On Saturday, some of our Year 12 students attended a mathematical problem solving seminar at the University of Hertfordshire run by the Advanced Mathematics Support Program. The purpose of the seminar was to introduce the students to higher level problem solving in Maths to support their studies and university applications.  In order to study Maths or a Maths related subject, such as computer science, engineering or economics at university, certain universities are requiring an admission test or would make a lower offer based on the admissions test. The students had a fantastic time and feel it has really helped their understanding of what is required and how they can approach the tests they need to study the subjects they are interested in. Students considering Maths or Maths related courses should be aware that there are three principal admissions tests for maths as detailed below.

The Music Faculty Spring Concert is taking place on Weds 30th March at 7pm in The Sandpit Theatre. Tickets are available from the box office here. This promises to be a fantastic celebration of music involving all of our groups, choirs and ensembles. 

We are joining forces with other primary and secondary schools in the district to fundraise for Herts for Refugees and Ukrainian refugees.  Students are encouraged to come to school wearing a blue/yellow item such as socks, a badge, scarf, ribbons, hairband etc and make a voluntary contribution of £1.00 per child here

This week we feature Lauren P, who has been selected to play at the regionals for the South East Region in Wales next Saturday for Octopush (underwater hockey.) She only started playing in January so it is hugely impressive that she has progressed so quickly and has already been chosen to not only represent her St Albans club but the South East already!

As we have mentioned before, Lauren is also active in open water swimming, and she has also started on her open water charity events already raising nearly £300 for Rennie Grove for her first charity event in May. Well done Lauren on your wonderful achievement with Octopush and the money you continue to raise for charities close to your heart. 

This week we are celebrating the amazing work of one of our Year 12 Spanish students who chose to do her work experience week at a local translation company. She tells us how she was inspired by the experience and gained real insight into the translation world, a possible future career option. She wrote a lovey blog detailing her Spanish exchange journey. Well done, Bella!

“As part of my Year 12 work experience week, I was lucky enough to spend a day at Atlas Translations in St Albans. During the first part of the day, I got to do a mock translation of a Peruvian birth certificate from Spanish into English, and learnt about the process of quality checking, stamping, and sending off each translation. For the second half of the day, I was tasked with writing a blog post for the company’s website. I decided to write about my experience of the Spanish Exchange, which you can read on the link below. I really enjoyed my day at Atlas Translations and it gave me a real insight into some of the careers that can stem from Spanish (which I would like to study at university).”

https://www.atlas-translations.co.uk/blog/exchange-programme-a-student-experience/

On Tuesday of this week, the Jazz Band took part in a collaborative concert with Hertfordshire Music Service County Jazz groups held at Townsend School. The band played 4 pieces of music including Moondance, That’s Life, Gotta Fly Now and a great version of The Pink Panther. There was some fantastic improvisation by Ryan D (Year 11) and James C (Year 13) and the whole concert ended with all the groups playing the Peter Gunn Theme together. The band represented the school brilliantly and were great ambassadors for Sandringham. 

Our Chartering company, Chartwells, have launched their ‘Annual Food For Thought’ survey, to get feedback from all students on tastes and service levels and help them develop their offering.

If you would be able to complete the survey, we would really appreciate your input in developing the school offering. Plus the school with the most responses can win a £500 sports team sponsorship that would include the purchasing of new equipment.

You can take the survey here

The Sandringham Careers team is delighted to be sharing its first Careers Blog post! Mrs Eady has joined the team as the new Careers Coordinator and looks forward to offering support to students of every year group. This week, there are updates on Year 10 Work Experience Week and details on our Personal Careers Advisor, Mrs Nicky Honeywell, from Herts Services for Young People.

You can follow our Twitter account @SandCareers for more info or for Sixth Form info there is also the useful @SandSixth twitter feed. We look forward to offering further future updates both through this blog and our Twitter feed, as well as the Sandprint.

Several of our Year 12 students had a great day discussing principles of planning and sequencing learning as part of the Sixth Formers into Teaching: Languages programme ahead of their teaching practice. Some very insightful conversations!

Last month, 120 students in Years 9, 10 and 11 took part in the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge run by the UK Mathematics Trust.  The aim of the UK Mathematics Trust is to advance the education of young people in Mathematics. The Intermediate Mathematical Challenge is a 60-minute, multiple-choice competition aimed at students across the UK. It is open to all students in Years 11 and below.  This was a fantastic opportunity, offering students the chance to develop their mathematical problem-solving skills. It encouraged mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems.  The problems on the Intermediate Challenge are designed to make students think. Most are accessible, yet still challenge those with more experience. Students that perform well are awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates, with the best performing students being invited to take an additional challenge. 

Overall the school was awarded 13 Gold, 21 Silver and 42 Bronze winners.  Special mention goes to Harry P (9J) for best in Year 9 and Lauren D (10A) and Keerthana A (11H) for joint best in school.

In addition,16 students were invited to participate in an additional challenge. The Pink Kangaroo Challenge aimed at Years 10 and 11 and the Grey Kangaroo Challenge aimed at Year 9 are 60-minute Challenges consisting of 25 problems.  Entry to the challenges is by invitation only and is based on a qualifying score.  Only a few thousand students across the UK are invited to participate in the Pink and Grey Kangaroo so a huge congratulations to all those that took part. 

We were absolutely delighted to host a visit from Porsche Hatfield as part of British Science Week. Porsche visited with two electric Taycan cars and spent considerable time explaining their developing technology and the future of sustainable transportation. Our Fine Art and Product Design students in Year 10 loved the opportunity to hear about advancements in sustainable technology. They also really enjoyed viewing and sitting in these incredibly special cars. All of our Year 10 Fine Artists and Product Design students will now work to design a wrap for the Taycan car to best represent the brand and sustainable energy. We would like to thank Dan Jones and Charlene Nayler from Porsche Hatfield for giving their time freely to inspire our students and for the incredibly memorable session that they provided for them.

It has been an absolutely fantastic Science Week, with students enjoying a vast array of activities. Turing led the charge in House Points for their Carbon saving efforts, and 9S, 8A and 7J won their respective Year quizzes on Climate knowledge, Biology, Chemistry & Physics. Max M in 9S was the winner of the BSW Film Competition and Laila, Emily & Immy (7H) and Alessia Z (7H) were the runners up.

For the rest of the week, students spent time taking part in tree maintenance, charging phones using bike power, and taking part in a Biodiversity survey of the school grounds. There was also the brilliant Chemistry Show, a Mock Climate Summit and the Sixth Form Clothes Exchange. 

A huge thank you to Mr Tattersall and all of the staff involved for arranging such a fun and thought-provoking week. We are sure the students gained a lot from it and have taken away new knowledge and ideas to help lower their carbon footprint.

A huge well done to three hockey superstars:

Dan M in Year 10, who was part of the U15 boys county hockey team which came second in the regional county championships. George A in Year 12, who was part of the U16/17 boys county hockey team which won their regional county championships. And Zak M in Year 13, who has represented St Albans Hockey Club First XI at national league level. Having started playing in the Second XI earlier this season, he has been playing regularly in the Midlands National Conference, with a highlight being a 5-0 home win against fierce rivals Bedford.

Well done to all on their respective fantastic achievements!

Well done to our Year 12 Fine Artists who were delighted to share their work for Arts Week at Bernards Heath School. This was an opportunity for them to lead the younger artists and share their best practice beyond our school community. Leah M in Year 12 reflected upon the experience mentioning that “The children were incredibly interactive and interested in my work which made me feel more motivated to work in the future and achieve my aspirations as an artist”. In addition, Mona A shared that “It was lovely to meet the young artists and share my work with them. One student told me that he would like to be an artist when he grows up and I enjoyed sharing my work with him”.  A special thank you to Mrs Gidden for organising and leading this trip to enable our students to share their work with many artists which we will look forward to meeting in the future.

This week’s whole school theme is Zero Discrimination Day in recognition of the UN day celebrated on 1st March each year. Zero Discrimination Day highlights how people can become informed about and promote inclusion, compassion, peace and, above all, a movement for change. Zero Discrimination Day is helping to create a global movement of solidarity to end all forms of discrimination. The students received an excellent assembly that got them to reflect on the discrimination surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia began an invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014. It is the largest conventional military attack in Europe since World War II. We hope that students are able to be compassionate towards those experiencing discrimination and focus on what they can do to support refugees at this time. 

Written by Natasa C and Amy B.

"Between the dates 7th-11th of March, our group of six German A-level students and two of our teachers visited Quickborn (Germany) as part of the year 12 German culture trip. We attended the German school everyday in the ‘Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gymnasium’, immersing ourselves in their culture, language and education. For the record, the style of good teaching seems universal, although the content is at a much higher level; the school being a ‘Gymnasium’, which is the German version of a grammar school. Each day there were a range of activities arranged, including a trip to the cinema for “eine typische deutsche Filme”, an escape room on a ship in Hamburg, and Kegeln which is like bowling, without the three holes in the ball. 

However, what was most impressive about our trip was the amazing hospitality and kindness of our host families. They were willing to take us on board, even though there wouldn’t be a return visit, and have made us feel so welcome! I’m sure I can vouch for everyone, that we can all agree they were wonderful, taking us on trips, challenging our language by speaking only German, and providing us with lifelong memories! This week perfectly balanced education and fun, making it feel like a holiday whilst boosting our language skills at an incredible rate, and we have to thank Frau Kincaid and Lyons who have organised this all, and of course to everyone who has made this trip possible!"

We have so many fabulous students this week- we have three Student Spotlight Features!

Emily R and Sophie L in 11N recently both gained a distinction in their Grade 5 ISTD Modern Dance exam. Well done! This is a fanastic achievement. 

If you would like your child featured in the Sandprint, please email melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

 

We were delighted to welcome Dr Phil Porter to the Sandpit Theatre on Monday to start our Science Week theme focusing on reducing our Carbon Footprint. Dr Porter studies glaciers and regularly goes to the Arctic to measure changes due to climate change. Students were able to learn from his wonderful and ask questions in the Q+A. Thank you so much Dr Porter for coming. 

Year 10 have been working on 2-point perspective work as part of their electronics project this week. We hope you enjoy their sketches and look forward to seeing the final results!

One of our ‘Sandringham Reads’ texts for Years 11 - 13, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is a classic work of feminist fiction, set in the dystopian world of Gilead. Written in 1985, and set in the near future, Margaret Atwood creates an unforgettable portrait of defiance and authoritarian rule and a devastatingly powerful exploration of female oppression. ‘The Handmaid's Tale’ is a classic dystopian vision with an all-too chilling resonance for our times. Having now been adapted to an acclaimed TV series, this novel remains a relevant read for us all. You can read more here.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine- l’empressement

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche- Der Affenzahn 

SPANISH- La palabra de la semana- La celeridad

Thinking Questions

• French, German and Spanish have gender in built in the language - what impact does this have on the people using or learning these languages?

A is for… alacrity [noun]

Definition: Brisk and cheerful readiness.

Example: She accepted the invitation with alacrity.

Synonyms: Alertness, Eagerness, Enthusiasm

Antonyms: Apathy, Coolness, Discouragement

Etymology: From the word Latin ‘alacritas’ meaning brisk.

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 U13 boys who won 25-5 against Hemel to see them finish winners of the Emerging Schools Rugby Tournament. The victory also means the team have gone a full season unbeaten! Well done boys!

And the U13 girls also had a wonderful afternoon of development rugby, playing in a round robin tournament with SJL, RWP, BEAU & SRA. Thanks to SRA for hosting

An amazing week for netball with Sandringham having a team in every one of ages groups at the County Plate Finals held at Marriotts School. 

The U13 netball team played the best they have ever played winning the county plate final against Queenswood! The PE Faculty are so proud of this group of students, a huge achievement! POM - Mia O but a fantastic effort from all! The  U15 girls, also had a resounding victory in the County Plate Finals against Dame Alice Owens! MVP Marelie R, who was outstanding in defence but everyone was amazing. And finally a huge well done to the U18 team for their efforts against a strong Queenswood side! They were also County plate finalists. 

The U14B Netball team also had a great week, wining 20-3 vs STAGS (OPM - Nia V & CPM - Mimi G) 

Well done to the following students for running for Herts in the Inter County XC champs in Loughborough at the weekend. Luke C 21st (u13B), Georgia T 49th (u13G), Sam M 170th (u15B) and Lily T117th (u17G)

The U14 football team were amazing in their efforts in the semi-final of the county cup, narrowly loosing 2-1 to Beaumont. Being 1 of the 4 teams in Hertfordshire is an amazing achievement! POM - Roisin C

The Year 10 football team also had a fabulous win Vs Aldenham yesterday to see them through to the @HertsSchoolsFA @WixFootball Final. A superb performance from the team to come from behind to win in fantastic style. Well played boys!

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!

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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

Sandringham School presents their annual concert. This features all their choirs and instrumental clubs, including the ever-growing show choir, the famous jazz band and sinfonia orchestra.

Tickets £5/£4

IT’S TERRY!

“…Unstable and deliciously unexpected” The Guardian

It’s Terry is a brand new knock about show Introduced by the world famous character performer ‘Richie Raganoo’ - who by his own omission, says Terry Alderton is the “weakest character he does. But his most successful!”

It’s Terry has narrative, it’s a throw it up and see where it lands kind of show. So those that Know, Know, and those who don’t…will!

Tickets - £17