Headlines

This has been a quieter week in terms of major student events, although the Drama Faculty have announced auditions for the main school show that will premier in November. The show has been a closely guarded secret – but I am sure it will be one of the most spectacular shows yet and you will definitely want to come and see it!

Those of you with younger children may have received a letter from junior schools regarding smart phones. The local junior school heads have discussed the societal issue of children having access to smartphones too early in life, and feel that, despite the potential advantage of being able to keep in touch, they are not suitable for bringing to school. There are some National campaigns on this – many recommending that 14 should be the watershed for owning a smart phone. Secondary heads will be discussing this issue later in the term to see if this is something we also might support. I would be very interested to hear views of parents on this issue, so please send any comments in so that they can be considered.

The planned merger between our school trust called Alban Academies Trust, and ATLAS multi-academy trust continues to proceed towards our deadline of September start. Staff from both trusts travelled into London last week to meet the Regional Director, who has now given permission for the merger to happen. It was a very positive meeting and we are now accelerating the merger process with our solicitors. One exciting piece of news is that we now have a Logo for Ambition Education Trust. The professional artwork is being finalised and we will then be able to share it with you all. I think you will like it.

Finally, some of our long-standing governors will be standing down at the end of the year, so we are now looking to replace these positions. They are co-opted governor positions that can be taken by people from outside the school, or under certain circumstances, can be existing parents but being appointed as co-opted rather than elected parents. This is a unique opportunity to give back something to the community and join the local governing body of our amazing school. If you know of anyone who might be interested, simply ask them to get in touch with me and we can begin a conversation to look at options. We welcome people from any background and discipline including those who have only recently left school. Age is no barrier so please do get in touch if this is something that sounds of interest to you.

Wishing you a lovely half term break when it arrives and we look forward to welcoming students back on Monday 3rd June.

Mr A Gray
Headteacher

Upcoming Dates

27th May - Monday 27th - 31st May - Half Term
03rd Jun - 6:30 PM Year 8 Rhineland (Germany) Information Evening
04th Jun - 6:00 PM Year 9 Isle of Wight Information Evening- Main Hall
05th Jun - 6:30 PM Year 8 Normandy (France) Information Evening
07th Jun - Friday 7th - 8th June Bronze D of E Qualifying Expedition

Absence Line

Phone: 01727 799564

Absence Email: (Available 24 hours) absence@sandringham.aetrust.uk

Please report ALL absences before 9:15am on the first day of absence and every morning thereafter.

Mr S Kemp
Assistant Headteacher

Headteacher Commendations

Aspiration

Carmel F8N
Chloe H8J
Daniel G8N
Lydia S8J
Ollie A8A
Phoebe H8N
Toby R8A

Confidence

Initiative

Integrity

School News

LRC NEWS

To tie in with Diversity Week, Mrs Blandford from the LRC has created our wonderful new diversity display downstairs in K block. The display highlights contemporary fiction authors and their fantastic books. Reading diversely gives students the opportunity to read about other lives, develop empathy skills, or see something of themselves reflected in the books they are reading. All the books featured are popular in the LRC and are available to borrow. We hope our display will inspire students to discover their next exciting read, or perhaps even write their own fiction!

 

Miss E Critchley

MFL NEWS

 A reminder that the Parent information evenings for the upcoming E Week Trips are as follows:

Monday 3rd June- 6.30pm in the Main Hall: Year 8 Rhineland (Germany) Information Evening

Wednesday 5th June- 6.30pm in the Main Hall: Year 8 Normandy (France) Information Evening

Please note that students are required to attend these evenings. 

Mrs E Kincaid

COMMUNITY NEWS

Please find some useful ideas for feeding your family on a budget over the half term holiday

Morrisons: Children under 16 eat free at Morrisons café all day, every day when an adult spends £4.50 or more on a meal.

Sainsbury’s: Children can have a hot main meal or lunch bag for £1 with the purchase of an adult hot main meal, from £5.20 at the Sainsbury’s café.

Tesco: Tesco provides a free breakfast, lunch or dinner during the school holidays. Purchase any adult food or drink and show your Clubcard at the till in The Café on a Monday to Friday during the school holidays. If you want another Kids Eat Free meal, just buy another item of adult food or drink. 

Asda: Kids eat free day runs from Monday to Friday after 3pm when an adult spends £4.

Dunelm: Kids get 1 mini main, 2 snacks and drink free with every £4 spend after 3pm.

Hungry Horse: Kids eat for £1 on a Monday with every full paying adult.

You can also contact your local foodbank at https://stalbansdistrict.foodbank.org.uk/ or by calling 01727 613019. Alternatively during term time contact  Gemma Lovett admin@sandringham.aat.school for more information on local support and services.

Mrs G Lovett

VACANCIES

Sandringham are currently looking for a Sixth Form Learning Mentor to join our fantastic school. More information is available on our website here.

Please share with friends who may be interested.

L Lee

PE NEWS: FIT FOR LIFE WEEK

Our theme for Fit For Life week this year is ‘Careers’ and we would love to be able to showcase and inform our students of all the possible sporting pathways and job opportunities that sport/physical activity has to offer.

If you, or someone you know of, has a career in the sporting industry and could offer their time to come into Sandringham to deliver a brief talk to our students then that would be amazing. Even a short video message which would allow us to show our students would be great.

We want to make this a really inspirational week that highlights all the wonderful sporting careers our Sandringham community are involved in.

Please contact keenleysided@sandringham.aat.school if you are able to help in any way.

Mr D Keenleyside

DANCE NEWS

Congratulations to our amazing Dancers of the week: Melissa L (Y10) and Charlotte P (Y9)

Melissa has produced some lovely performance and energy in learning the senior dance piece and Charlotte has shown amazing work and commitment to the Year 9 module show piece.

Well done both of you- and to all our fabulous dancers- have a great half term!

Miss A Davies

PRE NEWS

Last Week, Year 8 Classes in PRE had the pleasure of volunteers from the Charity STEP come in and take a very entertaining, and thought provoking lesson called ‘Ultimate Questions’. The pupils had a great time sharing their thoughts on the questions. Alastair P in 8F says:

On Monday in PRE, we were lucky enough to have STEP come in and do a lesson for us. We played this fun game where we would answer a question and if you agreed you would go on one side of the room and if you disagree you would go to the other side. Whatever the majority was we would answer the follow up question. I really enjoyed this because it was a different type of lesson. My favourite part was discussing all the different topics and arguing my case. I do hope STEP come back again!

 

Miss V Picciuto

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

We end our half term with a sporting success from one of your lovely Year 10 students. Isaac N has trained weekly for six years and worked hard to get to Shodan level, which has resulted in this week being awarded his TISKA karate black belt this week. What a fantastic achievement Isaac- it takes dedication and hard work to get to that level and we are very impressed.

If you would like to nominate someone for the Student Spotlight after half term, please contact holianm@sandringham.aat.school with a few details and/or photos. We would love to hear from you about about any students who are going above and beyond.

 

Ms M Holian

HOUSE NEWS

As we head into half term, Turing manage to maintain their lead with 18,567 points overall which means that the leaderboard looks as follows:

  1. Turing
  2. Newton
  3. Hepworth
  4. Fawcett
  5. Austen
  6. Shakespeare
  7. Johnson
  8. Elgar

Special mention this week to Beckie C, Alice W, Jamie B, Layla J, Destiny C and Leon P who all gained 10 house points or more. We look forward to next half term with lots of events and opportunities to gain more house points.

Ms M Holian

PUZZLE OF THE WEEK

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?

Mr J Hill

SAVE THE DATE

Planning for our annual prize giving awards is now underway and these will take place on Tuesday 16th July (Year 7 and 9) and Thursday 18th July (Year 8 and 10.) These will take place in the morning in the Main Hall and parents of winners will be sent an invite in mid June. We look forward to celebrating with parents and students in a few months time. 

Ms M Holian

ALUMNI NEWS

Congratulations to Joseph L, a former student at Sandringham School, who was named the overall winner of the Oxford Schools Science Writing Competition. Joseph wrote fantastic article about "the flywheel- a rotating mechanical disk that can store and release energy on command." Judges on the panel included Nobel Prize-winning physician scientist Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Joseph did brilliantly to win the overall prize for the competition with a lot of strong entries.

You can read his article here. Well done to Joseph- it is fantastic to hear how our former students are getting on.

Ms L Pratt

CAREERS NEWS

On Tuesday 25th June (6:30 – 7:30pm), Speakers for Schools are running a free event for parents.  Featuring professionals from a range of creative industries, such as visual effects, film, craft, music and more, this series of open evenings will introduce some of the exciting career pathways available in this thriving sector and showcase opportunities for young people.  Find out more and book in for the session here.

Mrs C Eady

THEME WEEK: Pride Wins

The whole school theme this week recognises Pride Month. This is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. LGBT Pride Month, often shortened to Pride Month, is a month, typically June, dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride. Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1968. The students received an excellent assembly from Drama teacher, Miss Arif, about the importance of showing respect and support to everyone in our school community. At the end of the assembly students also heard a moving poem read by Ollie Goddard about recognising the experiences and struggles of being an LGBTQ+ teenager.

Mr O Lacey

POLITE NOTICE

We have received several emails this week from local residents expressing concern about the safety of pedestrians due to the nature of parking when Sandringham parents are dropping off/picking up their children outside the school. Please could we ask that parents/carers park responsibly, adhering to parking restrictions outside the school or wherever possible, encourage students to walk or cycle to school. Thank you for your co operation in helping to keep children safe and also being respectful to our neighbouring residents. 

Mrs L Dunkley

Literacy News

BOOK OF THE WEEK: The Enemy, by Charlie Higson

Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive. When the sickness came, every parent, police officer, politician - every adult fell ill.

The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry. Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive. Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait. But can they make it there - alive?'

Molly M in 7E has recently read the book and says that it is  ‘An exciting gory book filled with tension!’

The Enemy is the first of a seven book series and has been a reliably popular read for many years.

Mrs S Thomas

WORD OF THE WEEK TRANSLATED

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: fini

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: endlich

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: finito/a

Thinking Question:

  • Adjectives in French, German and Spanish have to ‘agree’ with the gender of the noun. Why do you think some languages have gendered nouns and some don’t?
Miss F Baikie

WORD OF THE WEEK

F is for ... finite [adjective]

Definition: Having a limit or end.

Example: We only have a finite amount of time to complete this task.

Synonyms: Definite, Limited, Fixed, Restrictive

Antonyms: Infinite

Etymology: Derived from the Latin ‘finitus’ meaning finished.

PE News

CRICKET NEWS

Despite the rain, our U15 cricketers had a great match for their first game of the year. We look forward to the rest of the season ! 

Mr D Keenleyside

BASKETBALL NEWS

If you are a female student in Year 7-10 and are interested in basketball, you may like to go along to Oaklands college over half term to try out with Oaklands Wolves Basketball.

Mrs K Mouncey

UPCOMING FIXTURES

Well done to all of our students for a great half term of fixtures. A quiet week after we come back, but we look forward to reporting more on our events as next half term progresses

Ms M Holian

ATHLETICS NEWS

Our athletes put in a big team effort on Monday at Westminster Lodge as last minute changes meant a reshuffle to events. Good points were secured in CL4 leading into half term. Well done everyone!

Athletes of the meet

  • U14G - Bea S + SR
  • U14B - Lewis S
  • U16G - Olivia G
  • U16B - Seth C + PB

 

Mr D Keenleyside

Sandpit Theatre

PUSS IN BOOTS 14th December - 29th December 12pm & 3pm

Following the fantastic success of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ & ‘Rapunzel’ our creative team are back with a Brand New pantomime adventure based on the classic tale.

 Puss In Boots and the Pea Green detective agency are ready to save Pantoland from a terrible threat!

The Hickory Dickory Dock clock has been stolen and someone is messing with the pantomime timeline. The police are struggling to sniff out a suspect and things are getting stranger by the hour! Join Puss In Boots on their epic quest to bring the time thief to justice. This sword-swinging, paw-scratching, time-stopping pantomime is an action packed treat for all ages!

Tickets are on sale here and cost from £10.00

Miss A Carter-Downing