New sports centre opens at Simon Balle School

The official opening of a new sports centre at Simon Balle School took place on Wednesday 30th April.

The new 700 sqm Sports Centre will create a flexible space to provide for a wide variety of sports, including cricket, indoor football and hockey. As well as being an addition to the school’s existing sports facilities, it will also provide space that can be hired by local sports clubs and organisations.

Co-Headteachers Rachel Kirk and Michael Moss gathered in front of the new reception entrance with staff and students from all year groups to celebrate the building’s completion.

Ellie Newman, Head of PE,  said: "This space is more than just a new building. This is an exciting opportunity to enhance the school's PE curriculum, to develop our extracurricular provision and to raise the profile and standard of sport at Simon Balle; helping to push performance and to build strong teams and individuals. Perhaps one day, a future Olympian will say it all began right here. We want all our students to enjoy being active, to challenge themselves, and to have fun doing it. We hope this facility will be a place where students try new sports, build confidence, and discover new passions."

Tracy Fisher from the Special Olympics East Herts Chiefs Basketball Club said: "We have been established for around 14 years and cater for players with intellectual disabilities of mixed ages and genders. We train weekly and enter regional, national and international competitions; we even have Olympic gold medallists in our squad.  

We have had to move venues several times, which can be upsetting for some of our players and we are so excited to be able to hire the new Elm Sports Centre at Simon Balle. We were so impressed with this state-of-the-art sports facility, especially the backboards and hoops! It can be extremely difficult to find facilities to hire in the area so this will make a massive difference to our club knowing that we have found our forever basketball home."

The new Centre opened to the public on the 1st May, offering the community a first glimpse of this modern sports resource. The PE Department ran live demonstrations to showcase the new facilities and school’s sporting expertise, including trampolining, basketball and badminton. Builders of the Centre R G Carter, Saunders Architects and staff from the school were also on hand to discuss the building’s journey, from concept to completion.

The building was designed using materials that blend in with the school’s natural surroundings. The facades feature bronze perforated cladding which forms a decorative elm tree woodland surround, reflected in name of the Centre.

Located at the front of the existing school, the centre can be easily accessed out-of-hours, with the new reception providing a welcoming new main entrance for both visitors to the school and access for the community.

Simon Balle School is an all-through co-educational school, which provides primary and secondary teaching facilities.

The project was funded by the Department for Education (DfE), through the Condition Improvement Fund.