The Art department has been full of excitement and a hive of activity to celebrate Drawing Week. KS3 students learnt about the artist Olafur Eliasson and were inspired by his use of the senses in his installation art.

Art lessons this week have been on the theme of using our sense of sound. Each class listened to a different piece of music and used lines, shapes, colours and marks to express the different sounds and rhythms they could hear in the piece of music. Students worked in groups to create very large pieces of Abstract Art.

Much of the middle area in the Art department and the hallway is now covered with the giant artworks. Do come and see the artwork when you come to your art lessons and see if you can guess the type of music the students listened to.

It’s only 5 weeks to go until our fantastic Whole School show, the Little Shop of Horrors hits the stage in our wonderful Sandpit Theatre. Performers from all years have been busy rehearsing scenes and our tech teams are working hard to make sure that all the lights and sound are on point to make it a truly memorable performance. We’ve been so impressed with everyone’s hard work! Tickets are selling quickly so don’t miss out on what is set to be a great show.

We have the following open support staff vacancies:

• SEND Administrator
• Cleaner

Please share with friends who may be interested. More information is available on our website https://sandringham.herts.sch.uk/vacancies/

The photo above shows a group of passionate Year 7 to 9 students constructing their own STEM projects about API (application program interface), 3D modelling and animation by using different programming languages such as Python, Luau and Scratch in the regular meeting of KS3 Future Tech Club led by Charlie, R in Year 9 every Tuesday lunch time at G1. It is great to see students across the year groups working collaboratively and learning new skills. 

Last week we very happy to welcome our Spanish exchange partners from Colegio Internacional Europa in Seville. We had a week full of activities and had a great time together. Spanish students were delighted to experience school life here at Sandringham, as well as to meet their host families. We visited Harry Potter studios and also had an exciting day trip to St Albans and St Albans Cathedral. We had lovely sunny weather as well! This is our eighth exchange with Colegio Europa and we are proud of the relationships that have been forged over the years and the impact it has had on our school communities here and in Spain. Thank you to all the families and students for being wonderful hosts and making this an unforgettable experience for our Spanish friends. We look forward to meeting our friends again in Seville in March next year.

A huge congratulations to our club dancer of the week Becca B-S and our lesson dancer of the week Oliver G. Well done Becca for working hard in SYCD rehearsals. And Oliver is making great progress in BTEC Dance and received brilliant feedback from his peers. Awesome work! We are really proud of you both.

Wheatfields Infants' School are pleased to announce that tickets are NOW on sale for their Fireworks Extravaganza on Sunday 5 November 2023. 

You can buy the tickets following the QR code aboveor by following this link. We hope to see you there!

Congratulations to our new House Leaders (pictured above with their house captains). Each form voted for their three house leaders a few weeks ago and they met with their house captains a week ago. Ideas were shared, to do lists were written & excitement grew as they prepare to battle for the house and the NEW charity cup. We will keep you posted as to what they have been up to in future editions.

From 27th-29th September, Year 11 geographers visited Preston Montford FSC to complete their compulsory field work. On the first day, students completed their human fieldwork in Shrewsbury town centre. They completed a vehicle mobility survey to measure congestion in the city centre, and asked members of the public questions to establish what strategies people engage in to combat congestion. On the second day, students visited the Shropshire Hills AONB and the Carding Mill Valley to study the Ash Brook. They took measurements of the discharge, velocity and depth of the river to see if it fit the Bradshaw model. It was really interesting to see what locations did not fit the model and why that may be. Students had a fabulous experience learning outside of the classroom, and valued the importance of working together in teams and learning transferrable skills. Most important of all – they had a lot of fun and made some great memories together!

Photo credit Jack D, Year 11

We have our first music concert of the year on Wednesday 1st November, which is particularly aimed at introducing some of our newer musicians and groups, and features a number of our ensembles, vocal groups and classes. Students involved will be receiving a letter with more information and tickets are now available to buy from the Sandpit Theatre Box Office here. We hope to see you there for what is set to be a fabulous night of live music.

Members of Years 7,8 and 9 have been enjoying coming to the brand new KS3 PRE Ambassadors club on Thursday lunchtimes. It has been a great opportunity for the pupils to discuss different questions and ideas, and challenge them with others! It's lovely to see students from different year groups working collaboratively. Do come along to C Block if this sounds like something you would enjoy.

We know that it is early, but we thought we would share a reminder of a fantastic Christmas tree delivery & recycling service through Treeasy which provide an excellent quality tree delivery and removal service, whilst also raising money for the school. For every tree sold through Sandringham, donations of between £3.50 and £6.50 (size of tree dependant) are given to Fo$S. 

Christmas Treeasy specialise in top-grade, non-drop Nordmann Fir Christmas tree, which they deliver free of charge direct to your home.  For a small additional fee there is also the option of recycling, whereby they collect and recycle trees in the New Year. They also provide stands and logs too. This year they have 14 dates available for delivery, the weekend dates do get booked up very quickly so please order early to avoid any disappointment.

Ordering is simple- just go to www.christmastreeasy.co.uk and follow the instructions. Or for more information you can call 07710 407149 or email enquiries@christmastreeasy.co.uk. Please make sure you mention your school in all correspondence to ensure a donation to your school.

Well done to Adrian K in 8N has been successful through the trials process and has gained a place in the U13 Boys' County Hockey Squad. This is a great achievement and we look forward to seeing how he gets on this season.

Well done to Toby P in 9H as well, who has also got a place in the U14 County squad. Amazing work boys! We are really proud of both of you.

If you would like to nominate someone for the Student Spotlight next week, please email holianm@sandringham.aat.school with any details and/ or photographs. 

On Wednesday, every student in Year 7 took part in our annual ‘Last Form Standing’ singing competition. They all took to the stage to perform a song that they had been busy rehearsing as part of their music lessons and we heard a wide range of songs, from Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’, to ‘Stand By Me’, ‘I’m a Believer’ and ‘This Is Me’. Our three judges had an incredibly difficult job as the standard across the year group was incredibly high, and they particularly commented on the energy, enthusiasm and choreography that featured this year, as well as a few really stand out soloists. The results were 1st place - 7F, 2nd place 7A and 3rd place - 7J. Every student who took part has also now earned the achievement of taking part in Last Form Standing on EPraise. Well done everyone!

This term, we are delighted that over 70 of our Year 12 students have joined our volunteering programme. By the end of the year, these Sixth Form students will have collectively given 3,000 hours for free to help others. Sandringham School’s established volunteering scheme helps our students build their confidence, acquire skills and make new friends while giving back to our community. Our placements are based in local primary schools in our trust, KS3 lessons at Sandringham or our school’s Wildlife Garden. The volunteers’ responsibilities so far have included hearing pupils read, supporting students with their learning in lessons and even building a compost bin. Thank you so much to all our volunteers for all their effort so far.

This week’s whole school theme is “Africa is not a country” based on a book of the same title written by Dipo Faloyin. The book paints a bright portrait of modern Africa which pushes back against harmful stereotypes in order to tell a more comprehensive story. We recognise that both our limited historical and geographical knowledge about Africa causes us to assume that Africa is only a place for safaris and famines. It is therefore essential that we educate ourselves about both the colonial pasts and modern day realities of the very different countries of Africa. The students received an excellent assembly from Acting Deputy Headteacher Ms Mouncey, challenging some of the stereotypes that students may hold and in turn helping to improve their understanding of life in Africa. We hope that with more knowledge, we can be more tolerant and empathetic towards people from different nations.

A reminder that Fo$S will be holding a secondhand uniform sale this Saturday, 14th October from 11am until 12.30pm (or until stock has gone.) This will be held under the canopy by Main Reception/A Block at Sandringham School. Along with uniform there are also revision guides available. 

If you have any uniform you would like to donate, please drop at 15 Skyswood Road in the bike store before then. (They don't need white shirts or boys trousers, but would be grateful for any sports kit or blazers.) 

It has also been an exciting week with Austen & Elgar kicking off with the first cake sales of the year as part of their Charity Week. Cakes and bakes supplied by Year 7 forms and it was great to see students enjoying them. Tonight we have the movie night with students from all years packing our the Sandpit Theatre for a showing of Coraline. 

Overall in house Points- Shakespeare take the are top with 3,533 points. Newton, Turing and Fawcett not far behind. Well done this week to Rachel C, Isabella P, Illian K-H, and Gabs B with 14, 13 and 12 house points respectively and to the following students who top the leader board in total so far this term: Gabs B, Diego D, Rachel C, Ella C, Rebecca T and Mati M.

“It is never quite clear what is or is not a legitimate member of the now huge Gothic family, made up not just of novels, poems and stories but of films, music, videogames, opera, comics and fashion, all belonging – and not quite belonging – together.” (Professor John Bowen)

The idea for a display of gothic themed books stemmed from year 7’s study of Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Graveyard Book’. We very quickly realised that the shelves are groaning with books that have ghostly and atmospheric settings or evoke feelings of terror and horror in the reader. From what was considered the first gothic novel (Henry Walpole’s ‘Castle of Otranto’ published in 1764) to the very latest ‘gothic infused’ world of betrayal (Adalyn Grace’s ‘Belladonna’), we hope we have found something to suit every reader as Halloween approaches!

The BL has a selection of articles for those interested in reading more about the gothic genre here. 

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?

On Sunday, 57 Year 11 students arrived early at school and travelled to the South Downs National park to complete their three day, 2 night Silver Practice expedition. Usually, this expedition is cold, often wet and characterised by long , dark evenings. In preparation, groups received additional training on dealing with bad weather and cold conditions.  But luckily they didn’t even need their waterproofs which remained in their rucksacks for the WHOLE duration of the expedition. The unexpected warm front meant that instead of thermals, the outfit of choice was shorts and t-shirts and the woolly hats and gloves were replaced by caps and sun lotion. The biggest challenge with the weather was ensuring students got enough water- it felt like the middle of summer.

Day one saw groups walking from the Steyning /Bramber castle area , travelling north towards the small town of Henfield for the first checkpoint and then moving east towards Park Wood campsite near Poynings. For the second day, groups had planned a circular route which included climbing some of the Downs and then returning  to Park Wood. The final , shorter day saw them travelling south through the valley and then undertaking another steep climb up to the finish point on Devils’ Dyke.

All ten groups had an incredibly positive expedition- there were very few “temporary misplacements” and , apart from the usual encounters with cows blocking gates and overly friendly horses,  their days passed with few difficulties. They were treated to spectacular views from the top of the Downs looking south out to sea and north across the valley. Members of the public who had encountered our groups and then saw staff waiting at checkpoints commented on their polite and positive manners. All the participants were excellent ambassadors both for Sandringham and the Award itself.

Well done to all involved and a massive thank you to the staff who make it all possible.  This is our final expedition for the 2022-23 season and the boots are being hung up for a few months with the focus shifting to completing Awards in time for our presentation evening in March 2024. Expedition training for our new Bronze cohort will start in the Spring Term and Gold enrolment which be launched shortly.

Nessa and her friends attend Boyle College to train for the most dangerous time of their lives - The Call. Without warning, each one of them will wake in a terrifying land, alone and hunted, with a one-in-ten chance of returning alive.

No one believes Nessa can make it, but she's determined to prove them all wrong. And she will need every ounce of spirit and courage in order to survive. ‘Oliver L, 7A, who has recently read The Call says ‘I liked how the book gave you that feeling of suspense. Will she survive or not? I also enjoyed how the characters had a language of their own, and the monsters were really cool.’

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: sauvage

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: wild

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: salvaje

Thinking Question:

• This week the three translations are all similar to English words that are synonyms of our word of the week. Why do some languages have a wider range of vocabulary than others?

F is for… Feral [adjective]

Definition: Unruly or wild, often related to animals.

Example: They ran around like feral animals.

Synonyms: Uncontrolled, Untamed, Wild, Savage

Antonyms: Tame, Mild, Refined

Etymology: Dervies from the Latin ‘fera’ meaning wild animal.

Well done to the U13 table tennis teams for their performances in the District Tournament! The girls finished runners up and progress to the county round. 

A busy week for football with the Senior Boys' first XI progressing to round 3 of the ESFA with a 2-0 victory vs Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. 

Our Year 11 boys' football team also had a well deserved 3-1 win over Roundwood Park in the @HertsSchoolsFA county cup. They also  progress to the 3rd Round of the ESFA with a win away vs Chesham Grammar School. 

Congratulations to the U13G football team as well on their 3-0 win over St Albans High School in the 2nd round of the National Cup. The girls played amazingly and should be very proud of themselves. Goals scored by: Nell M, Lilia C and Grace S. 

Our Year 7 boys had their first experience of the National Cupalso this week but they unfortunately lost 3-1 to a strong SJL side. Plenty of positives however to take forwards into the rest of the season

And finally, the U13 boys took on Linslade on Thursday in the 2nd round of the national cup. A physical side side our Sandringham boys unable to break through and despite a goal from Lucas H, the match ended in defeat. We now focus on the County and District Cup matches in the coming weeks

On Thursday, 7B had their first game of the season and won 8-1 to RPS. Congratulations on such a fantastic win! Well done also to Isla C for receiving player of the match.

Well done to the Year 10 netball team who finished 3rd in the district netball tournament on Wednesday. Some great moments of play throughout the evening POT - Alice A

Over the last few weeks several of our children took part in the East of England swimming qualifiers, at the Woodside Leisure Centre in Watford, to earn a place in the National Championships, later in the year. 

Sadly, our own pool has been out of action, so preparation and selection was hampered somewhat. Nonetheless our boys took to the water first, producing some excellent swims, which saw them finish in 10th place overall, 4th best in Hertfordshire.

Then it was the turn of our girls, who took a large team, giving lots of people the chance to swim for the school, eventually finishing 9th best in the county. Due to the calibre of competition across the country, none of our teams quite made national qualification, but all can, and should be proud of their swims, behaviour and attitude which were first class.

Big thanks to the teachers and parents involved for making this happen.    

Our U14 tennis team were crowned County Champions last week and today beat Bedford Modern for a place in the last 8 of the region. Well played boys

Please see above for upcoming fixtures. You can follow all sports updates @SandringhamPE

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.

Sandringham School's Drama Faculty present their take on the deviously delicious Broadway and Hollywood sci-fi smash musical, Little Shop Of Horrors.

The meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names "Audrey II" - after his coworker crush. This foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down and out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it BLOOD. Over time though Seymour discovers Audrey II's out of this world origins and intent towards global domination!

Tickets are on sale here and cost £10-£12.50