This week sees the launch of Sandringham Reads. Mrs Bulbeck has spent the last term gathering suggestions from all staff of the books that they think all students should read as part of their education at Sandringham.  After being inundated with almost 150 titles, we have decided on a list of 35 books, from a range of genres, both fiction and nonfiction, that have been grouped according to their suitability for each year group.  

There is a Sandringham Reads Google Classroom (class code: 5ukzdug), where students can share what they have been reading, and complete a short Google Form for each book read, to receive a reward. Any students who read five of the Sandringham Reads books in an academic year will receive a Sandringham Reads award.

The books are listed below - hopefully during this period of lockdown, reading can be something that we can all enjoy! Please share your reviews to @SandringhamRead.

Sandringham Reads for Years 7 and 8

Boy by Roald Dahl, Old Man of the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway, Little Women by Louisa May Allcott, His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr, Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian, The Diary of a Young Girl by Ann Frank, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Coifer

Sandringham Reads for Years 9 and 10

I am Malala by Malala Yusefsi, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, Sycthe by Neal Shusterman, Maus by Art Speigelman, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick , Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Sandringham Reads for Years 11, 12  and 13

Becoming by Michelle Obama, I know why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Attwood, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, Things Fall Apart by Chiunua Achebe, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Invisible Women by Caroline Craido Perez, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, Playing to the Gallery by Grayson Perry

SIXTH FORM APPLICATIONS: If you are applying to our Sixth Form and want to hand deliver your application form, there is a red box in main reception. We kindly ask that you wear a mask on entering the building. The application deadline is 5th February.

RESOURCES COLLECTION: Student Services is open for Resource Collection 9am- 11am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 

REPORTING ABSENCES: If your child is unwell or unable to attend any of the lessons of remote learning on any particular day, please can you email absence@sandringham.herts.sch.uk by 9am informing us that they will not be attending lessons, giving a brief reason for their absence.  

REPORTING POSITIVE CASES: If your child needs to self-isolate due to being in contact with someone who tests COVID positive or if a student themselves tests COVID positive please advise the school by sending an email to absence@sandringham.herts.sch.uk. Please title your email -  COVID Notification; include the students full name,  tutor group and dates of isolation and if they have had a positive COVID result, the date of thetest and the date when symptoms first appeared.

Year 7 Drama students have been learning about Murder Mysteries and in an extension task this week, they were asked to be a detective gathering clues at a crime scene. They were absolutely fantastic and really got into their roles. We hope you enjoy the pictures of them all in character! 

As we continue to deliver our PE lessons virtually and keep everyone physically active during this lockdown we thought we would highlight this competitive opportunity available to everyone, but aimed at Years 7-9. Herts Sports Partnership has been working closely with the School Games Organisers to offer a programme of Virtual competitions open to all young people. All activities can be completed at home and you have the opportunity to become a County Champion in any one of the events. Please click here to access further information including details about the competition, certificates for participants, results and data sheets for submission to your local School Games Organiser. Deadline for entries is 22 February. Good luck everyone! a

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine:          médiocre

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana:    mediocre/ ordinario/a

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche:          durchschnittlich/ mittelmäßig

Thinking questions:

• Sometimes in languages there are two translations for one word, how do you know which one to choose?
• What do the accents do?

As mentioned in Tuesday's Newsletter, the Alban ATSA are offering a FREE webinar to parents/carers of Year 10 and 11 students designed to support learning in these times of adversity. The highly regarded Dr Martijn Van der Spoel will deliver a live presentation including tips on developing effective revision techniques, engaging with the curriculum recovery programme and finding ways to motivate students to study. It will leave parents with practical ways to instil, encourage and embed positive study behaviours at home. To sign up, please do so before 27th January using the link below. Zoom joining instructions will be sent to you before the event. 

https://forms.gle/kKJs9rsjUf98MmLJ7

Many thanks to those of you who have already submitted their videos for the Sandwich Series. For those who are new to the school or can't quite remember, during the first lockdown we ran a programme of pre-recorded concerts - ‘The Sandwich Series’ which were shared with the school community every week. This was a wonderful way to celebrate the musical talents of our students whilst working and learning at home. So we are once again inviting students to submit a video of themselves singing or playing a piece of music on their instrument at home to be included in a new set of recitals. If you would like to be included in the next concert, please send your video to beatone@mysandstorm.org along with the title and composer of the piece of music. We look forward to receiving your videos!

In January, February and March, Sandringham students are being offered a wonderful opportunity to hear a range of talks given by STEM professionals. The general level is being pitched at Year 12, but any student in Year 9 upwards is welcome and will get something from it.

The talks are as pictured above. Please do discuss this with your child and encourage them to register their interest if they like the sound of any of the talks. An email has been sent to KS4/5 students via the school Gmail which contains the relevant link.

We are still planning to enrich the curriculum with science, technology, engineering and mathematics content in STEM week (8-12 March) although a full range of projects leading up to it will not be possible - for obvious reasons.

Looking ahead to an eventual return to normality we would like to look at ways to develop the school’s wildlife garden, with a view to encouraging biodiversity and providing an outdoor learning space. As always, any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Please contact Mr D. Tattersall, STEM coordinator (tattersalld@mysandstorm.org)

Miss Davies and Miss Fryer have had some amazing entries from Year 7 students for their second weekly lockdown challenge. They had a really difficult time choosing the top 3 places as all students had put in so much effort and demonstrated fantastic creativity with the theme 'NHS'. I think we can all agree, they look delicious. 

The winners are all pictured here with 1st Place going to Leo (7A), 2nd Place to Tillie-Mai (7N) and 3rd place to Harry (7A). Special mention also goes to Isabelle P who made a cake for all of the NHS workers at her Dad's work.  What a creative Year 7 we have! 

All challenges will be released on Monday on the Year 7 Google Classroom, and on our Twitter account. Follow for the highlights and any updates @SandClassof2020. 

The RSPB Big Bird Watch: Fri 29th Jan – Sun 31st Jan

We would love you all to get involved in the RSPB Big Bird Watch this weekend. This is a great opportunity to spend an hour off a screen and to take notice of things in your immediate environment. We know that several weeks into a winter lockdown, things aren’t easy, but this small project offers a chance to engage in something meaningful and appreciate a very simple thing! This national project has been running for over 40 years and has helped increase our understanding of the challenges faced by wildlife. Each individual bit of data is contributing to a national effort to protect natural species.

 To take part, you need to pick one hour between Fri 29th- Sun 31st Jan. Count the birds you see in your garden or from your balcony. Ignore any birds that are still in flight. To avoid double-counting, just record the highest number of each bird species you see at any one time – not a running total.

You can submit your results online at rspb.org.uk/birdwatch from 29th January until 19th February. We would also love it if you could submit your results on our school form here by 1st Feb: https://forms.gle/VijJ8BDBzRQyU1Ky5

We will be looking for the form groups with best participation to add some house points! If you see a species not listed, please add it in and put in the number seen. This will give us some really interesting data about our local area.

Every count is important so, if you don’t see anything, please still submit your result. Finding out which birds don’t visit your area is as important as understanding those which do! All information is on the link below, along with guides to identifying the birds. 

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/everything-you-need-to-know-about-big-garden-birdwatch/

Thank you, and we hope you enjoy participating!

Click & Collect

Don't forget to reserve your books through MySandstorm  > Accessit Learning Resource Centre. Here is a happy customer collecting four fiction books. Hope you enjoy them, Layla. Opening hours are Mondays and Wednesday 9-12noon from Student Services.

Keep reading!

One of the things we all miss at the moment is community and doing things together. If you are missing that interaction and looking for a great way to release the tensions of the day, then why not join Absolute Fitness, a local fitness community on Facebook. They offer a range of classes, 4 per week and all of them are FREE. The classes are suitable for all fitness levels and include a mix of HIIT classes, weights, boxing and cardio blasts with different instructors…..something for everyone! Instructors include Sarita Gray and Heidi Lewis. Please check out the link below for more details - we are sure you will enjoy them! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/absolutefitness1
 

We are currently hiring in our Mathematics & Modern Foreign Languages Faculties. For more information and how to apply please see our website https://sandringham.herts.sch.uk/vacancies/

Reading for pleasure has many benefits, not least allowing us to escape from reality and supporting our mental well being. With this in mind, the theme for this week is ‘Sandringham Reads’, a whole school initiative designed to encourage all of our students to read for pleasure. The books cover a range of genres, both fiction and nonfiction, and have been grouped according to their suitability for each year group. You can find out more about this in Miss Bulbeck's ‘Sandprint’ article. Happy Reading!

A Google form will be sent out over the next few days to gather feedback from Students and Staff regarding our online provisions. In the meantime, we would like to share the following lovely feedback from a parent this week. 

"I just wanted to give a shout out to all the teachers and leadership at Sandringham School. The VLC is second to none and the communication we get from the school is really excellent in such challenging circumstances. Great work!"

Thank you to those parents who have taken the time to contact us. We are so proud of how hard all of our students and staff are working at Sandringham School. 

A huge congratulations to James O (9S) who passed his Grade 5 piano and Grade 5 music theory exams recently having had lessons over Zoom for much of the year. He’s now enjoying developing a jazz piano repertoire and playing in Zoom concerts to friends and family. What a great achievement James and how lovely that you can share your talent with loved ones. 

If you would like your son/daughter to feature in the Student Spotlight, please email Melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

Every week the Mathematics Faculty publish a puzzle for you to try.  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!

DANCE AT HOME is back! With the students back at home again, the Dance Faculty have restarted their Virtual Dance challenges, activities and classes to complete. They are posted on the Dance google classroom (GC code to join on the student notice board) and will keep you entertained and active during these difficult times. They look forward to seeing you all taking part. 

S7 is named after Kate Richardson-Walsh, the most capped female hockey player in English history and now a charismatic and motivational public speaker.

Born in Manchester in 1980, Richardson-Walsh showed an early flair for hockey, joining the Didsbury Greys Hockey Club as a defender at the age of 11. She was selected to play for the under 16 Great Britain team when she was just 14 and in 1999, made her international debut.

Since then Richardson-Walsh has made 375 appearances for her country, captaining her side from 2003- 2016 and becoming the most capped female player in English history. Despite suffering a broken jaw in the London Olympics in 2012, she returned after only 2 games to play with a plate in her jaw and then went on to win Silver in the Commonwealth Games 2014 and a Gold in Rio 2016 (her 4th Olympic games.) Having married her teammate Helen Richardson in 2013, they became the first same-sex married couple to win an Olympic medal playing in the same team.

Over her professional career, Richardson- Walsh has gained an impressive list of awards including GB Hockey’s Athlete of the Year in 2007, the prestigious Hockey Writers’ Player of the Year twice, an MBE in the Queen's honours list at the end of 2014 and she was also chosen as the flag bearer for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games closing ceremony after the team's historic gold medal victory.

Since retiring in 2016, she has become a motivational speaker sharing her personal experiences of leadership, team building, goal setting and high performance and also speaks passionately about equality of opportunity for women and the need for flexibility in what a leader should look and sound like.

"Be the best version of yourself: for yourself, for your team and for everyone you are representing." 

M is for… mediocre [adjective]

Definition: Not very good.

Example: The best writing helps us to learn more about ourselves, while mediocre writing teaches us nothing.

Synonyms: Decent, Ordinary, Uninspired

Antonyms: Exceptional, Extraordinary, Superior

Etymology: From the Latin ‘mediocris’ meaning of middle height or degree. From ‘medius’ meaning middle and ‘ocris’ meaning rugged mountain.

According to Arthur… is an inspirational and heart-warming tale of an old man who re-engages with the outside world and the adventurous life he once led.

Arthur is an odd old man who lives all alone in his attic. He never ventures into the outside world; instead, he spends all of his time with his only friend - the Moon. But now, Arthur needs your help! The clouds have covered the sky and the Moon is nowhere to be seen, and without it, Arthur’s life suddenly feels empty. PaddleBoat Theatre Company invites you to bring your unbounded imagination as together we try to help Arthur find the Moon – with your help, who knows what else he might discover outside his front door…

See this 5 star family show from your very own sofa’s as The SandPit Theatre launches it’s at home season!

Available to entertain the family until the 7th March 2021, this show is available On Demand here: https://thesandpittheatre.ticketco.events/uk/en/e/according_to_arthur

Tickets: £15 (£10 goes towards PaddleBoat Theatre Company, £5 towards fees & The SandPit Theatre)

Your ticket allows you to watch this fantastic show for as many times as you like for 4 days once access has been purchased and you will receive an email with your personal link once booked!

Runtime: 35 mins & Recommended age is 3+

Available to view on these devices: laptop, Phone, Apple TV, androidTV, FireTv & Chromecast