As we start the Spring Term, Shakespeare lead the charge, breaking the 10,000 point marker with 10,441 points. Turing and Newton are not far behind, with 10,348 and 10,134 points respectively. 

Congratulations to the following students who have the highest house points across the whole school:

1. Alvin L (7F) 168
2. David T (7T) 156
3. Gabs B (8S) 138
4. Liam J (7S) 131
5. Diego D (9T) 128

We look forward to bringing you more updates of house events over the coming term- first up is House Choreography on January 17th. Do get involved or come along to support your house!

There is no change at the top after the events over the Xmas break

1. Johnson
2. Elgar
3. Turing

Special mention goes to Conrad L-O (9A) who completed his 50th junior parkrun, Hamish B (8E) who did the Christmas Day special at St Albans and Luke C (10E) and Xavier H (10E) who completed the Dolgellau parkrun in Wales, so double points to them for parkrun tourism.  As ever, Google Form to tell us of your participation. 

Starting on Wednesday 10th January, we have schoolrun, a timed 3km run or walk to support those wanting to step up from the junior parkrun distance or a training opportunity for those running the parkrun. Signup via SOCS - listed as ‘Running club’ 

Thank you to those who have already expressed interest in the German Exchange for 23/24. For those who would still like to come, the deadline to apply is Monday 15th January. A reminder that students in Year 8 and 9 would host German students in September and then visit Quickborn in March 2025. Each visit lasts a week. During the visit to St Albans, the English and German students go on a day trip together and the German group have a day at Harry Potter Studios. The weekends and evenings are spent with families. While in Germany, our students visit Hamburg and another local town (last year Lübeck), attend lessons, spend afternoons with the German students in town and at home and generally experience life in Germany. This is an exciting opportunity for our students to make meaningful contact with young Germans, to develop their language skills, and to broaden their life experiences.

Please email trips@sandringham.aat.school if you are interested and we will send you further information.

Thank you for all the support with ticket sales, there are a few remaining tickets for Thursday's show so do grab them while you can.

A reminder that Velocity purchases (t-shirt, video recording and/wristband) google form deadline is Monday 8th Jan. Google form link on the second Velocity letter.  Velocity consent forms deadline is Friday 12th Jan. Thank you to all who have completed it so far and google form link on the first or second letter. 

We are looking for as many old toys, dolls, art and crafts, superheroes items as possible for this year's show. If you have one or more of the items, please bring into reception or your child bring to the dance office over the next couple of weeks. These items can be a donation to the department or returned to you after the show. 

House Choreography 2024 takes place on Wednesday 17th January at 3.30pm in The Sandpit Theatre

Entry is free so please come and support our students who are competing in the dance choreography competition this year. An event not to be missed as the houses battle for a chance to perform in a dance showcase this year!

As mentioned in the Headlines, the last day of term saw a fantastic fundraising effort organised by Mr Keenleyside and the House Captains/teams. The Winter Wonderland involved the famous Mr Gray's Quiz, a staff panto, winter themed games in the Sports Hall, food vans, hot chocolate stalls, a £Million drop game and lots of time with students enjoying time spent with their forms and raising money for Youth Talk, Herts for Refugees and Unicef. Our staff made an excellent effort dressing up in a "Fairytale" Theme and it was a lovely end to what was a very busy term. We look forward to more fundraising events over the year.

Hertfordshire foster team urgently need more carers, so that every child who cannot live at home gets the love and support they need in a warm family environment within their local community.  Fostering enables children to stay locally, with everything that is familiar, offering the stability, continuity and continued connection with their school, friends, and family network. There are a variety of choices of commitment time for foster carers - some foster families look after children for sleepover care - over a weekend, some carers offer short term breaks - for a few weeks and some offer longer term care.  For many children, fostering offers them a secure, permanent home. 

Hertfordshire offers up to £539 a week to enable fostering, with excellent training and a comprehensive package of support. To foster, you need a spare room and to have the interest and time to support a vulnerable child or young person. If this is something that may be of interest to you, or you would like to find out more information, you can visit www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/fosternow, call 0800 917 0925 or email fostering.recruitment@hertfordshire.gov.uk

We are currently looking for an Assistant Caretaker, Cleaner, Computing Hub Administrator and Student Services Administrator. More information is available on our website https://sandringham.herts.sch.uk/vacancies/

Please share with friends who may be interested.

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 see the following link to access DPSL7’s parenting support booklet for Spring 2024.

We have lots of fun House Events planned for this term, which we hope will incite some competitive house spirit amongst students whilst also raising money for our three chosen charities. We look forward to reporting more on these in future editions of the Sandprint.

January

• House Dance – Wednesday 17th January
• Battle of the Bands – Monday 22nd January
• House Maths – Wednesday 31st January

February

• JOHNSON & NEWTON CHARITY WEEK – 5th Feb – 9th Feb

March

• Staff Badminton – Friday 15th March
• TURING AND SHAKESPEARE CHARITY WEEK – 18th March – 22nd March

At the end of last term, the Year 7 girls partook in 3 friendly netball matches against STAGS. It was great to see all teams supporting each other through the cold weather. Well done to Isabelle A, Kari M and Hazel N for receiving coaches player!

Well done to the U16 Performance Squad Netballers who had a dominant performance against DAO at the end of last term as well. OPM Emily W and CPM Niamh F and Cerys McP

Please see above for the upcoming fixtures next week

On the last day of term, our Year 8 girls picked up a solid win against Queens. 38-12 with Grace & Phoebe H taking MVP. Well done team! 

Our Year 11 team also had a comfortable win over Onslow in the county league at the end of last term with the whole squad contributing to keep their unbeaten run in 2023 in tact. Well done!

It’s back! Sandringham Dance Faculty bring you the ever-growing Velocity Dance Show. Sure to be an absolute showstopper not to be missed!

Tickets are on sale here and cost £12.50 / £10 / £8.50