Weather permitting, our biannual Whole School photograph will take place on Monday 2nd October in the school field. As you can imagine, with over 1800 students and 200 members of staff at Sandringham School, this is a huge logistical task, so we kindly request that all students, including the Sixth Form, arrive promptly to registration on the day and follow instructions as to when they are required to line up for the photograph. Details on how to order copies will be included in the Sandprint before half term.

Sandringham Community Choir currently has around 40 singers of all ages and backgrounds. There is no audition, and no need to be able to read music (though many have learnt to read it by singing in the choir!). All you need is an interest in learning to sing and make music with others. Although their aim is simply to enjoy singing together each week, they also go carol singing for charity in December. The group sing music from across the centuries: from Bach, Mozart and earlier, via folksongs, spirituals and barbershop, to arrangements of classic jazz, rock and pop numbers.  They meet on Wednesday evenings 6.30-7.30pm during term time at Sandringham School. If you would like to find out more about the choir, just come along on to a Wednesday evening rehearsal and give it a go, or contact Heather Harpin (heatherharpin@live.co.uk) or Liz Charman  (liz.charman67@gmail.com) There is a small termly fee to cover the choir’s costs.

Our annual (highly competitive) staff tug of war had an amazing turnout last Friday, with representatives from each house giving their all. After a lot of effort, Elgar were crowned the eventual winners- taking the first win of the house events. Thanks to everyone who came and competed. 

Turing just about hold onto their lead this week with nearly 2,000 house points, but Shakespeare and Newton are hot on their tails with Shakespeare gaining the most points overall this week . Special mention goes to Isla C in 8N with 12 points and Eilidh H, Hannah P, Thanisk K and George D all with 11. 

Upcoming Events in October

• AUSTEN & ELGAR CHARITY WEEK – 9th October – 13th October
• Last Choir Standing (Year 7) – Monday 9th October
• Speed Stacking (Year 7) – Tuesday 10th October

This week has been lively and exciting in the music faculty with all our regular ensembles starting back, several show rehearsals, plus some new groups including this cello ensemble. Never a quiet moment!

For those new to the school, the Puzzle of the Week is a Mathematics challenge run weekly. This week's puzzle is shown above. For every entry you will receive 1 house point, if you answer correctly you will win 2 house points 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?

We have the following open support staff vacancies:

• Assistant Caretaker
• Cleaner

Please share with friends who may be interested. More information is available on our website here.

At Sandringham, we aim to ignite the passion of our students for STEM from the start through our various STEM clubs, and as they get older, we encourage them to become STEM leaders passing their passion on to younger schoolmates. The photos below show the hands-on discovery activities in Year 7 science club led by Tabitha D in Year 11. Students were exploring sound waves by observing the vibration in water using different tuning forks, vibration of different frequencies in strings, and computer simulations. Students then tried to build up their raw instrument by at least one octave by adjusting the water level in the measuring cylinders. All students had a great time, asking high level questions related to stationary waves and resonance.

This week’s whole school theme is Student Leadership. Sandringham has always had an extensive student leadership programme, however, this academic year we are making some changes. These changes include: more formal training for prefects; a link between the house system and the SLT; and a more significant role for some positions. The students received a fantastic assembly from our Head Students explaining the reasons students should get involved with our students leadership programme and how we are changing the current systems for the better. We hope that all students in the school community feel empowered to apply for a leadership position and value the performance and moral character skills these positions allow them to build. 

It was great to see how popular Mr Foy’s KS3 History Club was in its first session of the year; we had to spread across two classrooms! Year 7 historians were solving an escape room about crime in Whitechapel in the 1880s. They were gathering evidence, investigating secret messages and cracking a code at the end, working together while trying to avoid red herrings! Meanwhile, Year 8 and Year 9 students were debating ancient civilisations and empires next door, with plenty of excellent contributions about topics beyond our curriculum. We look forward to more exciting activities and puzzles at History club every Monday lunchtime, run by Mr Foy in A3. Sign up on SOCS!

As per our email send out this week, please note that until the end of November, the pick up time from each stop for the E901 bus will be 10 minutes earlier than usual. 

We hope that our Year 13's are settling in well to their final year at Sandringham School. This week, we held an information evening giving details on expectations, bursaries, how to get support, part-time work, how to achieve success, important dates, university applications, predicted grades and much more. The full presentation can be found here. Important dates for nex term are as follows: 

• Wednesday 27th September: ELD 1 - UCAS & personal statements
• Thursday 9th November: First academic report issued
• Tuesday 14th November: PTC
• Wednesday 22nd/Thursday 23rd November: PRD
• 8th-19th January 2024: Trial exams

This week we feature an article from Zita S in Year 13, who has written about her experience of a Languages Summer School. We hope that it inspires other students to have a similar experience. If you would like to nominate a student for next week's edition, please email holianm@sandringham.aat.school with a few details and/or pictures.

At the beginning of the school summer holidays I attended a Sutton Trust Summer School at University College London, taking part in a ‘Languages and Cultures’ programme. It was an incredible experience, where I got to take part in university level sessions with people from around the UK. Each student on the programme had their own room to stay in for the duration of the week in the student accommodation which was also catered, serving delicious food.

The highlight of my week was learning new languages in the taster sessions. These included Italian, Mandarin and Arabic. Due to one of my A-levels being German, I took part in a language session with a few other students learning German as well. We learnt new grammar skills and read an extract from a novel, which we then had to work together to translate into English. Additionally, after each subject session, we also had sessions with people within the Sutton Trust and the university, giving presentations on how to write a personal statement, what it is like to be a student at UCL and how to manage finances at university.

Every evening, we had group activities with all 120 students on the programme from various subject courses. Some of my highlights include, the boat trip along the River Thames, bowling and a scavenger hunt in London near the UCL campus. These activities were very fun and allowed me to form new friendships with the other students which I had only known for a few days. My experience was really positive as it helped me strengthen my confidence and ability to learn new concepts and languages.

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 in Summer 2024. 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 the admin email address FAO Ms Baikie 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 6th 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.

This week one of our former Y13 Spanish students, Gabriela, came back to talk to our current Y12s and Y13s about her gap year experience working for our link school, Palacio de Granda in the north of Spain. Eight of our students have now spent a year there before starting university. They have all come back to tell us how life changing it has been for them and have inspired the next group of students to do the same. This has given them the opportunity to not only become fluent in Spanish, but also gain countless life skills by living and working in a foreign country. Gabriela loved working with the children at the school and being able to help them with their English and other skills, as well as working with the staff, who were very supportive. She also joined a dance group, participated in local event and made friends for life. An amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she said! We are grateful to Palacio de Granda for providing such an enriching opportunity for our students. We wish Gabriela all the best for her start to university.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: circonspect

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: vorsichtig

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: cauteloso/a

Thinking Question:

• The French and English words this week are very similar - why do you think French and English have many common words?

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: a ship runs aground on the shores of Whitby, its crew vanished; beautiful Lucy Westenra slowly succumbs to a mysterious, wasting illness, her blood drained away; and the lunatic Renfield raves about the imminent arrival of his 'master'. Angelina K, 11N who has recently read Dracula says ‘I found it interesting to read that Bram Stoker may have been influenced by Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson which we have studied in our English lessons. Both are gothic novels set in the nineteenth century. At times Dracula is portrayed as a devil-like creature, but at other times he seems almost human.’ 

Angelina also read three classic novels over the summer! This is impressive work Angelina- it's great to hear about our students enjoying reading for pleasure- with the added bonus of it increasing your vocabulary as well! 

C is for…  circumspect [adjective]

Definition: Careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences.

Example: Officials were circumspect about saying what the talks had achieved.

Synonyms: Careful, Vigilant, Discreet

Antonyms: Careless, Indiscrete

Etymology: Originating from the Latin word  ‘circumspectus’ - meaning to look around.  Equivalent to the prefix ‘circum’ meaning around.

Please see above for our upcoming fixtures.

We had several football fixtures over the weekend vs SJL with the Year 7s making their Sandringham debuts across 2 games resulting in a 1-1 draw and a 2-1 win! Well done to all involved. Our Year 8 didn't fare quite as well despite putting in a good performance losing 3-0. And our Year 9s also had another tight game which eventually ended in a 2-1 loss despite a great first goal from Will A. 

During the week, our Year 9 team also had a tough draw in the 1st round of the ESFA ‘B’ competition which ended in a 4-3 loss. Goals from Callum S, Ethan C,  & MOM Lewis D were impressive however. Good luck to Samuel Whitbread in the next round.

Our Year 9 girls also had a difficult fixture on Wednesday against Presdales losing 5-1 in rainy conditions.

Our u19 team had a competitive U19 friendly against Haileybury last week. It was a great chance to keep working on tournament play in different combinations. Looking forward to an exciting season! 

There was also fantastic play from our U14 Performance Squad in round 1 of the SnS Cup. They narrowly lost to STAHS after a tense game which puts them through to the plate competition. OP - Lexi K, PP & CP - Ella CL

The Year 7 hockey team played their first match this week against Dame Alice. In a very enjoyable game, there was some excellent hockey played with superb teamwork and real determination. Sandringham took an early lead and went on to win 3-2 in a very exciting game. Both teams played some excellent hockey and learnt a lot from the game.

The Year 8 hockey team had an equally enjoyable game creating chances and hitting the post twice. Their teamwork and passing were excellent with good defending and open play moving the ball wider going forward. Two players had their debut for the school and the team gelled well and all should be proud of their performance. The final result was 1 – 0 to Dame Alice.

The critically acclaimed creative team that brought you ‘Hansel & Gretel’ are back with more fun-fuelled pantomime madness; a joyful new twist on another old story, it’s not to be missed. Rapunzel saves the day (and herself!) in this action packed, magical musical pantomime adventure. Let down your hair with a cast of kooky characters as they dance and sing through this unusual, tangled tale; where people live in giant old boots and tall towers, where frog boys rap about enchanted ponds and girls with long hair battle more than split ends! Tickets cost £10-£17.50 and you can buy them here.