As mentioned in the previous Sandprint, we are really fortunate that Paul McNally, an experienced teacher of Latin and Classics, is now able to provide an additional after school class for students wishing to begin studying Latin.  For those wondering ‘why study Latin?’, Paul describes it in the following way: “It is the gateway to literature:  to be a good reader of English and Irish literature alone, knowledge of the literature of the Romans offers an inestimable advantage. Half of our English vocabulary is made up of Latin words and roots so Latin provides the root words for all of the modern sciences. It is the language of law, government, logic, and theology and Latin effectively develops and trains the mind. It helps create curious, intellectually rigorous children with a rich interior world, people who have the tools to see our world as it really is because they have encountered and imaginatively experienced another that is so like, and so very unlike, our own.” If this has whetted your appetite and you would like to learn more about this opportunity, please contact Paul McNally directly via email: paul.mcnally@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

Wishing the best of luck to our Year 11 students who have their GCSE French, German and Spanish Oral exams starting next week. They have all worked really hard on revising and practising and we know they will do brilliantly.

Year 7, 8 and 9 students are welcome to come along to the TripleEdge Dance Company Summer Term auditions next Thursday, 28th April @ 3.15pm in DC1. You don't need to sign up on SOCS, just come along and try out for the KS3 Contemporary dance company.

Here are the House scores as we start the final term of the year. Hepworth have led since Christmas and are the house with a target on their backs. The House Cup is heavily weighted in favour of this term and many events can determine the destination over the course of the next few months. Students are encouraged to involve themselves in this term's events and enter the spirit of the competition. Year 12 House Captains will be unveiled in the next week, which should give Heads of House more support until the end of term. Good luck everyone

From 6th-9th April, 51 Sandringham students had the amazing opportunity to travel to Iceland as part of our curriculum enrichment offering for all A Level Geographers. This is the first international trip that the department have organised since the beginning of the pandemic, so it was a fantastic experience for us all to travel abroad again and visit such a unique country with many awe-inspiring physical landscapes. 

The trip took us to a series of famous and iconic waterfalls such as Skógafoss, Seljalandsfoss and Gullfoss, as well as the Thingvellir National Park where the first Icelandic Parliament met in 930AD and where the chasm between the North American and Eurasian Plates illustrates the power of plate tectonics. Also, students had the opportunity to bathe in the geothermal pools at the Secret Lagoon and walk on the glacier at Solheimajokull. Finally, the clear skies on the first two days provided a glimpse of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) - a wonder of the natural world!

A huge thanks to the students for their exemplary behaviour during the trip, which we hope they will remember as a highlight of their time at Sandringham, and a big thank you to the staff that gave up their time to accompany them - Miss Borman, Mrs Mouncey, Miss Durrant, Miss Pratley and Mrs Ellis.

Students might be interested in a fascinating programme currently on BBC iPlayer: a reconstruction of the first moon landing in 1969, titled 8 Days: To the Moon and Back. Using de-classified audio and film clips, the story of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on the Apollo 11 mission is told. Take our word for it, the programme is gripping!

Another thing to mention is a reminder of the various STEM clubs available to students. Pi Club, Sustainability Club, Year 7 and 8 Science Clubs, Future Tech, Games Development and Weather Monitoring are some of the extra curricular activities students can participate in. Sign-up is easy - just use ‘SOCS’ on the mysandstorm VLE page.

Battle of the Bands

We are kicking off the Summer Term Music Faculty programme of events with our annual ‘Battle of the bands’ competition. This is taking place next Tuesday 26th April at 7pm in the Sandpit Theatre. We are delighted to be welcoming Sandringham alumnus Charlie Thornton as our adjudicator for this event which promises to be a really fun evening of rock and pop music. Tickets available from the Sandpit Box Office.

Junior Recital

Instrumentalists and vocalists from Years 7,8 and 9 are now invited to sign up to perform a solo at our ‘Junior Recital Evening’ which will take place on May 9th. Students can sign up in the music faculty or talk to their music teacher for more information.

Music Exam Success

Congratulations to the following students who have recently passed ABRSM and Trinity Guildhall music examinations:

Haniyah Y (Year 8)  – Grade 2 piano

Alex S (Year 10) – Grade 6 violin – merit

Zach D (Year 10) – Grade 4 piano

Jamie B (Year 8) – Grade 5 guitar – merit

Samuel M (Year 11) – Grade 7 trumpet – distinction

Families will be aware that the government’s guidance relating to ‘Living with COVID-19’ was updated from 1st April.  The key update related to symptoms and related self-isolation for both adults and children is linked below.

A huge well done to Charlotte P, who represented Sandringham School at the NSEA show jumping competition over the Easter holiday. She performed brilliantly and won the 80cm class. Fantastic news. 

We love to feature our students going above and beyond in the Community, in the Arts, Sport or academically so if you would like you child featured in the Sandprint, please contact melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk with any details and/or photos. 

DSPL7 supports parents and carers by ensuring there is a range of provision and support services within the St Albans and Harpenden area for children and young people with additional needs. Please click on the link to access a booklet with the full range of courses available which may be of interest. SEN Booklet

This week’s whole school theme observes the Muslim religious practice of Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (sawm), prayer, reflection and community. A commemoration of Muhammad's first revelation, the annual observance of Ramadan is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam and lasts twenty-nine to thirty days, from one sighting of the crescent moon to the next. The students received an excellent assembly from the Director of Learning for PRE, Ollie Lacey and the student PRE ambassadors. They educated students on the common practices of Ramadan and encouraged all to make sacrifices and support others in the community - especially the Muslim communinty who are fasting. Ramadan Mubarak!

Vaccination Reminders

The HPV1 vaccination will take place in school on 16th May 2022 for year 8 students. In addition to this, those in Year 9 and 10 who have missed their vaccination due to the COVID pandemic will also be seen in school. Consent can be given by clicking the link in the original letter sent on 31st March 2022.

The Meningitis ACWY and DTP vaccinations for Year 9 will take place on Friday 24th June 2022. In addition to this, those in Year 10 who have missed their vaccination due to the COVID pandemic will also be seen in school. Consent can be given by returning the form attached to the original letter sent on 7th March 2022.

Lost Property

Please ask your child to double check for any misplaced items in the lost property cupboard located in Student Services – we currently have a number of valuable pairs of shoes and trainers waiting to be reunited with their owners. Due to the volume of lost property, we hold items in the cupboard for 2 weeks before they are donated to charity.

We have range of books available in the LRC for all students who wish to explore and celebrate Muslim culture throughout the month of Ramadan. For KS3 students, Once Upon an Eid is a joyful collection of short stories by fifteen Muslim voices. In Now or Never, a Dunkirk Story, author Bali Rai tells the story of Private Fazel Khan who is forced to consider why he should be loyal to a king whose people don’t always see him as an equal. For older students, Muhammad Khan’s award-winning Young Adult novel I am Thunder is a powerful exploration of how far fifteen-year-old Muzna Saleem should go to stand up for what she believes in. Among the Mosques: A Journey Across Muslim Britain brings the daily reality of British Muslim life sharply into focus as Ed Husain joins men and women in their prayers, conversations, meals, plans, pains, joys, triumphs, and adversities.  

We have many more books available, and our team of friendly librarians are always here to help!  

Have you started reading our Whole School Read yet? All students (and their families!) are encouraged to read the text and to join the conversation about the text, either with their peers, their teachers, their families or on Twitter @SandringhamRead. There are still a few copies available in the LRC, including a ‘short read’ edition and a ‘teen’ edition of the text. PDF copies are also available on the Sandringham Reads Google Classroom (Class code: 5ukzdug), where students can also submit a short review of the book.

Congratulations to Imogen and Michael (Yr 7) and Zander and Isla (Yr 8)  who have recently read ‘I am Malala’ and submitted their review.  All students who read ‘I am Malala’ and submit a review will be awarded the Whole School Read Achievement Award on ePraise, so please encourage your child to participate. 

Finally, well done to Lauren D (10A) who has now read five of the ‘Sandringham Reads’ texts in this academic year and has been awarded the Sandringham Reads Achievement Award. A reminder of all of the Sandringham Reads texts can be found here: Sandringham Reads. The texts cover a range of genres, both fiction and nonfiction, andt have been grouped according to their suitability for each year group - there are some brilliant reads!

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine- La calomnie

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche- Die Verleumdung

SPANISH- La palabra de la semana- La calumnia

Thinking Questions

• Languages naturally evolve over time – what factors affect the evolution and use of a language?

C is for calumny [noun]

Definition: A false and slanderous statement.

Example: A change in the law would prevent the press from publishing calumnies.

Synonyms: Defamation, Lie

Antonyms: Truth

Etymology: From the Latin word ‘calumnia’ meaning trickery or subterfuge.  

Congratulations to Oliver S in Y7 who has been awarded the World Class School Character Award for student of the month! Oliver is an outstanding role model to his peers and other students at the school. He uses his expertise as an accomplished Euphonium player and violinist to support others in music lessons, always taking a really positive approach and encouraging others to have the confidence to perform and create increasingly challenging pieces of music. Oliver represents the school by playing in both the concert band and sinfonia, playing alongside much older students. He has also been accepted into the national Children’s Concert band so will be representing the school beyond our community. His positivity is infectious to those around him and he epitomises what it means to be a world class learner here at Sandringham School. Oliver has also been shortlisted for the Student Character Award to be awarded at the WCSQM Symposium on 6th July. You can read more information here. Well done Oliver!

Welcome to the Summer term, which hopefully is as successful, if not more so than our previous two terms this year. Currently we have reached 4 National finals in as many different sports and are at the quarter final stage in another. So whilst some sports are still to culminate in success and continue on this term we are pleased to start afresh in Athletics, Tennis, Cricket and rounders as we strive to succeed and engage students across the school.

Over Easter we took on a mammoth task and gave new experiences to almost 200 students, with our biggest school sports tour to date. We travelled to Spain with 188 students and over 20 staff to train and play in the warmer climates of Salou near Barcelona. For 5 days our students worked hard at developing their talents in predominantly football and netball through some hard sessions and then got the chance to play some fixtures in both sports, as well as Rugby and Basketball against some local opposition. The students also got to experience local culture with a trip to Barcelona and the Nou Camp, spend time on the beach and by the pool at the hotel. It was a superb week and I am so thankful to the staff for their support and to all the students for making it such a memorable experience that hopefully they will never forget.

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

An absolutely outstanding performance from the U14 Girls Football Team this week in the @sistersnsport National Cup, winning 4-0 with goals from Eda P (2), Mimi G and Jasmine R PP: Eda and CP: Roisin M

Enjoy an evening of student bands from rock to acoustic duos as they battle it out to win the title and be crowned the ultimate music band.

To get involved please see the Music Faculty at Sandringham School.

Who will win? Have you band got what it takes? Let the battle begin!

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

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