Barracudas Activity Day Camps, will once again be open at Sandringham School this summer! Aimed at children aged 4-14 years old, they are looking forward to a summer of fun with 80+ exciting activities including fencing, archery, swimming, football, arts and crafts, dance and much more! They are Ofsted registered and have high staff to child ratios, plus parents of Sandringham School receive an extra £10 off per week if they quote code HSCH21 at the time of booking. Open summer 26th July – 27th August.

Book now at www.barracudas.co.uk or call 01480 467 567.

Johnson remain at the top of the league again this week overall, but Austen and Fawcett are not far behind. This could all change however, with Sports Day and the Charity Run sure to shake up the leadership board next week. 

A special shout out goes to Hepworth who lead the way on House Quiz participation with 85% of all quizzes complete and a total score of 896 points (over 120 points higher than second place.)  Also special mention goes to Year 8 who have been the most active year in the quiz overall having completed 91% of all weekly quizzes. 

Next Friday is the annual Charity Run in aid of FareShare who fight hunger and food waste in the UK. Sadly, for a second year this will be a Virtual event but we encourage all students to join in running or walking 5k on the day in order to help raise money for an amazing cause. The link to donate is here and we look forward to seeing your times and announcing the winners soon! 

Tuesday evening saw the return of live music at Sandringham School with the Summer Soiree. It was wonderful to put on a live outdoor concert and have a chance to say farewell to our fabulous Year 13 musicians. Reuben and Lucas in Year 12 wrote the following review: "An ecstatic return to live performance, Sandringham is back in style. Celebrating talent across the school, we heard phenomenal playing from Year 9 all the way through to leavers from last year. Rousing renditions of “I’m still standing”; soulful singing of “And I love her” and performances from the school jazz band were peppered with emotional congratulations and celebrations. Being in the jazz band ourselves, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and can't wait for more! "

This fortnight, the whole school theme is Fit 4 Life. Each year at Sandringham, students are given the opportunity to take part in a variety of extra physical activities to encourage them to try something new and be more active. Physical activity is directly linked with physical, mental and social benefits that lead to improved health and wellbeing. This week the students received a fantastic assembly from Director of Sport, Mr Cracknell, who introduced the programme of activities that start on the 5th July. Some of the highlights of the week include staff vs students matches, the charity run and the new and improved sports day format. Many of the activities are house competitions so both participation and high level performance means earning points for your house that could cause a change in the current house standings! We hope that every single student is able to find an activity they enjoy and challenge themselves to be more physically active.

This week our artists have been responding to the theme IgNIGHT with a particular focus on artists who use light as a primary source of inspiration. We have explored the work of artists including Dan Flavin, Keith Sonnier and James Turrell with our artists exploring a variety of media as a response. We will be displaying their work in the central area of art to celebrate their achievements and hope they have been inspired to think creatively in the future. Well done to Finn K, Bryn J and Finley H-B from 9A for their wonderful photographs taken during lesson.

Last Wednesday we marked International Women in Engineering Day with various live talks from female engineers. Year 7 students heard a talk by the sustainability lead at BAM Nutall, who explained how Tunnel Boring Machines are used in projects like CrossRail in London. And in the afternoon, they also heard from an engineer from Network Rail.

Another exciting event was the talk for Year 8 girls by a former Sandringham student who now works as a hardware engineer at Leonardo, a large company specialising in a range of defence and aerospace projects.

Well done to all the Year 7 and 8 students who acted as such wonderful ambassadors for the school. Plenty of postcards have been sent home!

We were so pleased that the annual Year 7 trip to the Peaks could go ahead this year, albeit 8 months later than usual. The weather was mostly kind and students enjoyed time bonding as a year and getting lots of exercise! There have been challenging hikes to Thorpe Cloud, watching England win the football, group dinners, a disco, outdoor activities arranged by the Sixth Form and of course a trip to Drayton Manor. School dog Mable even made her first trip to the Peaks, enjoying running around in all the open space. A massive thank you to all of the staff involved in organising the trip. We know that students get so much out of it and all the hard work that went into making it such a success is greatly appreciated. 

In the LRC we have a fantastic range of non-fiction as well as our fabulous fiction selection. Whatever your subject choices or personal interests are, you'll find something to enjoy so come and browse our shelves or search the Accessit Learning Resource Centre app via MySandstorm.  

New in this week is bestselling author Naomi Klein’s How to Change Everything; The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each other. This book gives a powerful picture of why and how the planet is changing and provides effective tools for action with chapters such as ‘A Toolkit for Young Activists’ and ‘Learning from the Coronavirus Pandemic’. 

Happy Reading!

There is still time to book onto UAL Future Creatives workshops which will be running over the summer! There are lots of wider courses also to choose from so please do take some time to see what is on offer from the UAL:  https://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/short-courses/future-creatives/st-albans

Nexus Fostering is a well-established and highly regarded fostering agency, based in Ampthill, who are urgently seeking full time and respite foster carers throughout the area. The agency is rated Ofsted 'Outstanding' in all areas and place a high premium on the quality of support and care that they provide to every one of the foster carers and, in turn, the children and young people placed with them. If this is something you would be interested in, you can find out more by calling 0800 389 0143 or emailing foster@nexusfostering.co.uk

This week's Student Spotlight features the amazing Year 12's who helped make the World Class Schools Symposium such a huge success on Thursday. Naomi G, Nathan D, Adam G and Sylvie F were all complete superstars helping Mr Turton with technical support on the day with Miranda Perry commenting that "they were so knowledgable, diligent and hard-working." Summer N, Tilly R, Maya G, Daisy B and Nabrissa B were also phenomenal as comperes for the Talk Off Final Live and came across as intelligent, responsible and confident individuals. We are so proud of all of these students who represent the World Class qualities that we see so often at Sandringham School, and we know that they all have bright futures ahead of them.

If you would like your son/daugther to feature in the Student Spotlight, please contact melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

One of the meeting rooms in the Library is named after Malorie Blackman, a previous Poet Laureate and British writer who used science fiction to explore social, ethical and race issues.

Born on the 8th February 1962 in Clapham, Blackman initially studied Computer Science and after receiving a Higher National Certificate from Thames Polytechnic, went on to become a Computer programmer. Shortly after gaining her degree from the National Film and Television School however, she turned her hand to writing. Her first book, published in 1990, was a collection of sci-fi and horror stories for young adults, entitled Not So Stupid!: Incredible Short Stories. The book featured mainly black characters as, after a childhood spent reading books with none, she vowed to redress this balance in her own work.

After the murder of black British teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993, Malorie decided to make racism the central theme in her next book and began writing her highly acclaimed young adult novel series, titled The Noughts & Crosses. Spanning five volumes, she addressed the issues of racism, ethnicity and violence and the book went on to receive critical acclaim. In addition to story writing, Blackman has a also penned television scripts for several famous children’s TV shows including Byker Grove, Whizziwig and Pig Heart Boy. And she also wrote two stage plays, titled The Amazing Birthday and Noughts and Crosses. 

In 2008, she was awarded an OBE for services to children's literature and soon after she earned the coveted position of Children’s Laureate from 2013 to 2015. Blackman continues to write on issues of violence, racism and love and in her spare time enjoys composing music, playing piano, poetry writing and playing computer games.

It has been another busy week for the Arts with rehearsals underway for the Dance show SPARK, which will take place on Wednesday 7th July. If you would like to watch the live show from the comfort of your own home, streaming tickets are also available for sale on the following link, so don’t miss out! 

We have also had lots of exciting workshops including Street Dance, Hip Hop and Contemporary Dance to name a few. Visiting practitioner Courtney, who worked with Year 9 and Year 12, helped create some fantastic routines that were enjoyed by all of the students involved. A huge thank you to the Arts Team for putting on such a fantastic and varied week of activities. A huge thank you to the Ms Meeking and all of the Arts Team for their hard work on making the week so much fun.

Following on from a successful exhibition in St Albans Museum and Gallery, Mrs Gidden is delighted to be opening her new exhibition Under the Blue in Nude Tin Can gallery. We encourage our fine artists to pop in and see this exhibition to inspire their own practice and would also encourage them to learn more about her working practice here: https://www.hvaf.org.uk/galleries/sarah-gidden-art

We are currently looking for the following: 

• Learning Supervisor
• Exams Assistant
• Teaching Assistant
• Finance and Administration Apprentice

To find our more visit here

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!

Watford Palace Theatre, in partnership with the University of Hertfordshire and Warner Bros Studios Leavesden, is proud to announce the opening of film submissions for Hertfordshire Film Festival 2022. This Festival creates a platform for young people aged 11 - 25 to showcase their talents for filmmaking in a screening event at Watford Palace Theatre on 16 & 17 February 2022. The screening event will also offer the opportunity to join networking events and masterclasses from leading figures in the film industry, furthering their filmmaking education and experience. 

Anyone aged 11 - 25 may enter provided they are living, studying or working within Hertfordshire. A wide range of genres, themes and styles of film are welcomed and young people with a strong story, simply told is key to the festival. For 11-17s this story must take the shape of a film with a maximum length of eight minutes, however for 18-25s the maximum length permitted is 15 minutes but do not feel pressured to fill all this screen time. Submissions must be sent via Film Freeway https://filmfreeway.com/HertsFilmFest before 20 December 2021.

Lateral Flow Tests: Testing should ideally be done every Sunday and Wednesday.  It is important to highlight these tests are for people with NO symptoms, and cannot replace a PCR test.  If a student has a positive result from a lateral flow test you should inform the school via the absence@sandringham.herts.sch.uk email address and take the child for a PCR test as soon as possible.

When to Book a PCR Test: If a student is showing symptoms they must get a PCR test as soon as possible, you can book via https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test   Please do not use a Lateral Flow Test as a replacement for a PCR test if someone is displaying any COVID symptoms.

Please let the school know when the result of this test is received by using the email address above, title your email  COVID Notification.

Huge congratulations to the following students for success in ABRSM exams this term:

Ben A – Piano Grade 5 – Pass

Isla F – Piano Grade 3 – Pass

Jessica R – Clarinet Grade 1 – Merit

Atharva K – Piano Grade 3 – Merit

Dhanu G – Piano Grade 6 – Merit

Alex S – Violin Grade 5 – Merit

Hayden W – Violin Grade 5 – Pass

This week, Year 12 A level Music and Music Tech students received a visit from Benji Merrison, (an EMMY and IFMCA award-winning film composer and arranger for hundreds of film and television projects such as BBC David Attenborough's 'Dynasties', Newsnight and the MTV Music Awards). Benji engaged in an interactive discussion, focusing on his real life experience as one of the top UK composers, detailing his personal journey into the competitive industry of Music production and composition. He was kind enough to elaborate on not only his creative processes and techniques, but offer practical advice and encouragement to the students, aiding and preparing them for their embarkment on Year 13 final coursework. We are looking forward to working more with Benji next term.

Year 12 Geography students took part in three days of fieldwork this week, with day trips to Newham/ Olympic Park and Walton-on-the-Naze, as well as individual local locations to collect date for their individual coursework. They studied the impacts of the Olympic Park and other types of regeneration in Newham and Hackney Wick and then looked at coastal erosion and coastal defences in Walton. Locations on day three included surveys along the River Colne and River Ver, different urban locations in St Albans and the ecosystem and carbon storage in Heartwood Forest. The students really enjoyed being out in specific locations and being able to go on school trips again! They worked very hard and have made an excellent start to their investigations.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine : ostraciser

GERMAN: Die Wort der Woche :  ausgrenzen

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana :excluir a  

Thinking questions:

• All three translations are very different this week but are all linked. How does this happen as languages evolve?
• Roughly 6,500 different languages are spoken in the world. Why do we have so many languages across the world? How do new languages emerge?

Perhaps better known for writing the children’s classic, ‘The Tiger Who Comes for Tea’, Judith Kerr’s ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a semi-autobiographical and unforgettable story, of a Jewish family fleeing from Germany before the start of the Second World War, and has been described as an ‘adult story in a children’s book’. 

Suppose your country began to change. Suppose that without your noticing, it became dangerous for some people to live in Germany any longer. Suppose you found, to your complete surprise, that your own father was one of those people. That is what happened to Anna in 1933. She was nine years old when it began, too busy to take much notice of political posters, but out of them glared the face of Adolf Hitler, the man who would soon change the whole of Europe – starting with her own small life.

One day, Anna’s father was missing. Then she herself and her brother Max were being rushed by their mother, in alarming secrecy, away from everything they knew – home and schoolmates and well-loved toys – right out of Germany…You can read more here

O is for … ostracise [verb]

Definition: Exclude from a society or group.

Example: She was declared a witch and ostracised by the villagers.

Synonyms: Expel, Snub, Boycott

Antonyms: Accept, Admit, Allow

Etymology: From the Greek word ‘ostrakizein’ meaning shell, on which names were written in voting to banish unpopular citizens.

The WCSQM Symposium took place yesterday and was a great success. If you would like to watch back the sessions from LinkedIn, Accenture, Trinity College Cambridge, and Motivational speaker Tej Samani, the results of the Awards, and much more, you can do so here and here. Thank you to Director at WCSQM, Miranda Perry, for organising the event and to Mrs Finlay and Mr Turnton and all of the students involved for their hard work behind the scenes and on the day. It was a real showcase of all the amazing things that students at Sandringham and around the world are doing to be brilliant citizens and we hope that you found the sessions inspiring and informative. 

Well done to Lily D in Year 9 who came an impressive second place in the WCSQM Talk Off competition on Thursday. Lily's eloquent speech on feminism questioned why the gender pay-gap still exists, looked at why women still don't feel safe in 2021 and challenged the notion of gender stereotypes. Voting took place live and voters/judges were all very impressed with Lily's well thought out and confident speech. You can watch the event back here. Registration 1

Congratulations to the U13 girls tennis team for their win against Berkhamsted on Monday afternoon! A great 4-2 result and some excellent tennis.

Congratulations to:

Fin R for being crowned Year 9 Javelin District Champion with a throw of 33.28m! 

Sam M for being crowned Long Jump District Champion with a jump of 5.60m

Marelie R for coming 3rd in the Year 9 girls discus

The event is taking place today, Friday 2nd July and you can follow @SandringhamPE for all the latest live action. 

The new 25th Anniversary show catapults Riverdance into the 21st century and will completely immerse you in the extraordinary and elemental power of its music and dance. 25 years ago, 7 minutes changed the face of Irish dancing forever. The Eurovision interval act performance gave millions of people a new and exciting glimpse of the future of Irish dance. Now 25 years later, composer Bill Whelan has re-recorded his mesmerising soundtrack while producer Moya Doherty and director John McColgan have completely reimagined the ground-breaking show with innovative and spectacular lighting, projection, stage, and costume designs.

Tickets £13.50/£10

We are open! We look forward to welcoming you back through our doors and remember we are a socially distant venue so seats will disappear very quickly so do not miss out and get your tickets now!

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 open 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

We now sell and accept Theatre Tokens!  You can use these tokens to purchase tickets for any of our shows or buy them as gifts to be used at over 260 venues nationwide and in the West End all while supporting theatres including us!

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet is a passionate and contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic story of love and conflict is set in the not-too-distant future in the ‘Verona Institute’. Here ‘difficult’ young people are mysteriously confined by a society that seeks to divide and crush their youthful spirit. Our two young lovers must follow their hearts as they risk everything to be together.

Tickets £13.50/£10

Following its record-breaking, sell-out run in London’s West End and national tour, the critically acclaimed musical Funny Girl comes to a cinema near you, featuring Sheridan Smith in “an unforgettable star turn” (The Times). Funny Girl is semi-biographical, based on the life and career of Broadway star, film actress and comedienne Fanny Brice (a role made famous by Barbara Streisand on Broadway and in the 1968 film adaptation), and her stormy relationship with entrepreneur and gambler Nick Arnstein.

Tickets £13.50/£10