Drawing Week ‘A Climate of Change’ Prize Winners Announced!

Last week we were absolutely delighted to receive a letter from Sir David Attenborough commending our students on their remarkable work for this year’s drawing week ‘A Climate of Change’. We selected ten student pieces to send to Sir David Attenborough which we felt were wonderful examples from the many submitted. We also sent him a copy of our exhibition film created by Mrs Leto. We would like to extend our most sincere thanks to Sir David Attenborough for taking the time to write to us. We are incredibly grateful to him for recognising and commending the work of our students.

I am delighted to announce the ten submissions to Sir David Attenborough as our prize winners. Each will receive a folder containing a copy of the original letter and a copy of the letter from Sir David Attenborough which they can keep for their portfolios in the future. They will also receive some items for their art kit and a gold Visual Arts Young Leader badge as further recognition of their outstanding achievements from this important week. Well done to: Yukta C, Sophie T, Emma T and Laila in Year 12, Hywel J in Year 7, Freya B, Lauren D and Nico in Year 9, and Vivian and Jessica B in Year 8 . You should feel incredibly proud of this recognition and I do hope it inspires more wonderful creative work in the future.

Thank you again to all of the students who took part this week. Through creativity, we hope to have reflected the hopes of our young people, the key changes that need to be made and our shared responsibility to protect our planet.

The Winter Concert will take place next Monday 7th December at 7pm. This will be a fantastic showcase of our musical talent here at Sandringham School.

If you have already purchased your ticket for the Winter Concert, please check your emails on Monday evening. You will receive an email from the Sandpit Theatre with a link to be able to view the concert. This will be sent by 6pm on the evening so please check your inbox and junk mail.

If you haven't already purchased a ticket, please do so by Monday afternoon at 5pm at the very latest . This can be done via the Sandpit theatre box office at www.sandpittheatre.co.uk. The Music Faculty will not be able to manage access to latecomers as the event is all happening live so please be prompt signing in.

It is sure to be an amazing event and we look forward to seeing you virtually soon! 

H3, near the staff room, is named after Louis Braille for his invention of a tactile six-dot reading and writing system which revolutionised the way blind people were perceived and were able to contribute to the world.

Born on 4th January 1809, Braille suffered a major accident at the age of 3 whilst playing with a tool in his father's harness shop and by the age of 5, he had become blind. An attentive student, he attended the local school despite his difficulties seeing and aged 10, he received a scholarship to attend the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris.

Inspired by a talk given by Charles Barbier on his "Night Writing (raised dots on cardboard used to send written messages on battlefields by night,) Braille set about inventing a new system using six dots (three dots lined up in each of two columns) and assigning different combinations to different letters and punctuation marks. In 1829 he published the Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Songs by Means of Dots for Use by the Blind and Arranged for Them  and although his methods were not used straight away, they paved the way for a new system of communication.

Louis Braille died of tuberculosis at the age of 43, but his Braille system is one of the most common methods in the world to make sure that the blind are able to communicate through the written word and take advantage of all the knowledge contained. Through his invention, he was able to bring literacy, independence and productivity to the blind.

''Access to communication in the widest sense is access to knowledge''. 

Kooth provide a safe, secure online professional team of qualified counsellors, youth workers and emotional wellbeing practitioners aimed at 11-18 year olds. They offer wellbeing support 365 days a year and have a wellbeing team online Monday to Friday 12noon to 10pm and weekends 6-10pm. Kooth is free to access and children can use their services by visiting www.kooth.com and clicking ‘Join Kooth’. 

They have a vast range of self help material, peer to peer support and young people are able to contribute too. Everything is pre moderated in order to safeguard users so you know what your child is accessing is safe. If you have any questions, you can contact Kooth directly at parents@kooth.com  

Kooth also provide parent sessions, with the next Zoom session on Wednesday 16th December 2020 12 noon to 1pm. Simply type in the meeting ID on Zoom 983 7658 6646 at 12noon on the 16th December. 

The whole school theme this week is SMSC: Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development. Students were encouraged to reflect on how SMSC is developed throughout subjects in school and extracurricular activities. Each element presents essential skills that students are often explicitly building throughout their education, however, this week the importance of these skills was highlighted to ensure that all students know how these skills will impact their life beyond school. The whole school assembly was led by SMSC coordinator, Mrs Coy, where she challenged students to think about how they can build their SMSC in the current climate of lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions. It has been excellent to see students discussing their SMSC skills and we hope they continue to think about their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development in the future. 

Year 8 Drama Club

This week in Drama club we had so much fun filming and editing our spooky ghost stories – with a ‘twist’. The club has over 25 members and we meet every three weeks after school on a Monday as part of the Performing Arts rotation of clubs. It’s great to see so many students from Year 8 working with others that they maybe don’t see as much of during the school day. We used some of the outside areas around the school campus for our filming and even managed to scare a few staff members with our use of some spooky masks. We plan to share our films in the next club session. I can’t wait to see the final versions!

If you would like to attend the club then speak to Ms Malherbe in the drama office at lunch time for more information.

Thank you to everyone who attended the parents forum, we had over 60 people attend the virtual question and answer session. Also, thank you to all of you who took the opportunity to send in questions, without your questions it would not have been much of an event! And finally, thank you to Mr Gray, Mr Nicholls and Mrs Shaw for attending and answering all the questions. A full report will follow shortly.

The event was a great success and we are looking to repeat it in the Spring Term; parents, carers and the school found the forum to be both informative and enjoyable. The aim of hosting this event was to develop the role of the PTA by providing a direct means of communication between the school and parents and carers.

Coming Soon! 

To repeat the success of the quiz held last term, there will be a second Virtual Quiz on Thursday December 10th at 7pm. The Zoom login is 399 322 7841 and the password 12345. Parents, carers and children are encouraged to attend together especially for the Teacher’s Baby Photos round which will definitely require the student’s input! This is a free event for families aimed to provide some laughs. Those who attended last time will be pleased to note the return of the music round featuring our legendary kazoo player! We hope to see you all there.

Alison and the Team.

Sandringham School is a member of the Alban Federation partnership working in the area teacher training. Each year the Federation trains a large number of adults (55 trainees are currently following the programme in 2020/21), either straight from University or as career changers, and places them in a host school for the year to enable them to complete their training. All applications are submitted through UCAS (the University Admission System) and the application window is now open for courses starting in September 2021. Courses are available in both Primary and Secondary programmes, with salaries or bursaries available for suitably qualified candidates in many subjects.

If you are interested in becoming a teacher and would like general advice or specific guidance as to how to apply, please feel free to contact the Alban Federation team via email via afgtpenquiries@sandringham.herts.sch.uk or by phone on 01727 799560 Ext217.

Following the Year 8-10 photo shoot on 18th November, you should have received the proof of your child's individual photograph.  If you wish to do so, you can order these online at any time, but if you would like to order with a cheque, order forms must be returned to school by Tuesday 8th December.

The whole school theme last week was Aspiration. Both students and staff were rewarded with a shorter working week to make time for Learning Review Day. As part of this event, students were encouraged to reflect on what they are aspiring to achieve both within school and future study. It has been a difficult year for everyone so it was (and is) very important to spend time considering the wellbeing of all in the school community and give time to discussing the successes and challenges that we continue to face in our learning whilst simultaneously aspiring to make progress towards our goals. It was fantastic to have positive conversations about aspiration with both students and parents and we hope everyone had a very restful occasional day!

Thank you so much to everyone who donated sanitary products to the period poverty campaign. We received an incredible 300 donations. The students have organised and distributed the donations to a number of charities which include; GOAL for The Gambia, the Hygiene Bank and the Trussell Trust in the UK. We were so pleased with the generosity you have shown and we know that your donations will make a real difference to those who receive them.

To add to the ongoing discussion and action to tackle period poverty, you might have seen that last week Scotland ruled to make sanitary products free for anyone who needs them! Hopefully England will follow soon, but for the time being the law that schools in England can provide free sanitary products is still in place. If you need them, products can be picked up from student services or S-block for sixth formers.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Jess S, Sophie A, Anna L, Sophie Q and Lucy R for all their work coordinating this campaign and whole school assembly. I’m proud that our students are once again thinking of others and taking action to support those less fortunate.

STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - is celebrated, encouraged and explored at Sandringham with a range of opportunities.

Last year as part of our STEM work in D&T, we had the exciting opportunity to submit an entry for the Leonardo Fighting robot competition. We have had students from both Sandringham and Beaumont collaborating to design and make a robot to submit as part of this competition. Sandringham's Zach A, who has taken the lead on the project, commented that "this has been a great experience for me as I have had the chance to work with other people who share my same interests, to make something that few people would be able to."

The students are currently awaiting confirmation of when the competition will be rescheduled. But, looking at how well their robot has performed during their testing stage, I think we could be looking at a strong showing for these young inventors of the future. 

Christmas has arrived in the Sixth Form block, with three Christmas trees and some lights in our new shelter. We are hoping to bring a bit of fun and festive cheer at this time!

Year 13 students are still completing their UCAS applications, we have a few remaining to submit, but hope that they will all be complete by the Christmas holidays. The last two weeks are busy for university interviews, with a number of students having interviews for Oxbridge medicine and veterinary science, as well as a number of other courses. We wish them all the best of luck and thank all of the teachers, ex-students and parents involved in supporting our mock interview process.

Students in both Year 12 and 13 have also been supporting the Year 7 tree planting project and have enjoyed getting outside and planting a lot of trees. 

Finally, Young Enterprise have finalised their product and will be sharing it with the world next week - they have been working really hard and we are so impressed with their efforts - watch this space! 

Year 8 Tycoon in Schools

The Year 8 Tycoons are now selling tasty dog biscuit treats and catnip bags.

Why not treat your dog to some turkey and cranberry bones or tasty beef “dogestives” this Christmas! They will be available for £3.50 a pack in school on Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks!

A huge congratulations to Jack P in 10T who has been offered a place to play Clarinet in the Hertfordshire Schools' Symphony Orchestra for 2020/21. Working with experienced sectional tutors and internationally acclaimed conductors such as Chloe van Soeterstede, County Orchestras are renowned for delivering outstanding performances showcasing the breadth of young musical talent that Hertfordshire has to offer. A huge well done to Jack and we look forward to hearing more about this exciting opportunity as the year progresses.

If you would like your son/daughter to be featured in the Sandprint, please contact melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk with any details/ photographs that you would like included. 

FRENCH:    Le mot de la semaine :       réservé / timide     

SPANISH:    La palabra de la semana:    tímido/a OR modesto/a

GERMAN:    Das Wort der Woche:         schüchtern      

Thinking questions:

1. Some languages have a wider range of vocabulary than others – why?
2. Why do the Spanish adjectives have the masculine/feminine endings but the French don’t this week?
3. There is no exact translation of ‘demure’ in any of the languages – why could this be?

Friday 11th December is annual Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save the Children. We are encouraging all students to wear their Christmas jumpers as part of their school uniform with pride and donate £1 to this worthy cause (the Christmas jumper can be used to replace blazers and/or the standard school jumper but ties, shirt, trousers/skirts/PE kit must still be worn underneath).

During this time of great uncertainty, it is more important than ever to support charitable causes. For the first time ever we have organised a Christmas Jumper day competition where the best Christmas jumper from each house will earn house points and the best Christmas jumper from each year group will win a £5 voucher - so don't miss out! All donations can be made online via parent pay.

We are continuing to update our student records. If your child is currently receiving support from CAMHs or any other external agency to support their emotional wellbeing, could you please let the Student Wellbeing Manager, Emma Coyne, know by emailing emma.coyne@sandringham.herts.sch.uk 

Similarly, if your child has finished with CAMHs, please could you let us know so that we can update our records. 

Please could you do this by the end of term if possible.

As Christmas approaches, the Library team have highlighted a list of books you may enjoy.

Students/ staff can go on MySandstorm > Accessit Learning Resource Centre and log-in and search for the books and reserve them. 

We hope that you enjoy some of the suggestions.

Hertfordshire Police have asked us to circulate the flyer above regarding knife crime. If you feel that it is appropriate, please feel free to use it as a starting point to discuss keeping safe with your young children.

HOUSE CUP TOTALS

This week’s House Cup goes to Fawcett with Elgar and Austen not far behind 

HOUSE OF THE WEEK

Well done to Fawcett who had the biggest points increase since last week and the most success on House Maths and the last House Quiz.

HOUSE MATHS

A big thank you to Mr Clarke for running our virtual House Maths for the whole school. Well done to the following for top scores: Taylor P and George S (Year 7), Bryony R (Year 8), Nandhalla P (Year 9) Charlie M (Year 10) James C (Year 11) Drew H (Year 12) Sam R (Year 13) and Ollie Lacey (staff)

HOUSE PRE

Another thank you to Mr Lacey who ran the PRE House question challenge.There were over 300 entries with Shakespeare taking the win.

FUTURE HOUSE EVENTS

Charity Day is quickly approaching as well as Christmas Jumper Day. Both will include key House events and cement the standings going into the Christmas break. This year’s Charity Day will involve colletions Fareshare which is the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste.  

Sandvent 2020

In recognition of the advent period, this year Mr Cracknell and Mr Smith are intending to run and walk their way through a new challenge every day right up to Christmas Eve. Their goal is to raise as much money as possible for the charity FareShare. FareShare work to fight hunger in our most vulnerable communities and is also the charity Marcus Rashford MBE became an ambassador for in March 2020.

So how can you help?

Why not join them in the challenge? Via their online advent calendar, you’ll be able to click and find out the daily challenge, as well as having a laugh (at their expense) at the accompanying introductory videos! Alongside this, each daily challenge will be posted on Sandringham’s social media channels and you can share your stories / posts / support with the school through them. Join in as a family or go it alone, it’s a great opportunity to get active post lockdown 2.0! The challenges are accessible for all and you can do as many or as little as you like! We've already had four challenges but it is never to late to join the fun!

Why not make a donation?

Mr Cracknell and Mr Smith will accept any donation, but as a guide, they’re suggesting £2.40. This equates to 10 pence for each challenge, FareShare reports that this can pay for up to 10 meals and it’s also roughly the price of a meal here at Sandringham. Donate here.

On Monday 23rd November, we completed half of our tree planting project with 7A, 7E, 7N and 7T. The students were all fantastic and really enjoyed the planting. They managed to plant over 200 trees very successfully and the perimeter of the field is now looking very different. Next Monday (7th December), the remaining form groups will be planting; 7F, 7H, 7J and 7S. They need to come in their own clothes/ sports kit and bring in a pair of gloves and old trainers/ wellies. I am sure they will enjoy it! You may also have seen the campaign started by BBC Countryfile on Sunday ‘Plant Britain’. They are trying to increase tree and plant cover in the UK and you can record your planting here: https://www.plantbritain.co.uk/

We shall be recording our large amount of planting to the Hertfordshire total. 

In other work, our SLT Sustainability lead students have completed an audit of the school to look at our current sustainability and are putting together development plans in specific areas like biodiversity and waste with the other students in the group to work out actions to look at next.

Every week the Mathematics 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

The Visual Arts Faculty were delighted to be invited to select some pieces to exhibit in the student well- being room near Student Services. They reflected on how to create a display that would best support students and enhance the relaxed feeling of the wellbeing space. By selecting a range of work from Year 13 and some bunting, they were able to give the room a coastal theme to ensure the space is nurturing and supportive for students. We hope that students will feel comfortable and well supported in this space.

D is for…Demure (Adjective)

Definition: Reserved, Modest and Shy

Example: The outfit was demure

Synonyms: Reticent, Timid, Unassuming      

Antonyms: Bold, Brave, Extroverted

Etymology: From the Latin word ‘maturus’ meaning ripe or mature

Mr Smith and Mr Cracknell have been working hard to produce a daily advent challenge (Sandvent).

You can find daily videos for each challenge here Sandvent Calendar and donate to the cause here https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sandvent. You can join them in any of the challenges you like.

All videos can also be found on the school’s twitter account @Sandringhamsch1 or the PE account @SandringhamPE, as well as the Instagram account @Sand_pe

Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella is a thrilling and evocative love story set in London during the Second World War.  The internationally acclaimed choreographer’s interpretation of the classic fairy tale has, at its heart, a true war-time romance.  A chance meeting results in a magical night for Cinderella and her dashing young RAF pilot, together for just long enough to fall in love before being parted by the horrors of the Blitz. Matthew Bourne’s vivid story telling has never been more heart-stopping and touching and will take the audience into the heart of Prokofiev’s magnificent score. Tickets £13.50/£10

An evening showcasing some of the work from Sandringham students.

This is a live-streamed concert so once you have purchased a ticket, you will be sent an email link on the day of the performance (around 6pm) to join the virtual concert on the evening of the performance. Tickets £5

Filmed over the course of four years award-winning director Phil Grabsky follows leading concert pianist Leif Ove Andsnes’s attempt to understand and interpret one of the greatest sets of works for piano ever written: Beethoven’s five piano concertos. Against the wonderful background of Leif Ove playing these 5 pieces, we also show how these works offer a new fresh way of examining Beethoven’s life and work. Tickets £10

Welcome to the Dream Shop!  You are invited to discover the mysteries of Dream Making and to share the secrets of mixing the perfect dream.  It’s important work – thousands of dreams are dreamt every single night, and they all have to be made just right.  So, join PaddleBoat Theatre Company in this magical story and discover the joy of being a Dream Maker.

Dream Maker is a perfect return to the theatre for families aged 3+ and for anyone who would enjoy a relaxed, inclusive experience. Tickets £40 (Sits up to 6)

We hope everyone is keeping well.  Through December, and January we have lots of exciting screenings coming to The SandPit.  Including, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella, A Beethoven Journey and Dream Maker!  We look forward to opening our doors again safely and to see you all again.   

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.  Alcohol is available for sale 30 minutes before the shows begin.

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