Headlines

We have had a slightly quieter week, but there has still been plenty of activity and lots to look forward to next week.

Mrs Kincaid has been in Germany with staff and students on the annual German Exchange Visit this week. They are returning today and there will be more on this next week in the Sandprint. I would like to thank Mrs. Kincaid for organising this trip which adds so much value to Modern Languages at Sandringham. 

The Year 11 trial examinations have gone well and will provide students with a final opportunity to experience examination conditions and prepare for their GCSEs and BTECs later this year. Thank you to Mrs Headland, our amazing Examinations Lead for preparing the schedule and team of invigilators, and to Mr Smith and the team of tutors for supporting students through these trials. We are sure they will have done well.

Assemblies this week have been on the theme of STEM Week which starts next Monday. Mr Tattersall has put together a great programme of activities which also includes exciting activities for junior school pupils. Students can sign up via SOCs and one of the highlights is the Chemistry Show on Tuesday evening in the SandPit Theatre. I am afraid this is already sold out. Great to see that Chemistry is so popular!

There was also a great turnout for House Mathematics, more on this elsewhere in the Sandprint.

Today, you should have received a letter with details of the next two days of strike action from teachers in the NEU. These are scheduled for next Wednesday (15th) and Thursday (16th) March. A reminder also that next Friday is a non-uniform day for Comic Relief.

Finally, I would like to thank our PE faculty, who are extremely busy supporting numerous teams who are reaching various district and county finals. You can read more about these in the sports section of the Sandprint. Well done to all involved.

Have a great weekend.

Mr A Gray
Headteacher

Upcoming Dates

13th Mar - STEM Week
14th Mar - 6:00 PM Chemistry Show
14th Mar - 6:30 PM KS4 parents information evening 4 - Year 11
17th Mar - 7:30 PM Fo$S Quiz Night
17th Mar - Non Uniform Day (Comic Relief)
22nd Mar - 3:45 PM Year 10 PTC
29th Mar - 3:45 PM Year 8 PTC

Absence Line

Phone: 01727 799564

Absence Email: (Available 24 hours) absence@sandringham.aetrust.uk

Please report ALL absences before 9:15am on the first day of absence and every morning thereafter.

Mr S Kemp
Assistant Headteacher

Headteacher Commendations

Aspiration

Alexandra R9A
Alisha A9A
Annabel M8E
Ayaan J9J
Caleb M7S
Connor L7F
Filip S7S
Flavia P9A
Hannah G10A
Harrison M7F
Hattie J8E
Krishay W7N
Lulu H9J
Maisha R9J
Mati M7H
Mia G9N
Phoebe H7N
Poppy D10N
Rebecca T7A
Roisin C9A
Rosie A9A
Tim C7H

Confidence

Beth Y9T
Jiwon L9T

Initiative

Evelyn L7A
Paola S9J

Integrity

School News

ONLINE SAFETY NEWS 1

Each year we hold an online safety event for parents/carers. The ‘Supporting your child online’ workshop explores the risks that young people face online such as communication with strangers, sharing personal information and photos, and exposure to inappropriate adult content. Our last information evening took place on Wednesday 8th February. A copy of the presentation and handout from the evening can be found on the school website here.

 

Mr M Allday

PUZZLE OF THE WEEK

Well done to everyone who entered previously and got the answer right! This week's puzzle is shown above. For every entry you will receive 1 house point, if you answer correctly you will win 2 housepoints and if you are the fastest person to answer the puzzle correctly then you will win 5 house points!  To enter, simply scan the QR code and fill out the google form.  Good luck! Why not play at home and see who is the quickest to get the answer?

Mr J Hill

CAREERS NEWS

To celebrate National Careers Week, we have some fantastic opportunities to share:

Beauty Therapy Careers: Champneys are hosting an open day for students interested in careers in Beauty Therapy:
The Open Day will be on Saturday 11th March 11am - 2pm. Should students wish to find out more about beauty therapy courses and go on a tour, please contact 01442 291 336 or email Catherine.Hedges@champneys.com to book in.

Optician Careers: Specsavers have sent us this information on apprenticeships for any students interested: Specsavers Careers

Dietetics Careers: For students aged 15+ interested in becoming a Dietician, the Hertfordshire NHS Trust is offering an information session on 31st May 2023 , 09:30-15:30, Location: Unit 10 Sandridge Gate Business Centre, Ronsons Way , St. Albans, AL4 9XR. To book please email rhiannon.hinstridge@nhs.net with the subject “Dietetics Work Shadowing”

We aim to provide information on as wide a variety of careers as we can.  If parents and carers would like to share any information about opportunities within their own places of work please contact carly.eady@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

Mrs C Eady

YOUNG ENTERPRISE NEWS

Despite the weather, our Sixth Form Young Enterprise company - T.K.Minimum - enthusiastically held a pop up stall on Thursday outside C Block. They were selling their hand-printed tote bags and secondhand clothes as part of their motto to give new purpose to old clothes. If you would like to support this great venture, you can purchase their products here.

Mrs S Griffiths Plunkett

YEAR 11 NEWS

This week you will have received a letter regarding Year 11 Revision and Support Sessions. You can indicate which sessions you would like to attend here and make payment via ParentPay (if you are FSM then please contact the admin email address and we can arrange payment.) The deadline to sign up is 9am on Monday 27th March. 

A reminder as well, that our next Key Stage 4 Parent/Carers information evening is taking place on Tuesday 14th March starting at 6:30pm in the Main Hall. During the evening, we will be delivering key information about your child’s final few months studying in Year 11. In addition, we will provide an opportunity to hear the insights of some current Year 12 and their experiences last year when they were in the same position as your child. We are confident that there will be useful takeaways for all parents/carers.

Mr M Allday

THEME WEEK: SCIENCE WEEK

The whole school theme this week celebrates British Science week to signpost all of the events running in school next week as part of Sandringham’s Science week. British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths that is celebrated from 10th March to 19th March. This year's theme is connections! The students received an excellent assembly from STEM coordinator, Mr Tattersall, which encouraged them to sign up for events that are running next week such as, the Chemistry show, Plastic melting or the STEM quiz. We hope the students enjoy all of the additional activities. 

Miss K Wills

ONLINE SAFETY NEWS 2

Vodafone have created a fantastic resource for parents including information, YouTube videos, and an interactive resource providing information about parental controls and safety settings.

Everything is free and you can find further information here. We hope that you find the information useful.

Mr M Allday

DANCE NEWS

On Thursday, we had an amazing day with our KS3 company, TripleEdge. It was lovely to watch all the performances from other schools and TripleEdge smashed it! Thank you @hertscdta for organising a fabulous day 

Miss A Davies

SANDRINGHAM PODCAST

As mentioned previously, we have a new podcast, Sandcast, which follows life and events at Sandringham School. The hosts are Mr Cracknell and Ryan D in Year 12 and the episodes have already featured Assistant Headteacher, Mr Allday and Head Students Shiam and Maddie. Future episodes will include other students, staff, parents and people associated with Sandringham. You can subscribe where you usually find your podcasts and if you have an interesting topic or experience that you would like to share- you can speak to Mr Cracknell or Ryan about appearing on the podcast. 

Mr A Cracknell

CHARITY NEWS

A reminder that next Friday, 17th March is a non-uniform day/ opportunity to engage in red related fancy dress for Comic Relief. Donations of £2 or more can be made via ParentPay. Thank you for helping to support this worthwhile cause. 

Mr A Cracknell

HOUSE NEWS

Well done to Newton who won the House Maths this week and now top the leader board! Thanks to the Mathematics Faculty for organising the event. Special mentions this week also go to Finn J and Billy E in 7T who both gained 10 house points and to 8S with the highest average points overall (100.3)

UPCOMING EVENTS 

  • KS3 STEM Quiz – Monday 13th March
  • Staff badminton – Monday 20th March
  • House Basketball – W/C 27th March
Mr D Keenleyside

Fo$S NEWS

We are really looking forward to our Fo$S quiz night next Friday, 17th March. There are still a few tickets available if you would like to buy them. Click on the link here to book your table now and join us for a fun night as Nick Grubb returns with his music themed quiz. Cheese boards are available to preorder and there will be a fully stocked bar.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Mrs L Dennis

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

This week we feature Jess R (10J) who has recently gained her Foundation Radio Licence. This means that she can now contact anyone with an amateur radio licence across the world. To gain this, Jess had to complete an exam in Radio (including rules and regulations/ electrical components to name a few) which meant completing many practice papers. Jess says "I enjoy amateur radio as it allows me to speak to different people across the world and also deepen my understanding of technology. If this sounds like something you enjoy, you could join our Radio Club which takes place on Fridays after school in H1. It's a great chance to meet different students from across the school, speak to people internationally, learn new skills and have fun."  Sounds great Jess!

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

MFL NEWS & REQUEST

Our trip to Hamburg has been going well and the students are returning today. More on this next week in the Sandprint. 

The MFL team are also currently looking for 5 host families who would be willing to welcome a student from our exchange school in Hamburg. There would be a contribution towards expenses as well as the opportunity to develop a link with a German student. The German group arrives in September and will stay for one week. The dates have yet to be confirmed but the current plan is for them to arrive on Wednesday 20th September to depart on Wednesday 27th September.  There would be an opportunity for your child to take part in joint activities including a visit to Harry Potter Studios and a day trip to Oxford. If this is of interest to you, would you please contact admin@sandringham.herts.sch.uk referencing FAO Mrs Kincaid, as soon as possible.

 

Mrs E Kincaid

YEAR 10 NEWS- WORK EXPERIENCE

Thank you to Year 10 parents and carers for supporting students in finding work experience placements and filling in the relevant forms.  The students who do not yet have a placement will be given a link2 code to login and put in their preferences today.  Please ask them to do so by 19th April.  Any questions, please email eadyc@mysandstorm.org

Mrs C Eady

STEM NEWS

On Wednesday, four of our fantastic Year 10 girls took part in the annual physics tournament at St Helen’s School in Northwood. They competed in events including an experiment competition, a physics-themed escape room and a calculations relay race! They also heard an inspiring talk from an engineering graduate. Although they didn’t win on this occasion, the students - Jessica R, Azima M, Angelina M and Bea M - were brilliant representatives of Sandringham School.

Mr D Tattersall

Literacy News

WORD OF THE WEEK TRANSLATED

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: Abominable, infâme, malfaisant

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: Schlect

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: Nefario

Thinking Question

  • An interlanguage is when people speak a mixture of two languages – how do these come about?
Miss F Baikie

BOOK OF THE WEEK: Bad Science by Dr Ben Goldarce.

In this eye-opening book Dr Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and ultimately alarming journey through the bad science we are fed daily by hacks and quacks. Dr Goldacre takes on the MMR hoax, misleading cosmetics ads, mankind's vexed relationship with all manner of 'toxins' and much more. Emilia H 9J who has recently read the book says 'This is a really amazing and informative book. Some chapters are more complex than others, and I had to research some aspects, but I really loved it. The placebo effect was the best chapter

Miss E Critchley

Word of the Week

N is for … nefarious  [adjective]

Definition: (Typically of an action or activity) wicked or criminal.

Example: The nefarious activities of the organised crime syndicates were well known.

Synonyms: shameful, vicious, vile

Antonyms: delightful, gentle, good

Etymology: From the French ‘nefas’ meaning  ‘wrong’.

PE News

UPCOMING FIXTURES

Please see our upcoming fixtures above. Good luck to all the teams involved. You can follow the results @SandringhamPE

Mr D Keenleyside

HOCKEY NEWS

The U15’s played against Queenswood in a very enjoyable and competitive match this week. With a mixture of experienced and new players to the squad, the team gelled quickly with some excellent passing and defence. The team created some scoring opportunities but it was Queenswood who converted three of their opportunities. It was fantastic to see the team grow in confidence and with their decision making throughout the match and was a definitely a game to inspire more participation. Overall, the team played very well, enjoyed the match and should be very proud of their performance.

Miss V Borman

FOOTBALL NEWS

Last Saturday saw our Year 9, 10 and 11 boys' teams in away fixtures against St Albans School. Unfortunately we lost in all fixtures against their stronger sides but well done to all involved.

Our Year 10 football team also unfortunately lost 4-2 to Sir John Lawes in the District Cup on Wednesday. Sam P and Tommy E with the goals. 

 

Mr D Keenleyside

BASKETBALL NEWS

Well done to the Year 7 Basketball team who gained an impressive 23-8 win against Longdean in the Junior NBA on Monday with 3 debuts. Well done to Sam W - MVP

Well done to the U13 Girls' Basketball team as well who put in a great performance on Tuesday, beating JFK 31-13 in the county league.

Mr D Keenleyside

NETBALL NEWS

A great week for our netball teams with wins all round!

On Saturday, our U19 Netball Performance Squad had an excellent win in the county cup semi-final 38-28 over Herts & Essex! OPM - Ida S & CPM - Molly C

Our U15 Netball team also retained their District Champions title for a second year! A fantastic performance from the whole squad. POT - Charlotte H.

And our Year 7 A netball team did brilliantly against KWS, taking them through to the final of the district plate! OPP - Madison W, CPM - Arabella R

Our Year 8 netball teams also played STAGS on Wednesday. The B team had a bit of a messy game , but kept fighting and came back from 3 goals down to draw the game. OPM Temi who was a defensive force to be reckoned with and CPM Hattie for some excellent shooting! After a shaky start, the U13A team were convincing winners again STAGS in the District League. OPM Ella who was a rock in defence and CPM Siya for playing the best we've seen her play!

Miss K Wills

Sandpit Theatre

I SPY- Sat 6th May 2:30pm

This extraordinary I Spy game is nothing like the one you might remember from long car drives with your dad though.  Instead, it's a magical adventure full of fun, giggles and all your favourite sing along song including Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes, Sing a Rainbow, The Ants Go Marching and BINGO.

 

I Spy with My Little Eye is based on the popular children's book by author Steven Lee and was created alongside education and child development experts to be great for kids’ minds. So, it's not just wonderful entertainment for your little ones but good for them too!

 

After sell-out shows from as far afield as Dubai, Dublin and Derby the cast of the wonderful People's Theatre Company are bringing I Spy with My Little Eye to The SandPit Theatre!

Miss A Carter-Downing