Well done to Turing who maintain their lead this week with 14,808 points overall. The leaderboard is as follows:

1. Turing (14,808)
2. Shakespeare (13,664)
3. Newton (13,662)

Special mentions this week also go to:

1. Chelsea L (7J) with 12 points
2.  Alvin L (7F) with 11 points
3. and Samuel K (7N) and Jack W with 10 points

Upcoming House Events:

• W/C 11th March - STEM house competition 
• Friday 15th March – Non uniform for Comic Relief
• W/C Monday 18th March - Newton & Johnson CHARITY WEEK

Calling all artists! We are looking for entries for this years Royal Academy Young Artists Summer Exhibition in London. You can create artwork on any theme and in any medium. Just send the following information to giddens@mysandstorm.org  A photo of the art work, artwork title and size, your name and age and please write a few sentences about the artwork. Deadline Friday 22nd March. Please visit the RA website here for more information;

We had a lovely evening of Dance on Tuesday where our A level dancers performed their examination work in preparation for their practical exam in a few week's time. Students performed brilliantly and showcased a range of dance styles from different practitioners. Bring on the exam! 

This week, we feature two of our wonderful Year 7 students. First up is Dave T who recently won 1st place in Grade 7 piano competition at Watford Festival of Music, Speech and Drama. What a fantastic achievement- well done Dave. 

If you would like to nominate someone for the student spotlight, please contact Holianm@sandringham.aat.school with any details/and or photographs. We would love to hear about any students who are going above and beyond in the community, arts, sport, STEM or academically. 

As previously mentioned, we will be running an evening workshop on vaping and how to talk to your child about vaping and smoking on Wednesday 6th March from 6.30-7.30pm in the Main Hall.  Richard Boxer, Healthy Lifestyles Lead from LINKS Multi-Academy Trust will be leading the talk and this will provide an invaluable opportunity to learn more about vaping in terms of its accessibility to young people, signs your child may be vaping, what addiction might look like and how to discuss the topic of vaping and smoking with your child.

There has been a rise in vaping across society, and particularly amongst young people. Our experience at Sandringham School, like many schools both locally and nationally, certainly reflects this pattern, although we do know that we are dealing with a minority of students in our school. We recognise that this is not an issue specific to any one school but rather a risk that exists within the community and local area impacting on all schools. We continue to educate students regarding the dangers of vaping and the legality surrounding this through our Personal Development curriculum, assemblies and targeted work from external agencies and know that this talk will be informative and provide useful strategies for dealing with issue of vaping . Please use this form to confirm your attendance at this 'in person' event - https://forms.gle/3RcMwiLt23VghJv38.

Last month, students from years 9, 10 and 11 sat the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge run by the UK Mathematics Trust.  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. 

Students that perform well are awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates, with the best performing students being invited to take an additional challenge, including the Intermediate mathematical Olympiad.

Overall, the school achieved 5 Golds, 24 Silver and 34 Bronze awards, with 8 students qualifying for the Kangaroo follow on round and 3 students qualifying for the Olympiad. Congratulations to both Oliver C and Oliver S for achieving Best in Year 9, Peter F for achieving Best in Year 10 and Vova Z for achieving Best in School. Well done to all students involved. 

The Year 7 reading challenge is well underway here in the LRC and students are showing great enthusiasm with their reading. The librarians have already awarded an incredible 98 students with their bronze award for reading 5 books. We also have three readers who have ploughed through an impressive 35 books to reach the heady heights of a diamond reading award! Many congratulations to Daniel S, Chelsea L and Thomas M

A few students have particularly stood out in their library lessons by being able to clearly articulate their thoughts on their reading, either verbally with the librarians, or through writing some well-considered book reviews on Accessit (our library management system).  Arthur C and Logan H have both written some wonderful book reviews.

We have been most  impressed by those students who are clearly enjoying their reading in whatever shape or form this takes. We’ve had conversations about time travelling hamsters,  footballers (too many to count!), cats (and polar bears) in armour, talking skeletons and demi gods struggling to ‘fit in’.  Being able to relax and focus on reading is genuinely one of life’s great pleasures and is a fantastic stress buster so a huge well done to the following students who always convey their love of reading to us and are making great progress on the reading challenge : Jack Y, Louis A, Jen F, Luca F, Hazel N. 

Do pop along to our library to meet with our friendly librarians and see the amazing selection of books we have on offer.

As mentioned in the Headlines, some of our students are currently on their German Exchange Trip. You can follow all of the news @SandringhamMFL and read a write up of the trip next week in the Sandprint!

As mentioned in the Headlines, we were delighted to welcome parents to our Year 9 PTC on Thursday. Please note that the deadline for choosing option is Friday 8th March. All of the information regarding choosing options can be found here.

Please see above notice from the PE department. Due to the weather, our Saturday football matches against St Albans school are cancelled.

We are collecting any coins and notes you no longer use - From foreign currency to anything that is no longer in circulation, old £1 coins for example. Your notes and coins will be converted into £££’s and will be sent to our chosen charities. Thank you so much for helping to support them.

We are currently looking for a Learning Supervisor, Music Technician and Assistant Caretaker to join our fantastic school. More information is available on our website here.

Please share with friends who may be interested.

Preparations have been underway for our annual Spring Concert taking place next week on Tuesday 5th March. This features all of the Sandringham choirs and instrumental clubs, including the ever-growing show choir, the famous jazz band, and sinfonia orchestra. Tickets are now sold out but we look forward to reporting more on this amazing event next week. 

The whole school theme this week is careers. This is an essential part of our role as a school as we prepare students for their lives after Sandringham. Careers education encapsulates more than simply the exciting jobs that students will eventually do but also the range of options they have for next steps, such as apprenticeships, college, and university. This week students received an excellent assembly from Deputy Headteacher, Mrs Mouncey where she talked about opportunities that we offer at the school and possible next steps for students. We hope this week will help students reflect on their options for the future and how they can progress in their lives.

At Sandringham School, we offer a broad careers education and this includes enabling students to undertake work experience in Year 10 and Year 12. Work experience allows students to see the world of work and develop a variety of soft skills that they will use daily in their working lives. Many of our Year 12 students found and completed placements the last week before half term.

Oscar I from Year 12 had a fascinating week doing work experience at McDonald’s Head Office in London. He learnt about the operations team, the impact of promotions, potential new locations for McDonald’s and delivering presentations. A perk included popping to the corporate gym! 

Maxim also said "I did three days of work experience at Amazon Web Services in London. The ethos of the AWS community, in my opinion, is the both welcoming and supportive. Its diversity means you can definitely find someone who collaboratively shares your interests! I really enjoyed meeting professionals in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. They provided a valuable insight into the real-world applications and functionalities of machine learning systems which I found incredibly interesting. This work experience also opened my mind to the possibility of a degree apprenticeship as Amazon offers some. It also reinforced my positive expectations of opportunities available in the world of digital technology, thus motivating me to pursue career in the IT sector even more!"

We are thankful to the many parents that created amazing work experience opportunities for our students. Steve Lynch organised for six Year 12s to go to Amazon in London and they had a brilliant three days learning about the organisation. Also, a big thank you to Dr Parmar who organised great placements for nine of our students to go to Whittington Hospital and learn about surgery and medicine. 

Lastly, a big thank you to all the staff, parents and employers that helped our Year 12 students to have such a range of brilliant Work Experience placements this year. Look out for more quotes from our students next week!

Henry D in Year 13 has written the below fabulous account of the Belgium trip. We hope it inspires other students to study Business and Economics!

Our first day of adventure in Belgium began with a walking tour of Brussels.We saw many impressive buildings with beautiful architecture and rich history that adds to and enhances the capital city. After our quest for classic Belgique food, we visited the Atomium which is one of the icons of Brussels. The model represents an iron unit cell of nine iron atoms, and whilst it is a tourist attraction, it also relates itself to Business and Economics as we can gain an insight into how tourist attractions fuel an economy. On the second full day of the trip, we visited the National Bank of Belgium, in which we participated in a guided tour. The tour was very interesting in its mentioning of the National Bank’s four aims: to safeguard price stability, to ensure financial stability and supervise the financial system, to guarantee safe cash and efficient payment systems and to provide economic and financial data and analysis. We then travelled further outside of the centre of Brussels to Concept Chocolate, a chocolate factory. We were given an insight into the ways in which they operate and we were able to see the chocolate makers in action.

On the third day of exploring, we first visited the European House of History that was very informative and fascinating for both the students and the teachers. The House of History had multiple levels which each covered different areas and periods of European history throughout the Cold War years to present day and the conflict in Ukraine, for example. After Lunch, we visited the European Parliament that was amazing in its portrayal of past political history all over Europe. It was a riveting experience that covered not only politics of the EU, but details around elections. Therefore it linked in with the economic state of European countries. To end the week we travelled to Brugge, which was very beautiful and extremely picturesque. Not only did it provide opportunities for buying any souvenirs we may have wanted, but it also enabled us to experience the food and architecture of Belgium once more.Finally, I would personally like to thank all of the teachers who went on this trip for making it an amazing and thrilling experience that we will all remember.

A reminder that Friday 15th March will be a non uniform day for Comic Relief. Comic Relief is a fantastic charity which supports incredible projects and organisations that are making a difference for people across the UK and around the world. Thank you for supporting this worthwhile cause. You can make your donation via ParentPay from next week.

A reminder that FO$S have their annual Quiz Night next week, Friday 8th March at Sandringham School and tickets are available here. Come and join us on 8th March for a fun night as Nick Grubb returns with his music themed quiz . Tickets are £8 per person and you can book tables up to 8 people. Cheeseboards and hot snack boxes are available to pre-order. There will also be a fully stocked bar. FO$S will also be running a raffle on the night with prizes including a laser quest party for up to 30 people in their new Hemel location. Do come and join us for what is set to be another fun event.

A huge congratulations to Beatrice V in 7A  who has recently been offered a place at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School. It has been Bea's dream to attend Sylvia Young for a long time as this is considered the most sought after and competitive performing arts school to get accepted in to in the UK.  Alumni includes Amy Winehouse, Rita Ora, Dua Lipa, Denise Van Outen...to name a few! 

After a vigorous audition process where she had to perform a self-tape of a contemporary and Shakespeare monologue, a song and a dance, Bea was invited back for round 2 where she had to sit an academic test and perform in front of an audition panel. The panel were very impressed and offered her a full time place. Sadly, this means that Bea will be leaving Sandringham before the Easter Break. She has loved her short time here and will miss her sister Gabriella and her friends and teachers but is so excited for this next chapter.

Well done Bea- we are sure you will have an amazing time and we look forward to seeing you on the big stage soon! 

STEM week (11th – 14th March) is fast approaching. The theme this year is "Time- our Past & Future" to inspire students with the development of science and technology over time. We are delighted to say that tickets for Sandringham’s famous Chemistry Show taking place on Tuesday 12th March in the Sandpit Theatre are now available to buy  here. This is always a popular event with students, parents and siblings so do come along for experiments, explosions and lots of fun!

Thank you to Alice T-P in Year 13 who wrote the below article regarding our collection of sanitary products to help stop period poverty.

As International Women’s Day is coming up on the 8th of March, the Head Student Team have decided to acknowledge this by holding a sanitary product collection over the next two weeks of school. All products collected will be sent abroad to support those in nations where the provision of sanitary products is insufficient. As some of our Head Student Team found when they visited our link school in The Gambia, there are often limited supplies of sanitary products for young girls and they were extremely grateful for the products we brought over. 

We ask all members of the school community to get involved with this project; collection boxes will be available around the school from the 4th of March and there will also be opportunities to hand items in during form time. We would suggest students bring sanitary towels, as tampons are not used in certain cultures, however all donations will be massively appreciated.

Our Year 11 and 13 practical exams are looming, so we'd like to wish our wonderful actors and designers the very best of luck on their exam days. You've all worked exceptionally hard and we can't wait to see the final performances! 

Year 13 - Thursday 7th March 

Year 11 - Thursday 14th March

Rehearsals continue for Year 10 and 12 who will shortly be presenting their final devised pieces in The Sandpit. Don't forget to sign up for after school rehearsals on the sheet outside the Drama office. Busy times for Team Drama!

Step Aboard - the Universe is Waiting.The Great Network is a place of drones and androids, Hive Monks and Station Angels. The place of the thousand gates, where sentient trains criss-cross the galaxy in a heartbeat. It is also a place of great dangers - especially for someone who rides the rails and rides his luck the way Zen Starling does. 

Railhead by Philip Reeve is a fantastic book and Arthur C in Year 7, who has recently read it says ‘I enjoyed the world the author created. He uses suspense really well which makes you want to read the next book. I was hooked!’ 

U is for…unanimous [adjective]

Definition: In complete agreement or showing complete agreement.

Example: The judges unanimously picked him for the award.

Synonyms: Universal,  United

Antonyms: Divided, At odds

Etymology:  From the Latin ‘ūnanimus’ - of one mind. From ‘ūnus’ meaning one and ‘animus’ meaning mind.

At the end of last half term, our Year 7 boys had a very tight game,which ended in a 26-25 win for Sandringham. Oscar H-B took MVP for his coachability and progress throughout. T

This term, they have also been busy starting the week off with a tournament. After winning their two group games, the boys beat SCC by 2 points in the semis. This set up a final against Queens. Although we had beaten them in the group, our boys in red narrowly missed out on the trophy. They are still County runners up- well done boys!

Please see above for our upcoming fixtures. We wish all of our amazing teams good luck! 

Before half term, the U14 Performance Squad put in a great performance but were sadly beaten by Berko in a really well contested game in the County League. Connections and Transition have improved so much this season! OP - Ella CL, PP - Lauren W, CP - Hattie J. They played again this week, narrowly losing to 19-17 to STAHS. They were down but a fantastic last quarter to make it super close. OP - Lexi K, CP - Aoife C, PP - Bea T

The beginning of this half term has seen a great start for the U19 Performance Squad vs STAHS ending in a 40-40 draw. OPM - Emma Mc and CPM Liv C

Before half term, our two squads from Year 7 travelled over to St Edmund’s College with both sides putting in a strong performance but narrowly losing 2-1 and 4-3. Ozzy H, Jamie B, Archie B & Jack S scored our goals.

Wednesday night was also the start of the U13’s district cup with a match against SJL. The game was a well fought competition, with Sandringham coming out on top after extra time. Final result 4-2

And finally, we are super proud of our U13 girls in their 1/4 final of the National Cup on Tuesday. The end result was an unfortunate loss to a strong Shenfield School. The girls all played outstandingly with some great saves being made by Erin C. I am very proud of the girls and how far they have come this season, they should all be very proud of themselves. POM: Beatriz S

Sandringham School's Science Faculty presents their annual Chemistry Show!  Expect exciting experiments, funky facts and lots more!

Tickets are on sale here and cost £3

Sandringham School presents their annual concert.  This features all their choirs and instrumental clubs, including the ever-growing show choir, the famous jazz band and sinfonia orchestra.

Tickets are on sale here and cost £5 / £4

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.  I don't know why she swallowed a fly...

But the People's Theatre Company do!

And now you can too as they bring the world's best loved nursery rhyme to life just in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pam Adams' best-selling book!

With a captivating combination of live action, animation and puppetry, this magical re-telling of There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly is sure to surprise and delight children and nostalgic adults in equal measure.

Tickets can be purchased here and cost £12.50

An evening of Fleetwood Mac and Cheese performed by Big Love UK!  Featuring a 5-piece tribute to Fleetwood Mac, plus some familiar cheesy dance floor classics!

Tickets are on sale here and cost £20