This week’s whole school theme is the End of Year to celebrate all that we have achieved as a school community in the last 11 months. The students received an excellent assembly from headteacher Mr Gray which highlighted some of the school's major achievements and encouraged the students to reflect on the progress they have made, both academically and personally, this school year. It makes the staff very proud to recognise how hard our students work and congratulate those that have gone above and beyond to improve themselves. We all deserve a well-earned break but we hope that this week inspires the students to consider challenges they can take on and milestones they can achieve next year.

Well done to Lauren P in Year 10 who recently competed in France for the U17 GB team in underwater hockey where they came third against some tough opposition. She had an amazing time there and enjoyed practising her French as well. What a fantastic achievement Lauren. We are all very proud of you!

On Wednesday, we had a fantastic Sports Day with students competing for their houses. After a few years of the day being on a smaller scale or not taking place at all- it was great to see everyone competing, cheering their friends on and winning points for their houses.  Fawcett were the eventual winners, but it looked and sounded like everyone had a great time! You can see more pictures on the @SandringhamSch or @SandringhamPE twitter pages. Well done to everyone who took part.

Our annual awards assemblies for Years 7-10 will be taking place on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th July at the times below.

Monday 18th July: Year 7  9.15am - 10.45am/  Year 9  11.15am - 12.45pm

Tuesday 19th July: Year 8  8.45am - 10.15am/  Year 10  10.30am - 12.00pm

This year we are delighted to invite the parents of award winners. If your child has won a faculty award, school colours, extra curricular award, Form Tutor Prize, Performance Director, Governor, Endeavour or Headteacher Award, you will have been sent an email earlier this week with a google form to complete confirming your attendance. Please can this be done by the end of today, Friday 8th July, so that we know the names of who is attending. There will be a separate assembly where all students will receive copy of the EPraise Record of Achievement and attendance certificates where eligible, will be handed out.

This year we took 18 of our delightful Sixth form students to the Design Museum and the V&A. Our first visit was to the design museum and to an exhibit titled "Football: Designing the beautiful game" where students got to see firsthand how design has shaped the world of football from the football boots to the stadiums themselves. Following this, we went to the V&A where students completed a workshop called 'Design for Change' which provided students with a greater understanding of the social and moral factors that designers need to consider in their work. The students had a fantastic time with many inspired by what they saw and we are excited to see how their skills as designers evolve in response to this world-class visit.  

The Silver Duke of Edinburgh expedition students are up bright and early in the Peak District and getting ready for the day ahead. We look forward to bringing you more news of their trip and the Gold expedition who leave for the Lake District tonight., in next week's Sandprint.

It has been a fantastic Fit For Life week with a amazing array of activities for students to take part in. The mornings saw Wim Hoff Breathing Techniques & Meditation or Morning Fitness, then later on the day there has been Action Painting, Sports Day, the Charity Run, Cheerleading Performances, Crossfit Games, Triathlons, Heartwood Hiking and various County Athletics and Tennis competitions. Thank you to the PE Faculty for all of their efforts in organising activities. The positive impact of sport on our students' physical and mental health is hugely valued so it is great to see this week back in full swing again.

Year 12 STEM students heard a fascinating and very useful talk this week by Professor Phil Jones from the physics department at UCL.Phil gave invaluable advice about making a UCAS application. Admissions officers read UCAS applications very carefully and, along with a student’s predicted grades and GCSE results, look for evidence that the student has passion and interest for the subject beyond the A Level specification. Professor Jones went on to show the physics students some recent research at UCL. It was great to see so many sixth-formers there. Well done to our students who, as always, represented Sandringham so well. 

A big well done to Fawcett for winning Sports Day on Wednesday! With Sports Day on Wednesday, the Charity Run today, and House Day on Wednesday there’s a lot of buzz and excitement around which house will win. All of the points from this week and next will get added to the House totals, which should see some changes, however currently the standings are as pictured. Can anyone take the lead from Hepworth last minute?

Shiam A in Year 12 has written this great report.

In March of this year I completed my EPQ on ‘How the COVID-19 pandemic, associated lock-downs and infection control measures have impacted the cognitive and psychological development of young children, focusing on those aged 4 - 5 in St Albans?’ Also around this time, the government published its draft terms for the UK public inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it was updated recently after public consultation to include the effect on the health, wellbeing and education of children as well as adults.  I am very proud to say that the primary research that I collected as part of my EPQ is being used to inform the results of the government inquiry.  Further details can be found here.

My EPQ went into more detail with regards to the effect on children specifically than the inquiry plans to, however both discussed the effect on disadvantaged children (e.g. those with Special Education Needs and Disabilities, children for whom English is not their first language and those living in low income households), non-drug interventions to reduce the spread of Covid (like schools closing and face-masks), the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children and effects on children from bereavement. I also undertook primary research (by going into primary schools and interviewing teachers and students), looking into education, and how teachers felt that they would be best supported by the government, mitigation strategies to reduce the effect of missing school (including applying some used in children staying in hospital for long periods to children who were isolating, shielding or whose schools were closed) and the adaptations to the schools curriculum that teachers were putting in place (e.g. changes to the PSHE curriculum to improve communication). 

The Music Tour returned on Tuesday evening from a successful three concert tour to Brittany.  Musicians from the Jazz Band and Show Choir performed to large audiences in St Briac sur Mer, Cancale and St.Malo.  The fabulous sunshine brought out tourists and locals to hear our performances and it was fantastic to see musicians from Years 9 – 13 getting the opportunity to have their music enjoyed by completely new audiences.  A big thank you to Mrs Cavanagh, Mr Turton, Mrs White and Mr Hill for giving up their time to accompany the group in France.

As this Newsletter was being compiled, students were getting ready to take part in our annual Charity Run for Macmillan and Motor Neurone Disease Association. We have already raised a fantastic £2,500 for these charities close to our hearts. The link is still open to donate if you would like to do so here . Well done to everyone for their fantastic outfits and efforts! 

On Friday Night we gave the Year 11s a very well deserved send off after five years of hard work. Everyone looked fantastic arriving at the parent’s champagne reception for parents kindly hosted by FoSS, before heading in to the hall for a night of fun! Standouts from the night included some high rollers at the roulette wheel, delicious waffle wands and an epic dance off. Thank you so much to all the staff for their help, and to the students who were absolute credits to themselves on the night. Class of 2017-2022, it’s not goodbye, but see you later!

Thank you so much Mrs Juleff for leading such a creative session with Pi Club for Art Week last week. Here they are busy stitching a cardioid. Great the see Mathematics and the Arts being combined! 

On Monday evening, we welcomed the 246 Year 6 students who will join us from September as the new Year 7 cohort. Students were given inspiring talks from Mr Gray and Mr Kemp and a fantastic summary of what Year 7 life will be like from Ms Batten, Head of Year 7. They were also given an opportunity to meet their form tutors, hear about the Peak District Trip and ask any questions they had about secondary school life. We look forward to seeing them all again on Thursday 14th July for their Transition Day and know that older students will make them feel welcome around the campus.

On Monday, the A level German group from Queen Elizabeth’s School and Sandringham Sixth Form met at the Sandpit Theatre to take part in an afternoon of language immersion culminating in the premiere showing of Sorry, Genosse. The event was a rip-roaring success!  All the students interacted well taking part in ice breaker activities and discussions about their A level studies. They ate a delicious German-style buffet provided by Mrs Flahive and the Food Tech Team. Both groups had the opportunity to watch the film on a big screen in the theatre.  The film centred around the struggles two people from West and East German faced when they tried to live together culminating in a madcap escape. Everybody really enjoyed the afternoon in particular the opportunity to meet other A level German students. It was lovely to see Frau Hood again, a former colleague and meet some of the MFL staff at Queen Elizabeth’s School.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine- juxtaposer

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche- etw.einander gegenüberstellen

SPANISH- La palabra de la semana- yuxtaponer

Thinking Questions

• Here the translations are similar to an extent. Can you think of some recently learnt vocabulary for your studies that is similar to the English? How do we end up with cognates in languages?

‘Maus’ is an undisputed masterpiece of the graphic novel form. Representing Jews as mice and Nazis as cats, Spiegelman’s profoundly moving work traces his father’s harrowing experiences of Auschwitz and the challenges of adjusting to peacetime life after an all-consuming ordeal. As the first and only graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize, ‘Maus’ is a brutally moving work of art suitable for students in Year 9 and above. Read more about it here

J is for… juxtapose   [verb]

Definition: Place or deal with close together for contrasting effect.

Example: Black-and-white photos of slums were starkly juxtaposed with colour images.

Synonyms: Connect, Pair, Place in proximity

Antonyms: Separate

Etymology: From the French word ‘juxtaposer’ which derives from the Latin word ‘IUXTA’ (NB, the letter J does not feature in the Latin alphabet) meaning

A huge well done to our 4 County League Athletics teams across Y7-10 on their performances in the County League finals on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday our Y9/10 boys and girls teams were in action in the County plate Final at Jarman Park in Hemel. The teams both performed well with a number of exceptional performances from individuals. Tuesday then saw our Y7/8 boys and girls teams at the Cup final at the same venue. Again, the display from some of our athletes was superb. It is a huge honour to get to this stage of the competition in a county that is so strong nationally in the sport of athletics. Our teams have performed exceptionally all season to achieve this and should all be very proud. The girls Y7/8 team were the pick of the bunch having come out as League winners from the regular season matches. A feat the school has not achieved in recent years.

A massive congratulations to our Senior boys tennis team who at the time of writing are currently in the National Quarter final. The team have been in Nottingham for the National Schools finals after winning our region. On Wednesday the team beat Norwich School in a fairly close encounter, with Matthew McC making his debut at the tournament and really impressing. The team took the tie 10-2 to set up a quarter final with Reeds school on Thursday.

Our U14 girls were also County League winners

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

Chuckl. In association with The Sandpit Theatre bring you the very best in live stand-up comedy.

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

The line-up includes Jo Caufield (Have I Got News For You, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow) / Sarah Keyworth (Live at the Apollo, Comedy Central's Roast Battles) / Martin Westgate ("...hope he gives up soon before he starts costing me work." - Gary Delaney) / Nelson Gombakomba (Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year Finalist).

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

The Sandpit Theatre present their Premiere Professional Pantomime!

A fun-filled, sugar-fuelled, family-friendly pantomime adventure that reminds us ALL not to take candy from strangers (even if they wow you with a fabulous song and dance number!)

Join ‘Hansel and Gretel’ in a new take on an old favourite; with tasty tunes, magical mayhem and colourful characters (including a 7 foot yeti!) it’s simply not to be missed!