House Drama Competition - Year 7, 8 and 9

It's nearly time for Bake Off to start again on our screens, so to kick things off we'd like you to get involved in the first House event of the year- The Theatre Design Challenge! You need to make a famous theatre of your choice out of food and take a photograph of it with your name and house. You could use cake, pasta, cheese - anything you can find! Each entry will receive 5 house points for participating. There will be top prizes for the most inventive and creative theatre designs. All entries must be submitted by Friday 25th September and sent to Mrs Hardacre hardacrec@mysandstorm.org. Best of luck!

PAC - Performing Arts Club - Year 7, 8 and 9

We can't wait to get our clubs running again! We are excited to announce that we will be starting a new club for Performing Arts on Mondays after school. You will have the opportunity to experience Dance, Drama and Music on rotation throughout the term. Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis - so make sure you sign up quickly! Please check SOCS for the times/dates and rooms.

GCSE/A Level Drama and Theatre Rehearsals

Rehearsals have officially begun this week. Don't forget to wear your theatre blacks. GCSE (Year 11) are rehearsing in J1/2/3 on Wednesdays. A Level (Year 13) rehearsals are on Thursdays in J1/2/3. 

Drama Uniform - GCSE/ A Level 

We will shortly be putting in a new order for uniform, so if you would like to purchase a T-Shirt or Sweatshirt please check ParentPay and submit by Monday 21st September.

The new Senior Team in Year 13 is already making great progress in their identified areas of development. On Tuesday this week, they published the first issue of The Sandpost - a student newspaper which they have written and edited by themselves. This was distributed to all students in Years 10-13 this week and we would encourage all of them to take a look! They are currently compiling the October issue and are considering writing a parallel edition for younger year groups.

Year 12 continue to settle very well into Sixth Form study and are getting to grips with the demands of A level and Level 3 courses. The final deadline for making any subject swaps is next Friday (25th Sept). 

Year 13 have received their UCAS predicted grades this week to help to inform them about refining application choices. We are continuing to work on personal statements, and teachers are starting to write overall references. Mrs Boost is also continuing to work with students who have told us that they want to look at apprenticeship applications. 

This academic year, our school calendar has a theme each week which forms part of the Personal Development curriculum. These themes have been chosen to recognise a celebration, UN day, religious holiday or school event and time will be spent educating the students about key world events. 

This week our theme has been Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (18th-20th of September). Students have learnt more about the meaning behind this religious holiday and have been encouraged to reflect on what positive things they can do in the spirit of Rosh Hashanah. It has been fantastic for our students to learn more about the religious practices of some in the school community and hear some students inform others about their faith. Find out about next week’s theme in the next edition on the Sandprint!

We have featured some MFL news and Music News so this week we turn to the Arts and Eirian W in Year 9 for our Student Spotlight.

Eirian recently came 2nd place in the YC Herts Summer Art Competition with her picture of the eye/freedom balloon and the clean earth dream.

It is a beautiful picture and we look forward to seeing the other fantastic art work Eirian and our other Sandringham students produce this year.

If you would like your child featured in the Sandprint, please include a short piece of text and/or a photograph that you are happy to include to admin@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

As you may be aware using an electric scooter on the public highway is currently illegal.

HCC have contacted us to ask that we bring this to the attention of students and parents as the police in Hertfordshire are taking action when they observe electric scooters being used. Such action is likely to result in the electric scooter being seized by the police.

While the following press release relates to Dacorum, students should not assume similar action would not be taken in St Albans so please be aware if your child has an electric scooter. Thank-you for your assistance.

https://www.herts.police.uk/news-and-appeals/Police-issue-warning-over-illegal-riding-of-e-scooters-Dacorum-0473D

Every week the Maths department publish a puzzle for you to try. You can find the puzzle in the Sandprint or on the screens around school. For every entry you will receive 1 housepoint, if you answer correctly you will win 2 housepoints and if you are the fastest person to answer the puzzle correctly then you will win 5 housepoints! To enter, simply scan the QR code and fill out the google form.  Good luck! 

Instrumental and Vocal Lessons

We are really pleased that we have been able to welcome back Mr Peck, Mrs Bookbinder, Mr Buckingham and Mr Horton this week for instrumental lessons. It was wonderful to hear the sound of musical instruments being played filling the corridors. Next week we will also be welcoming back Mr Spinelli and Mr Parks. If your child has lessons with any of these teachers, please remind them to check the noticeboard carefully for their lesson times.

For our new year 7 students who have registered for lessons, we hope to be able to begin communicating information over the next week about when first lessons will take place. Please bear with us whilst we work through this. It has been a huge undertaking to bring back our teachers safely.

Extra-curricular music clubs

Some of our music ensembles held their first socially distanced rehearsals this week which was wonderful. Please encourage your child to collect a timetable from the music faculty to check which weeks their year groups should attend.

Our clubs are also now listed on the new SOCS system, so please do use this to sign up for our groups.

Each week, you will notice that we publish a ‘Word of the Week’ in the Sandprint. I thought I would take the time to explain our reasons for doing this. As teachers, we know that part of our job is teach our students the language of academic success. The words that are chosen are words that students are likely to encounter across all subjects and topics at school, but may not be words that are part of their everyday vocabulary. The words also feature in articles from ‘The Day’ that students are reading as part of the Personal Development curriculum. As well as introducing students to these words, we define the words, look at words with similar and opposite meanings and explore where the word derives from.

In order to reinforce this, it would be great if you could discuss with your child the ‘Word of the Week’ and ask them to explain their understanding of the word and how they might use it in their own vocabulary. They could even write some sentences using the word, or draw a picture to represent the word! Thank you for your support.

The apps and services every parent/carer should know about.

It’s a hard task for most parents/carers to keep up with all of the apps and services children use online. Some will be familiar to you already, some less so, but all are worth knowing about. If you take an interest in the things your child enjoys doing, they’re far more likely to open up to you in the event that something goes wrong. Within the school curriculum, we talk about safe practices when using social media platforms. However, students, are unable to access said applications whilst in school. With this in mind, we would like to share with you ParentZone’s brief guides to Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp and Skype - https://www.parents.parentzone.org.uk/morearticles/the-6-apps-and-services-that-every-parent-should-know-about

Deadline for the World Class Schools Essay Writing Competition:

The deadline is fast approaching so please email your essays to nichollsa@mysandstorm.org by Monday 21st September. If you are struggling to complete your work by this date or would benefit from a conversation before you submit your writing, please email me as I am happy to help. We are looking forward to reading your entries and celebrating the wonderful writing of Sandringham students. You will receive feedback by Friday 2nd October, following a meeting of the judging panel to make their final decision.

If students need to rent a locker for this school year or buy small and large book covers, you will need to purchase these on Parent pay NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER.

After this date, the option to purchase will be withdrawn. The school shop is closed due to Covid restrictions. Thank you

We are excited to be back in the studio dancing again with most of our groups- we have missed you all! There are a few exceptions with larger groups, where we need to follow the guidance given to dance studios and limit the number of students dancing in the space at one time, and therefore are using larger venues in the school. We can't wait to get our clubs running again. As you can appreciate this is on a much smaller scale than last year but we are so grateful to at least be running dance clubs and seeing you again in the studio.  

Clubs

We are excited to announce that we will be starting a new Performing Arts club on Mondays after school for Years, 7,8 and 9 students. You will have the opportunity to experience Dance, Drama and Music on rotation throughout the term, so why not give it a try!  We also have Senior Dance Club on Thursdays for Years 10,11,12 and 13. Anyone is welcome to join and we look forward to dancing and teaching you a range of styles, techniques and routines. Spaces are limited for clubs and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis - so make sure you sign up quickly via the SOCS system found on mysandstorm home page.

Please note, students attending the club will need to be wearing their Sandringham dance kit or PE kit along with jazz/ballet shoes or grip socks. We are no longer aloud bare feet! Any questions please see the notice on the googleclassrooms or see Miss Meeking in the dance office.

GCSE/A Level Dance Rehearsals

The choreography paper was released this week for Year 11 and Year 13 students who will being rehearsals on Tuesday’s or Wednesday’s after school in the coming weeks. Don't forget to wear your dance kit and grip socks.

Dance Uniform – Year 9-13

We will shortly be putting in a new order for uniform, so if you would like to purchase any of the dance kit (new items added this year) then please check the link on your child’s googleclassroom and make your payment via ParentPay by Friday 25th September.

Our new Careers Hub in the Learning Resource Centre in K-block is now open! There is a wealth of resources for students to use during break and lunch time on their allocated year group bubble day – most are reference only, but some can be loaned out via the LRC staff.

Nicky Honeywell, Personal Advisor from YC Hertfordshire, will be providing one-to-one careers information, advice, guidance and support in the Careers Hub every Thursday. This service is provided by the school as part of our careers provision and is available to all students in Years 9 and above. Students can make an appointment at the LRC or email admin@sandringham.herts.sch.uk. Priority will be given to students in Years 11 and 13 this half term, but all students wanting to see Nicky will have the opportunity to do so as soon as possible.

S10, the Sixth Form study room, is named after Plato whom we believe showed Initiative in his pivotal role in the development of Western philosophy.

Plato was born in 428BC in Ancient Greece and was educated in philosophy, poetry and gymnastics by distinguished Athenian teachers.

He enjoyed travelling and through this learnt more about the world and the culture and politics of other societies.

Socrates was his teacher and later in his life, Plato went on to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and Science with his student Aristotle

The Academy, built in 388BC, was the first University of Europe and became the model for many more around the world .

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of light.”

A polite reminder that parents should not visit the site unless they have an appointment or have been called to the school to collect a child who is unwell. In the case of the latter, parents will be asked to remain in the car and wait for the child to be brought out to them. Please refrain from bringing in forgotten items so that we can minimise the amount of people on the site during the school day. Many thanks

During certain and uncertain times our school always has chairs available for us to use in every room. However, in our link school in Farafenni, they do not have enough chairs to use in their school hall when they want. They either have to move chairs for other parts of the school or hire them in. We want to change this.

For only five pounds you can help to change this by sponsoring a chair which will be given to the school in the Gambia. If you are interested in this worthy cause, you can do so via parentpay.Thanks for your help.

SAUSAGE SIZZLE CANCELLED

Fo$S were hoping to be able to host a social event to welcome families of Y7 students to Sandringham. This was to be the Sausage Sizzle on 18th September. However, unfortunately due to the social distancing restrictions and tighter government guidelines around social gatherings, it will not be possible to stage this event. Fo$S are very sorry not to be able to meet you and enable you to meet other families and will look to organise something at a later date once restrictions are eased.

A warm welcome from the Fo$S team to you all and please look out for future Fo$S events in the weekly newsletter.

D is for… democracy [noun]

Definition:    A form of government in which people choose leaders by voting.

An organisation or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights.

Example:  Freedom and democracy had defeated fascism.

Synonyms:  Equality, Freedom, Justice

Antonyms:  Unfairness

Etymology :  From the Greek word ‘dēmokratia’, from ‘dēmos’ meaning the people and ‘kratia’ meaning power or rule.

This has been another great week of practice and much hard work has gone into developing students' skill and fitness in a range of sports. All sporting extra curricular fixtures are still on hold, which looks to have been extended until at least half term. A number of associations and governing bodies have made plans to come back after this, however we’ll wait and see and always ensure the safety of our students and staff. The Extra Curricular practices are now all available online using our new SOCS system. A letter went home about the use of this so please refer to this when booking.

For more news, fixtures, team sheets and results don’t forget to follow us @SandringhamPE on Twitter and at www.sandringhamsport.co.uk

Entertainment doesn’t get bigger than this! There are fabulous tap-dancing numbers and classic Broadway songs 42nd Street, We’re in The Money, Lullaby of Broadway, Shuffle Off to Buffalo, Dames, and I Only Have Eyes for You. Receiving 5-star reviews, 42nd Street is praised on the quality of the performances, staging and choreography. Tickets £13.50/£10

The multi-award winning and critically acclaimed Lincoln Center Theatre’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I recorded live at London’s iconic Palladium returns to the big screen. Set in 1860s Bangkok, the musical tells the story of the unconventional and tempestuous relationship that develops between the King of Siam and Anna, a British schoolteacher whom the modernist King, in an imperialistic world, brings to Siam to teach his many wives and children. Tickets £13.50/£10

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Following Government guidelines, you must wear a face covering while attending The SandPit Theatre unless you are exempt as stated in these guidelines. If you do not wear a mask you will be refused entry and your ticket will be forfeited. Our café will be open during these screenings for drinks and snacks but please note we will only be accepting card payments.

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The box office is open from 11.30am – 3.30pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively, you can call us on 01727 799565 or visit www.sandpittheatre.co.uk

We hope everyone is keeping well. Through September and October, we have lots of exiting screenings coming to The SandPit, including; 42nd Street the Musical, Kinky Boots, Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes, and The King & I. We look forward to opening our doors again safely and to see you all again.

After successful Broadway and West End runs, and a UK tour, Kinky Boots The Musical is strutting its way onto the big screen! It was filmed live at the magnificent Adelphi Theatre in the heart of London’s West End, and stars the original West End leads, Killian Donnelly as Charlie and Olivier Award-winner, Matt Henry as Lola. Kinky Boots has won the Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical as well as three WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Musical, Best Actor in a Musical and Best Choreography. Tickets £13.50/£10

Matthew Bourne’s gorgeous take on the film classic comes to cinemas for the first time. Winner of two Olivier Awards, The Red Shoes is an utterly enthralling. The tale of obsession, possession and one girl's dream to be the greatest dancer in the world. Victoria Page lives to dance but her ambitions become a battleground between the two men who inspire her passion. Tickets £13.50/£10