Dear Parents/Carers,
As we near the end of another frenetic term, we can look back with pride on what we
as a Community have achieved since the start of the school year in September. Our
core academic work has continued apace and has been complemented by a range of
enrichment activities designed to ensure students have a fuller understanding of the
curriculum. A prime example of these are the Modern Foreign Language plays hosted
in November which enabled Year 9 students to hear the language they are studying,
spoken in real life scenarios.
As part of our Community commitment, we have also championed a whole host of
initiatives designed to bring much needed cheer to many, all of which are featured in
this edition of the Balfour News. Worthy of note, is the £1,100 raised in one day to
support the BBC’s ‘Children in Need’ appeal and the 155 shoe boxes, full of gifts, we
provided to support ‘Operation Christmas Child’. These fabulous efforts are an
indication of just how much our students are committed to the idea of selfless
support for others, which helps them to grow as individuals into responsible caring
adults.
I do hope you enjoy reading more about these events and about a host of other
recent activities, all which will give further insights into life at Sir Graham Balfour
School which remains vibrant and progressive.
As Christmas nears, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a safe,
happy and enjoyable holiday and as ever, I hope the New Year brings you all you would
wish for.
With every good wish,
Mr Dave Wright
(Headteacher)
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For the first year Sir Graham Balfour participated in
the annual Christmas Tree Festival held at St Marys
Church in the centre of Stafford. The Cambodia
2016 team took on the task of decorating the tree,
with a red and blue theme which represented the
colours of the Cambodian flag. The decorations
showed photographs of our Cambodian students
taken during the last visit and the literature
promoted our partnership with our sister school.
In total over 66 trees were decorated by local
companies and organisations. The event was opened
by The Mayor of Stafford, who presented a
certificate to each of the representatives for their
entries. Thank you to everyone who took part in
representing Sir Graham Balfour and Sir Graham
Balfour Cambodia.
This will be the second year SGB has been involved in Signal 1 ‘Operation Christmas Child’.
Coordinated by Miss Poole all house groups were encouraged to fill a shoe box full of gifts for
a child that will not be as fortunate as the children of our school. In total, our students and
staff filled 155 boxes which will be sent to countries as far afield as Africa and Romania to
name but a few!
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Sir Graham Balfour students stepped back in time
on Wednesday 19th November, when they visited
Limewood Dementia Care. Situated in the new
Northfield Village complex, just off the A34, this
purpose-built building provides care for people at
every age and every stage of dementia.
Students were able to take a tour of the facility
and see how the building has been carefully
designed to accommodate patients with
dementia. They also visited the ‘High Street’
which is based on Stafford High Street in times
gone by, it includes a Public House, Cinema,
Hairdressers and meeting room in 1950s style
decor. As well as playing the piano and singing to
some of the residents, the students were also
interviewed about their visit by a visiting
television film crew, reporting for the ITV evening
news.
On Friday 21st November we welcomed
pupils from some of our Primary School
Councils, they were here to meet Mr
James Cantrill, Office Manager for Mr
Jeremy Lefroy, Conservative Minister of
Parliament for Stafford. Mr Cantrill
kindly agreed to come to Sir Graham
Balfour School to give a talk to some our
School Parliament children and our
Primary Councils about ‘What is
Parliament?’
After a very informative presentation the children teamed up to play some interactive
computer games to create their own parliament!
Thank you to Mr Cantrill for taking time out of his busy schedule to visit the school and to all
of the pupils and teachers who came along for the morning.
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By Sam Hart - Year 10
“Since 1927 The Ryder Cup has become one of the world’s greatest
sporting contests, as every two years 24 of the best golfers from
Europe and the United States go head-to-head in match play
competition. Drama, tension, incredible golf, camaraderie and
sportsmanship are served in equal measure, captivating an audience of
millions around the world. It’s an event that transcends sport, yet
remains true to the spirit of its founder, Samuel Ryder.” – The
European Tour
I was extremely fortunate to have been able to arrange some work experience recently
behind the scenes with a number of companies at one of the greatest sporting occasions in
the world, The Ryder Cup, held this year at Gleneagles in Scotland.
After months of planning and excitement, it was a surreal moment on Tuesday 23rd
September, sitting on the 4-hour train journey from Stafford to Edinburgh (via Crewe), to
start my 2014 Ryder Cup Work Experience. Being on the train by myself was an adventure on
its own, working out timings to jump from one train to the next, collecting tickets, and
navigating my way around the stations involved.
My home base for the week was a hotel in Edinburgh with
one of the American companies I was working alongside. I
helped set up the corporate promotional displays and
banners in the lobby to act as a welcome desk and
meeting point for our 70 Ryder Cup guests from around
the globe who were checking in the following day,
Wednesday. The first job I had to manage was to ensure
that everybody we were hosting had their tickets for the
golf tournament at Gleneagles, had been allocated their
packs and promotional goodies and were given all the key
information they needed to know for the week
ahead. Throughout the day’s work I did on the
Wednesday, I was also tasked to explore the
streets of Edinburgh to source necessary
information and find items we needed. This was a
great way for me to learn how to cope in, and find
my way around, such a big city. This was also of
great benefit to me in preparation for the
evenings ahead as along with other key personnel,
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I also assisted in the hosting of many of our important guests and customers at dinners and
functions, which was great fun!
The next day (the Thursday) I headed into the
golf at Gleneagles at 5am, an hours coach ride
away and the final practice day for the players in
the European and American Ryder cup Teams
before the drama of the real tournament began.
However, there wasn’t much spectating for me! I
was hardworking with an online golfing magazine
preparing an article in the media center in the
midst of 1000 other journalists and
broadcasters ahead of the largest single site
televised sporting event in the world! The
experience of seeing such a world stage of sporting media in action was incredible. They were
all busy collecting and reporting on the players’ last minute emotions before the match in the
press conference’s, which I was able to watch. This provided a perfect opportunity to meet
an abundance of interesting people involved in the arena of sporting media should I wish to
continue to pursue a career in media and TV presenting.
That evening I was back representing and working with the my host company entertaining our
guests in the allocated corporate hospitality chalet and accompanying them to the opening
ceremony of the Ryder Cup, before heading back to our hotel in Edinburgh.
Whilst the action was starting the following day between Team USA and Team Europe on the
Golf Course, I had the opportunity of helping out in the Merchandise facility, where one of
my many job functions was to help make up 1,000 new Ryder Cup golfing gift packs to go on
sale in the merchandise marquee. These sold out in an hour! This was a great learning
experience seeing how the retail merchandising side of a major sporting event happens,
regarding issues such as managing stock levels and statistics, seeing how the sales and
revenue system works as well as how the behind the scenes logistics of managing such a big
fast moving retail operation come together.
But that wasn’t all! I really enjoyed spending some time with the operation team who were
behind the co-ordination of the 540 golf buggies that were onsite around the golf course,
from the Team cars to those used for the TV, press and media coverage; in addition to those
needed for first aid and safety purposes; and for the transportation of catering and
equipment around the venue, to name a few.
My week at The Ryder Cup was an amazing experience for so many reasons; I learnt so much
and met so many interesting people as part of the process. This enabled me to practice
operational and practical skills as well as hospitality, customer services and people
management, all of which will be valuable attributes to use in any future career. I would like
to thank all my Ryder Cup hosts as well as the staff at Sir Graham Balfour for supporting and
allowing me to take up such an incredible and valuable experience! It’s certainly one I will
remember for a long time to come.
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The whole school focus for Anti-bullying week this year, 17th – 21st November, was
homophobic bullying.
During house time all students watched a video about homophobic bullying and then with the
guidance of their House Tutors and the Peer Mentors the house groups discussed the ideas
that had been raised in it and how we as a school should tackle this form of bullying. The
video was based around the idea of everyone holding hands together to combat homophobia
and to stand together to support one another against homophobic bullying. As a follow up to
the video and discussion all house groups were asked to draw and cut around their hands
which were then linked
together to make a
large poster. These
posters have
subsequently been
joined together and put
up above the main
staircase of school
creating a display to
show that we as a
school will stand
together, hand in hand,
to give a clear message
that homophobic
bullying is not
acceptable.
Two of the Peer
Mentors, Megan
Lawrence and Katie
Henderson, who are part of the debating
group, also held a debate on the Friday
lunch time to discuss "Should we as a
school openly embrace homosexuality?"
This debate was very well attended and
the students openly and sensitively
discussed the issue.
A very mature attitude was shown by the
Peer Mentors and the students of the
whole school in discussing the ideas around
what can be seen as a difficult and
sometimes taboo subject.
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Well done to Ellie Barlow, Ava Bell, Libbi
Walker, Jake Oliver, Ellie Moffat, Matt
Stevens, Kathryn Donnelly and Emily
Hopper from our Code Breaking Club.
The University of Southampton run a
weekly competition and our Year 7 group
has won a £25.00 cheque for cracking
one of the letters in the competition.
Code Breaking Club meets every Friday
lunchtime in room 470.
Well done to Lauren Butter, Year 9, who won the SGB
Secondary School Jersey Design entry. The INTO team
received well over 2000 entries. Lauren was awarded her
prize during the Staffordshire Cycling Festival on Friday
1st August where she received a £50.00 voucher and her
winning design produced for display.
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Friday 5th December saw the Supergirls hosting a Christmas Tea Party for people from our
local sheltered housing. We had 33 guests join us for a fun packed morning with
entertainment ranging from Vocal Elite (SGBs Choir), the Year 7 Drama Club acting out a
scene from the film ‘Frozen’, Bingo, nail painting and a raffle.
The Supergirls spent Thursday
4th December after school
preparing sandwiches, salads
and decorating cakes for our
guests to enjoy.
They thoroughly enjoyed
organising this day and spending
time with the guests helping
them to play Bingo and serving
them refreshments.
The feedback received from
guests was lovely, saying that
they had had an excellent
morning and all are expecting a
return invite next year!!
Well Done to all the Supergirls for being part of this!
For the third year running SGB supported Red
White and Blue Day on Friday 10th October.
Students were invited to wear an item of red,
white or blue clothing as part of their uniform
for the day. A 50p contribution was collected
from everyone, which will help support the
families of Service Children, in total over
£330.00 was raised.
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Wednesday 22nd October saw the 1st of our Futures
Days take place, with each academic year taking part in a
different activity.

Year 7 participated in a Cambodia themed day, which
included cooking, games and weaving.

Our Year 8 students spent the day in the Sports Hall
taking part in the Balfour Olympics.

Year 9 either visited the Think Tank Museum in
Birmingham, or stayed on site to participate in the
Jaguar Car Racing activity.

Year 10 were based in ICT.

Year 11 had a Science based day either visiting Alton
Towers or taking part in some fantastic food
experiments in school.
Walton Open Award Centre, Duke
of Edinburgh Award Scheme
Presentation Evening took place at
the Oak Room, County Buildings on
Tuesday 16th September. It was
lovely to see Shabnam Shariff,
Chloe Preston, Laura Beswick and
Joe Smith receive their Silver
certificates and badges. This
award is enormously challenging
and this team has worked
extremely hard to achieve this
accolade. Well done.
Congratulations also, to Pippa
Spencer, Year 11, who has also recently completed her Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award.
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Some members of Year 11, accompanied by
their English teachers: Mrs Miller, Miss
Austin and Mrs Allright, spent an exciting
afternoon at Stafford Victoria Park. They
were there to sample the children’s play
areas and evaluate its suitability for
children under the age of eight. This was to
help them with their controlled
assessments where they have to write a
podcast reviewing a local attraction for
parents of young children. The students really got into the spirit of the
day, testing out all the facilities and completing their questionnaire
booklets. Michael Knapper discovered he was an expert at digging in the
sand while others preferred the lure of the trampoline where they could
show off their acrobatic skills.
For the third year running we were lucky enough
to have Sam Phillips from MSYN and her team
in to transform room 430 into a Sacred Space.
During the two days many students had the
opportunity to come into the room and
experience some quiet time out of their normal
day.
There were many stations in the room which
they were encouraged to engage with. The
stations gave the students the chance to
reflect, think about and if they liked to, offer
prayers for things which are on our minds.
The Sacred Space always has very positive
feedback from students and staff and we are
really looking forward to next year’s Sacred Space
already!
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On Thursday 23rd October, Mrs Thorndyke and the Y10 GCSE Spanish class were invited to
spend the day at Bishop Lonsdale Primary school, in order to celebrate their “Spanish Day”.
During the visit, our students worked
alongside the teachers and pupils
across the different age ranges,
from Nursery to Year 6. The focus
was to celebrate Spanish culture
through art, food and dance. Pupils
got to eat typical Spanish food, such
as “chorizo” and “pan con tomate”,
design mosaics in a Gaudi style as
well as learn to dance flamenco –
which all our students agreed was
the best activity of the day. Our
GCSE students were asked to be
language experts and it proved to be
an excellent opportunity for them to
practise speaking in Spanish, as well
as lead some activities, such as
colour bingo. Mrs Thorndyke and all the staff at Bishop Lonsdale were thoroughly impressed
at the enthusiasm and willingness of our Spanish students throughout the day and we would
like to thank Mrs Holland at Bishop Lonsdale for organising and inviting us to such a great
event.
On Thursday 23rd October Mrs Gannon attended the
Staffordshire Borough Council Green awards at the
Stafford Gatehouse on behalf of the school. Supported by
many local groups and organisations this annual event is
very well attended. We were extremely pleased to receive
a Commendation certificate and plant, in the Youth and
Education including Eco-School Initiatives Category to
reward the school on their ongoing ‘green’ activities.
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Sir Graham Balfour students were among 16
dancers from Dance Fusion Community Dance School
Stafford who were privileged to be chosen to
perform at Her Majesty’s Theatre London. The
group performed alongside Kaine Ward and Bitter
Harvest from Sky 1’s Got to Dance as well as
Kerrianne Covell from the X Factor.
During the weekend, the dancers received a
contemporary master class led by ‘School of Stars’
teacher Owen Smith. Owen, who is also a past
choreographer for P&O cruise liners, led the master
class at Italia Conti School of Performing Arts,
where stars such as Louie Spence, Sharron Osborne
and Kelly Brook have graduated.
Before returning home, the dancers
were lucky enough to have a tour
around the Houses of Parliament
arranged by Stafford’s MP Mr
Jeremy Lefroy. They were assigned
their own tour guide who showed
them around and talked them
through the history of the building.
Claire Ashley, Principal of Dance
Fusion said: “I am delighted that
Dance Fusion has been able to offer
our young people these fantastic
opportunities. The girls were such
brilliant ambassadors for Dance
Fusion and Stafford on the West
End stage. I am sure they will
remember this experience for a long
time to come.”
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Bright and early on Saturday 13th December Sir Graham Balfour students undertook our
annual supermarket bag pack in aid of Katharine House Hospice. Despite a slow start the
students were kept very busy throughout the morning helping customers with their shopping
and hopefully raising a significant amount of money for this very worthwhile charity. Thank
you to everyone who took part and also to Sainsburys who agreed to collect the buckets and
count the donations.
Pictured clockwise from the top; Cara Hawkiins,
Anya Elliman, James Darby, Mrs Thompson, Abigail
Jones, Keeley Moore and Eleanor Barlow.
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It has been a very busy time for everyone involved in the Cambodia 2016 trip. The next trip
is set for February 2016, the staff involved are Mrs March, Mr Hoyle and Mr Kay.
The first job for the teachers was to decide on the 12 students we would be taking, this was
a very difficult task which was taken very seriously. 24 students applied and they all had the
potential to go on the trip, but unfortunately we can only take 12, so we would like to take
this opportunity to once again thank everyone for taking their time to apply.
The fundraising started early on when the staff members involved in the trip and two
students from the previous trip did a community talk for the Bishops Offley harvest
supper. This was a fantastic evening where we got to eat some wonderful food and we had
the chance to talk to the local community about what we do in Cambodia.
We have also all been busy making Christmas crafts to sell. We have been to local primary
schools Christmas fayres, as well as holding a lunchtime stall for 2 weeks outside of the
canteen to sell our work. This has been a lot of fun for all involved.
Another special event we have been involved in is the Christmas tree festival at St Mary’s
church in Stafford. For this event we dressed a tree in the Cambodia flag colours and it was
displayed in the church for a week, and was seen by many people within the community. The
tree can now be seen in the DAC Centre.
We have many more fundraising ideas coming up so please watch this space and thank you all
for the support so far!
Mrs Sarah March – Cambodia 2016 Team
Sir Graham Balfour School raised an
amazing £1,100 for the BBC Children in
Need appeal this year. Students were
asked to dress up as a Super Hero for the
day! Cakes, sweets and Pudsey merchandise
were available to buy and the finale of the
day was water bombing some of the
teachers! Well done to our School
Parliament children who organised and
participated in running all of the events.
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6th Form Charity Fundraising - Well done to the 6th form with their ongoing charity
fundraising, they have already hosted three events since September; a Macmillan Coffee
morning - £96.23, a Katherine House Hospice cake sale - £89.30, and more recently a
Christmas Disco organised by Charlotte Jones in aid of Birmingham Children’s Hospital. As
well as inviting Year 7 students, the Disco was also well attended by a large number of
Primary School children and featured a real life Father Christmas! It was truly a festive
treat for everyone who attended.
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We say fond farewells to Mrs Dean (Food Technology) and Mrs Tinsley (Maths). Mrs Dean is
retiring and looking forward to driving her new convertible car, and Mrs Tinsley is taking up a
new post in Newport, Shropshire. We wish both very well as they take their next steps.
Joining us from January will be Mr Lawson in Food, Mrs Jones and Mrs Masunga in Maths.
We very much look forward to their arrival.
We would like to say a warm and heartfelt thank you to our parents and carers for all the
support you give your children and the school. This partnership is essential to the
development of all our students and therefore we remain extremely grateful for the support
you give us in making sure your children turn up to school on time, that they are in correct
uniform, that they are prepared to learn throughout the day and that they have completed
homework to the best of their ability. Our key focus in school is to do all we can to raise the
standards of teaching, learning and progress for all students – we could not do this without
your help.
The Staff and Governors of Sir Graham Balfour School extend to you Seasons Greetings: a
very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Mrs Lesley Beck
(Deputy Head Teacher)
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