We had some new people contribute to the standings this week for Parkrun. A shout out to Bryn J (12T) and Will B-S (12N) who both have joined in the fun. In other news, Parkrun regulars Conrad and Evan L-O took part in the inaugural junior Parkrun at Katherine Warrington School so gained double points for their house.  As ever, please do complete the Google Form to tell us of your participation. 

We also started Schoolrun this week. See the other Sandprint article for news on this!

Five groups of Year 12 students have passionately prepared and submitted their STEM project proposals to the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition 2023/24, demonstrating a strong commitment to addressing real-world challenges. Their projects, centred around Sustainability, Health & Wellbeing, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and Education, reflect their dedication to create solutions that will genuinely help people and make a meaningful difference in the world. Through extensive research and the application of Design Thinking, the students have honed their problem-solving, innovation, and technological skills, showcasing their proficiency in STEM. As they eagerly anticipate the next phase of the competition, the students are ready to further enhance their ideas through workshops led by industry experts, showing their relentless pursuit of excellence in science and technology

We started Schoolrun this week, 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. 

Well done to all our participants who braved the cold conditions and Jasmine R (10F) our first volunteer who kept time and recorded the results, which can be seen below. 

Why not join us next week? Staff and students welcome. Sign up via SOCS. The course map can be seen below. It consists of three, 1 km laps of the school field perimeter.

Well done to Harrison M in 8F who achieved a fantastic distinction in his grade 5 cello which he took just before the Christmas break. This is an impressive achievement Harrison! 

If you would like to nominate someone for the student spotlight, you can email holianm@sandringham.aat.school with any details and/or photographs to include next week. We look forward to hearing from you!

One of our teachers, Mr Smith (who oversees our Parkrun and Schoolrun updates) is attempting a charity event, which will see him run and/or cycle to 200 schools across Hertfordshire, in support of the charity Home-Start Hertfordshire. You can read more about his story, track his progress and donate here

He completed his first leg last week, running 3.64 miles, from Sandringham to Verulam, visiting 8 of our local schools on the way.

Take your reading out of this world with the LRC’s Science Fiction and Science Fantasy display. Students are welcome to browse our fantastic collection at break, lunch and after school. The LRC team are always happy to recommend books and assist with queries. Happy reading!

We are looking forward to our first ELD of 2024 on Thursday 18th January with year groups activities as follows:

• Year 7: Battle of the Poets
• Year 8: Musical in a Day
• Year 9: Imperial War Museum
• Year 10: Neasden Temple
• Year 11: You're Hired
• Year 12: Diversity Equity Inclusion

We hope that students enjoy the time together as a year group, enriching their learning outside of the curriculum.

We are looking forward to celebrating with our participants in years 11-13 who have achieved their Bronze , Silver and Gold Awards over the last 12 months on Thursday 7th March 2024.  Invitations will be sent out later this term. The deadline for Awards to be submitted for verification in time for the Award ceremony is Friday 9th February 2024. Last term, Mrs Cuneen emailed participants with details of what they need to do to complete their Award. Please check with your child to see what stage they are at with their Award and please support them in completing their Award. If they have any questions, they should email cuneena@mysandstorm.org.

Last term Chace C, Nico C, Maxim R, Christy W and Gabriel D from Year 12 and Hayden W from Year 13 sat the Senior Kangaroo Mathematical Challenge run by the UK Mathematics Trust.  In addition, Will M from Year 12 sat the first round of the British Mathematical Olympiad.  This was a fantastic opportunity which offers students the chance to develop their mathematical problem-solving skills. It encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems.

Special congratulations to Gabriel D  who achieved a merit award in the Kangaroo Challenge and to Will M for achieving a distinction in the Olympiad.

 Congratulations to all students who took part.

House Choreography 2024 is next, Wednesday 17th January at 3.30pm in the Sandpit. It is a free event so please come along and support our wonderful dancers and their creativity in what looks set to be a great competition amongst our houses!

We were delighted to welcome prospective Sixth Form students to our Open Evening last night. If you would like to view any more of the information, you can do so here. Important dates to note are as follows:

Monday 15th January: Year 11 PTC

Wednesday 24th January: 9am – 10.30am: Open morning tour for external applicants.

Tuesday 30th January: 9am – 10.30am: Open morning tour for external applicants.

Friday 2nd February: Deadline for Sixth Form applications

Weds 26th & Thurs 27th June 2024: Compulsory Sixth Form Induction

This week we feature Conrad and Evan L-O who have written the article below about their experience helping at a local charity. It is great to hear about our students helping in the local community and we hope that reading it inspires other students to get involved with volunteering.

The Redbourn Community Food Club was set up in 2022 by the Redbourn Charities, a member of the Almshouse Association, to provide food and other necessities to  residents of Redbourn that are in need. The local shops, supermarkets and Fareshare, a national charity food redistributor, donate their surplus goods to the Food Club. There is no criteria to join the Food Club. Members pay a £10 annual membership fee and £5 or £10 when they attend, in return for £25 or £50 worth of groceries. This money is then used to pay for extra stock, equipment and Fareshare petrol. The Food Club is open every Thursday at St Luke’s school. Volunteers start at 1.30pm and the customers arrive from 3.30pm and the club runs until after 5pm. Every week, around 10 people stay all afternoon to manage the Food Club, with some others coming and going to help for shorter periods.” – Conrad

We set up the tables then put the goods on display, placing them in groups and carefully checking the dates. Each item was labelled with a number to show how many points they were worth. £5 would give shoppers 10 points and £10 would give shoppers 20 points so they would choose items that totalled the points that they had paid for. Fruit, vegetables and some bread and pastries were free and also three frozen items per membership. We handed out shopping baskets, directed and advised customers which items were within their budget and helped them with loose items such as fruit and vegetables. We also checked their shopping amount balanced with their allowance. Everyone was really friendly and the volunteers were very patient. After the last shoppers had gone, we returned leftover stock to the storage area and tidied up the hall. Remaining fruit and vegetables could be used the following week while damaged items were given to the many animals that were kept at the school. Any previously frozen and defrosted items such as the cakes and bread had to be thrown away. To minimise wastage, we were allowed to take home some perishable items. This was the second-best reward of the day. The best reward was, of course, being able to help other people.

The afternoon was an interesting, enjoyable and invaluable experience. We learnt how to cost up items using their shop value, the rules of keeping food after their sell-by dates, helping each other make things run smoothly and looking after the community. It was such a worthwhile experience learning about this great initiative, that we have decided that we will volunteer at the Food Club again during school holidays.” – Evan

We have a number of exciting performing opportunities coming up and a new term is a great opportunity to have a go at a new club. New members are welcome in our ensembles, speak to your music teacher for more information.

Please note that a few of our event dates for this term have had to change. The updated information is below.

Battle of the Bands Tuesday 6th February, 7pm:  Sign up for this in the Music Department - this is your chance to compete against other bands and show us what you can do!

Spring Concert Tuesday 5th March, 7pm: Featuring all our choirs and ensembles, this event celebrates the hard work and rehearsals of our musicians over the Spring term. We look forward to seeing you there!

Turing have taken the top spot this week with an impressive 10,877 house points overall. Shakespeare and Newton are 2nd and 3rd with 10,820 and 10,545 points respectively. Well done to Diego D (9T), Evan L-O (7J), Elijah B (8A), Rayaan J (7F), Theo S (7S) and Rachel C (9F) and Destiny C (10S) who all gained 11 points or more this week. 

Coming up we have House Choreography (Weds 17th Jan) , House Maths (31st Jan) and Battle of the Bands (6th Feb) Do get involved or come along to support your house!

As we look forward to the longer days and warmer weather, our thoughts turn towards preparation for our Bronze expeditions for Year 10. A reminder of the expedition dates which are Sunday 12th-Monday 13th May 2024 and Friday 7th-Saturday 8th June 2024.  Both expeditions are compulsory. Participants have been asked , via Google classroom, to submit their proposed expedition groups and the training schedule will be shared with them by the end of the month. Expedition training is a compulsory part of the expedition section. The training is organised into modules which are delivered in after school sessions over a number of weeks. This should begin after half term. Further information about the expeditions will be shared early next half term.

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.

It was wonderful to view our students work exhibited at St Albans Cathedral as part of the Peace Doves installation by Peter Walker. 800 of our students took part and you are able to view their work within the installation and also on display in the gift shop. Peter Walker is an internationally renowned sculptor and artist. We were invited to contribute to the piece and students spent time in their art lessons writing messages of Peace, Love and Hope for the piece. Their work is installed alongside others from the wider community in the 1000 year old Norman Tower of St Albans Cathedral and is available to view unti the 13th February. I do hope you are able to visit and enjoy their work.

Aveline loves reading ghost stories, so a dreary half-term becomes much more exciting when she discovers a spooky old book. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it belonged to a girl called Primrose Penberthy, who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Esme H 7T who has recently read the book says "Aveline doesn’t know much about her new town, and things get very odd when she starts seeing strange scarecrows. I really enjoyed this mystery. The character of Aveline was very relatable as we both like reading crime fiction! "

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: ostraciser

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: ausgrenzen

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: excluir

Thinking Question:

• Verbs in English are always ‘to …’ in the infinitive form. In French and Spanish there are 3 different endings for verbs, whereas in German all verbs end -en. How is it that languages work so differently?

O is for…ostracised [verb]

Definition: To avoid someone intentionally, or to prevent someone from taking part in the activities of a group.

Example: She was declared a witch and ostracised by the villagers.

Synonyms: Excluded, Shunned, Ignored

Antonyms: Welcomed, Accepted

Etymology:  Deriving from the Greek ‘ostrakízein’ to banish an individual.

A successful week for our basketball teams!

Our Year 7 Sandringham boys make it 5 wins from 5 matches overall this term! First up this week was a 44-16 win over SJL with some great performances including Miles C taking MVP scoring 17 points. Their second game was a 41-15 win against Roundwood in the district league with Harry W MVP for his defensive work.

Our Year 11 team also put in a solid defensive performance vs Totteridge to see us take the win

Our U16 girls' team had a brilliant first game of the year on Monday. A classy performance sees them through to the second round of the county cup after securing a 1-0 win against a strong Monks Walk side. POM: Freya W for her versatility and leadership.

Our Year 9 boys fell to a 2-1 extra time defeat however v JFK in the county plate on Tuesday. Will A scored a great goal but JFK converted a corner with 5 mins to play. 

Please see above for upcoming fixtures.

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