For those new to the school, we have our very own fantastic podcast with hosts Assistant Headteacher Mr Cracknell and Year 13 student Ryan D. Each episode, they interview members of staff around Sandringham School and cover the stories, news and events of the week. Our second series of podcasts has now started, with a quick check in with the hosts and we have more exciting guests lined up for the coming weeks. Previous episodes include interviews with Performance Director for Year 11 Mr Bailey, Chair of Governors Professor Cox, Director of Teaching School Hub, Ms Taylor-Paul, Deputy Headteacher Dr Creaby, ex Head Students Shiam and Maddie and acting Deputy Headteacher Mr Allday. You can find SandCAST where you get all of your other podcasts. We hope you enjoy listening.

Last term, some students from Year 12 sat the Mathematical Olympiad for Girls. The problems on the Mathematical Olympiad for Girls are challenging and the Olympiad is not suited to all students. The top scoring students receive a Certificate of Distinction or a Certificate of Merit depending on their score. 

Overall, the school achieved 2 Certificates of Distinctions and 3 Certificates of Merit.  

Congratulations to Lauren D and Hanna-Mari S who both achieved a Certificate of Distinction with Lauren achieving Best In School. Congratulations also to Roslin M, Christy W and Edwina Y who all achieved Certificates of Merit. Well done to all students. 

On Tuesday 1st November, Year 8 were treated to their first careers assembly of the academic year.  We were lucky to host a visit from Lauren Christy, who works for Sky, to talk about her career and the many options available in the creative industries.  Lauren spoke about apprenticeships for school leavers and graduates, as well as the many roles at Sky, including runners, lighting operatives, accountants and production assistants.  In her words “there is something for everyone in the creative industries”.

The whole school theme for this week recognises Anti-bullying Week. Anti-Bullying Week takes place each year, and this week will be from the 13th to the 17th of November. It aims to send a clear and positive message that bullying is neither acceptable nor inevitable in our schools and communities.The theme for the week this year is ‘Make a noise about Bullying’. The idea is that if we all make an effort to speak out when we see or experience Bullying we will help to eradicate it. This week students received an excellent assembly from assistant headteacher, Mr Kemp, that encouraged students to be confident in reaching out for support if they are experiencing bullying. Bullying impacts thousands of students each year and we want to do all we can to eliminate it from the school community.

BOOK COVERS: A reminder to all students that they should have purchased their Sandringham book covers by now. We do ask that all exercise books are covered with the plastic wallets as this prolongs the life of the book and gives a plastic insert inside the cover, front and back, in which to put pieces of homework.  The 9 x 7 covers are 55p and the A4 covers are 75p and available from Student Services. Please bring in the correct change.

LOCKERS: We still have locker available for Year  8 to Year 11 so please come to Student Services if you would like to rent one.  We find that we get less lost property for those students who are able to keep their bags, electronic devices, coat and equipment in lockers, than those who do not have a locker at all. The rental is £5 per school year.

SECOND HAND UNIFORM We do keep a small selection of second hand uniform for sale at Student Services at a reduced cost. Please pop along to have a look.

SAVERCARDS Any students, between the ages of 11 to 18, who  travel by bus can apply for a Savercard online at hertsdirect.org/savercard. This entitles them to travel for half the adult fare at all times on local bus services.

IMMUNISATIONS Information and dates for student immunisations will be sent out in due course via parentmail

FIRST AID When students feel unwell or get injured during the school day or if students need to take any medication during school hours they should go to Student Services. We are currently updating care plans for students who have medical conditions so please look out for an email and we would be grateful if you can respond as soon as possible.

LOST PROPERTY The Lost Property Cupboard is located at Student Services which students can access at all times to check for any lost items. For a quick return, please ensure all items are named. Please DO NOT bring in valuables, but if necessary, please ensure they are safely locked away in your locker.

CYCLING TO SCHOOL We have excellent cycle storage facilities here at Sandringham and would encourage students to cycle or walk to school wherever possible. Should you decide to cycle please advise Student Services. Do remember to pay particular attention to weather conditions at this time of year and ALWAYS wear a cycle helmet.

ABSENCE LINE  Please let us know of any student absence before 9:15am on the first day of absence.Call 01727 799564 or email absence@sandringham.aat.school

A reminder for Year 8 and 9 that the letters for the E Week trips have been sent out and the payments are now available to make on ParentPay.  If you would like to download the relevant letters, you can do so here under letter numbers 46, 47 and 48.

We are currently looking for an ITT Administrator for the Alban Teaching School Hub and an Assistant Operations Manager to work at our fantastic school.

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

Congratulations to Emma, Max, Ben and Eliana for getting Dancer of the Week last half term. Excellent commitment in lessons and clubs! We are all really impressed with your hard work. Who will get the awards this half term?

Since the start of term, thirty Year 9’s have taken part in the sports leaders module. This included learning how to deliver PE activities, and observing lessons. This week, the pupils successfully delivered football, netball and basketball lessons to Year 7’s. Well done to you all! It is great to see older students setting such a fantastic example to their younger peers and learning new leadership skills in the process.

If you are struggling to meet increasing food costs each week, please email Gemma Lovett using the admin@sandringham.aat.school email address to enquire about access to foodbank vouchers. All enquiries will be treated in confidence and a voucher can be issued here to be used at any of the Foodbanks in St Albans (Dagnall Street, Cottonmill, New Greens), Wheathampstead, Harpenden, London Colney and Redbourn.

There are CAB advisors at each centre to offer further support. Please get in touch if this is something that you would find useful.

As per the letter you will have received this week, FO$S are holding their annual Christmas Fair on 2nd December 11am - 3pm. This event has always been popular with parents, students and local residents; it features a lovely Christmas market to do some Christmas shopping, tombolas and interactive games for the students, plus festive food and drinks. It promises to be a great day, but they need your help!

Stall Holders Wanted:  The Christmas market has always been a popular part of the fair. They currently still have some spaces left so if you would like a stall at our event, please contact Fo$S using the email address friendsofsandringhamschool@gmail.com or contact Tara on 07921001591

Volunteers: Fo$S always appreciate anyone who can volunteer to help us out on the day. They need volunteers to help cook, serve food and drinks, run the tombola, plus help clear up afterwards.  If you can spare an hour or more of your time please sign up here.

Donations for Tombola & Raffle: Donations of sweets, chocolates or drinks would be very gratefully received.  You can either drop off your donations to the main reception (please note: if donating alcoholic drinks they must be brought in by an adult), or donate to our tombola money pool and FO$S will purchase items to go on the tombola. Link here.

Who Are FO$S? Fo$S support the school by funding a wide range of equipment and activities to enhance the educational experience of our children. Last year they raised a grand total of £13,860, and £9,544 was donated to fund various items, including £5,000 to fund the AV system in the main hall, £2,409 to enhance student experience across the Science faculty, £826 to fund a selection of non-fiction books in the Learning Resource Centre, £689 for PE to purchase some hurdles and £138 to Visual Arts to purchase a heat press. They also pledged an additional £6,000, including £2,000 to the English department for an annual digital theatre subscription, gazebos for PE, 3D printers for D&T and items for the sustainable wildlife garden. This year they are hoping to fund the replacement of the benches around the school.

As per our letter yesterday, this year we will be holding our Christmas lunch over three days from 12.30pm as follows:  Years 7 & 9 on Tuesday December 12th, Years 8 & 10 on Wednesday December 13th and Years 11, 12 & 13 on Thursday December 14th. Tickets for Christmas lunch  are now available on ParentPay at a cost of  £3.75. If students would like to purchase an alternative lunch on these days, there will be a food service in the new canteen. There will also be the usual break service and space will also be available for dining for those having packed lunches on that day.

All payments need to be made via ParentPay before the 30th November so that we have an accurate idea of numbers. Please note that payments or requests cannot be accepted after this date as the final catering order has to be placed the following day. If your child is eligible for free school meals, they will automatically be allocated a meal unless you inform us otherwise. No payment is required. However, you will need to inform us in writing by Thursday 30th November  if your child requires a vegetarian/vegan/halal option by emailing earleyl@sandringham.aat.school.

If you would like to order the Whole School or Sixth Form photograph for 2023, the closing date for free delivery back to school has been kindly extended by Tempest to Tuesday 7th November. You can view and order the photos here https://htmp.st/261351-32WSGand6THFORM. There is also the option to have home delivery, or order after this date for home delivery, which will incur P&P costs.

If you need any assistance in ordering your photos, feel free to contact Tempest on 01736 751555 (option 3).

On Friday 17th November, Sandringham School will be raising money for Children in Need via our first non-uniform day of the year. If students would like to support this wonderful charity then they can do so by wearing non uniform, at a donation cost of £2 via ParentPay. Any larger donations will be hugely appreciated. Thank you in advance for your support. 

As we start a new half term- Fawcett take the top spot with 4932 points. Newton, Turing and Shakespeare are not far behind. Well done this week to Clara W (7N), Max I (7T) David T (7T) and Rehan M (7E) who all gained over 10 points this week and to Hepworth house for gaining the most points this week overall.

 A reminder of our upcoming charity weeks:

• Fawcett & Hepworth are on the week commencing 27th November
• Johnson & Newton w/c 5th February
• Shakespeare & Turing w/c 18th March. 

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 are delighted to be able to promote Initial teacher Training at the Alban TSH in partnership with the National Institute of Teaching from September 2024. They offer highly-personalised, school-based teacher training, in the Hertfordshire region in both Secondary and Primary (5-11 and 3-7) settings and have a depth of experience in teacher training as well as established partnerships with a wide spectrum of excellent schools in the region.

The Alban TSH are running two webinars (On the 10th and 14th November) for information about joining their initial teacher training programme. New additions to their training offer include flexible training pathways (3 days a week, 4 days a week and full time, assessment only routes and QTS with PGCE.) Please see the pictures above and below for more information or you can find out more information here. You can also click on the links here to register for the 10th November slot or here to register for the 14th November. 

Individual photographs for Years 8-11 and form photographs for Year 11 will take place on Monday, 6th November. 11E and 11F should come straight to the Main Hall to register there at 8.30am and 11S and 11T will register in form rooms and then come promptly to the hall at 8.40am. The rest of the schedule is as follows with 10 minute slots for each class: Year 9 photographs will take place in session 1 , Year 8 in session 2, Year 10 in session 3 and the remaining Year 11 students in session 4. Teachers will send students down promptly for their slots. Please ensure that students are smartly dressed in full uniform on the day.  

This week we feature Freddie M who was recently awarded his one year Certification as an RAF Cadet. He attends the squadron twice a week for 2.5 hours on both a Monday and Thursday so it involves a lot of his time and commitment. It is also challenging to maintain the discipline needed during the sessions, so we are hugely impressed at his dedication. This month, he was also given the chance to go on his first RAF camp, Exercise Wippendell Warrior in Leeswood.  A gruelling weekend in the rain awaited him but he completed the weekend, learning vital life skills in the process. Well done Freddie- it's great to see all of your hard work paying off.

If you would like to nominate someone for the student spotlight this week, please contact holianm@sandringham.aat.school with a few details/and or photographs. 

We aim to ignite our students’ passion in STEM careers. Two of our Year 10 and Year 11 students, Isaac C and Saharsh L successfully applied to participate in the STEM Insight Week for KS4 students held by Science Oxford during the half term break. They spent five days in the inspiring learning journey in interactions with STEM business and professionals, such as Energy specialists Habitat Energy, Engineering consultancy Ricardo, Civil engineering consultancy Hoare Lea, University of Bath. They also took time developing vital skills needed during higher education and the broader world of work such as: CV writing skills, interview skills, financial skills, and mindfulness. During their time they also cooperated with students from other schools to design and present their STEM projects and joined the Oxford STEMFest, sharing by the representatives from the University of Oxford, Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis, the Geological Society, Universal Quantum, Quantum Dice, Siemens Healthineers Magnet Technology, and Tokamak Energy. A fantastic opportunity for all of the students and we hope reading about it inspires other people to participate in similar initiatives.

The murder of their art school teacher sets two young sleuths on a thrilling adventure to bring his killer to justice in Jackson's London-based detective story. Treasure A 7A who has recently read the books says "I really enjoyed the friendship between Norva and Serena. I also liked the part when Serena bought flowers from the market when she was out of budget. This showed her kindness."

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: Un obstacle

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: Eine Behinderung

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: Un obstáculo

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?

H is for… hindrance [noun]

Definition: Something that makes it more difficult for you to do something or for something to develop.

Example: The weather was a hindrance to the expedition.

Synonyms: Barrier, Obstacle, Impediment

Antonyms: Advantage, Help

Etymology: Derives from the Old English ‘hindrian’ meaning to harm, injure, impair, or repress. In German ‘hindern’ means to prevent.

Please see above for our upcoming fixtures. 

An excellent performance from the U16 performance squad in the second round of the SNS this week. Congratulations to @STAHSPE for getting the win 50-35 but proud of how well we executed the game plan! OPM - Emily W & CPM - Hannah G

Our U15 netball team also had a great game against Berko. We were winning 16-14 in the second quarter but just couldn’t keep up the momentum in the second half. Some great passages of play though and defence pressure was fab. OP - Cerys M, CP - Mia OH, PP - Ella CL.

And finally, a huge well done to the U16 PS, beating Simon Balle yesterday 52-11 in the County League yesterday. CP Niamh F

Our U16 girls had an unfortunate loss for our in the ESFA this week. A strong first half saw us 2-1 up at the break but an eventual loss overall. Goals from Annabel K & Jasmine R were impressive and Pom was Annabel K

Our Year 11 boys also put in a fantastic performance against Lealands in the National cup 3rd round with a fully deserved 1-0 win . A spectacular goal from Mackensie B-G sealed the win in harsh weather conditions.

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