During the Christmas holidays please can we ask you to still inform the school if a student needs to self-isolate due to being in contact with someone who tests COVID positive or if a student themselves tests COVID positive. 

You can advise the school by emailing – absence@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

Title your email -  COVID Notification; include the students full name,  tutor group and dates of isolation.  If they have had a positive COVID result please include the date of the test and the date when symptoms first appeared. This email address will be checked on a daily basis throughout the holidays.  

It's the end of another week of Mr Smith putting Mr Cracknell through a gruelling array of tasks. We hope that you have enjoyed joining in every day and thank you to those of you who have already helped take the total on the Just Giving Page to over £1000! Don't forget to check out their Sandvent Calendar where there will be a challenge every day until Christmas Eve including Oscar-worthy cameos from members of staff around the school.

A huge thank you to Mr Smith and Mr Cracknell for keeping everyone entertained and fit for the past few weeks and more importantly for helping to raise money for FareShare, fighting hunger and food waste in the UK. 

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine       -  comprendre

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana -  empatizar

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche       -  mitfühlen

Thinking questions:

• The German literally means to feel with, which illustrates the meaning of to empathise.
• The Spanish is very similar to the English, whilst the French use the verb to understand. This is an interesting cultural difference.

The final whole school theme of 2020 was Christmas! Most year groups did not have an assembly this week to make time for form activities such as Christmas card making and Secret Santa. These activities are essential to allow students to create a more unified form and year group identity where they can build and sustain positive relationships with their peers and form tutor. It has been fantastic to see the students getting excited about their well-earned holiday and spending some time thinking about what they can give to others this festive period. For many in the school community, Christmas is an important religious holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus but, even for those who do not follow Christianity, it provides a time for families to come together after a difficult year to enjoy one another's company. We hope you all have a fantastic break!

Hertfordshire County Council has asked us to share the following important information with you following a significant increase in coronavirus infections amongst 12-16 year olds:

Dear parent/carer

Thank you for everything you and your family are doing to play your part in the fight against coronavirus. Our schools and other education settings have worked extremely hard this term to help keep everyone safe. However, as we move into the Christmas holidays, it is of utmost importance that we continue to stay safe.  We have seen a significant increase in the number of coronavirus infections in 12-16 year olds and would therefore urge you to have a conversation with your child to make sure they understand, and are following, the Government regulations to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The actions you and your family can take to play your part are:

• Wash your hands regularly, for at least 20 seconds, with soap and warm water or use an antibacterial hand sanitiser if soap and water isn’t available
• Stay at least 2 metres (or 1 metre with other measures, such as a face-covering) away from those not in your immediate household
• Wear a face-covering where required and when it is difficult to socially distance
• Self-isolate and get tested if you develop symptoms
• Do not socialise indoors with anyone who isn’t in your immediate household and only meet in groups of up to 6 people outdoors

Hertfordshire will be under Tier 3 restrictions as of 00.01am on Saturday 19th December. Please familiarise yourself with, and adhere to, Tier 3 restrictions: www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-3-very-high-alert

Please remember that while your child is in school, they are in a ‘bubble’, which is carefully managed by the school. However outside of school hours, they should continue to follow the most up to date Government guidelines, and we encourage you to explain this to your child. If you choose to socialise in a bubble of up to three separate households during 23-27 December, which is the period the Government proposes to relax guidelines, please enjoy this time but please also remember to do so safely by continuing to follow good hand hygiene and socially distance where possible. Coronavirus is known to linger in enclosed spaces, so keeping windows open can also reduce risk. 

Information on Free School Meals can be found here. www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals. Or you can email for further support: EducationTeam@hertfordshire.gov.uk

All the data for Hertfordshire cases can be found via the following link: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases . Hertfordshire specific information can also be found at: https://hcc-phei.shinyapps.io/covid19_public_dashboard/

We wish you all a safe and peaceful Christmas.

Year 10 Success 

Ms Malherbe and her Year 10 class have been working on the play ‘Blood Brothers’ which forms part of their GCSE exam. It has been impressive to see how well the students have adapted to GCSE drama. They recently performed sections of their text to their classmates and did very well. Both year 10 groups start on the devised theatre unit when we return in the New Year and we are excited to see the work that is produced by our talented drama lot! 

Dance

It has been rather strange and different time for us all this term, especially here in dance with fewer extra-curricular clubs, no company rehearsals or as many practical lessons as we would have liked, but the students have been so resilient and we have just loved being back in the studio with them all. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to you joining us for Velocity 2021.

Velocity 2021

We are happy to announce that Velocity 2021 will still be going ahead for February 2021, government guidelines permitting and tickets are now on sale from the Sandpit website. There will be two performances; Thursday 4th and Friday 5th February at 7pm and they will be streamed live from the Sandpit Theatre with students in Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 performing live and all other years will be pre-record in the Sandpit theatre the week before. This will be a change from the usual Velocity performances but we are looking forward to being back in the theatre and the students are excited to share with you their work. More information will be released in a letter at the start of next term.

Extra-Curricular Clubs

A reminder to sign up for all dance clubs on the SOCS system for the new year in preparation for the Velocity showcase.

DC2, one the Dance studios, is named after Matthew Bourne, an innovative British choreographer and dancer famous for his unique interpretations of traditional ballet repertoire. 

Matthew Bourne was born in Hackney in 1960 and began dance training aged 22. In 1987 he founded his first company, Adventures In Motion Pictures, and a few years later he unveiled his all-male version of Swan Lake which he starred in himself. By replacing the female corps-de-ballet with an all male cast, he shattered previous conventions and took the dance world by storm.

In 2002 Bourne re-formed AMP as New Adventures and the company's subsequent notable productions included Play Without Words (2002) and The Red Shoes (2016), for both of which Bourne earned Oliviers for choreography. He also won Oliviers for his work in the musical revivals My Fair Lady (2001) and Mary Poppins, the latter of which transferred to Broadway in 2006.

Bourne was awarded a knighthood in 2016 and the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award shortly afterward in recognition of his outstanding services to the art of ballet.

Widely hailed as the UK’s most popular and successful Choreographer/ Director, over the years Bourne has encorporated his unusual style to remodel numerous traditional ballets to make them more accessible and appealing to a mass, modern audience.

"People know that they're going to see something which is entertaining but challenging as well because of the form it's in. It's dance theatre and it requires you to use your imagination - it's not straight forward."

For the student spotlight this week, we return to Oliver G in Year 7 who, after his success on the Children in Need show, has now been busy recording his part for an audio adaptation of Peter Pan in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital.

He plays the lost boy Curly, and is starring alongside an all star cast including Kenneth Branagh, Olivia Coleman and Jane Horrocks amongst others. Unfortunately, this has all been done over Zoom so he didn’t get to meet all of the actors themselves but what an amazing experience for Oliver nonetheless and you can listen online from the 20th December here  https://listentopeterpan.com 

A huge congratulations to Oliver on getting the part and we invite you all to listen over the Christmas holidays to what is sure to be an amazing production.

If you would like your child to be featured in the student spotlight, please email melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk with any details/ photographs that you would like included.

A huge thank you to all of the students who came in wearing their Christmas jumpers on Friday 11th December. It was great to see the school looking so festive! In total we raised £726 which is a record breaking total so we really appreciate you all donating to Save the Children.

Year 7 have been working hard in Drama this week performing their  ‘Nativity That Went Wrong’ plays. Miss Malherbe was so impressed with all of their hard work and really enjoyed watching their performances.

Hello, we are Team Tenacity, a group of year 12  students taking part in the Young Enterprise Company Programme. We have created two products which you may have previously seen in the Sandprint: An Activity Pack targeted towards primary school children which includes a wide variety of activities from DIYs, recipes, science experiments and much more. We have also been selling sweet packages based around holiday themes such as Halloween and most recently Christmas. 

We are proud of the products we have made so far, however we are struggling to get the word out about them due to advertising limitations, of course considering the current climate. Therefore we kindly ask, if you have any experience in marketing or advertising and are willing to lend us your expertise, it would be greatly appreciated. Additionally if you know anyone who would be helpful to contact, we would also greatly appreciate that.

Please contact us through our email: tenacity.sandringham@gmail.com.

To order our activity pack or find out more abbott us visit: https://tenacity-store.herokuapp.com/ 

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

Another highlight of the term was carol singing with the Sixth Form Choir outside on Tuesday for staff and colleagues. It may not be a full carol service but there was some beautiful singing nonetheless. A huge thank you to Mrs Beaton and everyone involved for spreading some festive cheer. 

Well done to everyone who entered the PRE Ethics House Competition. Students had to work out what they would do in the famous ‘Trolley Problem’.

The top 3 Entries went to the following students:

1. Daniel Hickson (8 Shakespeare)
2. Edith Hurp (9 Elgar)
3. Thyra Sondergard (8 Hepworth)

With a special mention to Rhys Pinder (7 Newton) who put forward a fantastic analytical response. 

7N have been absolutely amazing this term and I am extremely proud of the students resilience, tolerance and overall attitude to starting Sandringham in these crazy and unprecedented times. Within form time over the past few weeks 7N have put together Christmas boxes for St Laura’s Care Home. The boxes produced were extremely thoughtful with homemade cards, art work and jewellery, along with shop brought items. This finished off what has been a fantastic first term. Merry Christmas.

Well done on a fantastic first term of House competition. I feel that in light of COVID this term has been a real success and there’s still been lots of House involvement. Thank you for the huge amount of student AND staff participation it’s been a pleasure to oversee the successes of all.

HOUSE CUP TOTALS

The table at the end of term sees us finish with new and first time leaders Johnson. This week every single house point, attendance figures, extra curricular club participation and House events added to the tables to see a complete picture of all contributions this term. I really have tried to include everything students are doing in school to add to the House system.

House of the week: Well done to Shakespeare who, although have only moved up one place in the table, had the biggest increase in points with over 5000 and as a result of the bumper week.

WEEKLY HOUSE QUIZ

There is no house Personal Development House quiz this week as Mr Gray will be leading his Charity Day quiz today.

EXTRA CURRICULAR PARTICIPATION:

Every attendance of a club by a student has been rewarded with a house point this term. Austen have been the most frequent to attend clubs just pipping Fawcett to the title.

HOUSE POINT (Merits) TRACKERS

Johnson were the big winners this week with their house points having a huge impact on overall standings, demonstrating the importance of these in the Year Group running totals.

Our Year 8 Tycoon in Schools Enterprise team ‘K9 Cookies and Chillcat’ have now spoken to the local Quadrant Pet Supplies, who have agreed to help K9 Cookies and Chillcat by selling their products! They wanted to support this enterprising group of Year 8s and the school. To buy their products, you can visit Quadrant Pet Supplies or email k9cookiesandchillcat@gmail.com. If you have any enquiries about K9 Cookies and Chillcat, please contact k9cookiesandchillcat.enquiries@gmail.com.

E is for… Empathise [verb]

Definition: Understand and share the feelings of another.

Example: Counsellors need to be able to empathise with people.

Synonyms: Understand, Imagine, Share

Antonyms: Misinterpret, Mistake, Misunderstand

Etymology: Derived from the Ancient Greek word ‘empatheia’ meaning physical affection or passion.

Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake comes to cinemas with a fresh look for the 21st century and is as bold and beautiful as ever. This thrilling, audacious and witty production is perhaps still best known for replacing the female corps-de-ballet with a menacing male ensemble, which shattered convention, turned tradition upside down and took the dance world by storm.

Tickets £13.50/£10

We hope everyone is keeping well. Through December, and January we have lots of exciting screenings coming to The SandPit. Including, A Beethoven Journey, Dream Maker, and Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. 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

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)

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