The Dance Faculty were blown away by the talent in auditions this year!  Tuxedo on Monday was incredible and it was lovely to see new faces on Thursday for TripleEdge. Company members for both will be posted on Wednesday 14th September on the Dance noticeboard outside the Dance office. 

One more audition to go - Sandringham Contemporary Youth Dance. Next Tuesday 13th September at 4.30pm in DC1. Open to all Y10-13 students at Sandringham and in Hertfordshire. We hope to see lots of you there!

We are aware that several of our students in Year 9 and 10 are studying additional languages out of school as native speakers and may be interested in sitting a GCSE later in Summer 2023. Although the exact timeline of next summer’s exams has yet to be confirmed, we would be grateful if initial expressions of interest could be emailed to fleur.baikie@sandringham.herts.sch.uk stating the student name, tutor group and the language they are studying which they wish to be examined in.

The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 7th October. After this date we will not be able to investigate entries for Summer 2023.

Once we have all the requests, we will work with families to see if we can accommodate them. Thank you.

A huge well done to Oliver G in 9N who participated in the British Transplant Games over the summer and won 2 medals. The games have been running for over 40 years and encourage transplant recipients to lead active lifestyles . They also appreciate and remember donors and their families. This year, the event took place over 4 days in Leeds with over 850 competitors (all of whom have had a transplant), competing in 25 different sporting events and including over 1700 supporters.

Oliver won gold medals in Speed Stacking (he completed the sequence for his age group in 4 seconds) and speed walking. Well done Oliver- what a fantastic achievement. 

If you would like to nominate a child to be featured in the Student Spotlight next week, please contact  melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk with any details and/or photographs

Well done to Fawcett who lead the House Points this week with an impressive 529 points so far. In second place is Austen with 394, and Shakespeare and Hepworth not far behind with 380 and 357 respectively. New parents should have received details for their ePraise log in and students can also check what they have been awarded with their own logins. 

We are aware from our school surveys this year that students and families are interested in studying Latin and Classics.  Whilst we don’t offer a taught session within the timetable, we are really fortunate that Paul McNally, an experienced teacher of Latin and Classics, already hosts a private Latin class at Sandringham after school each week. He 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. A charge often laid against learning Latin, apart from the absurd notion of elitism, is that it is useless. Why not learn Mandarin, people ask, or Russian or French?  Well half of our English vocabulary is made up of Latin words and roots; Latin provides the root words for all of the modern sciences; Latin is the language of law, government, logic, and theology and Latin effectively develops and trains the mind.  For me the pleasure of Latin is precisely because - aside from the points sketched above - it is "useless". Latin doesn't help to turn out mass-produced mini-consumers fit for a globalised 21st-century society. 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.”

Classes will start 15th September, 2022. They are held after school in K3, starting at 15.10. students can come along for a taster session.

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

If you, or anyone you know, would like to attend one of our Open Morning Tours, please see above for the details. You can book a session by contacting Main Reception on 01727 799560. 

One of our Year 13 students, Zac P, is part of a team walking to raise money for Herts Young Homeless, a fantastic local charity working to support young people who find themselves in difficult circumstances. If you would like to read more about the challenge and support Zac, please click on the link here. Thank you

This week’s whole school theme welcomed students back to school. The students received an excellent whole school assembly from Mr Gray celebrating the fantastic results that students received over the summer and asking students to reflect on how they will tackle this academic year. Sandringham is an exceptional school to be a part of and we hope that all students make the most of the fantastic opportunities on offer and enjoy the academic year 2022-2023. As Mr Gray would say, there are no limits! 

We are pleased to say that the individual and form photographs for Year 7 and Year 12 are now online. Parents who have registered will receive an auto notification informing them their images are ready to view. The website for these codes is www.getphotos.co.uk. The online cut-off date for orders to be placed for free postage back to the school is 20th September 2022.

If you cannot find the bar code, please contact the admin email address and we can provide it for you.

Individual school photographs for Years 8-10 will take place on Monday 31st October. We will also be taking form photographs for Year 9 on that date as they missed their whole form photographs in Year 7 due to Covid restrictions.

We are delighted to say that the second hand uniform sale held on Saturday 3rd September raised an impressive £850 for Fo$S. This money will go towards providing equipment and support for the school. Thank you to everyone who helped at the event and to those who came along to support it. Watch this space for the date of another sale to be held near half term. 

We have the following new vacancies:

Sandringham School: Network Manager. You can view this and other Sandringham vacancies here 

AAT: Director of IT. You can view this and other AAT vacancies here

As per Mr Gray's headlines, following the sad death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday and the beginning of a period of mourning, we have taken the decision to postpone the Sausage Sizzle scheduled for this evening (Friday, 9th September).  At present the provisional plan is to hold the event next Friday, 16th September, but this is subject to any information that we receive from the Government in the next few days. We will update parents further as soon as we know more.

It was lovely to see the Year 13 students reading with Year 8 students again in the Main Hall today. This was an initiative started last year for older students to improve their leadership skills by mentoring younger students and it had the benefits of building relationships across the school whilst also fostering a love of reading. We look forward to it continuing this year and thank Mrs Bulbeck, Dr Creaby and the Year 13 students for their work.

The Careers Team is looking forward to an exciting year, with many more in person opportunities for students, as the world opens up following the Covid Pandemic.   

This year we will be welcoming speakers in school from many different fields and the plan is to be able to arrange more visits to universities and work places.  Nicky Honeywell from Herts Services for Young People will continue to visit Sandringham weekly to offer impartial careers advice.  Parents, carers and students are invited to follow our Twitter account @sandcareers and keep an eye on our careers blog here.  These are both regularly updated.

Instrumental/Vocal Lessons

Most instrumental and vocal lessons will begin next week so please remind your child to come to the music faculty to check their timetable and to bring their instruments on the right day! For NEW YEAR 7 pupils, I have been notified by Hertfordshire Music Service that there have been some delays within their admin system for processing new pupils, and so if you have registered for lessons with the music service your child may not appear on the timetables for a further week. As soon as I receive details of lesson dates and times, I will inform year 7 pupils directly.

All lessons take place in the Music faculty in one of our teaching rooms. There are instrument storage facilities at the back of the Sandpit Theatre and in Room F5.

DRUMMING LESSONS

We currently are very keen to encourage new Year 7 pupils with an interest in learning how to play the drum kit to sign up for lessons with our brilliant percussion specialist Mr Spinelli. If you would like lessons for your child on the drum kit, you can register by clicking on this link.

New students are welcome to borrow books from the LRC (Learning Resource Centre.) We have a fantastic range of fiction and non-fiction for students to borrow on a three-week loan. The LRC, situated in K block, is open at break, lunch and after school for students to choose books, read or study. Our team of friendly librarians are always happy to help. Students can browse our catalogue and reserve books using our Accessit web app found on the mysandstorm home page. We look forward to seeing you soon. 

Your child can now sign up to clubs across the school via the SOCs app. New Year 7 students will have been sent login details. There is something for everyone, and students receive rewards on ePraise for participating so please do encourage your child to look for activities they are interested in- or to try something new.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: nébuleux, nébuleuse

GERMAN: Die Wort der Woche: neblig

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: nublado/a 

Thinking Questions

•  The English, French and Spanish translations are all very similar – why might the German be different?

N is for … nebulous  [adjective]

Definition: In the form of a cloud or haze; hazy.  (of a concept) vague or ill-defined.

Example: There was a nebulous glow in the sky.  We discussed nebulous concepts like the meaning of life.

Synonyms: Ambiguous, Imprecise, Shadowy

Antonyms: Bright, Certain, Clear

Etymology: From the Latin word ‘nebula’ meaning mist. 

The Year 7 Rubgy fixtures tomorrow have been postponed. Please check our Twitter pages @SandringhamSch1 and @SandringhamPE for updates on other events next week

Please note the Year 7 rugby training and matches tomorrow have been postponed until further notice.

Little Red Riding Hood’s friend arrives to tell us the story but has a problem, there are no pages in the book! He tries to tell the story and we meet Red Riding Hood’s mum, dad, and grandma but he keeps getting the story wrong. So, Cinderella arrives to help, dancing a conga with her Jack’s Baked Beans Band and suggests auditions to find the Wolf to end the story.

There is lots of participation in this theatre show, with the audience becoming Cinderella’s backing band, auditioning to be wolves, helping Red Riding Hood’s dad cut down trees and dancing a conga.Tickets £7/£5

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!

“Absolutely Incredible” – BBC Three Counties Radio

“Hilarious, Modern… an absolute delight” - Bedford Today

Tickets £12.50-£15

Tickets are available now at www.hanselandgretel.co.uk

Welcome to THE DARK ROOM – the world’s only live-action, text-based adventure game. It’s strange, insane and addictive – it’s a choose-your-own-adventure, so choose it!

How do you play? The audience is trapped in a retro videogame with a sadistic end-of-level boss. Choose your options, survive the abuse simulator that is the improv comedy overlord John Robertson, and escape to win £1000 – or, be brutally murdered by the rest of the crowd!

Tickets £10.00 – £12.50

John Robertson’s terrifying, live-action videogame 'The Dark Room’ now comes with a family-friendly flavour! Part stand-up comedy show, part theatre; all interactive and insane - this award-winning, genre-defining, mixture of improv comedy and retro gaming all combines to become a deranged rock n’ roll game show – now suitable for ages 11 and up. Families will find themselves trapped inside a live-action videogame!

‘You must see the Dark Room at least once in your life’ ✭✭✭✭✭ The Sun

‘Genuinely irresistibly dangerous’ ✭✭✭✭ The Stage

Tickets £8

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