CAT and English PT TEST- Headphone Reminder: A reminder to students in Year 7 to bring Headphones on Monday (B-half) and Friday (A-Half), as well as a reading book. The headphone must have a 3.5mm jack connection. Some headphones are USB-C or wireless these days and will not work with our PC’s. Many thanks and good luck next week!

PEAKS TRIP: All of the information regarding the Peaks Trip should be on your child's Google Classroom under Pastoral 2022- Year 7. They are staying at Ilam Hall and A Half leave on Monday and B Half leave on Wednesday. Students should arrive at normal time on their day of departure, drop bags at the new canteen, then head to registration in form rooms with an aim to leave at 9.30am. Students will return home on their respective days (A Half on Wednesday and B half on Friday) at 5pm. Students need a packed lunch for their departure day journey- all other meals will be provided. You can look for updates @sandringhamsch1 under the #Peaks2022 

Our German exchange students, Frau Kranz and Frau Horn from Dietrich Bonhoeffer Gymnasium in Hamburg arrived this week and they had a great day yesterday enjoying lessons around Sandringham School. Today they are in Oxford and next week they will visit the Harry Potter studios, various places in St Albans and enjoy a film showing in the Sandpit Theatre with pizza. If you see them around school, do say hello and make them feel welcome. 

We had an amazing start to this years' house competitions with our staff tug of war on Friday after school. Teammates became rivals as Mr. Lacey took on Mr. Brown in a head to head. The final scores were 1st-Fawcett 2nd-Elgar 3rd-Austen 4th-Johnson 5th-Hepworth 6th-Turing 7th-Newton 8th-Shakespeare. Well done to everyone who took part!

Our 2022 Drawing Week theme Come Back to Colour encapsulated what we all hope will be a rediscovery of the vitality, health, care and vibrancy in everyone's lives and encouraged our students to take the time to appreciate the beauty of the natural world and encourage creative thinking. Ben P, Mona A and Annie F shared their own ways of thinking with students during our whole school assembly and many students visited the Visual Arts faculty at lunchtime to participate in our obliteration room inspired by Yayoi Kusama. We would like to thank all of our students for sharing their ideas with us this week and contributing so positively during the activities. 

Barracudas are pleased to be operating an October half term camp at Sandringham again this year. Parents can get £10 off a full week by applying this code in the promotions box: HSCH22. They offer a wide range of activities with DBS checked staff and previous students who have attended the camps have spoken highly of what they have to offer.

STEM clubs are in full swing this term, with students joining in record numbers. Something we are really developing is getting older students to help run the clubs, giving the younger students good role models and the Year 11/12’s some valuable leadership experience. The picture shows a Year 11 student, Aaron A, leading a session at Year 7 Science Club.

STEM clubs up and running this term include sustainability club, Year 7 and 8 science clubs, Year 12 science societies, Pi club (maths) and computing clubs. Sign-up is through the SOCS app.

As mentioned in our Theme Week News, students have enjoyed a fantastic Drawing Week with the idea "Come Back To Colour"- A love letter to each other and the world around us. The sessions were planned with the hope of rediscovering the vitality, health, care and vibrancy in everyone's lives after what has been a challenging last few years. Students were encouraged to reconnect with physical and mental ‘colours’, to observe the wonderful vibrancy in the colours across the seasons and to take a moment to celebrate our environment and protect the 'health' of our ecosystem. There was the opportunity to Meet the Artists: Oscar S, Hollie W, Libby H, Sol A, Oliver G, Molly P,  Giulia F and Alexandra Gerzhik and be inspired by various lunchtime workshops led by Sixth Form Ambassadors. A huge thank you to Mrs Kelly and the Arts Team for all their hard work organising the week and we hope that students enjoyed capturing, celebrating and finding joy with all the beautiful and wondrous things that exist in our world.

The Connexions Room on the first floor of K block is open to students looking for information on different Careers.  There are flyers for various career related events in here, as well as university prospectuses and college brochures.

Nicky Honeywell from Herts Services for Young People has been meeting students to offer impartial careers advice every Thursday.  The priority for this term is year 11 and 13 students, but we hope for as many students as possible to meet with Nicky.  If you would like to arrange an appointment this term or next, please contact admin@sandringham.herts.sch.uk and this will reach Mrs Eady, Careers Coordinator who will get in touch.

Please continue to follow our Twitter feed: @sandcareers. This week information on free webinars has been posted for those interested in working in Interior Design or Events Management.  These are run by the Hertfordshire Opportunities Portal (HOP).

As mentioned in the Headlines, the Sausage Sizzle last Friday raised a fantastic £2,300 for the school, more than last year, and a testament to the hard work of Fo$S and the willing participation of our lovely new Year 7 parents. During the evening, there was a lot of interest from parents in signing up for FO$S, so please see above for the meeting dates for the year. If you didn’t manage to sign up at the Peaks Information evening on Wednesday, but if you would still like to get involved, you can sign up here to become a member or volunteer. It is a great way to meet other parents, raise money for activities around the school and be part of some fun social events such as Quizzes, the Christmas Fair and Summer Events. We look forward to welcoming as many new members as possible.

A reminder that the Key Stage 4 Parent/Carers Information Evening is taking place on Monday 26th September starting at 6:30pm in the Main Hall.

On the evening, we are again fortunate to be joined by Dr. Martijn Van Der Spoel who you may remember from last year. As an expert speaker and chartered psychologist, he will be giving an in-depth presentation about the best strategies to support your child’s learning, alongside the psychological rationale behind them. This presentation will build upon the one he gave last year so should be extremely useful and highly practical.

During the evening, we will also be delivering key information about the adjustments to GCSEs and vocational qualifications this year in the wake of the national lockdowns, as well as sharing the ethos that we approach your child’s education with, and letting you know about various opportunities open to the students this year, both academic and extra-curricular. In addition, we will also be going through the pathways open to students after Year 11, including details about entry to sixth form.

We do hope that you will be able to join us for this event where Mr Smith and I look forward to meeting you in person.

The Maths Puzzle of the Week is BACK! For those new to the school, this is a fun competition run by Mr Hill every week for students to enter and for you to perhaps try as a family at home. To enter, simply scan the QR code and fill out the google form. For every entry you will receive 1 housepoint, if you answer correctly you will win 2 housepoints! If you are the fastest person to answer the puzzle correctly then you will win 5 housepoints! Good luck to everyone! 

DSPL7 supports parents and carers, staff in early years settings, schools, and further education colleges 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. Each term DLSP7 produces a booklet that outlines the courses that are being run by external providers to support parents and families who have a child or children with additional needs.

Please use the link here to access DPSL7’s parenting support booklet for Autumn 2022.

A reminder that all Year 10 Drama students will take part in a practical workshop with the acclaimed theatre company, Complicité, on Tuesday 18th October during sessions 3, 4 and 5. This will take place in the Drama studio. Please ensure students bring a packed lunch on the day, or if they receive free school meals they can go to the canteen for their lunch as normal and bring it back to Drama. 

Frank Kerntiff was a very popular guitar teacher here at Sandringham School for many years and sadly passed away earlier this year. Phonenix Mandolins are arranging a concert in honour of him on 6th November at 7.30pm in St Stephen's Church and would love for any fellow pupils/families of pupils to come along if they would like to pay their respects. Please see the poster attached for more details or email phoenixmandos@gmail.com 

Thank you to all the parents/carers who attended the Year 13 Information Evening this week, we hope that you found it useful. The presentation can now be found on the school website here.

This week, we feature Oliver L, who like many of our students, went to pay their respects to Her Majesty the Queen over the weekend. Oliver felt very strongly that he wanted to go, even with the prospect of a long queue and woke up at 5am on Sunday morning to head in to London. He is pictured here at the beginning of the queue and after waiting patiently for 10 hours, he was able to reach the coffin in Westminster Hall, draped in the Royal Standard, surmounted by the Imperial State Crown, Orb and Sceptre, and guarded by members of the armed forces. Oliver said that he was very pleased he went to show his gratitude and we are proud of him showing many of Sandringham character traits in doing so. 

If you would like to nominate someone for the Student Spotlight, please contact Melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk  with any details and or photographs you'd like to include. 

If you are interested in becoming a teacher and would like to find out more, then you can join the Alban Federation virtual Open Morning on Saturday 8th October 2022 from 10am-11:30am

You can register  here or call 01727 799560 EXT 4217 or email afgtpenquiries@Sandringham.Herts.sch.uk for more information. 

At the end of last term, we introduced the new page for our Super Curriculum activities which can be found here. As a reminder, Super Curriculum activities are those that take your curriculum further and are an opportunity to gain extra accolades as a reward for completing. They take the subjects you study in the classroom beyond that which your teacher has taught you or what you’ve done for home learning. For example, you may go into more depth on something you picked up in the classroom, or learn about a new topic altogether. These activities are in a range of forms: reading, watching videos online, downloading podcasts, attending lectures, visiting museums or entering academic competitions. Engaging in super curricular activities will help you develop a love for your favourite subject or subjects. On this website, there are a range of activities, suggested by your teachers at Sandringham. They are by no means exhaustive lists but should get you started. Once you have completed any, log them here or on the website and once you have completed three tasks, you will receive a reward on ePraise. 

We have been really impressed by the number of students that have been engaging with the Super Curriculum.  Look out for rewards on your ePraise profiles coming soon! And thank you to Dr Creaby, Mrs Dudley and the Directors of Learning for all of their hard work. 

Here at Sandringham School, we have the vacancies for teachers of Science and Maths available as well as Network Manager, Cleaner and Teaching Assistant. If you, or anyone you know, would like to join our fantastic team of staff. Full details and other roles can be found  here

Alban Academies Trust are also looking for a Director of Information Technology Vacancy. If you are an outstanding IT Professional looking for an exciting new role, this opportunity may be for you. To find out more and apply please visit here. Applications close Monday September 26th at 9am.

We have a new twitter handle @Sandhouse22 which you can follow to keep up to date with any house news.

This week Fawcett lead the way for house points with Shakespeare, Hepworth and Austen not far behind. Special mention goes to Ralph A in 8J who received the most house points this week (10) and Year 7 for the highest average points this week (22.1)

For house points overall, Fawcett are still in the lead but that can all change in a week so keep getting those house points

We have Battle of the Bands which are our Year 7 students are busily preparing for and stacking competition coming soon so watch this space for further updates.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: calmer

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: beruhigen

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: calmar

Thinking Questions

• Sometimes words are made up of other words. How can this help us when reading in a foreign language?
• Sometimes we don’t understand every single word in a foreign text – what can we do in this situation?

This week we're featuring a book called Jefferson by Jean-Claude Mourlevat. When Jefferson the hedgehog goes to his hairdresser’s, he’s shocked to discover the barber lying dead on the floor. Falsely accused of murder, Jefferson must go on the run with his best friend Gilbert the pig to uncover the real killers. Winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and translated from French, Jefferson is a quirky read featuring a murder-mystery and amusing animal characters. Rachel C in 8F recently read the book and said of it ‘Jefferson is an unusual story with plenty of humour and twists. I really enjoyed it. It was definitely my kind of book!’  

P is for… pacify  [verb]

Definition: Quell the anger, agitation, or excitement of.

Example: He had to pacify angry spectators.

Synonyms: Allay, Placate, Repress

Antonyms: Aggravate, Agitate, Incite

Etymology: Derives from the Latin word ‘pacificare’ which comes from the roots pax and pac meaning peace.

At Sandringham, we believe that ‘everybody can be somebody’. This works in complete harmony with what it means to be ‘World Class’: everybody has the opportunity be the best version of themselves, celebrate the strengths of others, and work together to make a positive difference in their local and wider communities. As a World Class school, we equip students with knowledge, skills and confidence to thrive in a challenging international environment. If you would like to find out more about what it means to be a World Class Student, competitions you can be involved in and the chance to be nominated as Student of the Month, please speak to or email Mrs Beaton.

A huge congratulations to Eda P, Liv C, Mimi G and Marelie R for their U16 County Football Selections

And to Harry W in Year 9 for his County selection. A great achievement, well done!

Another great fixture at KWS for our cross country team yesterday. The Junior girls all placed in the top ten with Georgia T (1st), Erin R (3rd) & Nell McK (7th). The two Tobys also did well in the junior boys competition coming 3rd & 29th. There was also a superb effort from our inter girls who finish in 1st, 2nd, 5th & 20th and the Inter and Senior boys finished off the afternoon of running with some more impressive performances with Daniel B (2nd senior), Luke C(1st inter), Joe B (24th inter). Well done to everyone involved!

The U16 Netball Performance squad started their season with a close contest against Stowe School yesterday. A 28-31 loss sees us go into the National Plate. OPM - Liv C & CPM Hannah G.

A good performance for the U13 netball team yesterday losing 37-16 to a very strong STAHs. OPM - Katie J & CPM - Tilly F.

Please see next week's features above. You can follow all of our sports news on Twitter @SandringhamPE

A great start to the football season on Saturday with home fixtures against Sir John Lawes. Year 7 made a great start representing their school with over 30 boys on the bench. The A's battled from 0-1 down to secure a 2-2 draw and the B's put in a strong performance to win 5-3 win. Year 8 also had a well contested 1-1 draw with Will A scoring the opener. A promising start to the season with plenty of strong individual performances. Year 9 put in an impressive performance against a strong SJL team today with the eventual score 6-2.   And the Year 10 team lost their first game of the season this morning away to SJL. Some great football in places and showed confidence to play in tough areas. It looks to be an exciting an season ahead.

The U16 Girls Football Team were unlucky to lose in the ESFA National Cup yesterday - they looked strong throughout, with some excellent play, especially from POM Hannah G who was a rock in defence, and the Senior football team had two friendly matches away vs St Albans School. Some great football played at times but we walked away with a draw and a defeat. 

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

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

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

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