Thank you to all the parents/carers who attended the Year 13 Information Evening this week, we hope that you found it useful. The presentation can now be found on the school website here. 

A big well done to Elgar who currently lead the House Cup by just 3 points over a tied Austen and Turing with a total of 1797 House points. This is astounding at such an early point in the year and really demonstrates the success of our new Epraise system. Watch this space next week for a summary of upcoming House activities and the launch a number of new House events for the year!

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!

The Year 8s had a fantastic day taking part in DT and Enterprise led sessions for ELD. They worked in teams to make a product in DT and then learned about how to market their product with teachers from business. In the afternoon they pitched their ideas to their classmates. Pictured above are the winners, SeaChains, who chose to make key rings designed to raise awareness of plastic pollution. And below is one of the other teams and their fabulous design. Thank you to all of the staff for arranging and well done Year 8- sounds like a great day where you learnt new skills and enjoyed time with your peers.

On Monday afternoon, as part of the Sport England and Alban TSH project (where we are looking to develop the PE and sporting experiences of students and staff across the Teaching School alliance) we started our Going For Gold lecture series. We hosted a lecture from the infamous ski jumper Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards. He visited, along with students, staff and parents from the school community in the Sandpit theatre and spoke for over an hour about his life and journey to the Calgary Olympics in 1988. It was an entertaining and motivating talk where he highlighted the importance of “how did I get here moments” and he is pictured here with some of our Sixth Formers. Staff, students and family members (of Secondary school age) have the opportunity to attend two more excellent events from retired Olympic sprinter Derek Remond and retired England Badminton player Gail Emms.  These talks are free of charge and offer an insight into competing at the highest level and what it takes to make that journey. 

Monday, 11th October 2021, 5-6pm Derek Redmond

Monday, 18th October 2021, 5-6pm Gail Emms

You will need to register on the link provided under Sandringham School to secure a place. We hope you enjoy this fantastic opportunity

F6 in the Music block is named after Ella Fitzgerald, a jazz singer from America famous for winning numerous Grammy Awards during her lifetime, and whom we believe shows the character trait of Resilience. 

Born on 25th April 1917 in America, Fitzgerald spent her early life in relative poverty and occasionally getting into trouble in school and out. In 1932, her mother passed away and she turned her attention to music as a release. She went on to win a contest at Harlem's Apollo Theatre singing Judy which catapulted her into minor fame and earnt her a place in a musical group as a singer. With bandleader Chick Webb, she went on to record “Love and Kisses” and started to play regularly at famous music venues and feature as an actress in several films.

By the time of her death in 1996, she had recorded more than 200 albums and over 2000 songs and her total record sales exceeded 40 million. She was the first African American Woman to win a Grammy Award and went on to win 12 more as well as the NAACP image award for Lifetime Achievement and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her resilience from humble beginnings and during her later health problems, we feel, make her someone to aspire to be like.

‘It isn't where you came from; it's where you're going that counts.’

On Wednesday, we had our first ELD of the year with students having a break from their usual timetables to spend time together as a year group. Year 7 enjoyed some long hikes in the Peaks, Year 8 had a wonderful day focussing on Sustainability (more pictures in Year 8 News), Year 9 learnt all about the Life in the Trenches, Year 10 had some energetic guest speakers in for Sex Education, and Year 11 enjoyed trying to pull their Head of Year, Mr Boak, off the inflatables at Willen Lake in Milton Keynes. Year 12 got used to their new Sixth Form surroundings and Year 13 were able to spend some valuable time working on their UCAS forms. A huge thank you to Ms Borman who co-ordinated the day and to all of the staff involved for their hard work. Also a big thank you to the students for showing so much enthusiasm in their activities. After many missed in-person opportunities due to the pandemic, it was great to students enjoying time together. 

We received a lovely email from this week regarding our Year 7s and thought we would share....

I hope I’m through to somebody who can pass on this message to your team at the school. I have been out for a walk today around Dovedale, and came across your school out on some form of school trip. I’ll start off by saying that unfortunately, coming across large school groups forms an idea of dread into a lot of peoples heads (including mine). Especially out in the countryside or a museum where people try to aim for quieter times. I always try to keep an open mind, but unfortunately have come across school groups numerous times before that have been rowdy, rude and sometimes disrespectful to the environment and other members of the public.

Today was no such day.

I was walking in the direction of Milldale, away from Dovedale car park, and must have passed 70-80 of your students (if not more!) in small groups. Some were with who I assume to be teachers, others were walking with groups of friends. I don’t say this lightly; every single one of your students was kind, courteous and polite. Every. Single. One of them. Dovedale is a single footpath, very narrow in parts and wide enough for probably two or three people max. Whenever I was walking against the flow of your students they would move to one side and allow me past, and I observed them doing the same for numerous other walkers. 

Not only that, but so many of your students would say a happy and cheery “Hello” or “good afternoon” as I passed. The ages of these students I would guess to be at times no more than 13 or 14 years of age, maybe younger; and to be saying such a kind and courteous hello to another walker was an absolute breath of fresh air. It is absolutely not expected, nor is it commonplace in children of their age. But it was absolutely amazing to see and experience. 

I’m not sure what you’re doing at your school - but you’re doing it very, very right. I absolutely tip my hat to you, your teachers and staff for instilling in these children such a kind and courteous manner. I can’t imagine many people feed back to yourselves their experiences of your students out & about, which is a real shame. On this day your students were a credit to your school, your staff and your uniform. So much so, I tried my best to clock the school badge on their uniforms so that I could get in touch. 

Please pass this on to those who need to hear it, because in this day & age, not enough people pass on kind words.

Thank you for what you’re doing,

Kind regards, A random walker 

We have been informed that the COVID-19 vaccination team will visit Sandringham on Tuesday 19th October 2021 to administer the vaccine to students for whom consent has been given. Information related to how to provide this consent has been communicated to families of 12-15 year old students at the school. Please note that the families of Year 7 or Year 11 students who will be aged 11 or 16 on that day will not have been contacted, given their children are not eligible to receive the vaccine on this day.  We would ask that all queries related to the vaccine are directed to the Immunisation Team at the Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. Contact details are included in the letter sent earlier in the week to families with children eligible to receive the vaccine.

We are currently looking for the following: 

• Teacher of Science
• Learning Supervisor
• Teaching Assistant
• Exam Invigilator
• Lettings Assistant

To find our more visit here

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

Science and sustainability clubs are up and running, and this week’s activity for Year 7 Science Club was making circuits. This is of course covered in the curriculum but opportunities like this allow students to spend a bit more time using the equipment and exploring ideas. As was the case last year, it is great to hear from parents who can offer help related to STEM. If anyone has links with scientists, expertise to offer - on reducing our carbon footprint for example - resources or ideas, then as always we would love to hear from you.

This week’s whole school theme focuses on Student Leadership. The Student Leadership Team is an elected body from each year and form in the school. They are organised into six working groups: Teaching and Learning; Ecology and Sustainability; Charity & Community; Mental Health and Wellbeing; Digital and Communication; and Equality and Diversity. The SLT is a core part of the school that makes sure the views of the student body are regularly consulted in all aspects of school life from staff appointments to campus developments. As part of this week’s focus on student leadership, students were asked to reflect on the qualities needed to be an effective leader and whether they would have a positive impact on the SLT. Applications are now open for this year's SLT - we challenge you to push yourself out of your comfort zone and apply today here for Years 7-11 and here to be a Year 12 Lead. A reminder to everyone that you need to re-apply even if you were part of the Team last year. We look forward to hearing from you! 

A reminder that the Year 7 Sausage Sizzle is taking place 7-9pm on Friday 1st October in the Main Hall and outside (weather permitting!) This is a great event for students to spend  time together out of school and for parents to meet whilst eating great food and enjoying reasonably priced drinks. Parents of Year 7 students can pay for tickets via ParentPay (£3.50 each) and the Google Form here allows to you to select meat/vegetarian options, specify any allergies and indicate which drinks you would prefer on the night. We were unable to do host this even last year due to Covid restrictions so are very happy to be hosting it this year and look forward to see you there.

More news will follow next week regarding the Year 7 Peaks trip but it was a fantastic week, where they were very lucky with the weather! We received several emails (one featured in Positive Feedback) and another mentioning "what polite and pleasant children they all were.... they were a credit to the school" so well done Year 7. We hope that you had a great time rising to new challenges and strengthening new friendships. 

Sandringham has enrolled in the Good to Grow scheme with Morrisons. We are looking for families who do their shopping in Morrisons to simply download the app and donate their Good to Grow tokens to Sandringham School. This will help to provide gardening equipment such as compost bins, seeds, watering cans, plant pots, trowels, spades and more to the horticulture module and Sustainability Club.

We have set ourselves the aspirational target of 5000 tokens but we know how amazingly supportive Sandringham School families are so look forward to receiving as many as possible. Thank you!

Mrs Gidden is running the KS3 Space to Create Club every Monday from 3.00pm-4.00pm. Students are encouraged to come along to be inspired by Comic Art and develop their drawing skills. The Club starts this Monday, 27th September, in F4 and will run until half term. The Arts Team look forward to seeing all of the KS3 artists!

A huge congratulations to Clover McD in Year 10 who recently passed her Grade 6 Saxophone exam with Merit. It takes great determination to pass these higher level exams so we are impressed, especially in a disrupted year. Well done to Clover for this fantastic achievement. 

Year 11 student Nathanial M has made a fantastic start to his competitive season. During the summer, East Region (Herts, Beds, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk) held the Festival of Swimming Gala at London Aquatics Centre and Nathanial won a Bronze medal in the 50m Backstroke, as well as a PB and a 4th and 5th place in the freestyle races. This is all the more impressive due to the disruption to his training caused by the pandemic.

Nathanial has many more galas before Christmas at local and regional levels and he has qualified to swim at the Swim England National Winter Championships on the 3rd/4th & 5th of December at Sheffields Ponds Forge Pool. Good luck Nathanial!

If you would like your son/daughter featured in the Student Spotlight, please contact Melissa.holian@sandringham.hert.sch.uk with any details.

As you are probably aware, COP26 (the key climate change conference) is taking place in Glasgow in a few weeks time. We are promoting a range of activities at school and in the community to engage in the multiple issues and debates as we approach this. Please see the poster above about an event that we are involved in on Thursday 7th October, 4.00-6.00pm. The event is open to everyone, there is a QR code to register and we hope to have a Sandringham student on the discussion panel. We also encourage any student to register and attend if they are interested in the fight against climate change.

This week’s ‘Book of the Week’ is one of the most famous accounts of living under the Nazi regime. The diary, written by a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, Anne Frank, and edited by her father Otto H. Frank, this is a true story to be rediscovered by each new generation.

In the summer of 1942, fleeing the horrors of the Nazi occupation, Anne Frank and her family were forced into hiding in the back of an Amsterdam warehouse. Aged thirteen, Anne kept a diary of her time in the secret annexe. She movingly revealed how the eight people living under these extraordinary conditions coped with hunger, the daily threat of discovery and death and isolation from the outside world.

A thought-provoking record of tension and struggle, adolescence and confinement, anger and heartbreak, the diary of Anne Frank is a testament to the atrocities of the past and a promise they will never be forgotten.

The Government’s Education Reading Framework states that “Making sure that children become engaged with reading from the beginning is one of the most important ways to make a difference to their life chances”. Reading helps literacy which can be the way to success in every subject and in life generally. The LRC team of friendly staff are here to help students find the right books to read, at the correct reading level and a genre that interests them- come along to see them soon! Keep reading!

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine- raffiné

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche- kultiviert

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana- sofisticado/a

Thinking Questions

• All three languages have slightly different variations of other English words that are synonyms for sophisticated. Why might some languages have a greater range of adjectives?
• How does the language you speak affect your perception of the world?

S is for sophisticated [adjective]

Definition: (of a machine, system, or technique) developed to a high degree of complexity.

Example: This was evidence that early humans were more sophisticated than once thought.

Synonyms: Complicated, Modern, Refined

Antonyms: Simple, Uncomplicated

Etymology: From the medieval Latin ‘sophisticatus’ meaning tampered with.

Thursday saw another successful trip for the x country teams to Nicky B this week. It was a slightly shorter course this week with some good performances, with the highlights being:

Luke Carlin 1st

Will Anfield 6th

Annabelle Newman 3rd

Lily Tse 2nd

Beckie Cray 2nd

Zoe Hilton 4th

Dan Biddulph 3rd

Sam Muldoon 3rd

George Booth 4th

Henry Thompson 7th

Holly Wynn 8th

Saturday 25th September

Y7A/B V Aldenham (H), Y8A/B V Aldenham (A)

Y9 V Aldenham (H), Y10 V Aldenham (A)

Senior V Aldenham (A)

Monday 27th September

Y10 ESFA Elite Cup Football V Richard Hale (H)

Y10 Natwest Cup Rugby V Parmiters (A)

Senior Netball A/B District Tournament (A)

Y10A Netball V Royal Masonic (H)

Tuesday 28th September

Y9A/B Football V Haberdashers (A)

Wednesday 29th September

Y9B Football V Forest School (A)

Thursday 30th September

 Y10A/B Football V Haberdashers (A)

Saturday 2nd October

Y7-10 Rugby V Samuel Ryder

For more news, fixtures, team sheets and results don’t forget to follow us @SandringhamPE on Twitter and at www.sandringhamsport.co.uk

Well done to the U14 Netball Performance Squad for a big 26-8 win over St George's! OPM - Emily W & CPM - Poppy R

The senior netball county cup fixture against Herts & Essex also took place yesterday with a good performance from all and unlucky with the 29-37 result. OPM - Molly C & CPM - Ida S

The Y11 boys football team played their first competitive match on Thursday  in the ESFA National Cup V Chesham Grammar. It was a great start to their season and they took the win 6-0. Goals from A Latter (2), W Jackson, M Kirby, C Choudhury and J Warren. Well done on such an accomplished performance to put us into Rd 2 versus Cedars Upper School from Beds.

After a long delay in fixtures, we were delighted for the U14 girls football team to finally take to the pitch! With new Year 8 players having not represented the school yet, an exciting new team with a combination of Yr8 and Yr9 talent embarked on the first round of the ESFA national schools cup game. Drawn against Simon Balle on a hot afternoon on Thursday an excellent display of teamwork and determination was shown by all. Our defence worked incredibly hard shutting down the vast majority of attacking pressure. Just 15 minutes in and a goal from Jasmine R put us 1-0 up at half time. In the second half we found our attacking flare and with 3 more goals from Jasmine R and a 1 from Eda P, we finished the game 5-1. A fantastic first round performance from all, but special mention to Freya W (coaches player) for her impeccable defence and Hannah G (players player) for her relentless midfield play.

Well done to the 60+ boys who represented the school last Saturday morning  in our annual block football fixture V Sir John Lawes. It was a great morning of football with the 7B and Y8 teams getting the win and the others allbeing involved in some good games, however losing in our first Saturday fixture. I’m sure lessons will have been learnt and we can build on this going forward as the Cup competitions get started for various age groups and teams.

Marking the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, the greatest exhibition ever held of his works took place in Rome. Exhibition on Screen was granted exclusive access to this once-in-a-lifetime show. With over two hundred masterpieces, including paintings and drawings – over a hundred of which have been brought together for the first time – this major exhibition celebrates the life and work of Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino.

More than just a painter, Raphael was one of the most extraordinary artists of the Renaissance but is often misunderstood or mythologised. On the basis of this extraordinary exhibition in Rome, this film allows Raphael, for the first time, to be truly revealed. Tickets £7/5

Welcome to our 20th anniversary year as we celebrate The SandPit Theatre turning 20 years old this December! We can’t wait to see you back through our doors and we have some exciting shows and films coming up for you this season!

All the latest performances are on our website, www.sandpittheatre.co.uk, and you can keep up to date with what’s going on by giving us a follow either on Instagram & Twitter or give us a like on Facebook, just search for The SandPit Theatre

The box office is open from 11.30am – 3.30pm Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Alternatively, you can call us on 01727 799565 or visit www.sandpittheatre.co.uk

The V&A presents Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, an exclusive private view of the ‘hugely enjoyable and thought-provoking exhibition’ (★★★★★The Guardian) at the V&A in London, filmed especially for the big screen.Take a guided tour ‘down the rabbit hole’ with the V&A Curator Kate Bailey and presenter Andi Oliver as the documentary explores how Alice has become an enduring icon, influencing successive generations and inspiring creativity in fashion, film, photography and on the stage.

Tickets: £16 / £13

Sandringham School presents The Sound of Music. The inspirational story, based on the memoir of Maria Augusta Trapp, follows an ebullient postulate who serves as governess to the seven children of the imperious Captain von Trapp, bringing music and joy to the household. But as the forces of Nazism take hold of Austria, Maria and the entire von Trapp family must make a moral decision.

This amateur production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization.  www.concordtheatricals.co.uk Tickets £10 & £7

Grab your wands, don your house robes, and apparate yourselves to the box office! A very magical improv show awaits...

The smash hit Spontaneous Potter is an entirely improvised Harry Potter comedy play, based on an audience suggestion of a fanfiction title. Hilarity ensues as an entirely new Potter adventure is magically improvised on the spot - with live musical accompaniment! Running Time: 60 minutes

Tickets: 2:30pm -  £12 / £10, 7:30pm -  £16 / £14

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!

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Following Government guidelines, you must wear a face covering while attending The SandPit Theatre and must present a valid NHS COVID Pass or proof of a Negative Lateral Flow Test if aged over 18, unless you are exempt as stated in these guidelines. If you do not wear a mask or do not have a valid NHS Covid Pass/Lateral Flow Test result, you will be refused entry and your ticket will be forfeited.

Our Bar will be open during these performances 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.

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The box office is open from 11.30am – 3.30pm Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Alternatively, you can call us on 01727 799565 or visit www.sandpittheatre.co.uk