D4, one of the English rooms, is named after Margaret Atwood whom we believe showed confidence in her writing by exploring women's struggles and environmental issues.

Atwood was born on 18th November 1939 and raised in Ottawa, Canada. She did not attend a full year of school until she was about 13 years old but went on to graduate from the University of Toronto and Harvard University.

She is a poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, inventor and an outspoken advocate for environmental issues.

Her most notable achievements are her books especially The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments of which the former has been made into a hugely successful TV series.

Atwood is the first author to contribute to The Future Library Project, which will take one writer’s contribution each year for the next hundred years to be printed in the year 2114. Scottish artist Katie Paterson conceived the project and planted a forest of trees in Norway that will be harvested to print the books.

“A word after a word after a word is power.”

A huge congratulations to Sophie A (13E) who has just passed her Grade 8 flute exam with a merit.

Getting to such a high level takes a great amount of commitment so well done to Sophie on her success. 

If you would like your child to be featured under the Student Spotlight section please email admin@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

Last week two of our former Y13 Spanish students, Freddie and Rebecca, came back to talk to our current Y12s and Y13s about their gap year experience working for our link school, LAUDE Palacio de Granda in the north of Spain. Four of our students have now spent a year there before starting university (and one is currently there). They have all come back to tell us how life changing it has been for them and have inspired the next group of students to do the same. This has given them the opportunity to not only become fluent in Spanish, but also gain countless life skills by living and working in a foreign country. Freddie and Rebecca loved working with the children at the school and being able to help them with their English and other skills, as well as working with the staff, who were very supportive. They also joined sports teams, participated in local tournaments and made friends for life. The best experience of their lives they said! We are grateful to LAUDE Palacio de Granda for providing such an enriching opportunity for our students. We are very proud of them for being such great ambassadors of our school community and wish them all the best for their start to university.

“Hearing from Rebecca about the amazing opportunity to live and work in Spain was so inspiring and has made me very excited for the future! It sounds like a truly unmissable experience and I cannot wait to apply.” Lottie Y13

The St Albans Music School Jazz Collective

St Albans Music school are running a  new St Albans Music School Jazz Collective! This aims to build one large jazz student community covering all instruments, with opportunities to perform solo, in small groups, in larger ensembles and as an entire collective. Membership entitles you to access all online materials, invites you to attend county wide jazz projects (online and face to face) and gives you the opportunity to perform at SAMS Jazz Collective gigs - as a soloist or in your own band. Options are as follows:

Birdland Band membership (aimed at woodwind, brass, guitar, piano, bass & drums players grade 1-5) entitles you to online resources plus face to face sessions weekly (Thursday 6.30-7.30), with performance opportunities at selected SAMS events.

Vanguard Band membership  (aimed at sax, brass and guitar, piano, bass & drums players grade5+)  entitles you to a weekly face-to-face or online session (Thursday 8.00-9.00), multiple performance opportunities and membership of Herts Youth Jazz Ensemble (who perform annually at Herts Jazz Festival) and have a project with NYJO coming up this year.

Check out www.hertsmusicservice.org.uk/sams-jazz for a preview and a great video on playing with blues scales or sign up for FREE, please email HertsJazz@hertfordshire.gov.uk

Please may we remind parents/carers that Student Services can no longer accept any forgotten equipment or books. Please check that your child has everything they need for their day in school before they leave the house to avoid them being given a consequence for forgotten items.

If your child has an appointment which requires them to leave during the school day, the Student must come to Student Services to sign out and then please organise to meet them in the car park. We are requesting parents/carers do not come into Student Services.

Many thanks for your continued support.

A polite reminder that the parking facilities at the back of Malvern Close (the flats next to Sandringham School) should not be used by parents who are coming to pick their children up from school. This area is for residents only and should not be used by parents. Additionally, students should not be using the entrances of the flats as a cut through. Please could you be mindful of the residents around Sandringham School when dropping off and collecting your children. Thank you for your co-operation in this matter. 

Performing Arts Club:

This week in Drama, Performing Arts Club began with the year 8 students. The club is a new club across the Arts and each week students can get involved in dance, music or drama on a rotational basis. Over 20 students attended and we had great fun performing modern versions of fairy tales. I have to say, the performances that were created were hilarious to watch and I can't wait for the next club session on Monday 12th October. 

If you would like to attend Performing Arts Club then you can sign up online. Speak to one of the Arts teachers or your tutor for more info! 

House Drama Competition 

The results will be announced shortly for the winner of the House Drama Theatre Design Challenge! We've had lots of AMAZING entries so far. There are a lot of talented bakers out there! Some of you have asked for a little more time to create your theatre, so we're going to extend this challenge until 9am on Monday 28th Sept . You have the weekend to get making or baking! Please send your completed entry to hardacrec@mysandstorm.org. You will receive 5 house points just for entering! The grand prize is 100 house points! What a fantastic way to start the year if your house wins!

All of our virtual presentation evening videos are posted on our YouTube Channel which can be accessed via our website. These include our Live Virtual Open Evening And Open Morning Tours and some specific presentations for different year groups.  https://sandringham.herts.sch.uk/virtual-presentation-evenings/

If you like our presentations, we would be most grateful if you could ‘subscribe’ to our YouTube channel.  www.youtube.com/SandringhamYouTube 

This will enable us to create and post more live, informative  and exciting content in the future. Many thanks. 

For the whole school theme this week we recognised International Peace Day (21st of September). In 1981, the UN General Assembly declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire. Students reflected throughout the week about conflicts that are occuring around the world and what we can do to promote peaceful ideals. It was fantastic to see students considering what we could do to be more compassionate towards the views and situations of others.

As a school, we have been trying to increase our sustainability over the last few years, but this year we would like to make even more progress. We have three aims which we would like to focus on in coming months:

• Increase student awareness about the global issues of sustainability and the need for action.
• Further improve aspects of the school environment to improve sustainability.
• Encourage individuals and families to change aspects of their lifestyle to reduce their carbon footprint and help to improve the local environment.

We will be looking at how to integrate education about sustainability within the curriculum, and will be running special projects throughout the year. The first priority is to establish a student group to work on ideas. Some students in the Sixth Form senior committee are already engaged, and we will be recruiting the SLT group for Sustainability in coming weeks.

Updates about our work will be published regularly in the Sandprint, and we hope to run some projects to involve whole families and the community.  

As we start to focus on these ideas, I would encourage you all to catch up with David Attenborough’s programme ‘Extinction: The facts’, available on BBC iPlayer. This underpins the urgency in our actions and clearly highlights the importance of sustainability.

Every week the Mathemtaics Faculty 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

With the need for social distancing on buses, both the council and commercial operators are running duplicate services on busy school routes. These routes are closed routes for students only. Where a school duplicate bus service is provided, it may be operated by a different company and may run up to five minutes earlier than the scheduled service; it is clearly marked as a duplicate / school only service.

Whilst social distancing is required when travelling on local bus services for the general public and students, it is not required on a duplicate service exclusively for students. It is however mandatory for young people to wear a face covering (unless exempt) on the duplicate buses as well as general bus services.

You can find plan your journey and find latest timetables at https://www.intalink.org.uk/plan-your-journey

To find out which services will be running a duplicate bus service visit: https://www.intalink.org.uk/duplicateschoolservices

What a busy week it has been for Year 7! Well done to all of the students for completing their CATS and English PT assessments on Thursday (A Half) and Friday (B Half).

The Year Group Challenge for Dingbats had some interesting responses, but the winners are… 7E. Congratulations and house points are coming your way.

Lots of clubs have started back this week and it has been great to see so many of you getting involved. Why not try a new club next week?

Don’t forget to sign up on our new portal, SOCS. If you change your mind, you must remove yourself from the list which will allow someone else to have the opportunity to join.

Finally, Year 7’s first House Competition is the Drama Bake Off! Get involved to win lots of House Points for your House (and also an excuse to make lots of cake!). Deadline for photos is Monday 28th September. Happy Baking

Join us on Twitter for more Year 7 news. Username= SandClassof2020

This week, we are encouraging Year 12 students to get involved with enrichment and the wider life of the school. Some of our usual opportunities are not available at the moment, such as Year 7 reading support and volunteering in the local community. However, there are plenty of other activities on offer. This Friday is the deadline for the Senior Prefects applications and we hope that a large number of students will apply. From this group, we hope to have several project groups to work with the Year 13 senior committee on areas such as equality, sustainability and supporting younger year groups.

The Young Enterprise scheme is also underway, with 25 keen students involved. They will be forming a company to trade for the year and have their first online competition on 7th October.

The Year 13 Senior Committee continue their plans and activities, they are currently working out a virtual buddy scheme for Year 7 and will be leading activities in October for Black History Month. 

Enrichment is very important to us in the Sixth Form and we encourage all students to get involved in something to suit them!

PAC – Performing arts Club

It was a fantastic start to the new performing arts club, PAC, which allows us to continue to offer drama, dance and music clubs within year group bubbles. Ensure you sign up via the SOCS app and don’t forget to cancel the booking if you can no longer attend as we do have waiting lists for some groups. Please can I remind you that normal school rules do apply to clubs, even though we are having lots of fun. Students will also only wear pe/dance kit on the week they have dance, for drama and music students still wear school uniform.

We also have a google classroom for students to access resources and notices from the club so please encourage students to sign up using the codes below.

Year 7 = egwt5te

Year 8 = 7uglwpu

Year 9 = wukwfft

Dance Uniform

There has been a delay in putting out the dance uniform order but the googleform has now gone out to students via their lesson googleclassroom or club googleclassroom. Please check sizes carefully when placing your order on the googleform, we cannot offer a refund or alternative sizes. The new deadline for ordering uniform is Wednesday 30th September with the payment deadline on Friday 2nd October via parentpay.

A Message from Hertfordshire Music Service:

Start your musical journey with instrumental music lessons with our school’s music provider, Hertfordshire Music Service. Sign up today for music lessons in schools and music centres across Hertfordshire. HMS tutors will be teaching face to face or online and every effort has been taken to ensure both tutors and pupils are kept safe in line with guidance. Sign up today:

 http://www.hertsmusicservice.org.uk/registeronline

A is for… abstract  [adjective]

Definition: Relating to or involving general ideas or qualities rather than specific people, objects, or actions.

Example: It is definitely an abstract design.

Synonyms: Hypothetical, Philosophical, Unreal

Antonyms: Real, Ignorant, Simple

Etymology: From the Latin word ‘abstractus’ meaning drawn away.

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

This highly engaging film takes us on a journey through the life of one of the most prevalent female icons: Frida Kahlo. She was a prolific self-portraitist, using the canvas as a mirror through all stages of her turbulent and, at times, tragic life. Guided with interview, commentary, and Frida’s own words, EXHIBITION ON SCREEN uncovers that this, however, was not a life defined by tragedy. Tickets £7/£5

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 during these screenings for drinks and snacks but please note we will only be accepting card payments.

***

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

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

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 1860’s 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 modest king, in an imperialistic world brings to Siam to teach his wives and children. Tickets £13.50/£10

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