Week in Pictures
From the Headmaster’s Study Dear Parents and Pupils, It has been another busy and enjoyable week at Ballard, one that has provided many opportunities to reflect on both our rich history and the vibrant life of the school today. Last weekend, it was a privilege to take part in the Heritage Tours and to learn more about the evolution of the school and its remarkable buildings. Through the generosity and vision of the Ubsdell family, and thanks to the wonderfully informative tours led by Miss Crook and Mr Rose, a vivid picture emerged of life on the site in the early 1900s. The care, craftsmanship and ambition invested in creating these beautiful buildings is striking, and it was fascinating to appreciate the significance they would have held within the local community at the time. I was delighted this week to welcome former Headmaster , Mr Reid, and his wife back to the school. It was a pleasure to hear his memories of Ballard during his tenure and to share with him some of the exciting developments taking place across the school today. Returning to the present day, this week has seen our first sports fixtures of the term. It has been terrific to see so many pupils representing the school in hockey, rugby and football. These cornerstone activities of our sports programme offer so much through nurturing teamwork, leadership, resilience and character. I am immensely proud of the competitive yet warm spirited manner in which our pupils conduct themselves, and of the expertise, encouragement and care shown by our coaches and teachers, whose approach places development and enjoyment firmly at the heart of the experience. As I write, I can see the Ferris wheel taking shape on the school grounds as preparations continue for Ballardfest . Enormous thanks to FOBS for their vision, hard work and care. This will be my first fest, and I am very much looking forward it. I hope to see many of you there. With best wishes, Mr Stuart Turner (Headmaster ))
Good Schools Guide “I am delighted to share the latest review by The Good Schools Guide. The Good Schools Guide is widely respected for its independent insight into schools, and we are thrilled that it has captured so many of the qualities that make Ballard such a special place. From our commitment to providing bespoke education, to our strong sense of community, exceptional pastoral care, academic ambition and rich co -curricular opportunities, the review reflects the unique experience we strive to provide for every child. Set within the beautiful surroundings of the New Forest, Ballard is a place where pupils are encouraged to flourish, develop confidence and discover their potential. What particularly pleased me is the way the review recognises the dedication, warmth and hard work of our pupils, staff and families. Together, they create the vibrant and supportive community that sits at the heart of the school. I hope you enjoy reading the review and that it offers a valuable insight into the caring, ambitious and forward looking community we are privileged to be part of.”
Mr Stuart Turner (Headmaster) You may read the full review here.
Ballard Reading Weeks Are Coming! "We are delighted to introduce Ballard Reading Weeks, an exciting new initiative designed to celebrate the joy of reading across our school community. Taking place once every half term, each Reading Week will be hosted by a different department and will shine a spotlight on the many ways reading enriches our learning, creativity and understanding of the world.
Our very first Ballard Reading Week begins on Monday, 21st September and will be hosted by Miss Crook and the History Department . Throughout the week, pupils can look forward to a range of exciting activities, competitions and reading challenges, all designed to inspire a love of reading while exploring fascinating historical stories, figures and events. In this initial phase, the Reading Weeks are aimed at Year 6 to Year 11 pupils. However, we hope to extend the initiative to all pupils across the school in the coming months, allowing even more of our community to take part and celebrate the power of reading. Keep an eye out for further details and get ready for a week full of literary adventure!" Ms Carly Maughan (Head of English)
BallardFest It is here! We cannot wait to enjoy all that BallardFest has to offer and look forward to sharing some highlights with you next week.
Careers - Year 9 1:1s This term, we are pleased to be working with Ian and Grace from EBP South, our Careers Advisors, who are currently meeting with our Year 9 pupils for individual careers guidance appointments. These one -to-one meetings are designed to help pupils explore their interests, strengths and skills, consider their GCSE options and begin thinking about the different pathways available to them after Year 11. Pupils are encouraged to think about how they like to learn, what they enjoy and how their choices could link to future opportunities, while recognising that they do not need to have their future career mapped out at this stage. Following each appointment, pupils will have an individual action plan on Unifrog. This will record the key points discussed and provide suggested next steps, resources and areas for further exploration. Pupils, parents and teachers will all be able to access these action plans through Unifrog, helping everyone to support pupils as they work towards making informed decisions about their GCSE options and future pathways. The action plans also signpost pupils towards useful careers resources, including career exploration, college and apprenticeship information, work experience ideas and opportunities to continue researching their interests. As Careers Lead, Laura Rothwell is continuing to develop our whole -school careers programme, ensuring that careers education, guidance and experiences are embedded throughout pupils' time at Ballard. We look forward to sharing more opportunities with pupils and families throughout the year. You may view the video here.
STEM @ Ballard
Exploring Tens and Ones This week, Year 2 has been developing their understanding of place value by partitioning two -digit numbers into tens and ones. They used concrete resources, including Base 10 equipment and part -whole models, to build their confidence before progressing to pictorial representations of tens and ones.
Animal Teeth Year 4 has been learning about why animals have different teeth in their Science lessons. They discussed animal diets and looked at real skulls to work out what animals they were and what they eat.
Year 6 Create Blood Year 6 is learning about the circulatory system and why we need blood. They looked at what components are present and what their jobs are. We then made blood in the lab using food items such as dyed Cheerios , marshmallows, yellow liquid, raisins and rice. They then had to suggest which bits represented the plasma, red and white blood cells and the platelets.
Photography is Now on the Curriculum! Year 8 DT photographers took to the school grounds this week to put our brand -new Design & Technology cameras through their paces. Focusing on colour, pupils explored the fine details and intricate textures of nature, capturing everything from leaf veins to bark patterns up close. In Photography Club, each pupil was given a colour, they then had to go out into the school grounds and find those colours. A huge thank you to FOBS for kindly funding this fantastic new equipment, it’s already inspiring our young creatives to see the school and grounds through a whole new lens!
Year 11 Investigate Rate of Reaction How does temperature affect the speed of a chemical reaction? Year 11 put their practical skills to the test as they investigated the rate of reaction between hydrochloric acid and sodium thiosulphate. By changing the temperature and carefully timing how long it takes for the reaction mixture to turn cloudy, students will collect and analyse their own experimental data. They will then use their results to calculate the rate of reaction and investigate the relationship between temperature and reaction speed putting their practical, mathematical and analytical skills to work.
Arts @ Ballard
Junior Dance "Bravo to our Junior Dance Company for kickstarting this term with a bang! You have done amazingly, picking up new movement vocabulary at record breaking speed and expressing your unique personalities through each phrase of movement. Your enthusiasm is infectious and makes for the most mesmerising performances so keep smiling, shining and of course moving! Movement is medicine...good for the soul and for our physical health. Let's keep moving together in these upcoming weeks, our focus will be stamina, flexibility and of course fun! Why not invite friends as there are still some spaces available? " Miss Ebun -Cole (Dance Teacher )
People & Culture Year 8 pupils have made an excellent start to their new People & Culture project with a focused observational drawing exercise. Using either an image of a Geisha or a Shogun warrior mask as their starting point, pupils are developing their control of tonal graphite pencil techniques, with particular emphasis on texture, tone and fine detail.
GCSE Art GCSE Art work at Ballard continues to go from strength to strength, and we are delighted to now be able to publicly display and celebrate the exceptional work produced by last year's Year 11 cohort. Both the examination results and the standard of artwork achieved were outstanding. The work was extremely well received by the external moderator, who praised the pupils' ability to create rich and engaging personal visual journeys. We are incredibly proud of their achievements and the dedication, creativity and resilience demonstrated throughout the course.
Sport @ Ballard
Pre-Prep Football Club There was plenty of energy and excitement at our Year 1 and 2 Football Club this week. The children worked hard on their dribbling techniques, developing confidence and control when moving with the ball. The session concluded with 3v3 mini games, where pupils demonstrated excellent effort, teamwork, and a growing understanding of the game. It was wonderful to see so many smiles and a real love of football on display.
Running Club Tuesday morning Running Club enjoyed a glorious start to the day, with 16 pupils from Years 6 -11 taking to our cross-country trails in the 07:40 sunshine for an energising Fartlek session. It was fantastic to see such a strong turnout, with all runners working hard and embracing the challenge before the school day had even begun.
Hockey Festival A great afternoon for U16 Girls Hockey Sevens Festival, bringing local schools together to compete in a round robin tournament. The girls worked really hard throughout the festival, showing great commitment to the ball, excellent teamwork and a positive attitude in every match. It was fantastic to see the players supporting one another and enjoying the opportunity to play against different opposition. The results were close with only two points separating first and second place! 1st Bryanston 2nd Ballard A 3rd Priestlands 4th Ballard Pink 5th Ballard Red 6th QE
"Well done to all of the girls that played, you should feel proud of the efforts you have shown. A great way to start the hockey season!" Miss Bottell (Head of Girls' PE)
Co -Curricular Club of the Week - Off Road Cycling Providing an opportunity to explore the beautiful natural surrounds of the New Forest and Hampshire coast on road bikes - planning routes, finding quiet roads and improving endurance, developing basic bike maintenance skills. Pupils will need their own road bike, cycling helmet and a positive attitude is essential. A decent level of cycling fitness is preferable for the 45 mins of continuous ride. There may be a minimal cost for maintenance items towards the end of term. Available to Years 8 – 10 on Mondays 4:15pm – 5.00pm
Life @ Ballard
Wraparound Care We are delighted to help our parents with wraparound care options for all year groups from Year 1 to Year 11. The extra provision runs from 7.30am to 8.30am in the morning and 5.00pm to 6.00pm in the evening. Manned by Ballard staff, these sessions can be regular or ad hoc, depending on availability. Each session needs to be pre-booked and includes breakfast (cereal, toast and fruit) in the morning or a light tea (sandwiches, crisps, fruit and flapjack) after school, at a cost of £4.00 per session.
Booking is available as follows: Regular Spaces: Ballard Wraparound Care – Regular Space 2026/27 - Fill in Form Ad hoc Spaces: Ballard Wraparound Care – adhoc space Autumn Term – Fill in Form
Nursery Book Bags This week was the launch of the Ballard Bookbags with a beautiful Ballard Library Book to share for the week.
Where Did I Land? Year 2 was playing a game of, 'Where did I land?' as part of their introduction to their topic on Australia by throwing the beach ball to one another in small groups. They had to identify whether they were touching land or water and what the equator and northern and southern hemisphere were. It opened up to a lot of discussion and information sharing.
Exploring the Past Pupils in 4DWI explored the WW2 suitcases as they read about the evacuation away from London in Chapter 1 of Friend or Foe. There were artefacts from the time (1939 -1945) and fun outfits to try on.
Off to Sierra Leone The 20ft Sierra Leone container with 9.6 tonnes of school equipment is now in Southampton Docks. All paper work has been completed with customs and it is ready to go. It has been allocated the ship called the "Express Brazil". Built in 2010, she is flagged out of Malta and spends most of her time in the Atlantic. She is 222 meters long and 32 meters across her beam. Cruising speed is 15 20 knots and she draws about 8m of depth in the water. Her max carrying capacity is up to 3,510 shipping containers. Further details on the ship can be found bellow along with a tracking function so we can watch her every step of the way to West Africa. EXPRESS BRAZIL (IMO 9443023), Container Ship | Position & specs She will dock in Southampton 23:00 tonight. She will be loaded over the weekend and then sail Monday 21/09/26. She is expected to dock in Freetown Sierra Leone on 26/10/26. We will keep you updated on her progress.
Sherborne House Visit Mr Turner and Mrs Legg, our Registrar, visited Sherborne House school in Chandlers Ford this week. They were delighted to meet several prospective families, and we look forward to welcoming them to Ballard soon.
Visit of Former Headmaster It was a great pleasure to welcome former Headmaster, Mr Alister Reid, back to Ballard School, accompanied by Mrs Reid, for a recent visit. Mr Reid was on excellent form, and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to update him on life at Ballard today. In turn, he shared many interesting reminiscences and reflections on his time leading the school. During his visit, he toured the school with several Year 11 pupils, caught up with former colleagues, and sampled the all -important school lunch, which he was pleased to report remained of excellent quality and very much in keeping with the high standards he remembered. Mr Reid served as Headmaster from 2009 to 2018. During his tenure, he oversaw a number of important developments that helped shape the school. Perhaps the most visible of these was the construction of the Astro turf, a facility established under his leadership that continues to play a central role in our sports programme today. It was wonderful to welcome Mr Reid back to Ballard and to thank him for his significant contribution to the school’s history and continued success.