The Home Office would appreciate your support in reminding parents, families, young people and your staff that if they are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, they and their family members may be eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). The application deadline, for those who were living in the UK by the end of the transition period at 23:00 GMT on 31 December 2020, is 30 June 2021.

Children and young people require their own immigration status and are not covered by a parent’s application to the EUSS. An application must be made for every eligible child within a family. A parent or guardian can apply on behalf of a child and link it to their own application (if applicable), or they can apply in their own right.

Applications to the EUSS are free and can be made online on GOV.UK. Information on what is needed to apply can also be found on GOV.UK. Successful applicants get either settled status or pre-settled status ensuring they can continue to live and work in the UK after 30 June 2021, whilst remaining eligible to access the benefits and services they could before the UK left the EU.

For questions about applications, call 0300 123 7379 or +44 (0) 20 3080 0010 from outside the UK (Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm and Saturday to Sunday, 9.30am to 4.30pm). 

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine:        

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana:  

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche:        

Thinking Questions

Noughts and Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman

In the week of author Malorie Blackman’s birthday, this week’s Sandringham Reads Book of the Week is ‘Noughts and Crosses’. Sephy is a Cross: she lives a life of privilege and power. But she's lonely, and burns with injustice at the world she sees around her. Callum is a nought: he's considered to be less than nothing - a blanker, there to serve Crosses - but he dreams of a better life. They've been friends since they were children, and they both know that's as far as it can ever go. Noughts and Crosses are fated to be bitter enemies - love is out of the question.

https://www.malorieblackman.co.uk/noughts-and-crosses-2/

Hertfordshire Reference Library Online (www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/orlib) has a range of resources that library members can use for free at home, or anywhere. It is perfect for helping with homework, research, study, or just for fun. All the resources are reliable and from trusted and established publishers. Below are a list of possible resources.

• Britannica Online
• Credo Reference

• Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries Pro
• Archive newspapers 

For our last whole school theme before a well-deserved half term break, the students were asked to reflect on the character trait, honesty. Honesty, perhaps more than other moral character traits, can be complex to navigate. All students understand that being truthful is not always the best way to protect the feelings of others or to be successful ourselves and therefore it can be a challenge to recognise the value of honesty. Students were asked to reflect on whether they use dishonesty to gain an unfair advantage in some situations and the consequences of making this choice. Although we all value professional or sporting success, are we morally in the wrong by using dishonesty to get ahead? Students were asked to rethink situations like this to put themselves in the shoes of others that could be hurt by our dishonesty, even when we are trying to protect them. As we said last week, misinformation is having a significant negative impact on our world at the moment and therefore, perhaps honesty really always is the best policy!

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!

Here a few more signs from around the school highlighting the various inspirational people whom our buildings are named after: 

Science Building - Rosalind Franklin

History/Geography Building- Sir David Attenborough

SEN Building- Dame Mary Warnock

Sports Centre- Dame Kelly Holmes

We look forward to students being able to see them when they are allowed back in school. The place is very quiet without them all! 

St Helen’s Church, Wheathampstead would like to invite students to apply for the role of Choral Scholar. The aim of the scholarship is to benefit the singer as a performing musician and will provide useful experience for those wishing to apply for choral scholarships whilst in higher education.

The scholarships are open to all those in full time education – normally from Year 10 upwards. The choir rehearses on Friday evenings from 7:30-9pm and sings at the weekly 9:30am service, the monthly evensong at 6pm and additional services to celebrate seasons and festivals (e.g. Holy Week and Christmas).

In return the choral scholar would be paid an honorarium of £300pa payable termly in arrears, for each full term completed, and would be able to play the organ free of charge. The scholar would have access to reduced prices on RSCM training courses and would be given free additional tuition if they wished to take any of the RSCM examinations. The honorarium is intended to cover costs of music lessons, courses or sheet music. For further information, please click here.

With the current news focus on vaccinations, this week we turn to E6 in Science block, which is named after the person responsible for developing the world's first vaccine: Edward Jenner.

Born in Gloucestershire on 17th May 1749, Edward Jenner was the 8th of nine children. Both his parents sadly passed away when he was aged just five and Jenner turned to studying medicine. By 14, he was apprenticed to a local surgeon and after training to be a doctor in London, he returned to Gloucestershire where he spent the rest of his career as a doctor. In 1788, Jenner married Catherine Kingscote and they went on to have three children with varying health conditions.

Smallpox was a prevalent disease at the time, killing around 20% of the population in towns and cities. Jenner noticed however, that milkmaids who suffered the mild disease of cowpox never contracted smallpox. In 1796, he inserted pus taken from a cowpox pustule into an incision on eight-year-old James Phipps' arm. He found that, having been inoculated with cowpox, Phipps became immune to smallpox, and with this in mind Jenner submitted a paper to the Royal Society in 1797.

At first, Jenner was told that his ideas were too revolutionary. Undaunted however, Jenner experimented on several other children, including his own 11-month-old son and in 1798, the vaccinations soon became widespread and Jenner coined the word vaccine from the Latin 'vacca' for cow. 

Jenner spent the rest of his life working on vaccinations and inoculating people (especially the poor) for free. His work bankrupted him. When he wasn't making discoveries, Jenner liked to play the violin and flute to relax and to collect fossils and write papers on cuckoos. He died of a stroke in 1823 but his legacy continued and in 1980, the World Health Organisation declared smallpox an eliminated disease. He is remembered on Jenner Day (an annual celebration of infection and immunity research) and has gavin his name to the Jenner Institute in Oxford, which studies vaccines. Jenner’s vaccine laid the foundation of subsequent discoveries and as such he is often called the Father of Immunology and recognised as someone who work "saved more lives than the work of any other human.”

"I shall endeavour still further to prosecute this inquiry, an inquiry I trust not merely speculative, but of sufficient moment to inspire the pleasing hope of its becoming essentially beneficial to mankind." 

REPORTING POSITIVE CASES: Even during half term, if your child needs to self-isolate due to being in contact with someone who tests COVID positive or if a student themselves tests 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, dates of isolation and if they have had a positive COVID result, the test  date and when symptoms first appeared.

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

STUDENT SERVICES OPENING HOURS:  Student services will be closed over half term. But when Student services is open again on Monday 22nd February, Resource Collection will be available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9-11am and LRC Collection will be open Monday and Wednesday 9-12pm.

Today, all Year 9 students will have received their reports and an initial introduction to the Year 9 into 10 options process. They will have also watched a presentation from Dr Creaby with their tutors during session 1 and parents should have received an email which includes an information booklet, as well as personalised guidance. 

Following on from this, after half term on Thursday 25th February, there will be a virtual Options Evening presentation for families hosted by Mr Gray, Dr Creaby and Miss Semple which will explain the process further and provide an opportunity for Q&A.  Year 9 PTC follows this on Tuesday 2nd March which will provide a good opportunity for students and families to reflect on their options. Finally, the deadline for online submission of options is Friday 5th March.

Inspired by several current campaigns to thank the NHS online with the blue heart symbol, students at Sandringham were asked to make a heart of their own being as creative as they could be with their designs. These were completed during art and design technology lessons and students used Padlet to digitally submit their image into a gallery.

All of the students could see each other’s submissions on the web page and this led to a really special whole school project where students were able to see it grow in real time. Many students have a family member or someone they know currently working on the frontline so it was a lovely opportunity to show their appreciation.

Students used a huge variety of different materials and techniques to create their hearts including water colour or pen and ink. Others opted to create their designs digitally using a variety of CAD programs and some even used materials they had at home such as applique, embroidery, lego or recycling. Some students took the opportunity to get outside and created hearts in the snow and some students even made edible hearts.  

Trudi Barrow, a teacher of design technology and art, led the campaign and says “I was so impressed with the variety of techniques and skills the students chose to use. It was really touching to hear how passionate the students were in wanting to thank the NHS and frontline workers." 

We are hoping to donate poster size version to local NHS vaccination centres. We are sure you will agree, the poster looks absolutely amazing. A huge thank you to Trudi and all the staff and students involved in creating such a collaborative and beautiful piece of work. 
 

This week we focus on a student who has been showcasing his acting skills on a fantastic production. After a long anticipated wait, the trailer to the feature film, Cardboard Fort, has been released. Ilirian B in Year 11 spent the Summer of 2019 on location in Harrogate, filming the coming of age, comedy feature film in which he plays the lead role of Charlie.

"When new-kid-on-the-block, Charlie, discovers his prized cardboard fort has been burnt to the ground, it shatters his developing friendship with Dom, a streetwise boy from a different walk of life. Setting out to uncover the identity of the arsonist, he finds himself retracing the steps of his volatile summer..."

It is written, directed & produced by Sam Hartshorn and co-Produced by Marco Alexiadis. Congratulations to Ilirian for being selected for the starring role and wonderful acting skills shown. You can watch the trailer here.

If you would like your son/daughter to be featured in the Student Spotlight after half term, please email melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk with a few details and/or photographs.

Sandringham School now has an active Profile on LinkedIn. Please do follow us for Leadership, Teaching and Support Staff vacancies as well as  professional learning updates, insights and knowledge sharing. 

Please click here to enjoy the final Sandwich Series concert of this half term. We have some outstanding performances this week by Henry T in Year 7, Jamie B in Year 7, Ben A in Year 12 and a special mention to Ruben M in Year 12 who not only performed, recorded and mixed all the parts on his track but also made an incredible video to go with it – you will love this! We have also included a Sixth Form choir item from our Christmas hybrid concert back in December to bring you some joy! Half term is a great time to record a solo piece so get practising and send your videos to beatone@mysandstorm.org if you would like to feature in our next concert.

Bee Creative are working with St Albans Museum to create a new Augmented Reality installation. This is an amazing opportunity to take part in something unusual and make history! They are running a FREE 5-day mixed arts project suitable for 11 – 14 year olds where you will see your work turned into an augmented reality production that the public will be able to see post lockdown.

You will talk about what it is like growing up between the years 2000 - 2020 and then, working with professional choreographers, audio-visual artists, producers and creative technologists- take part in movement, sound, film and tech workshops.

This all takes place Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd, Wednesday 24th, Thursday 25th and Friday 26th March 2021 from 4:00pm - 6.30pm each day (please note that you will need to attend all five days.) The Installation launch is to be confirmed subject to Covid-19 restrictions.

The project is free of charge to take part in but places are strictly limited to 10 places and priority will be given to St Albans residents. To book, please fill out the form linked below:

https://forms.gle/FyYGFnWgieAQyorz8

The PE Faculty hope that students have enjoyed their daily boxercise, aerobics, HIIT classes and yoga. Staff have also been getting involved with free online classes after school and using the websites below. With the links to physical wellbeing improving mental wellbeing, we hope that you can continue to keep active over half term as well as enjoying a break from your screen and a chance to relax.

 Joe Wicks

 Yoga with Adrienne

Move with Nicole Pilates

Workout with Davina

Popsugar- Various

Absolute Fitness

Sewa Day are providing food parcels for students now and during the school holidays. If you would like to use their service please contact watford@sewaday.org or text/call 07946 528678. They are a fantastic service working in association with Watford Borough Council and cover Bushey, Watford, Northwood, St Albans and Oxhey so please get in touch with them if you need to.

Students in Year 8 were asked to present their favourite sandwich recipe in German this week for a magazine article or a radio show. Ben L went a step further and created his own video! We thought you might like to see his fantastic video entry as Frankfurter Fred. Well done Ben! Nice to see Sandringham students always going above and beyond in tasks.

3 Feb 2021 at 11_46.MOV

We would like to highlight the extraordinary commitment of Nathan M in Year 13. Since Year 12, Nathan has attended a Physics Beyond masterclass at St Albans School each week and has independently worked on a research project, in addition to attending a journal club at Warwick university. He has presented his project to a number of different audiences, including leading an assembly at St Albans School. The plan with his research project is to use the simulation engine he has been working on to run simulations of how electromagnetic waves behave in matter and publish his research in a US school journal or undergraduate journal. We would like to congratulate Nathan on this remarkable achievement and commend him on his dedication.

We would like as many of our student, staff and parent community to come together to celebrate the positive impact of the great outdoors (especially at this time of year). As such, we are running The Arrival of Spring House Photography Challenge! We would like you to respond as creatively as possible to the theme and there are no limits to the number of entries that you can submit!

Every entry will result in a house point for you and your house.There will be year group and overall prizes for the top 3 respectively and your photograph can be captured on any device. The important thing is to participate by getting involved and celebrating the wonders of nature and the great outdoors! 

Entries will be via your year group Google Classrooms and the deadline is Tuesday 23rd February
8:45AM. Parents can submit entries by using emailing through their child's account. We look forward to seeing your amazing photos!

The LRC have a £1 World Book Day Book voucher for each student, but given the uncertainty over when we will see students, WBD have also issued a token which can be scanned and taken to participating bookshops, but cannot be used online. Some supermarkets are also participating but stock often runs out early so be quick! Vouchers can be used from the 18th February until the end of March. The image above can be scanned and the image below shows the £1.00 books available, or the token can be used against the cost of any book (over £2.99 in price). Keep Reading! 

This half term, St Albans Pottery is running the Bee Wild! project : Make your own Clay bee filled with Wildflower seeds.  Once dry, creations are left across St Albans in gardens, verges and wild spaces – thus encouraging wildflowers and their pollinators.

The projects are home-based, with easy-to-follow videos and local clay&seed kit delivery. Bee Wild is a community initiative which combines creativity and ecology by boosting the number of wildflower pollinators across the district through a series of clay & Wildflower seed projects.

For more information, please visit:

https://www.fionabooyceramics.co.uk/bee-wild

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: une pause/ une interruption

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: una interrupción

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: eine Pause/ eine Unterbrechung

Thinking questions:

1) Some languages have many more words than other languages – how do you think this happens? Why do you think this happens?

2) Sometimes there is no direct translation of a word – how do you know which one to use?

H is for… hiatus [noun]

Definition: A pause or break in continuity in a sequence or activity.

Example: There was a brief hiatus in the war.

Synonyms: Interval, Lapse

Antonyms: Closing, Continuation

Etymology: From the Latin word ‘hiare’, meaning gaping.