Tesco are offering a wide range of sessions, work experience and careers tips.  Please see the links below for more information:

1. Virtual Work Experience Year 10
2. Customer and Marketing Team
3. CV and Interview Tips
4. Tesco Virtual Insight Day – Online Business
5. CV Tips and Interview Impact – Virtual workshop

Vodafone

Through our parent network we have also been informed of degree level apprenticeships at Vodafone.  There is a new degree level apprenticeship based at their cable station in Bude, Cornwall, with opportunities for project work and/or to move to a team based in London and Newbury.  It may be an opportunity that year 13 students would be interested in. Details are here

Please do send Mrs Eady any questions or opportunities to share (eadyc@mysandstorm.org)

This week the Year 12 Biologists travelled to Dorset to undertake fieldwork for their A Level practical endorsement.

Over the course of the trip, students completed several sessions to develop their practical skills. Monday involved a visit to the rocky shore where students learnt how to take samples using a belt transect. Using their results, they then used statistical tests to determine if their results showed a positive correlation. On Tuesday we spent the day at Studland Bay, investigating Psammoseral succession over the sand dunes. This was followed by the greatly anticipated Giant Swing activity in the afternoon. On our last day of the trip, we travelled to the River Wey to learn about stream ecology, where students collected lots of interesting data about the species found at different points of the river.

The students worked fantastically throughout the trip and showed real enthusiasm in learning these new fieldwork techniques, well done Year 12 for being brilliant as always!

Rhineland Trip – Year 8 Culture E WEEK.

Due to some last minute cancellations, we now have 3 places left on the Year 8 Rhineland Trip (13th -17th June 2022). The cost of the trip is £480 and your child would need to meet the following requirements in order to be able to go:

• meet the vaccination requirements for France and Germany
• be in possession of a valid passport (less than 5 years old on the day you enter so the passport ‘date of issue’ would need to be dated on or after 14/06/17 AND ALSO valid for at least 3 months after the day we leave so the ‘expiry date’ would need to be valid until 17/09/22.)

If this is of interest to you, please contact admin@sandringham.herts.sch.uk ref FAO Ms Kincaid by Tuesday 10th May. 

This week we feature Zak, Joe & Ashton from Year 11 who won the @EJALeague Challenge Cup on Sunday for their local team Hemel Hempsted Town in a thrilling 4-1 win against Newmarket. The match started with an opening goal from Joe and saw the Hemel team dominating throughout. The next stop for the three boys is for Sandringham U18 B team in Stoke on Monday 9th May vs Brooke House College for the ESFA National Schools Cup Final. Amazing work boys and good luck next week! 

You can watch the live link for the match here. 

If you would like your child to be featured in the Student Spotlight next week, please email Melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk with the details and/or photographs. We love to hear about students going above and beyond outside of school in the arts, sport, academically or in the community.

Congratulations to Ava L, Reuben M-K. Bethan P, and Tabitha B whose work has now been published in the Young Writers Twisted Tales anthology. Students who entered the competition had the opportunity to write from the perspective of a villain. We are proud of all four of you for being chosen as there were many entries from schools across the country. We hope you enjoy seeing your writing in print. 

Four Year 12 students have been developing a weather monitoring system by linking sensors, a Raspberry Pi microcomputer and their own website. Devayan P, George A, Henry O and Sam P took the initiative to develop the system and are on the verge of going live with the results.

Another contributor is talented photographer Isabella B who provided a range of images for the background (pictured above.) We will bring you more news as the project progresses but a huge well done to everyone involved.

UAL Future creatives provides inspiring art and design short courses for young people aged 7 to 17. Taught online and face to face across the UK - students learn from qualified teachers and experienced industry professionals. 

Their art and design workshops in St Albans cater to a range of age groups and courses run with new content and different projects every term so even if you have done a course with them before, it will be something different this time. The courses for half term are below or to find out more email  ualfuturecreatives@arts.ac.uk 

Future Creatives Art and Design Workshop for 7 to 11 Year Olds

30/05/22 - 01/06/22 Monday to Wednesday – 9.30am to 12pm

Future Creatives Art and Design Workshop for 11 to 17 Year Olds

30/05/22 - 01/06/22 Monday to Wednesday – 1.30pm to 4.30pm

This month, students in Years 11 and 12 have been taking part in Physics Challenge competitions. These are run by the British Physics Olympiad group at Oxford University, and they involve solving fun and challenging problems that are designed to stretch students beyond their GCSE and A-level courses. The results are as follows:

The Senior Physics Challenge (year 12)

Gold – Devayan P

Silver – George A

Bronze – Ty W, Joe L, Vasilis T-E, Sam H, Hannah B, Carys M, James N

Commendation – Jessica N, Olivier S-B, Jamie G, Jamie G, George D, Damola B, Cae H

The Intermediate Physics Challenge (Year 11)

Silver – Keerthana A, Jamie B

Congratulations to all who took part, and particularly to the Gold & Silver award winners – this places them in the top thousand students in their age group in the country! Year 10, your teachers will be telling you how to sign up for the Junior Physics Challenge over the next week or so.

A fantastic write up by Megan K and Abbey M, Year 12.

On Thursday the 21st April, our Year 12 Sociology classes took a trip to the Home Office in London to visit The Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) which is located next to MI6 on the Albert Embankment. The Home Office established the Accelerated Capability Environment to explore and embrace new ways to think and react to the threats from terrorism and serious and organised crime. ACE are a team designed to access the best of what industry and research have to offer and coordinate public and private agencies to address and shape public sector problems.

Toby Jones, Head of ACE explained that ACE comes up with fast-paced, innovative solutions to a number of problems with examples that ranged from reducing NHS hospital waiting times to creating a database of potential terrorists. We had the exciting opportunity to speak to various experts as to how they progressed into their role, their career paths after Sixth Form, and examples of what they do day-to-day. 

We were also introduced to Kelly Fisher, Detective Inspector for City of London Police and had the opportunity to ask questions about her career and experiences as a female detective. She gave us advice on the best way to get into the field of detective work which was really interesting and helpful. She highly recommended exploring various paths in order to become a detective, such as joining the ‘Police Now’ a graduate scheme that trains you as a detective straight away instead of joining the police force first.

Our next activity involved small workshops from a variety of different professionals. Tracy Alexander, President of the British Academy of Forensic Sciences led us through a crime scene and how to collect evidence using DNA and fingerprints. We were given examples of different crimes and how forensic science was used in order to find and prosecute the perpetrator.  Another presentation was about AI and how it is being rolled out in the NHS.  A member of ACE, told us about developments that they are making to a programme that will help doctors to locate and complete surgery on lesions in the brain.  AI will be used to analyse fMRI scans and detect cancer in the brain, a process which is currently time consuming by doctors. With the programme it is hoped that many cases of cancer will be diagnosed earlier and treated more effectively.

In our penultimate task, we were given national policing problems that ACE are looking to find solutions to such as: how to reduce knife crime, how to build public trust surrounding the police, and how to reduce domestic violence. Finally, we were given a presentation by Paul Taylor, National Policing Chief Scientific Adviser.  He spoke about plans to try to replace police helicopters with drones to reduce costs and improve safety but also outlined some of the difficulties faced when making decisions like these.  He told us about his education and career development but was very keen to get the message across that there is no one single path that should define us and that we should explore, carve and innovate our own paths.

Overall, it was an interesting and helpful experience, giving us more insight into career paths in sociology we can take after sixth form. 

We are looking forward to hosting YA author Sue Wallman who will be talking to Year 10 in the Sandpit on Tuesday about her writing. Students from any other year groups are welcome to come along after school on Tuesday at 3pm to meet Sue and purchase a signed copy of her latest book Such a Good Liar. Books will be on sale at a cost of £7.00. Students can also borrow Sue Wallman books from the LRC. Her thrillers are always extremely popular so do pop along to the LRC if this sounds of interest. 

Fo$S would gratefully receive any donations of good quality uniform to sell at their Second Hand Uniform Sales. All profits from these go towards funding activities for our students. Please could any donations be dropped at the bike shed on 15 Skyswood Road. 

This week’s whole school theme recognises International Nurses Day. This UN day is observed around the world on 12 May of each year, to mark the contributions that nurses make to society. This Nurses’ Day, The Royal College of Nurses will be showcasing the incredible work of nurses and the differences they make to patients’ lives across the UK by sharing stories that demonstrate the #BestOfNursing. The students received a fantastic assembly that celebrated the work of local nurses and showcased the importance of the profession. We would be extremely proud if any students chose to pursue a career in nursing and hope that all, throughout their lives, give nurses the respect that they deserve. Thank you to all of the nurses in the school community for the work that they do!

We are hugely proud to announce that Sandringham has been shortlisted in The Tes Schools Awards 2022 for the Best Use of Technology! A huge well done to everyone involved in getting us to this point. The Awards dinner will be held at the prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane on the evening of Friday 17th June so watch this space for more details of how we get on!

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine- Le stigmate

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche- Das Stigma

SPANISH- La palabra de la semana- Le estigma

Thinking Questions

• The English, French and Spanish translations are all very similar – why might the German be different?
• How do languages evolve over time?

It’s great to see that so many of our students have started reading our Whole School Read!  Congratulations to Thomas W and Rose M (Yr 7) and Haniyah (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. If you haven’t started reading yet, there are copies available in the LRC, including a ‘short read’ edition and a ‘teen’ edition of the text. PDFcopies are also available on the Sandringham Reads Google Classroom (Class code: 5ukzdug), where students can also submit their short review of the book to receive the Whole School Read Achievement Award. 

S is for… stigma [noun]

Definition: A mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation.

Example: Many believe that when celebrities talk about mental health it helps reduce the stigma for ordinary people.

Synonyms: Scar, Stain

Antonyms: Approval, Benefit, Esteem

Etymology: From the Greek ‘stigmatos’ 

STIGMA, MAT, meaning the mark of a pointed instrument, a puncture, tattoo-mark or brand.

Target Schools, Oxford University's student-led access organisation, are offering a unique opportunity for Year 12 students to participate in a shadowing scheme, to experience the Oxford teaching style and see what studying at Oxford is really like. The shadowing days are running in May and June for subject areas including Social Sciences, Humanities, MPLS, and Medical sciences, and are open for applications for Year 12 students in state schools considering applying to Oxford. If this sounds like something of interest you can speak to Mrs Beaton or Mr Whorrod for more details and sign up here

It has been a great start to the Athletics season with 3 matches this week. Our Y7 and 9 teams were in action on Tuesday and it was great to see our new Y7s who have taken to their events very well. On Wednesday, our Senior students performed in the District Champs with many performing exceptionally and medalling in individual events. It was good to see some Y13s who have been involved since Y7 in their last match. Then on Thursday our Year 8 and 10 teams were in action in their first County league match of the season and started their campaigns well with both Y8 teams looking very strong. More matches next week.

Congratulations to Kaela L & Marelie R for winning the tennis U18 County Double Championships this week. Great work ladies!

A great performance from our Senior Athletics team at the St. Albans and Harpenden District Championships. Well done to everyone who ran, threw and jumped on Wednesday!

This amazing documentary follows artist Preston Zeller, who feels compelled to take on a year-long creative project after the sudden death of his 35-year-old brother. Preston decides to create an intuitive abstract painting every day for 365 days as a way to process his grief and he shares the ups and downs of this momentous challenge in the film.

Following the screening there will be a Q & A with filmmaker and artist, Preston Zeller and clinical director of the Art Therapy Project, Lindsay Lederman

This film is presented by Zellerhaus Art and The Art of Grieving as part of The Art of Grieving Festival 2022 in St Albans.  All proceeds from the screening will go to Rennie Grove Hospice Care

Tickets £10

An evening showcasing solo and chamber music including both instrumental and vocal performances from Sandringham students in Years 7-9.

This is an opportunity for friends and family to support and celebrate the hard work put in by our younger musicians throughout the year.

Tickets £5/£4

Enjoy some of the biggest names in comedy along with our favourite handpicked artists.

The lineup includes Finn Taylor (Live at the Apollo) / Jess Fostekew (Live at the Apollo) / Arielle Souma (So You Think You're Funny Finalist) / Chris Norton Walker ("This is a guy who could probably inject atmosphere into a vacuum..." - Notts Comedy Review).

Please note the lineup maybe subject to change.

Tickets are on sale now for just £12.50 each.

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