Duke of Edinburgh programme offers so much from volunteering and community to the independence and skills with expeditions – we currently have 136 participants, 100 bronze, 21 going from Bronze to Silver and 15 undertaking their Silver expedition
• Our full programme of careers guidance is well and truly in swing – Royal Navy activities for Year 9 provided enjoyment and inspiration last week
• We recognise that each students’ own pastoral journey will include times where a little more support is required, and we are here to spot that early and to intervene. We currently have over 50 students with 1:1 mentors through our MCR pathways investment, and we ensure that trusted staff across our all-through school are mental-health first-aid trained (15 at present) and with time to support with age-appropriate interventions, including drawing and talking in the Larch phase
• We are excited to welcome the Mental Health Schools Team to our school and you will have received a separate letter outlining the support that they will be providing. 
• We know that when our young people engage with fulfilling activities, they are, quite simply, happier. We refer regularly through our assembly programme to the 10 keys to happier living to support our young people to make positive choices here. With just a couple of examples, please see  the Larch sport round-up below, our first publication of ‘On the Balle’ on social media; and in the next week in music, we have both an all-through celebration of brass concert plus our annual Big Band Evening on Saturday – reflecting years and years of practice (individual and ensemble) to reach such musical highs!

One of the aspects of Simon Balle that we believe is so special is that we work actively to ensure that there is no tension between this in-depth pastoral support and our academic expectations – always high. A huge thank you to parents who are so busy supporting their young people with learning at home at this time: whether reading every day in Reception and above (this is non-negotiable for us) or supporting with revision timetables in Years 11 and 13 and/or attending our focussed performance clinic meetings, we thank you. We know that great things are achieved when we work in partnership between home and school. 

And, finally from me, a reminder that all of our excellence in pastoral support (not that we are ever complacent) together with the academic achievements of your wonderful young people are achieved through a skilled team of staff, who deserve excellent training and support. There are many examples of this throughout each term, but our INSET days are crucial for the whole staff team in coming together to align all that we do each and every day for teaching and learning – please read more in our pedagogy portal below.

Comic Relief 2024

On Friday, 15th March, SBAS will be joining the global movement to end child poverty by participating in Red Nose Day. Visit our Just Giving page and make a donation: Every contribution, no matter the amount, brings us one step closer to our fundraising goal. Here is a link to our page: Just Giving Simon Balle School Comic Relief.

We’re asking students in the Larch to wear something red, and the sixth form will be holding a charity football match at lunch – there will be collection buckets for any secondary students wishing to donate while they watch the match.

In addition to supporting Red Nose Day, we are partnering with the local food bank charity Jedidiah to make a positive impact on our local community. There will be foodbank collection points in the Larch and in the main school office in the secondary. Please bring non-perishable items such as tins, pasta, rice, nappies, toiletries etc. You can read more about Jedidiah and their work here: https://www.jedidiah.org.uk/.

The canteen will also be providing a special Red Nose Day menu across the all-through school (you can download this special set of recipes to make at home). We hope all students, staff and parents can get involved.

Pedagogy Portal

On Monday 26th February we welcomed staff back with some quality training that puts students at the forefront of our thinking. Click the link below to find out more. 

https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/pedagogy-portal-staff-inset/

Message from the Governing Body

The relationship between governors and school leaders and staff is a critical one in ensuring that the school is run well from an educational and financial perspective to enable the best possible outcomes for all students and families.

As in any organisation, open, honest and transparent communication will determine how well that relationship works. We have therefore built strong connections with, and trust in, each other to prevent any miscommunication which, in my experience, is the cause of many of the problems we face.

We make sure this relationship is maintained and built upon through the following process:

• The Chair and Vice Chair meet every two weeks with the Co-Heads to discuss a wide range of topics and any issues
• The Co-Heads and two staff members are an integral part of every Full Governing Body meeting
• At least one of the co-heads attends every committee meeting i.e. Achievement and Standards (A&S), Finance/Assets/Resources (FAR), Personnel, Student/ Community/ Partnerships (SP&C), and Health/ Safety/ Environment/ Sustainability (HSE&S). 
• These committees are where much of the work of the Governing Body is done and where a wide range of leaders and staff present and contribute in order to ensure the Governing Body has a good overview of the rigour and breadth of education at the school
• All suggestions for improvement in the way we work, or complaints, are dealt with in an efficient and effective way, regardless of how they are received e.g. email, post, verbally
• Governors further support school leaders and staff through meetings, school site visits and attending events

This process means that any issues raised by students, teachers, parents or members of the community are fully understood and then handled with care, respect, transparency and a sincere commitment to find solutions, whilst ensuring we adhere to our own policies and Government guidance.

From Mr P. Connolly

Learning in the Larch- Phase 2

What a successful few weeks it has been in Phase 2. Year 2 have been busily preparing for their trip to Windsor Castle, an experience that will really extend their learning in history. In English, they have been reading a book called ‘Cinderboy’, a modern day version of Cinderella involving a football stadium and a television. I look forward to seeing their own versions very soon! 

Year 3 finished their ‘Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Mountains’ unit with a bang, erupting some of the children’s volcano models with baking soda and vinegar. It was a pleasure to witness the excitement and engagement. They also visited Hertford Museum to deepen their understanding of the Stone Age and to kick off their learning about the Bronze and Iron Ages. Fun was had by all, handling lots of artefacts and asking some fantastic questions! When asking the children their favourite part, the majority said handling the baby woolly mammoth’s tooth! 

Year 4 have started the term with ‘Journey to Jo’burg’ as their focus in English which is a fantastic text where children begin to understand about apartheid in South Africa. Already this week, we have seen some beautifully written diary entries and descriptions inspired by the text. They have also been focusing on branching databases in Science, learning how to classify a variety of animals.

Sports Roundup

In addition to this month’s new publication On the Balle, we’ve got a mini roundup of all the recent sporting fixtures from the across the Larch and Secondary. Head over the sports news feed to read more.

Outdoor Learning

We are excited to announce we are developing our Reception outdoor area! 

Our mission is to have an outstanding outdoor space that promotes curious, independent and resilient learners while continuing to support all seven areas of learning. We want to ensure the space allows the children to freely explore and experience the natural environment which is essential for their wellbeing. 

In order to be sustainable, we would like to repurpose/recycle as much as possible. Please take a look at this document (EYFS Outdoor Area), and if you are able to support us to source materials, or provide expertise and skills, we would be very grateful. Please contact Miss Ponder – pondere@simonballe.herts.sch.uk if you have any questions or can support this project in any way.

Canteen News

Hopefully you spotted the special Red Nose day recipe cards above. There are also a set of recipes celebrating British Pie Week – there are quite a lot to choose from so you’re bound to find something that you like the look of.

March – OVER 10’S – BRITISH PIE WEEK – RECIPE BOOKLET

Ski Trip

At half term Simon Balle returned to the slopes for our first Ski Trip in over 10 years. Despite a long journey the students were fantastic and once settled in their rooms, they were fitted with their Ski equipment and given time to explore the hotel. The students started their Ski lessons on Sunday with 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, this continued for the following 5 days. 

Throughout the week it was amazing to see the students make significant progress, whether they were a beginner learning to snow plough turn and then parallel ski, or an advanced skier developing and refining the skill of carving on different red, black slopes and world cup slopes. 

Following the Skiing, students engaged in apres ski activities of bowling, a pizza night, swimming and use of the hotel facilities that included a sports hall, trampoline park, theatre room and a games room. 

Please look out for information about next year’s trip in the coming weeks as well as more posts on social media about about this year’s trip.

SEND

If you would like to speak to a member of the SEND team, you can book a virtual appointment of up to 15 minutes with a member of the SEND team using the following booking link: Booking link

Coffee morning invites have been sent (meetings to be held at the Larch Centre –  26th March 9.30am led by ADD-vance). Further information can be found on the link https://www.add-vance.org

Drama lighting

Thanks to fundraising by the PSA we have had the drama studio lighting re-fitted. 

This week the students have been experimenting with different lighting states and exploring the impact of colour on mood and atmosphere.  The new lighting system will enable students across the year groups to work with different lighting techniques in their drama lessons.

Sixth Form News

This February we held our first ‘Apprenticeship Information Evening’ for students and parents/ carers in years 11-13. The information covered topics such as:

• The types of apprenticeship available
• Myths about apprenticeships
• Applying for apprenticeships and the application process
• The selection process
• Developing the skills required for apprenticeships

We were also fortunate enough to have a speaker from GSK who discussed the apprenticeship opportunities available at the company. We hope that all the students and parents/ carers who attended found it useful and informative.

On Tuesday 27th February, Year 12 and Year 13 students attended a presentation from the University of Hertfordshire on Student Finance in the Main Hall. This discussed repayments of student loans as well as the different bursary and scholarship opportunities available to students. For Year 13 students who have not applied to university we arranged for the Director of Fore Street Recruitment to talk to them with a focus on making competitive job applications, employment contracts and tips on what to look out for when accepting jobs.

Amongst all this (and preparing for exams) the students have found time to hold a Valentine’s Bake Off competition. There were some fantastic entries – click on the pictures for a closer look!

 

Please click here for our latest careers opportunity blog. This edition includes

• Virtual University fairs
• Apprenticeship opportunities 
• London Career Festival

Royal Navy Teamwork and Leadership Activities

On 29th of February our Year 9 had some great activity and enjoyable sessions from the Royal Navy. Each form had two hours, half in what the Navy calls Upper Deck Sports and the second a STEM building activity. In the sports the students had plenty of exercise playing two team games, the first a cross between cricket and dodgeball and the second a variation on netball where students with buckets replaced the hoops. The building activity had small groups using a kit to build a communications tower which had to meet three criteria. 1.It must be freestanding 2.It had to be over 6 feet high and 3.The wheels had to be mounted at the top. Once the tower was built it had to withstand a shake test from the RN team. All the activities were designed to improve life skills, the foremost being teamwork, leadership and communication and our students showed these in abundance.

Help needed!

On the 22nd – 26th April 2024 our Year 12 students will be taking part in Work Experience placements. Unfortunately, some students do find it very difficult to find placements that are linked to areas they are interested in pursuing in the future and this is where we hope that you can help. We still have a number of students who are still looking for a placement. If you are able to offer a placement during this week please contact us at workexperience@simonballe.herts.sch.uk  and let us know the area of business/industry that you work in and we will be in touch as soon as we can. We would be very grateful for any support!

Parent Staff Association

Vice Treasurer Opportunity

Simon Balle Parent Staff Association is seeking a dedicated individual to fill the role of Vice Treasurer. You’ll help tol support our Treasurer and work with the school, ensuring the financial health and success of our association. This is a great opportunity to make a meaningful impact and contribute to the success of our school community. To find out more, please come along to our next meeting on 26th March at 7pm (Secondary Library) or email us by March 31st psa@simonballepsa.org.uk

Volunteers needed for the Wind and Brass evening

Can you help out on the bar during the Music Department’s Wind and Brass evening on April 27th? If so, please sign up via this link. Your commitment is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to creating memorable experiences together!

Secondary pre-loved uniform plea

The secondary pre-loved offering has been highly successful. We are running low on secondary items and so welcome your uniform donations, in clean condition with no stains or holes.  Please drop off to secondary reception.

Slice of Summer, 13th July – Sponsor search

Is your business in the position to sponsor our summer fair? Match Funding is an easy way to boost fundraising efforts – Does your company support this initiative?

Can you donate a star prize to the Summer Raffle? From Spa days to holiday home stays, vouchers to experiences –  all donations will be well received!

Please email psa@simonballepsa.org.uk

Interested in taking a pitch at the summer fair? Join our Stallholder Database to express your interest.

PSHRE

On Friday 1st March all students in Year 7-10 were fortunate enough to have a performance and talk from up and coming singer Grace George.

Grace talked about her own experiences coming across substances, why she chose to say no, and how she has seen other people affected negatively by these substances and making bad decisions. She discussed how living a healthy lifestyle is beneficial at all stages of life and impacts all areas of life. She talked through how these situations arose, her reaction, what she did, along with the risks and consequences of the situations. She also discussed the best ways to tackle peer pressure at school. The main message of the presentation was “to make the right decisions in life”, and “to live a healthy lifestyle.” On top of this, she discussed mental health, the causes of mental health problems (stress at school, relationships etc), her own mental health issues and who to turn to for help as well as the importance of speaking up. Alongside this she also performed some well known songs and her own tracks which the students thoroughly enjoyed!

Safeguarding

Please find the time to watch these important videos about railway safety – over 20 million students, parents and teachers from across the UK have already watched these videos which has led to a significant decrease in the number of fatalities and injuries in their area through watching the safety videos.. There are different versions aimed at different age groups please choose the one most appropriate for your children.

• NEW Primary school version: Suitable for KS1 https://learnliveuk.com/ks1-primary-school-safety-talk/
• NEW Primary school version: Suitable for KS2 https://learnliveuk.com/network-rail-primary-school-safety-talk
• NEW Secondary school version: Age 11-16 https://learnliveuk.com/network-rail-secondary-school-safety-talk/
• College & University version: Age 16 plus https://learnliveuk.com/network-rail-college-safety-talk-lnw

Dates for your diary

A full calendar of events can be viewed on the school website.

• Saturday 9th March: Big Band Evening
• w/c 11th March: Y8 & Y10 Spain trip
• Friday 15th March: Model United Nations
• w/c 18th March: Reception parent evenings 
• Monday 18th March: Y2 Windsor Castle trip
• Tuesday 19th March: Y12 UCAS trip
• Wednesday 20th to Friday 22nd March: Y10 Geography day trips
• Thursday 21st March: Year 5&6 District Netball at Wodson Park
• Friday 22nd March: Year 5&6 District Football at Wodson Park
• Monday 25th March:  Simon Balle’s Got Talent (more details to follow
• Monday 25th March: Years 3,4,5 and 6 Cross Country at Hertford Rugby Club

Reminders:

• Forgotten Items – If your child has left something at home and they need to have it in school, please bring the item in a bag with their name on it, to the school office from where the student can collect it.  Unfortunately, we are unable to take items directly to students.
• Dogs –  We kindly remind everyone that dogs are not permitted on the school grounds. This is in place to ensure the well-being and safety of all individuals within our school community.

Wishing everyone in our community a positive and fulfilling fortnight ahead.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Rachel Kirk and Mr Michael Moss (Co-headteachers)

Friday 19th January

Co-headteachers’ welcome

As we finally reach the end of the spring half term I wonder where the time has gone. The days are definitely getting longer and the emerging bulbs remind us that summer is on its way. I for one am looking forward to lighter and warmer evenings which bring the chance to get outside as much as possible. 

The biggest pleasure of being a headteacher is the ability to walk around the school visiting classrooms and seeing students grasp ideas, concepts, skills and knowledge. To watch students methodically work their way through problems on their own, or with their peer group, is great to see. I was lucky enough to be in the primary phase last week and heard Miss Blackman’s class talk enthusiastically about the Vikings. They proudly showed off their model longships which were simply stunning. I was struck by the level of completed work and the deep learning which had taken place. It was wonderful to witness the level of commitment, enthusiasm and dedication of the students to their learning. I left with a smile on my face and a new understanding of Viking coastal raids.

Last week I attended a fantastic presentation on apprenticeships delivered by our sixth form team, with a representative from GSK as our external speaker. The range of careers and pathways of entry for students is expanding and it is well worth making yourself aware of the opportunities available. Our careers education has flourished under the leadership of Mr Prendergast and day to day work of Mr Carr. Year 9 students have taken part in a careers day encompassing interview practice and feedback, with external employers, teamwork activities and problem solving. Initial feedback to the day has been excellent. It is so important to develop the academic and personal skills young people need to be confident articulate adults ready for the outside world. This is symbolised by our key message of  ‘Creating Tomorrow’s Citizens Today’. Sometimes as Milton Berle said, ‘If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door’!

The new MFL block is now pretty much ready for occupation, with the final pieces of cladding are being applied to the exterior. Yesterday we received delivery of the furniture, and lessons are scheduled to start in there at the beginning of March. We will be emailing a separate buildings update later today.

We wish those travelling to Austria for the ski trip at half term a safe journey and a wonderful adventure. Please consult the calendar  about the vast array of events taking place next half term. Whether it is music, drama, art, sport or even the talent event organised by our House Leaders in late March. There is lots to look forward to and I wish you a happy half term break!

Y11 Business Trip

Last week 73 of our Y11 Business students enjoyed the magic of Disneyland Paris whilst attending a Business convention. As well as enjoying the rides, attractions and shows, the students gained an insight into Disney as a Business. With live talks from Disney executives, students gained a greater awareness and understanding of how Disney markets their brand, which links directly to their GCSE course. 

Students also got to experience first hand the disruption caused by pressure groups and how businesses are affected by government decisions, although this did mean we had to postpone our trip to Paris. 

Whilst away, students accepted the trust bestowed upon them. They were punctual, polite and certainly more courageous than me on some of the rides.

STEM Update

These are just some of the exciting projects being worked on at STEM Club:

• Falcon drone to keep the seagulls away
• Dynamo with gears that can be attached to a bicycle
• Wind turbine to generate free electricity
• 3D printed chromebook
• Robot that collects rubbish
• Hydraulic machine to lift heavy objects

If you would like to get involved, please come to S8 on Thursdays after school, 3:10pm – 4:10pm.

Spotlight on phase 3

Year 5 have been busy writing balanced arguments about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. We have been impressed by how they have developed their ideas to provide the reader with a tricky decision to make at the end. In Maths, they have been finding the volume of shapes, remembering to use the correct units and applying their knowledge of times tables. TT Rockstars has been a huge hit and we are seeing great uptake across Phase 3.

Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their visit from Michael Owen as part of our careers work over the last few weeks. Prior to his visit, they spent some time researching his career to formulate a range of questions to ask him at school and were very excited to see his memorabilia.

 

Last week, Year 6 also had the opportunity to visit the food tech rooms and make smoothies with Miss Newman. The lesson involved following the recipe to create two different smoothies, taste test and then describe the texture and taste using a range of vocabulary – the green smoothie was a huge hit! 

In English, they really have shown off their writing skills with their current narratives – based on our WWII text ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’. We have discussed using ‘show not tell’ in their writing to really capture the reader’s attention as well as making mature decisions with vocabulary and punctuation. Each and every pupil has been so proud of their achievements and hard work through this unit of writing

Library news

It’s been another busy fortnight in the Library. 66 people took part in Thursday’s Harry Potter quiz – you’ll need to head on over to the latest Library news blog to find out who won. You’ll also be able to catch up on all the news about the visit to Bishop’s Stortford College, the most recent Speaker’s Corner and plenty more besides that.

Library News #4

Pedagogy Portal

A ‘deep dive’ is a phrase given to the process that is used to gain a deeper understanding of a particular subjects’ curriculum. Through close inspection of several subjects, schools are better judged on the overall quality of the education they deliver. Lesson visits, student voice & curriculum discussions are all part of a ‘deep dive’ experience.

At the start of the academic year, we shared the feedback of Maths within our all-through school and now would  like to follow this by celebrating the success of a recent deep dive in Music and Geography, led externally by our improvement partners from the local authority. Click this link to find out more https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/pedagogy-portal-deep-dives/

Holocaust Memorial Day workshops at St Albans Cathedral

On the 30th January the history and PRE department took 40 students from Y9 and Y11 to St Albans Cathedral to take part in a series of workshops focused around Holocaust Memorial Day. The students participated in a series of workshops delivered by the Holocaust Educational Trust on pre-war Jewish life, the Wiener Library on resistance and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust where they discussed the importance and purpose of Holocaust Memorial Day. They then had the opportunity to listen to Antoinette Mutabazi, who described her harrowing experience of the Rwandan genocide. 

This was followed by a presentation by Robert Voss, the Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire whose family came to England during World War II to escape persecution in Nazi Germany. Roxy (Y11) spoke with Mr Voss after the presentation to share her own family’s experiences.

The day came to a close with Y11’s Meredith Wing, Elizabeth and Grace reading the Statement of Commitment and Roxy reading the ‘The Jewish Shtetl’ Poem under the Peace Doves installation. 

A truly thought provoking and memorable day.

ELSA Next Generation ‘Get Work Ready’

On Friday 2nd February our Year 10 had a great day provided by ELSA Next Generation,. The students all attende 6 workshops throughout the day based on how big company recruitment carousels can work. ELSA ran one workshop themselves, another was interview practice (with the fantastic support from Simon Balle parents and carers) and the remaining workshops were provided by Local employers (Fortem, Bowmer and Kirkland, the Royal Navy and NGTU). The students were incredibly grateful for the change to experience an interview for the first time and many found it a far more daunting task than they initially thought, however, the session provided them with some really valuable feedback to help improve any interviews they have in the future.The Royal Navy session focused on students team work, leadership and communication skills. In one activity they were asked to follow a series of instructions in a knockout style competition – it was wonderful seeing the students encourage their classmates in the later stages of each competition. Students then had to create a raised border which could hold all the students in their group and were challenged to make the border smaller and smaller – the creativity demonstrated by some groups was outstanding! All the activities encouraged team building, leadership and communication skills and the students even carried out logistical planning for a construction site! We trust the day encouraged the students to think about how they present and sell themselves as well as how to work in and communicate with a team.

Careers related activities taking place this term

• Y8: McMullan trips – including a tour of the brewery and kitchens and a talk about careers in hospitality 
• Y9: Royal Navy – Leadership and Team building day
• Y12: Talks from the British Army, Ernst Young, and a Student FInance talk from Hertfordshire University

Unifrog

Just a reminder that all students in Y7-13 have access to Unifrog – the universal destinations platform, which helps students compare every university course, every apprenticeship, and Further Education courses. Students can also explore a range of careers and labour market information using the site. 

Careerometer

If your child is interested in finding out more about different careers, the careerometer is a tool that allows you to compare different jobs e.g. wages, growth etc click here

YHT Careers Fair

On Friday 9 February twelve of the year 10 students who are taking part in the YHT programme had the opportunity to visit a Careers Fair held at the UOH Fielder Centre, Hatfield,  which was put on by Hertfordshire Opportunities Programme.  This was a great opportunity to talk to a variety of companies about opportunities they have including degree apprenticeships as well as local colleges and universities.  

Employers and Providers in attendance include:

Army Bower and Kirkland B & D BPL/Kedrion Care Tech Computacenter Crane & Staples Solicitors CT Catapult Fire & Rescue Service GLL trading as Better Hertfordshire Building Control Hertfordshire Sports Village Herts Academy of Beauty Herts Sport Partnership Home Instead HOP HR Owen Iknaia Institute of Motor Industry

JPA Furniture Learning Curve Group Lovells Morgan Sindall NHS Not going to Uni Oaklands College Pay Point Pitman Training Police Quantum Care Right At Home Roche Royal Air Force Royal Navy & Royal Marines Siemens Police Quantum Care

Right At Home Roche Royal Air Force Royal Navy & Royal Marines Siemans Simmons Bakers Skillnet Sky Studios Stevenage Football Club Teach In Herts Tesco Tewin Bury Farm The Royal Veterinary College Toffee’s Beauty House Tottenham Hotspurs FC University of Hertfordshire

Blog

Please click here for our latest Careers Blog.

Young Enterprise

Colour 2 Learn, a company comprising 16 Year 12 students,  as part of a business social program called Young Enterprise, have created a colouring book with educational elements and are hoping to begin selling soon. Young Enterprise is a registered charity and gives students the opportunity to create a business, create a product or service and then bring their business to market, with a competition between different Young Enterprise businesses across the UK competing. This gives them the full experience of running a business including running their finances, research and development ,and introducing them to the real business and working world. 

We  have created a colouring book with educational elements aimed at children aged between 3 and 7 that allows them to explore and colour various topics including sports, jobs and world landmarks. Please see some examples of our hand drawn pages here. We are excited to be offering a launch offer for our Larch students with the first 30 copies sold priced at £3.50. After these initial copies, our book will retail at £4.99. We are really excited about launching a product of which we feel very proud and would love support for our Young Enterprise competition too.

If you would like to sign up to a preorder one of the reduced price copies, please email 12e-ye@simonballe.herts.sch.uk

PSHRE

We are currently reviewing our PSHRE curriculum and we would really appreciate your feedback to help improve our PSHRE programme even further. If you have time, please complete the relevant questionnaire below:

• Primary school parent questionnaire – click here
• Secondary school parent questionnaire – click here

Our PSHRE curriculum helps children and young people to identify, celebrate and manage the many personal, economic and social challenges they face, in order to become responsible and active members of society. Secondary school students work on a carousel where they will learn about different topics for 5 weeks in one of the following areas: physical health, mental health, relationships and living in the wider world. We have designed our curriculum so that each year group experiences a different aspect of these core themes e.g. in the physical well-being unit students will learn about healthy diets in year 7, maintaining a healthy lifestyle in year 8, the importance of physical health (dental health, sun safety, vaccinations) in year 9, vaping in year 10 and blood and organ donation in year 11, alongside many other topics.

A list of the different topics covered in PSHRE can be found here: click here

World Book Day week celebrations in the Larch

After half term, we are looking forward to celebrating World Book Day throughout the week w/c 4th March! 

On Tuesday 5th March, we will be hosting our first ever book swap morning during the school day where children in the Larch will get a chance to explore books donated and choose one to take home to read and keep. If you have any spare children’s books at home you’re able to donate, please send your child in with them by Friday 1st March. If you have more than one book to donate, this would be greatly appreciated to support those who may not have any books to donate. Please ensure the children’s books are not in a poor condition and could be enjoyed by another child in the Larch. 

As in previous years, instead of dressing up we will be focusing on the true meaning of World Book Day- reading! Please watch this space for upcoming dress-up and wow days in your child’s year group (such as the fantastic Year 4 Roman Workshop day on Thursday!).

There will be lots of reading based immersive activities throughout the week such as all of the the younger and older children in every class reading with and to each other.

Hall of Fame Results

Having counted down our Top 15 Hall of Fame pieces over the past weeks, we revealed our 2023-24 Hall of Fame champion in our assemblies last week. It was very tight at the top, but Wagner’s  Ride of The Valkyries just pipped Debussy into the top spot. Below are the standings for the top 15 this year:

• Ride of the Valkyries- Wagner (up 3 places)
• Claire De Lune- Debussy (down 1 place)
• Fur Elise- Beethoven (down 1 place)
• Moonlight Sonata- Beethoven (new entry)
• Theme from Swan Lake- Tchaikovsky (up 1)
• Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy- Tchaikovsky (down 3)
• Winter from The Four Seasons- Vivaldi (new entry)
• Spring from The Four Seasons- Vivaldi (up 1)
• Ode to Joy- Beethoven (down 4)
• Symphony no.5- Beethoven (up 1)
• Nimrod- Elgar (new entry)
• William Tell Overture- Rossini (new entry)
• The Lark Ascending- Vaughan Williams (new entry)
• Piano Concerto no.2- Rachmaninov (new entry)
• The Firebird Suite Finale- Stravinsky (new entry)

SEND

If you would like to speak to a member of the SEND team you can book a virtual appointment of up to 15 minutes using this Booking link. 

The latest parent newsletter from DSPL3 can be found here: DSPL3 Parents February Newsletter

A coffee morning on Neurodiversity being held 12th March 2024 in the Larch from 9.30am to 10.30am. Further information about Add-vance can be found on this link https://www.add-vance.org. . If you would like to attend this coffee morning please email vivashk@simonballe.herts.sch.uk

Safeguarding and health

Read the latest what parents need to know about online-dating-platforms and video chat service monkey

The latest Public Health Nursing newsletter can be read here: PHN Newsletter teen Winter 2023 2024 Final (1)

A separate letter will be sent home today on behalf of the Hertfordshire Association of Secondary School Headteachers (HASSH) regarding vaping in schools. It is a joint letter to parents from all secondary school headteachers in the county.

Larch Sport

Year 5 and 6 have participated in a number of fixtures and events over the past two weeks. A huge well done to the Y5/6 netball team who are through to the next round of the Evans trophy after beating St Mary’s 14-6. The Y5/6 football team are also through to the next round of the Hope cup after beating Mill Mead 4-1. A number of students also represented the school at a Sportshall Athletics competition on Monday, where the girls came 5th and the boys achieved 2nd place. Well done to all who participated.

Simon Balle Parent Staff Association

Vice Treasurer Opportunity

Are you detail-oriented, financially savvy, and passionate about supporting your school community? Simon Balle Parent Staff Association is seeking a dedicated individual to fill the role of Vice Treasurer. You will support our Treasurer and work with the school, ensuring the financial health and success of our association.

This is a wonderful opportunity to make a meaningful impact and contribute to the success of our school community.

To find out more, please come along to our next meeting on 26th March at 7pm (Secondary Library) or email us by March 31st psa@simonballepsa.org.uk

PSA Meeting flyer

Volunteers needed for the Wind and Brass evening

We’re still looking for bar support for the Music Department’s Wind and Brass evening on April 27th. If you’re available and willing to lend a hand, please sign up via this link. Your commitment is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to creating memorable experiences together!

Secondary pre-loved uniform plea

We are really pleased that the secondary pre-loved offering has been a success so far. We are now running low on stock and so welcome your uniform donations of items, in clean condition with no stains or holes.

Please drop off to secondary reception.

Pre-loved flyer

Slice of Summer, 13th July

Can your business sponsor our summer fair?

Does your company offer Match Funding?

Are you able to donate a star prize to the Summer Raffle?

Please get in touch if you are able to help us psa@simonballepsa.org.uk

Interested in registering on our Stallholder Database?

Slice of Summer flyer

Red Nose Day

On Friday, 15th March, SBAS will be joining the global movement to end child poverty by participating in Red Nose Day. We are lining up some exciting activities for the day, ensuring that everyone can participate and contribute to this worthy cause. Among these will be a sponsored football match in Sixth Form, a Wear Something Red fundraiser in the Larch and we will also be providing a special Red Nose Day menu across the all-through school. We hope all students, staff and parents can get involved.

How You Can Contribute:

Donate Online: Visit our Just Giving page and make a donation. Every contribution, no matter the amount, brings us one step closer to our fundraising goal. Here is a link to our page: Just Giving Simon Balle School Comic Relief Just Giving Simon Balle School Comic Relief

Foodbank Collection: In addition to supporting Red Nose Day, we are partnering with the local foodbank charity Jedidiah. Let’s help make a positive impact on our local community. You can read more about Jedidiah and their work here: https://www.jedidiah.org.uk/

We will provide more details regarding the donations and activities planned for Red Nose Day closer to the time. Thank you for your ongoing support!

Dates for your diary

A full calendar of events can be viewed on the school website.

• Monday 26th February: INSET Day
• Tuesday 27th February: Y13 Berlin trip departs
• Wednesday 28th February: Y3 visit to Hertford Museum
• Thursday 29th February: Y9 Royal Navy Activity Day
• w/c 4th March: Y3,4 and 5 swimming to begin . More details will be sent via letter.
• Wednesday 6th March:  Y13 Parents’ evening
• Thursday 7th March: World Book Day
• Saturday 9th March: Big Band Evening
• w/c 18th March: Reception parent evenings 
• Monday 25th March:  Simon Balle’s Got Talent (more details to follow)

Wishing everyone in our community a positive and fulfilling fortnight ahead.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Rachel Kirk and Mr Michael Moss (Co-headteachers)

Friday 19th January

Co-headteachers’ welcome

It is hard to cover in a short co-headteachers’ welcome all that January has encompassed at Simon Balle All-through school – it has certainly been an exciting and busy month. As always, we talk of no tension between high academic expectations (not just our Year 11 and Year 13 cohorts but across our school) and wonderful enrichment – from business to art to MFL trips, and from sporting success to on-site activities such as the Year 6 science Wonderstruck and Year 4 Gaudi workshop. What is important for us as leaders at Simon Balle is that nothing is left to chance – our bespoke and planned curriculum allows us to plot and implement exciting academic and personal development opportunities in each and every year, and to seek student and parent/carer feedback as to every young person’s journey. Please do keep a watchful eye on our social media posts as recent posts include incredible success amongst our Year 13s and their future destinations; celebration of phonics outcomes from 2023 with our Year 1s (thank you Damian!); careers opportunities a-plenty; ‘more to experience’ activities for our Year 6 cohort as they prepare for their transition to the secondary phase; and enrichment from sport to art to music and more. It has been a great month too for our ongoing partnership with parents – with so many thanks for the enormous success of our in-person Year 11 parents’ evening, and the engagement so tangibly felt with Year 9 preferences this week. 

I trust that you have had the opportunity to read our standalone letter in relation to premises developments. We are truly excited to be creating new buildings that are state-of-the-art classrooms, investing in the very best possible facilities for our young people, and, of course, preparing for our Simon Balle four-court sports hall. We thank you in anticipation of your understanding where compromises are required – for example, with parking. 

And finally, for our co-headteachers’ update, it is important to let you know that we are excited to share the possible expansion of our multi-academy trust (MAT) at Simon Balle. You will already know how important our community is to us at Simon Balle – including all of our stakeholders, our local area, our feeder primary schools and more. We value outward facing leadership and partnership with others – always with our young people at the heart of decision making. The Department for Education have granted an academy order for the expansion of our Trust and Mill Mead Primary School are currently undergoing a consultation process with their parents/carers and staff. We look forward to sharing more information with you very soon. 

We hope that this newsletter is informative, exciting, relevant to all and providing great hope for all that 2024 will continue to bring!

Art update

Gaudi Mosaic Day

Year 4 were lucky enough to have a visit from Claire Costello a local mosaic artist who worked with both classes to create individual mosaic tiles, which is the beginning of our Gaudi garden. We teamed this up with a stained glass window workshop. The outcomes were amazing!

GAUDI GARDEN PROJECT

We are looking to source some outdoor garden flooring (outdoor tiles or artificial grass) for a small space . Please if there is anyone who works in the gardening business who will have offcuts or anything that is no use to them please can you contact ledsterh@simonballe.herts.sch.uk

New kiln

It was exciting seeing the first load of the year 9 pots go on in our new kiln! Thank You again to the PSA for making this possible.

Spotlight in Phase 1 in the Larch

In Reception the children have been thoroughly enjoying our Literary Canon texts ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and ‘How to Catch a Star.’ Using our Talk for Writing approach, the children have enjoyed retelling the stories, creating story maps and then creating their own versions of the stories. We have had some wonderful ideas such as ‘We’re Going on a Crocodile Hunt’ and ‘How to Catch the Moon’! We are very proud of how hard the children are working on their letter formation and beginning to write sentences. We have also been focusing on numbers 6 and 7 along with subtraction in our numeracy. The children have also enjoyed our PSHE learning about staying hydrated and healthy teeth – our role play area of the dentist surgery has proved extremely popular!

In Year 1, the children have been doing brilliant learning in their Phonics as they review the sounds taught so far in Level 5. The children have such a positive attitude to their daily phonics lessons and are always keen to practise their reading and writing! In Maths, we have been learning about odd and even numbers as well as capacity, and we have been encouraging the children to use accurate vocabulary to explore different containers and their amounts. Finally, in Geography, we have been exploring rainforests and comparing this environment to a familiar environment to us.

Computacenter Careers Presentation Y8,Y11 and Y12

On Tuesday last week we were lucky to have Renée Ramsay-Nicol from Computacenter coming into school to give a presentation about Computacenter. They are local employers with a global footprint as an independent technology and service provider (e.g. screens for airports and software for Domino’s). The students learned about the choices she had made and the path she had taken to gain her current position. Even though Computacenter is an IT company the presentation showed there were roles that did not require IT skills and for the right candidate even the IT training could be provided as an employee or as an apprentice.

Please click here for our latest careers opportunity blog.

PE & Sports News

The past couple of weeks have been action packed with so many competition and sports taking place. Our students have participated in the District Indoor athletics championships and Sportshall Athletics league to name but a few. We have also had District and county competitions in Football, Basketball, Rugby, Netball and Hockey, with so many resilient performances. On Saturday our students are representing the school at the Herts Cross Country Championships and we wish them all the best of luck. For more information and reports from a very successful month of sport, please see our January Sports Round Up.

February in the canteen

Our catering partner Accent have published a set of recipe cards for you to use to cook up some healthy meals this month. They’re all based on the theme of Blue February. You can find these recipes (and latest menus and offers) on the catering page of the website.

KS2 Healthy snacks at break

We kindly ask for your support in providing healthy snacks for break time for key stage 2, following on from the healthy offer for our key stage 1 children. A nutritious snack fuels their bodies and minds, enhancing their focus and productivity in class until lunch. Please consider sending in snacks such as fresh fruits, vegetables, breadsticks, crackers, or a small sandwich. By choosing more healthy and substantial options, it helps ensure our students have the energy they need to thrive throughout the day and reduces waste from packaging. Thank you for your support.

Library news

Well done to all those students ‘getting rewarded for reading’. Click on the images below to see the current leaderboard.

The RSPB’s Big Schools’ Birdwatch

The secondary library ambassadors joined forces with the Larch and secondary school eco groups on Friday 26th January to take part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch which is a nationwide research project that helps the RSPB to monitor how British wildlife is doing throughout the country. Our top 4 birds were the carrion crow, wood pigeon, jackdaw and blue tit. We observed the wildlife on the school playground, school field and woodland and we found different species of bird in each location. Our results have been submitted to the RSPB to add to their national data. Well done to the birdwatching team!

Pedagogy Portal

Educational Expert Dylan Wiliam suggests:

“It’s the commitment we make as teachers to never stop learning that will build good habits, develop great teachers and ultimately move the lives of the young people in our care forward. Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better.”

In this week’s blog, we look at two members of our staff body who have recently completed and started some National Professional Qualifications. As they share their journey, we celebrate the progress that they have made and look forward to updating you on many other staff achievements of those undertaking these qualifications.

https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/category/teaching-learning-news/

Parenting Support Programme

Please see the attached flyer for information about the bespoke parenting support programme being run by Leon brown and Colette Marino.

Simon Balle parenting support programme

Parent Staff Association

Bar support needed for Wind and Brass evening.

We are seeking your support for upcoming events in the spring term. We’re in need of bar support for the Music Department’s Wind and Brass evening on April 27th. Your involvement will add a wonderful touch to the musical night and contribute to the success of our school community events. If you’re available and willing to lend a hand, please sign up via this link. Your commitment is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to creating memorable experiences together!

Have you any unwanted bottles gathering dust?

Help us uncork generosity! The PSA welcomes your unwanted bottles of booze, patiently gathering dust. Turn clutter into community spirit by donating them to support our initiatives. Let’s raise a toast to shared goodwill! #SipAndGiveBack

Sponsorship – can you help us?

We are looking for a number of sponsors for this year’s summer fair. Can your business sponsor either of these areas:  The Bar.  The Summer Raffle.  The BBQ. The Slice of Summer will take place on Saturday 13th July, 12-4pm. Save the date!

Securing sponsorship not only adds to the success of our events and fairs but also strengthens our bonds within the local community. Your involvement is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the school’s spirit and provide much-needed fundraising support for the Simon Balle Parent Staff Association. With your support, we can make our events and fairs unforgettable and continue to build a stronger school community.

psa@simonballepsa.org.uk

Dates for your diary

A full calendar of events can be viewed on the school website.

• Thursday 8th February: Y5&6 Evans Trophy Netball vs St Mary’s – home
• Thursday 8th February: National Apprenticeships Week information evening
• Thursday 8th February: Y5&6 Hope Cup Netball vs Mill Mead – home
• Monday 25th February: Y5&6 sportshall athletics
• Thursday 15th February: Y4 Roman Britain Workshop
• Friday 16th February: Ski trip departs
• Monday 26th February: INSET Day
• Tuesday 27th February: Y13 Berlin trip departs
• Advance notice: Y3,4 and 5 swimming to begin w/c 4th March. More details will be sent via letter.
• Advance notice: Wednesday 6th March Y13 Parents’ evening
• Advance notice: Reception parent evenings w/c 18th March
• Advance notice: Monday 25th March Simon Balle’s Got Talent (more details to follow)

Wishing everyone in our community a positive and fulfilling fortnight ahead.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Rachel Kirk and Mr Michael Moss (Co-headteachers)

Friday 19th January

Co-headteachers’ welcome

Welcome back! We hope everyone has had a fantastic break. We now look forward to longer days and exciting events ahead in the spring term.

As Years 11 and 13 are finishing topic content, honing skills through practice questions and diagnostic feedback, Year 6 are preparing for SATs. It was lovely to see so many people at the information evening where, along with practical information and advice, students found out about exciting opportunities available to them as they continue their all-through journey. This stage of the journey to their public exams can be full of ups and downs. It is important to use these experiences to move forward, to take advice and continue to take small steps towards achieving a goal. A positive mindset goes a long way and helps to develop the valuable resilience skills needed in many areas of life.

As I look at the calendar for this term, I am struck by the number of educational and enrichment activities scheduled. The GCSE Art students are off to the Tate Modern, Year 4 will be taking part in a Gaudi workshop, the Business department are visiting Disneyland Paris, Year 6 will enjoy a visit from ‘Wonderstruck’ for a science masterclass and the ski trip to Austria takes place at half term. When students leave Simon Balle, they often talk about the trips and activities which captivated and inspired them so we cannot underestimate their value and importance. I’m sure we can all recollect a trip we went on during our school days and perhaps even have a tale to tell!

Finally, I want to let you know how proud I was watching the Year 7 and 8 teams playing rugby at Haileybury last month. Their teamwork, communication and sportsmanship were exemplary and a credit to our school values. The Year 7 team remains unbeaten and I know they are excited for the next  challenge.  Year 4 are looking forward to the indoor athletics competition at Wodson park which I know is a highly enjoyable event where the students enjoy cheering each other on as much as taking part. An exciting term ahead…

Transition from Year 6 – 7 at Simon Balle All-through School

As an all-through school, we are unique in the benefits we can offer our students as they remain at one school and yet make an important transition from our primary to secondary phase. There is so much that remains consistent for students – many staff with whom they have excellent relationships; familiarity with so much of the all-through site from music to sporting facilities, secondary library, and a range of classrooms; friendships so importantly formed; and a broad, ambitious and bespoke curriculum which has been planned in a progressive and sequential manner all the way from Reception – Year 13 in all subjects. 

We are delighted that 99% of our first two Larch cohorts stayed with us, and we are even more delighted that now they are in Years 7 and 8 we are innovatively reworking some of our approaches to teaching and learning and pathways in Year 9 and beyond, to ensure that academic challenges are rigorous and highly engaging for such outstanding KS2 results. Indeed, we believe this curriculum offer is innovative and one that sets us apart.

In both cohorts so far, student and parental feedback is highly positive in relation to the transition that children made – no time is lost as they settle quickly – socially, emotionally and academically. That said, we are never complacent: transition work has already begun for the third cohort through, this is a personalised process, and summer school is a huge success for all students. 

And so, we work on emphasising all that is consistent for students as they move from Years 6 – 7. This is very important. But at this point in the year, we want to ensure that they understand too what will be new and exciting! After all, belonging to the secondary phase brings many new opportunities and lots of change. 

Parents for the current Year 6 provided great feedback last Wednesday following their workshop which covered not just SATs, but an insight into the activities for this half term designed to provide students with just a flavour of what is to come in Year 7 and beyond. From science to MFL, from music to sport, from food tech to business, we will be sharing these exciting opportunities on social media and in newsletters so that not just Year 6, but all year groups below this in the Larch can also see all that belonging to an all-through school can offer.

Pedagogy Portal

Educational author Judy Durrant stated that:

In any profession, it is an important responsibility to keep up to date with the latest ideas and information. Teachers have particular challenges in this respect: not only are there continuing changes in the nature of what is taught, but research and development inform pedagogy – how the teaching of this subject matter could be approached. Furthermore, new understandings continually arise from research into learning, leadership and school improvement, all of which influence what goes on in classrooms. A learning disposition is therefore crucial for teachers in order to take account of this changing knowledge and understanding, and develop new skills which may enhance practice. 

At SBAS, we are excited to share that we have created our first ever staff Teaching & Learning research group. Click on the link to find out more. 

https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/category/teaching-learning-news/

SEND information

If you would like to speak to a member of the SEND team, and your child currently attends Simon Balle All-through School, you can book a virtual appointment of up to 15 minutes with a member of the SEND team, please use the following booking link: Booking link

This week the SEND team hosted a coffee morning alongside SPACE for parents of our all-through school. They explained the support that they can provide to families including lending equipment, offering advice and courses for parents (much of which is free to access). For further information look at their website  https://spaceherts.org.uk/ 

Potential Kids is an award winning charity based in Welwyn/Hatfield which provides learning, social and sports opportunities to Neurodivergent children / young people. You can view their list of activities here:January 2024 Activities

Finally, please take a look at the DSPL3 Parents January Newsletter. It contains SEND information, training available and key websites and contacts for SEND support.

Year 1 Parents and Carers Book Look and Phonics Information Session

We would like to invite parents and carers of Year 1 students to a Phonics Information Session with an opportunity to view your children’s learning books. Taking place in the Larch Hall, you will be able to view books from 2.20pm and the session will start promptly at 2.35pm. We encourage everyone to attend wherever possible as this is an opportunity to hear directly from the class teachers about how the teaching of Phonics is supporting your child, how you can help at home, and information about the statutory Phonics Screening Check that takes place later this year. Please note this is a date change that was originally advertised as the 27th February.

Wednesday 28th February 2.20-3.05pm Larch Hall
Book Look: 2.20pm
Information session: 2.35-3.05pm

Spotlight on Phase 2

Over the last couple of weeks, Year 2 have started looking at Castles in their History lessons. The children are excited and engaged with learning the parts of a castle and their purpose. Year 3 have started 2024 with poetry! As part of their English and home learning, they have focused on Kit Wright’s ‘The Magic Box’, analysing the language and poetic devices to be able to write their own versions. It was lovely to see the Year 4 children trying to spot the common exception words which needed editing during their spelling lessons. Once they had spotted each word, they had to correct them and then use it accurately within a sentence.

Y6 Wonderstruck Day

 

Last Tuesday, (the 15th of January 2024) Year Six students had the pleasure of the Wonderstruck company coming in to do a science workshop with them. We had many activities to enjoy; the workshop lasted all day.

Firstly, we watched a science show in the hall. This included many demonstrations such as: being shown the science of combustion and how it worked. We were taught how cotton melts -but does not burn- and how nylon burns and does not melt. This was demonstrated by Peter (the person giving the workshop) picking up cotton on fire. Then, we were taught about how smoke can be even more fatal than fire; if you inhaled even just two lungfuls of toxic smoke, you could be seriously or fatally injured. After that, we were shown some examples of different chemical reactions and what the outcome of them were.             

Here is a table of the results of the fan-powered car workshop.

Teams	Time (seconds)	Position
Red rocket	4.53	3rd
The awesome foursome mobile	6.53	6th
The pink party	4.34	2nd
The penguin mobile	3.91	1st
Murphy rules	5.25	5th
Hot wheels	4.94	4th

In the fan-powered car workshop, we were shown how to construct the cars and then we were allowed to go and make them. Then, after we had constructed the cars we were allowed to change the wheels, propellers and amount of wheels to make the best possible design. Finally, we raced them all. We learnt that if we used the 4 pack of batteries it would weigh the car down but give it more power. If we used big wheels as well as the batteries, it would be too heavy and therefore make it go slower.

Here are the results of our paper rocket launch experiment.

Students	Distance (metres)	Position
Rosey and Zoë	110	1st
Kira, Cara and Jennie	106	2nd
Archie, Henry and Xander	103	3rd

Firstly, Peter showed us how to make the rockets, then we made them. After that, we launched them and saw whose rocket travelled the farthest.

Y8 Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Day

Just before the end of last term Y8 had a great visit from the RAF Museum, they provided 2 activities with help of funding from the RAF. One was to plan out and plot a route for a helicopter to aid in a disaster situation followed by the chance to fly a drone. The other had the students using a tablet to program a rolling drone (Sphero) to follow a set route on a plan on the floor. All of year 8 enjoyed taking part in one of the activities that will encourage our budding scientist of the future and hopefully everyone gained a small insight in ways that the STEM subjects can be used.

Y11 Art, Photography and Textiles trip to Tate Modern 17.01.24

To coincide with the launch of the exam unit, the Art department visited the ‘Capturing the moment’ exhibition at Tate Modern. This display of art and photography work contained a wealth of inspiration for our students as they begin their creative journeys into the exam theme of their choice.

Our students were thrilled to see works by artists that they are familiar with, for example Pablo Picasso’s ‘The Weeping Woman’ as well as being introduced to pieces by contemporary artists they had yet to discover. With time to explore the rest of the Tate’s permanent collections, the students have come away with a range of artists to include in their individual exam projects which they will use as starting points as they develop their own ideas.

All-through extra-curricular clubs

Our all-through school is dedicated to providing a comprehensive enrichment offer that goes beyond traditional academic pursuits. Our students have the opportunity to explore a diverse range of extracurricular activities, fostering personal growth and a well-rounded education. From sports and arts to STEM programs and music, our enrichment initiatives aim to nurture students’ interests, talents, and character. We believe in cultivating a holistic learning experience that extends beyond the classroom, preparing our students for success in both academic and real-world challenges. Through our enriching programs, we aim to inspire a love for learning, instill a sense of curiosity, and develop skills that extend far beyond the academic curriculum.

We are proud that every day, Monday to Wednesday we offer a wide range of clubs and opportunities for students across our all-through school, thanks to the contribution of teachers and support staff across the school. 

For our full extra-curricular offer, please refer here to the ‘what’s on’ section of our school website. This will also provide you with the contact details for various members of staff to speak to you if you have any questions about a specific club or how to sign up.

Careers

It is going to be a busy term for careers events. We have presentations from Computacenter (Y8, Y11 and 12), Ernst Young (Y12)  and the British Army (Y12) which provides the largest apprenticeship offering in the UK. The employers will talk about opportunities for apprenticeships and employment in their job sectors. Y8 will start a form by form programme of visits to McMullens for a tour and a Kitchen demonstration. Y10 will be “Getting Work Ready” with a whole day of activities from employers organised by ELSA Next Generation and Y9 will have leadership and team building activities sessions from the Royal Navy.

Please click here for our latest careers opportunities blog. 

This includes:

• Current degree apprenticeship application links for: Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology , Government Economic Service and Schroders investment management apprenticeships.  
• Real Estate opportunities for Y12 students. 
• Virtual Medicine and Dentistry Opportunities – Y10 – 12

On the 22nd – 26th April 2024 our Year 12 students will be taking part in Work Experience placements. Unfortunately, some students do find it very difficult to find placements that are linked to areas they are interested in pursuing in the future and this is where we hope that you can help. If you are able to offer a placement during this week please contact us at workexperience@simonballe.herts.sch.uk and let us know the area of business/industry that you work in and we will be in touch as soon as we can. We would be very grateful for any support!

National Apprenticeship Week 2024 is taking place from 5th to 11th February 2024. 

• For more information and resources to help students and parents understand more about apprenticeships, please see the ‘Apprenticeship’ tab on the careers section of the website: https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/careers/apprenticeships/ 
• We are hosting an ‘Apprenticeship Information Evening’ on Thursday 8th February in the school hall at 6.00pm. This event is open to all parents and students in Y11-13 and will cover a range of topics related to apprenticeships including: the different types of apprenticeships, searching for apprenticeships, support available, expectations and benefits of apprenticeships and the recruitment process. If you are interested in attending please complete this link: click here

Online safety – Smartphone Safety Tips for Young People

According to Ofcom, 69% of under-18s use a smartphone as their main method of going online. Additionally, 49% of children use them for online gaming – putting smartphones only behind consoles (59%) as the device of choice for playing games on. Most people won’t require such statistical evidence, however, to acknowledge the huge importance of phones to young people. From passcodes to parental controls, and from screen time to scams, the most recent #WakeUpWednesday guide has the essential advice: smartphone-safety-tips

PSA

Sponsorship – can your business help?

As we embark on planning our upcoming events, we are reaching out to our school community for support. If any of our families have business connections or know of local businesses interested in sponsoring these significant events, we would love to hear from you. Securing sponsorship not only adds to the success of our events and fairs but also strengthens our bonds within the local community. Your involvement is a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the school’s spirit and provide much-needed fundraising support for the Simon Balle Parent Staff Association. With your support, we can make our events and fairs unforgettable and continue to build a stronger school community.

Bar Support

We are seeking your support for upcoming events in the spring term. We’re in need of bar support for the Music Department’s Big Band evening on March 9th and the Wind and Brass evening on April 27th. Your involvement will add a wonderful touch to these musical nights and contribute to the success of our school community events. If you’re available and willing to lend a hand, please sign up via this link. Your commitment is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to creating memorable experiences together!

Slice of Summer – Saturday 13th July. Save the date!

Contact us about any of these events by emailing psa@simonballepsa.org.uk

Uniform at Simon Balle All-through School

We are writing just to let parents/carers know that we are working to review our uniform providers for uniform in the secondary phase at present. This review includes all aspects of daily uniform and PE kit. Our principles have not changed as we know the huge benefits that school uniform brings in relation to an important sense of belonging to our community: uniform shows this both when in school, and when representing the school including within sporting events. Our new approach to rewards and clarity of behavioural expectations have seen an excellent increase in all aspects of our uniform being worn well and our high expectations adhered to. That said, we know that there are a number of important factors to consider for parents/carers too in relation to value for money, quality of garments, ease of purchasing (and returning), availability of stock and sizing. We are working hard to ensure the very best process and outcomes and will communicate back with you all in due course.

A reminder also to please ensure your child doesn’t come to school wearing any jewellery (including hoop earrings for health and safety reasons), except for one small set of stud earrings and a watch.

Reusable drinks bottles

Last week, our secondary students received an assembly all about plastic pollution and what we can do, as a school and tomorrow’s citizens, to reduce our impact on the environment. Each year, Simon Balle has historically used a staggering 200,000 single use plastic bottles. This equates to 5 tons of plastic waste and, stacked end to end, would be as tall as four Mt Everests!

At Simon Balle we are committed to reducing our environmental impact and a vital part of creating tomorrow’s citizens is teaching them how to live more sustainable lives and this is best done leading by example. To this end, in November, we removed plastic bottles as well as cans and cartons from sale in our secondary canteen and are encouraging students to bring their own reusable bottles and to fill them from water fountains or the new Generation Juice vending machines. This is an important first step in our campaign to make our catering operation as close to zero waste as possible and reducing our carbon footprint.

One of the statistics we learnt during the assemblies is that 92% of our secondary students have a reusable water bottle that they can bring to school but only 60% actually bring it to school. From the 29th January, to encourage our students to remember and use their reusable bottles, we will be launching a house league table with fortnightly rewards for the houses that save the most single use plastic bottles by filling their reusable bottles at either the water fountains or Generation Juice vending machines.

To help us help our environment, please remind your children to bring their bottles to school. If your child does not have a reusable bottle, or their bottle is lost or broken, they are able to purchase a 500ml stainless steel bottle with two free drinks tokens from the canteen for just £3.50.

Cold weather

Please ensure that your child comes to school in a suitably warm coat, and that all items are clearly labeled so they can be reunited with their owners if discarded at some point. We have made some adjustments at break and lunch time to provide students with an extra inside space that they can use. If there is a need to close the school due to bad weather we will endeavour to inform you by 7am at the latest. This decision is never taken lightly, and will always be made with full regard for the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. Online learning will be provided for the students, although there will be a sufficiently long deadline on this to ensure that everyone has time to get out and enjoy the snow…

Attendance – Fixed Penalty Notices for Holidays

We were delighted to see a great increase in attendance during the Autumn term compared to that of 2022. In the Primary Phase figures rose from 92.56% (2022) to 96.93% (2023) whilst in the Secondary there was a 0.4% increase going from 93.56% (2022) to 93.96% (2023). We know the benefits of great attendance for our students both in the impact that high attendance can have on academic results but also the improvement in young people’s mental health and wellbeing. We are determined to see these figures continue to rise as the academic year progresses. 

With this in mind, we are seeing a vast number of term time holidays being taken which is negatively affecting student attendance. As of Monday 26th February any unauthorised absence for term time holidays will invoke a Fixed Penalty Notice (FNB). These fines will be administered by the local authority (LA) and the school will follow LA guidance in respect of issuing fines. The amount payable is £60 (per parent) if paid within 21 days or £120 (per parent) if paid after 21 days but within 28 days of receipt of the notice. If a student is going to miss school for an unauthorised holiday then the school will send a warning letter to advise that a FPN will be served unless the action is not carried out. 

We really value our parents’ continued support in avoiding the booking of term time holidays. Indeed there are 190 days in a school year, leaving 175 days to book holidays out of school time.

High Attendance. Excellent Achievement. Positive Wellbeing

Puzzle of the week

SInce the start of this term, year 7 and 8 students have been taking part in the weekly ‘Puzzle of the Week’ competition.  It is an opportunity for students to win house points and prizes, as well as engage in fun, problem-solving questions which test both their mathematical and logical thinking. Below are the first three puzzles that have been attempted so far – click on the images and see if you can solve them!

Dates for your diary

A full calendar of events can be viewed on the school website.

• Tuesday 23rd January: Y11 parents evening (face to face)
• Wednesday 24th January: Ski trip information evening
• Friday 26th January: PSA UV Party after school
• Wednesday 31st January: Y9 Preferences evening
• Thursday 15th February: Y4 Roman Britain Workshop
• Advance notice: Reception parent evenings w/c 18th March

Wishing everyone in our community a positive and fulfilling fortnight ahead.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Rachel Kirk and Mr Michael Moss (Co-headteachers)

Dear Parents/Carers,

Re: Building and facilities developments at Simon Balle All-through School 

We are writing to make you aware of so many exciting developments already underway and planned for the near future for the facilities available at Simon Balle – from individual classroom refreshments to whole block developments across the all-through site.

It is first important for us to explain our vision – why these developments are planned and how they will enhance the lived experience of our children, wherever they are on their journey from Reception to Year 13. In 2022 we began working with a firm of architects (indeed, the lead architect is himself a former Simon Balle student!) to develop a master plan for the Simon Balle premises. The purpose of the plan is to provide us with a holistic strategy to improve the school’s buildings and estate in the most efficient and effective manner possible, with each step along the development journey further enhancing existing facilities whilst also laying the foundations for future improvements. The master plan aims to deliver these improvements in three key ways:

• Increasing capacity – we are increasing the space that is available, both in terms of classrooms for our secondary phase, and importantly for everyone with our sports hall. Capacity increasing allows not only the best possible opportunities during the school day, but also continuation of our outstanding enrichment programme where space can be a challenge!
• Improving quality – New buildings and refurbishments are painstakingly designed to the most modern standards for acoustics, lighting and ventilation to ensure the most comfortable working environment for our staff and students. This is of vital importance to us as the correlation between the quality of work environment and the productivity and mental and physical health and wellbeing of staff and students is well documented and established.
• Improving teaching and learning resources – New resources purchased to support the breadth and ambition of the curriculum across our all-through school, including enhancements to both equipment and the use of displays. 

So, what is new?

The first steps of the master plan are well underway with £6.9m already invested in expanding and improving the learning and working environment for our students and staff. Already completed projects include: 

• Critical upgrades and health and safety improvements to cold water services
• Refurbishment of two student toilet blocks and PE changing rooms – both excellent examples of student voice in action!
• Site security fencing
• Jubilee suite 

As with any changes made to facilities on a busy site day to day, work is being phased and planned to ensure minimum disruption. The projects below will give you a sense, however, of further improvements coming soon (please make sure you have a look at the photos at the bottom of the page too – just click on the images to enlarge them)! 

• Our new four-classroom block (at the back of the playground on the secondary site, looking towards the back field) is soon to be opened. Light and spacious, these are state of the art classrooms, and we are delighted that this will be housing Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) at Simon Balle. It is an incredibly exciting time at Simon Balle where the numbers of students studying French and Spanish at GCSE is increasing year on year; the new block will be opened by our current Year 6 cohort who are currently looking forward to their ‘More to experience’ weeks where they gain an insight into just how much more the secondary phase has to offer them!
• Our mobile classrooms, currently housing Business and Explorers and IT are being replaced with new, modern buildings. The Jubilee suite is almost ready to house Explorers (Years 3 – 6), with a newly fitted kitchen and bathroom, and with direct outdoor access to the trim trail and Astro. Our new IT classroom is large and fitted with all technology required for the continued success of Computer Science from Year 7 – Year 13. There are some internal movements too for business and other departments – more to follow!
• Another multi-functional education ‘suite’ is arriving to be placed near to the new MFL block. As a larger space, this supports so many important areas of school life – including a sixth form study area when exams are taking place, and a large space for external speakers – supporting our careers and PSHRE programmes. 
• Within Art, we are delighted to announce the arrival of our new kiln. This will be a superb addition to our ceramics programme, both within the main curriculum and extra-curricular, primary phase and secondary. Within drama, an investment is being made into new lighting for the drama studio, ensuring the highest quality of equipment to support students of all ages and, of course, importantly at GCSE. 
• In the Larch, as well as new signage, we are very excited that a bespoke design is currently in process for an important, large history display which will be placed in the centre of the building, around the library walls. Reflecting all units within our history curriculum Reception – Year 6, the timeline will support children in understanding the chronology of historical events so that they can understand sequencing, and ensure that new learning is building on their prior learning of times, places and concepts.
• We are maximising opportunities to create quality outdoor recreational and educational spaces for all of our students including seating, canopies, landscaping and improvements to our outdoor classroom.
• Last (for now!), but certainly not least, we are so excited about the building work, due to start imminently, on our sports hall. From badminton to cricket, from netball to basketball, our four court sports hall will not only be a wonderful resource, but will also release pressure on our other multi-use halls and gym, and serve our Hertford community. 

Sustainability is a key consideration and the environment is an important stakeholder in our decision-making. New buildings are designed to consume as little energy as possible (for example, the sports hall will be passively ventilated and utilise sun tubes) and will include solar panels wherever possible. Refurbished or second life materials and furniture are also used wherever appropriate to reduce our carbon footprint and promote a circular economy. The next steps in the master plan will also allow us to decarbonise the site’s heating and an application for a further £2m in government funding was submitted in December 23 to this end.

Safeguarding is, as ever, our first priority, and together with the work last year to add gates and fencing around the whole perimeter of the site, the sports hall will create a professional and welcoming face to the front of the school. 

Financially, all of this is being achieved through: 

• Excellent work by our Director of Business to apply for government funding – not just our £4m sports hall or £1.1m MFL block, but work that is continuing to deliver essential upgrades to the site’s electrical infrastructure, fire safety and central heating. 
• Prudent and careful financial management by our governors and senior leaders.
• PSA funding – here we are so grateful to the whole of the PSA, and every single parent/carer who has supported in so many events every year. The PSA are specifically funding the kiln for Art, the lighting in drama, the Larch history display and the humanities classroom refurbishment which took place in the summer.  

Apologies for such a long letter – we will do our best to continue to provide updates on social media, our website and newsletters, including with many photographs. Following this letter, there will be more communication coming to you in relation to practical updates – for example, where there will be a change of pedestrian routes to ensure the safety of everybody with building works taking place. As you have already read, car parking will be significantly reduced  – but, in essence, this is no different to what has already been shared many times before as our car park is only intended for staff and for visitors to Simon Balle. 

We hope that all stakeholders are as equally excited to read this update, as we are in writing it! 

Please direct any questions to Mr Ayres who is our Assistant Headteacher leading on operations at Simon Balle: ayresd@simonballe.herts.sch.uk 

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Rachel Kirk, Mr Michael Moss and Mr Haydn Walsh

Co-headteachers and Director of Business 

 

 

 

We are delighted to be able to share with you Reception’s wonderful performance of ‘The Twinkly Nativity!’. This will be available for you to download until the 19th. We hope you enjoy watching it with your family!

Nativity link

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas…

It has been incredible to see our community in action in support of one another at this very special time of the year. From the most inspiring Reception nativity performance, to our sixth form leaders supporting musicians and readers in preparation for our Carol services: so many Simon Balle values from patience, kindness, compassion, responsibility and resilience are evident. The all-through shines where all years combine, from the Herts Young homeless Santa Dash (Year 4 and sixth form); the Frost Fair with leadership evident from Year 6 sports leaders to sixth form business students; donations of gifts to future Living and goods to the food bank; to our raising of over £1,700 for Save the Children through Christmas jumper day; and to the traditions of this festive season shared further as we move into the last week of term – including Christmas lunches. We believe passionately that students will achieve great things – academically and in the widest sense – when they belong to our community; evidence of this is in abundance this fortnight.

A huge thank you to all students for their dedication with assessments at this time of year, particularly to our Year 11 students during mocks and our Year 13 students in preparation.  With students in all year groups, Year 1+, following assessments we will be focussing on the quality of the feedback we give – research shows the importance of formative feedback so that students can see areas to now target where there are gaps in knowledge, or areas to develop skills, or misconceptions to be identified and resolved. It is much more important that we support students to understand these – as these will lead to future gains – rather than focussing on raw scores or grades alone. Any questions, do stay closely in contact with us. 

As you read the newsletter below, you will see that once again there is so much to celebrate – from Inter-house sports, to sixth form internal and external applicants for September, and we thank you for your parental partnership with online and in person parents’ evenings, as well as your support for many enrichment trips and events: including Year 4 Narnia evening, Year 12 Art trip, secondary theatre trip to the Mousetrap and the theatre coming to us in the Larch (Jack and the beanstalk). A very exciting Year 10 STEM day is still to come next week. 

And finally, at the end of this first team of headship, Mr Moss and I would like to thank you all for your continued support to ensure that we are all deeply proud of our all-through school. It is a special place to work and to learn – and it is a privilege to lead our dedicated and specialist staff team to motivate and support your incredible young people. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas, and a happy and healthy new year when it comes.

PE News

A full round up of this term’s sporting news will be published next week on the Sports blog, but we’ve included some photos of this week’s inter-house competition and a brief taster of what’s been happening.

 

This week both Year 7 Boys and Year 8 Boys teams played against Haileybury College, with the Year 7 team winning convincingly and the Year 8 team coming back from 4 tries to nil at half time to drawing the game. Both girls and boys football teams have had cup action, with the Y7 boys going through to the last 32 of the national cup, and the senior boys reaching the quarter finals of the Hertfordshire cup.

Pedagogy portal

Every academic year we work closely with the Alban Teaching School Hub and host trainee teachers who want to join our wonderful profession. If you are interested in teacher training or even want to know a little more; do get in touch with the school or the Alban TSH. This week’s portal contains the views of a current trainee and their journey and pedagogy practice so far, whilst training at Simon Balle. We hope it inspires you to get in touch and perhaps use the Alban TSH to train at Simon Balle All-through School. 

 https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/pedagogy-portal-train-to-teach/ ‎

Sixth Form practice interviews

Sixth Form enrichment over the past few weeks has focused on interview techniques for Year 12 students. It has been great to see so many young people supporting each other as they reflect on their own skills and experiences. In preparation for these mock interviews, students were asked to research an employer and prepare their CVs as well as responses to interview questions. We were lucky to be supported by over 20 fantastic local employers, who willingly gave up their time to support our students with their career development.

“Gaining real world interview experience was so useful. The verbal feedback from my employer was so helpful. He gave me a number of targets to help strengthen my CV and future applications.” Sam, Year 12

Library News

It has been a busy term in the Simon Balle libraries, culminating with today’s Jólabókaflóð (Book Flood) and Christmas Bingo. You can read more about all the events that have been taking place by visiting the Library Blog.

Spotlight on Phase Three

Over the last few weeks, Year 5 have been designing their Christmas cushions and have just started to create them in class. They have all shown resilience with their sewing skills and creativity with their designs. 

In English, Year 6 have been enjoying reading Skelling and applying their skills of persuasion by writing an advertisement to sell houses. Last week they impressed us with their incredible poems based on the main character.

PSA News

The Frost Fair was enjoyed by many visitors, and thanks to the incredible support from our school community, it is estimated that we raised an outstanding £8230! Funds raised will support both phases of the school. A huge shoutout to our dedicated students who selflessly volunteered their time to make this event unforgettable. Special thanks to Chirp, shystudio, and Edwins for their fantastic sponsorships, and a heartfelt gratitude to Mrs. Major for her generous donation.

Unwanted gift appeal

‘Tis the season of giving, and while we appreciate the love and thoughtfulness behind all the festive gifts, we’re embracing a fun twist this year! If you find yourself with an unwanted Christmas gift that’s been waiting for a new home, we’d be absolutely delighted to take it off your hands. Your generosity will fuel our exciting plans for prizes, raffles, and PSA fundraising endeavours in the upcoming year. Drop off your donations at either school office, marked “FAO SBPSA.”

Larch UV Party

Get ready to glow, Larch families!  Tickets for the much-anticipated UV Party for years 1 to 6 are now on sale via the PSA website! To join the neon fun, hop onto the website and make sure to register then patiently await admin approval to complete your checkout, if you are new to the website. Don’t miss out on this luminous extravaganza – tickets will be on sale until Friday January 12th. Get your glow on, Larch! See the UV Party Poster here

Support for families

A coffee morning is being held on Monday 15th January by SPACE for parents with children who have a diagnosis of ASD or ADHD or are on the pathway to a diagnosis. They are a local charity who offer support to families who are neurodiverse. If you would like to attend please contact vivashk@simonballe.herts.sch.uk to reserve your place. You can read more about this on the county website, or watch a summary of the information on YouTube. 

Family Lives are delivering a range of online support for families living in Hertfordshire. Please take a look at their Facebook page and the two flyers for more information.

• https://www.facebook.com/FamilyLivesHertsandBeds
• Herts Within my reach flyer
• Herts Parenting SEN Children Through Separation

Jedidiah on Fore street is a wonderful free fresh food pantry, helping the people of Hertford who are feeling the cost of living crisis to fill their fridges and feed themselves and their families. The pantry opens every week day from 12-1pm and all are welcome to come along and help themselves to the array of fresh food donated by our local supermarkets.

Careers News

Please click here for our latest careers opportunities blog. This edition includes links to the New Unifrog online courses (available to all students in Y7 – 13). Click here to access the new careers section on the school website which includes:

• Links for students and parents
• Careerometer and Skillometer to help students explore different careers
• Links to Local Market Information
• And many other useful resources

Holocaust memorial Day visit to St Albans Cathedral.

Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated nationally on 27th January 2024. This year we have been lucky enough to secure 50 tickets to the St Albans commemorative event on Tuesday 30th January. The trip will take place in the afternoon and students will be returning home to school around 4.30. 

This is a fantastic opportunity where students will be able take part in a number of workshops focused around the Holocaust and the events that preceded it. The highlight of the visit will be to listen to a presentation from a Holocaust survivor and then have an opportunity to partake in a Q&A session. This trip is currently open to Y9, 11 and 13 and has proved very popular. We do however still have 6 spaces still available. The trip costs £13. If you would like further information on the trip then please contact Mrs Page on pages@simonballe.herts.sch.uk who will be able to give you more information and arrange payment. 

Don’t forget!

We break up for the Christmas holidays at 12.00pm on Thursday 21st December. We return to school at normal time on Monday 8th January.

Between now and Christmas

There are still a few events taking place between now and the end of term:

• All week: further work is being done on the changing rooms, so secondary students need to come into school wearing PE kit on the days they have PE (apart from Y7 and 8 on Tuesday 19th).
• Monday 18th December: Y8 STEM day (drones)
• Monday 18th December: Secondary carol service, All Saints Church, 1900-2000
• Tuesday 19th December: Y7, 8 and 12 visit All Saints for the carol service in the morning (full school uniform required). Secondary Christmas Dinner (there will be no other food service at break or lunch, so those that have not bought a ticket for the Christmas lunch will need to bring a packed lunch)
• Tuesday 19th December: Larch carol service, All Saints Church, 1800-1900
• Wednesday 20th December: Larch students visit All Saints Church for the carol service in the morning. Y10 Stem day (rockets)

After Christmas

• Monday 8th January: Y11 Business trip information evening, 1800, Main Hall
• Wednesday 10th January: Sixth Form History and Politics Berlin trip information evening, 1800, Main Hall
• Wednesday 10th January: Y6 SATs information evening, 1800, Larch Hall
• Tuesday 16th January: Y6 STEM day (experiments)
• Wednesday 17th January: Y11 Tate Modern trip
• Tuesday 23rd January: Y11 parents evening (face to face)
• Friday 26th January: PSA UV Party after school – details to follow
• Thursday 15th February: Y4 Roman Britain Workshop

Wishing everyone in our community a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Rachel Kirk and Mr Michael Moss (Co-headteachers)

Friday 1st December

Co-headteachers’ welcome

We hope that all were able to have a relaxing and happy long weekend. Certainly the students (and staff!) I have spoken with this week were pleased to have an opportunity to rest and recoup because it is a busy and exciting few weeks ahead, academically and in relation to so many wider community opportunities. 

And so, first to reflect upon our open events for prospective students and their families in the last fortnight. Our sixth form open evening was busy and vibrant with our current sixth formers doing us proud in showcasing departments across our broad curriculum, giving guided tours and talking with such eloquence and confidence to both our current Year 11 and external students interested in Simon Balle. With more than 500 visitors to site, and a packed out hall for speeches, it was a privilege to share the success of our sixth form with so many. ‘More than just great A levels’ is what we are, and we received much positive feedback from students and parents visiting as they understood both our high expectations academically, and our extensive enrichment programme. Music, as ever, was front and centre with live performances and a packed out department to find out more about our music academy and its opportunities. Visitors commented too on the tangible ethos of care communicated by our students. Students make progress that is significantly above the national average if they join or continue their journey at Simon Balle, and a broad and ambitious curriculum, as well as a pathway to excellent future destinations is what we pride ourselves on. To find out more, and to apply for sixth form please visit here – applications must be in by 10th December 2023. 

Similarly, as ever, it was a privilege to be showing prospective parents around the Larch on Wednesday. Parents commented on a calm and purposeful ethos; engaging learning taking place; support and challenge a-plenty; excellent relationships between staff and children, and children with one another; and the breadth and ambition of the curriculum exemplified. The Year 6 tour guides were incredible – every parent commented on their enthusiasm, their sense of belonging, their confidence, their pride. It is clear that we remain a school of choice – and across all of our three open events, a huge thank you to our Larch children for their music, and their tours. 

Each newsletter we comment on enrichment – but each newsletter there is more to share! Much news is contained below from secondary phase geography field work to Year 6 Macbeth performances in London. Music concerts have spanned secondary strings and singing, secondary wind and brass, rock school, and a Larch extravaganza with both choirs, strings, wind and brass providing a lively and happy evening of music. Despite the darkening evenings,  sports opportunities continue to abound – just this week we have been so proud of our Year 7 rugby team, and our Years 8-9 with hockey. Great performances, great values shown. 

As you know from our pedagogy portal as a fortnightly focus on teaching and learning, we do not shy away from informing you as parents what we are doing to ensure that we sustain and further advance outstanding teaching at Simon Balle All-through school. This week, at our INSET day, we were privileged to welcome Tom Sherrington to inspire us all and set us on the next steps of weaving together his insightful work on walkthrus (teaching and learning guides) with our bespoke Simon Balle teaching and learning principles. We invest in excellent professional development to ensure that our students from 4 – 18 are taught consistently by subject experts who are passionate about the craft of teaching and learning together with their care for every student. 

And finally, we look forward to so much coming up in the next few weeks. Firstly, good luck to our Year 11 students who are showing so much dedication to their learning. We wish them all the best on study leave and their mocks commencing soon. As the festive season comes once again, we welcome students and their families warmly to join us in so many events. Please do support us at The Frost Fair tomorrow (see below), and attend our Larch and/or secondary Carol services at All Saints Church, our Reception Nativity and much more. We hope that your children will enjoy all that we have on offer at this special time of year – please see below for a round up of dates. 

• Saturday 2nd: PSA Frost Fair
• Thursday 7th: All-through Christmas Jumper Day
• Wednesday 13th: Reception Nativity Play
• Thursday 14th: Y12 Herts Young Homeless 5K run
• Friday 15th: Secondary Book Flood in the library
• Monday 18th: Secondary Carol Service
• Tuesday 19th: Secondary Christmas lunch
• Tuesday 19th: Larch Carol Service
• Thursday 21st: Early finish (12pm)

Christmas dinner

We hope that as many students as possible will join us for Christmas Dinner this year. A letter regarding dates and cost has been sent to all parents (primary and secondary). Tickets must be purchased via ParentPay by the end of today (Friday 1st December).

Frost Fair this Saturday

Get ready for a frosty fiesta at the upcoming Frost Fair tomorrow (December 2nd, 12-4pm)! Your presence will make it truly special.

A quick reminder that our event’s magic is fueled by volunteers. A heartfelt thank you to those who’ve already signed up! Your support means the world. To those still considering, it’s not too late to join the festive fun – lend a hand and be part of the jolly crew!

Check your existing sign ups, look for empty slots and sign up here.

Let’s make this Frost Fair the best one yet!

Christmas Jumper Day

Please join us in supporting Save The Children on Thursday 7th December. Make a donation via the link and then wear your Christmas Jumper to school.

https://christmas.savethechildren.org.uk/fundraising/CJD230032080

Parent Staff Association

Exciting news awaits! Elfridges (Larch Secret Shopping) and the KS1/2 UV Party tickets will soon be on sale. To join the festive fun, you need to register on the PSA website first. The process is simple. However, your registration will need to be manually approved by admin before you can  checkout. Register today for a smoother checkout experience.

If you are able to volunteer at events such as these, please join our volunteer database.

Link to Elfridges poster

Link to UV Party Save the Date

Food Bank collection (Herts and District Food Bank) OOD BANK COLLECTION FOR HERTS AND DISTRICT FOOD BANK:

From Monday 4th December until Tuesday 14th December, the Year 12 House Leaders will be collecting donations in our Primary and Secondary phases for our local food bank in Hertford. Providing families are able to donate, the following items would be gratefully received:

• Cup of soup packets
• Jars of sauces
• Tea and coffee
• Tinned tomatoes
• Spreads such as jam and honey
• UHT milk
• Long life juice
• Tinned meat/fish/veg
• Biscuits
• Tinned fruit/custard/rice pudding
• Toilet rolls

Students may leave their donations in their classrooms/form rooms, and secondary students may take their items to the sixth form resource centre.

Many thanks in advance!

Library news

Jólabókaflóð (Book Flood) and Christmas Bingo

Celebrating the Icelandic Christmas tradition, bring a book from home as a gift and hand it in to Mr Belsey and Miss Iles any time from Monday 4th December to Monday 11th December to collect a Book Flood ticket. Then join us at 1:25 pm in the library on Friday 15th December for the Book Flood: there will be Christmas bingo, Christmas music, and books to read and take home. Students should speak to Mr Belsey and Miss Iles if they would like to attend the Book Flood but are not able to bring in a book as a gift.

Book fair in the Larch

The Travelling Books book fair will be returning to the Larch library between Monday 4th December and Thursday 7th December. During the fair, the books will be available in the Larch library for students to browse. Here is a wish list document that students may bring into school and use during the school day if they wish to write down the books they would like to buy. Parents/carers can then view students’ book choices when they take their wish lists back home with them. Alternatively, you can browse the books online. The book fair will be open to parents from 3:15-3:45 pm each day from Monday 4th December to Thursday 7th December. Please note that the book fair will be cash free.

If you would like to purchase any of the books you can either 1) pay for the books using a bank card and this QR code in the Larch library during the fair or 2) pay for the books online at home and then collect them from the Larch library during the fair.
To make payments please use the following link: www.travellingbooks.co.uk/pay. Then in the ‘Find your school’ search box, please type in the following number: 16903841. Please bring evidence of the book order and payment.
(You will not be able to purchase books until Monday 4th December.)

Piano concert on Thursday 23rd November

Thank you to the students from the Larch and secondary school that played the piano for the lunchtime concert in the library. Well done to Ethan, Seren, Sophie, Dominic, Zoe, Lucas, George, Oliver, Ziva, Ethan, Vanessa, Ben, Hector, Sylvie, Orson, Edward, Lola, Holly and Charlie for your piano playing.

Pedagogy Portal

On Tuesday’s INSET day we were fortunate enough to have Tom Sherrington work with our staff to help develop our School Improvement Priority around ‘Walkthrus’. Tom (the author of ‘Teaching Walkthrus’) works with schools and colleges providing support on curriculum, assessment and the quality of teaching and learning. He is a regular speaker and contributor to conferences and education festivals. We were extremely fortunate to spend time with him and the portal this week shows what he went through with staff during the INSET day. 

https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/category/teaching-learning-news/

Careers 

Please click here for our latest Career Opportunities Blog. This has a range of different opportunities for students in Year 11 -13 including CISCO work experience and virtual sessions with TFL, Lloyds and the RAF. You will also find some free resources for primary and secondary school students.

Please click here for a really useful document regarding current trends in the labour market.

Musical News

Head over to the Music pages to read about November’s Musical News

Volcano Day

It was great to have Y9 showing off their volcano creations last week. The whole year group took over the hall to showcase their models, cakes and artwork created as part of the tectonic hazards topic in Geography. The pictures here show a small selection of what was on display. You can also see how excited the Larch students were to find out about what the older students had been up to.

Harry in Year 9 reflected on the day: 

“Volcano Day is a yearly event at the end of the volcano section of year nine’s tectonic hazards topic. During this topic, we have learnt about the earth’s structure and what benefits and negatives this causes for us. One of the hazards that is caused by the earth’s formation and tectonic plates are volcanoes. As this has been a key area of our topic, for volcano day we were given the opportunity to make a model, piece of artwork, cake or explosion and bring it into school to show other students and our teachers. We also got the opportunity to show this year’s creations to some of the younger years at Simon Balle school, who have also been learning about volcanoes. Volcano day was a fun, informative end to our topic and was a fun way to learn more.”

Y12 Geography field trip to Manchester

The Y12 Geographers have been exploring Manchester this week. They have interviewed BBC staff about the corporation’s move to Media City in Salford, attended a lecture at the Etihad about stadium-led regeneration in the east of the city and carried out fieldwork in a variety of locations around the city centre.

DofE “Making a difference”

The school has been running the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme for the last 2 years, in that time we have helped many local causes through the volunteering aspect of the award.

It was so nice to receive a letter from the Manager of Hertford Library about three of our students and how impressed he was. He went on to say: “They have been polite, punctual, engaging, friendly and have built nice relationships with the children and staff at the library. The parents have also given me glowing reports about how much their children have enjoyed the club and look forward to coming every week, they have been as impressed as we have with how the boys have gone about running the club”

We would also like to thank Jonathan, Jack and Soham for entering into the true spirit of DofE, reinforcing the core values of the school. If you are interested in The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme we will be looking to recruit the next cohort around February 2024 (information to follow).

Health, wellbeing and safeguarding

What parents need to know about…

Please click here to find out about supporting children to deal with upsetting content.

Physical Education News

It’s been a fantastic month for Sport at Simon Balle across Football, Rugby, Netball and Hockey. You can read all about this in our latest blog post. 

In relation to PE kit, we no longer are using Stevenson’s for PE kit and for this year have moved to ProSportskit.

The white polo top is no longer available and for this year (2023-24), if necessary you can purchase a Simon Balle PE T-Shirt as an alternative option. The information below can be located on our website. 

PE kit is now available to order from ProSportsKit  http://simonballe.deco-apparel.com/

• White and green PE top
• Black shorts or skort
• Green rugby socks
• Shin pads and gumshield
• Football / Rugby Boots
• Optional Extras: (from ProSportsKit – http://simonballe.deco-apparel.com/)
• Simon Balle Black Midlayer
• Simon Balle Shorts
• Simon Balle Black Leggings
• Simon Balle Tracksuit Bottoms

Year 11 Outdoor activities Trip

During the past couple of weeks, our Year 11 OCR Sports Studies students attended an Outdoor Activities trip to Harlow. Students completed 2 activities which were the High Ropes and Kayaking. This was part of their course and they were assessed on the practical skills as well as their knowledge and understanding of using equipment safely. Our students behaved impeccably and were a real credit to the school displaying resilience and courage in abundance.

Learning in the Larch

Reception: In Reception the children have been learning about doubling in Maths, using numicon to support their understanding. The children have also enjoyed the story of ‘Not A Stick’ and have done some brilliant writing with their own ideas, as well as being very creative during child initiated learning with what they can create!

Year 1: Year 1 have continued their hard work in Phonics as they learn more Level 5 sounds, and have focused on doubling and halving in Maths this week. They have also been learning about Advent, and have made a fantastic class Advent wreath!

Year 2: The children in Year 2 have been working hard on writing brilliant poems based on ‘The Sound Collector’. It has been wonderful to see the children use a variety of wonderful language to describe all of the sounds they have collected. 

Year 3: It has been fantastic to read so many brilliant fables written by Year 3 this week. Taking inspiration from well-known Aesop fables, the children have taken those familiar stories and morals and turned them into their own original versions. When writing them, the moral was ‘slow and steady wins the race’ as it kept children focused which helped them take their time on each element of writing. 

Year 4: In PRE, the children in Year 4 have been focusing on the Christian faith, learning about Advent. They were learning about the significance of the candles on the advent wreath and what each part symbolises. This continues their learning on the significance of a range of symbols from different religions.

Year 5: Over the past two weeks, Year 5 have been looking at how recent redevelopment has changed Hertford and how it has impacted local residents in their Geography lessons. In English, they have been working hard creating cinquains (small poems). 

Year 6: Last week we were blown away by the courage and determination shown by all Year 6 pupils at the Shakespeare festival in London. We are so very proud of all of the efforts you put in and it well and truly paid off.

Year 6 SATs information evening

We would like to invite Year 6 parents/carers into the Larch for an information evening to give you more details about the end of KS2 SATs and the year ahead. We highly encourage you to attend, and in previous years have had near 100% attendance.  We look forward to seeing you in the Larch hall at 6pm on Wednesday 10th January.

Larch Survey results

Thank you to all parents and carers for your invaluable feedback. We will endeavour to respond to all specific individual questions and below have responded to more general questions raised.

Some key statistics we are proud to share:

• 98% of parents/carers would recommend Simon Balle to others.
• 98% of parents/carers said their child is happy at Simon Balle.
• 99% of parents/carers said their child feels safe at Simon Balle.
• 98% of parents/carers said the school deals effectively with bullying, or that they don’t know as their child has had no experience of this.
• 98% of parents/carers said the school makes sure children are well-behaved or they’re unsure as they’ve not had any experience of this to comment.
• 91% of parents/carers feel the school has a wide range of extra-curricular activities.
• 95% of parents/carers are aware of what their child will learn during the year.

A selection of quotes from some of our families:

Thank you for ensuring that my daughter is not only being well-educated through your exceptional curriculum but will also graduate from the Larch as a well-rounded individual by exposure to the value system reiterated throughout the curriculum and school.

A truly wonderful school whose core values are event in their pupils and teaching staff. My children are thriving both emotionally and educationally, I couldn’t be happier. 

We are constantly impressed by the standard of education, the range of activities available and the way progressive independence and choices become available as your child develops. 

How do I find out what my child is learning this year?

In September we held information sessions for each year group that outlined the curriculum for the year and shared these slides with families- please let your class teacher know if you’d like this to be reshared. On our school website, our curriculum maps are plotted so you can see what your child will learn in each term, but also if you would like to look into a particular subject you can get more information as well as what they will learn in future years.

https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/curriculum-years/ 

https://www.simonballe.herts.sch.uk/curriculum-overview/ 

When will I hear about my child’s progress?

We have plotted our parent evenings for Autumn to discuss settling into their new year group and targets for the year ahead, as well as another before May half term to summarise progress so far and any final targets to work on for the final half term. Your child’s annual report will be with you in Spring term (around half way between the two parent evenings), which will outline in more depth the specific strengths and areas for development in each core area and the wider curriculum. Spreading these progress updates to once per term means that enough time is given to work on their areas of development. Your child’s class teacher will be in touch if there are any concerns their progress has slowed down, however if you have any questions please speak to your child’s teacher and they will be happy to give you more information. Your child’s weekly dictation is also completed in their home learning book for you to see on a weekly basis.

Each year group has either workshops, assemblies or performances throughout the year- please look out for more information! We also look forward to inviting parents into the Larch for our annual summer open celebration evening where your child’s work throughout the year will be celebrated. 

Why are parent evenings held virtually?

Feedback from our School Cloud system has been overwhelmingly positive, with 92% of parents reporting that they find it easy to navigate. Parents have informed us that the virtual evenings are useful as it means that families can attend appointments more easily with flexibility from home or work, appointments are held promptly with no risk of them running late, and more than one parent can join from different locations. On the rare occasion there is a technical difficulty, we are able to follow up with a phone call to ensure no information is missed. As always, please catch your child’s class teacher on the door at home time or drop an email to larch@simonballe.herts.sch.uk if you have any questions about your child’s learning. 

Parents and carers of children with SEN

In September, your child’s student profile was shared, and progress will be reviewed and updated in January, and will be shared with you. 

A reminder for all that the first point of contact (both for learning and pastoral wellbeing) should be your child’s class teacher/form tutor. Beyond this, please reach out to the heads of year and/or primary phase leaders. If your query is specifically in relation to SEND, please book a Calendly meeting in the first instance using this Booking link.

Term dates reminder (this year)

We will be breaking up for Christmas at 12.00pm on Thursday 21st December. The new term starts on Monday 8th January.

Term dates for this year and next year can be found here on our website.

The assessment and reporting schedule can be found here on our website.

Wishing everyone in our community a positive and fulfilling fortnight ahead.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Rachel Kirk and Mr Michael Moss (Co-headteachers)