Thank you to everyone who attended our Year 13 Information evening this week. It was full of information about expectations,safeguarding, absence, the school day, school ethos, assemblies, communications and the year ahead. You can read the full presentation here.

Important dates for the upcoming year: 

 Wed. 25th Sept:                       Extended Learning Day (ELD1) - Futures & UCAS

Weds 27th / Thurs. 28th Nov   Pastoral Review Day (PRD)

Tues. 7th - Fri. 17th Jan           Year 13 Trial Exams

Thurs. 23rd Jan.                       Extended Learning Day 

Weds. 15th Feb                         Year 13 PTC

Fri. 9th May                               Year 13 Last Day

On Friday, we celebrated the 2023-2024 cohort of dance leaders. Last academic year, they worked incredibly hard and achieved their dance leadership Level 1 qualification by delivering sessions to their peers, Year 7 PE classes and open classes in Fit for Life week. Excitingly, some of them are now involved in leading extracurricular activities for the Dance department. Well done team!

As part of our careers provision, we are lucky to work with many volunteers in the local area to inspire our students.  We are looking for your help!  If you are interested in assisting with any of our careers activities (speaker events, mock interviews, work experience and more), please can you fill in this survey here

This year, we are going to be running parent information sessions delivered by professionals from outside agencies that are centred around various pastoral related issues. Our first session is titled ‘Challenging Behaviours’ will take place on  Monday 7th October at 6pm and will be delivered by Fiona Haynes.

Fiona works for the Links Academy Trust supporting students across Welwyn, Hatfield, Hertsmere,  St Albans and Harpenden. Her skill sets covers working with students experiencing trauma, undiagnosed SEND, behavioural influences, and working with parents, school staff and other professionals. Fiona has worked with us for many years supporting managing students with behaviour issues, mental health and SEND. She delivers staff training, workshops with students and advice to staff when requested.

You are invited to a relaxed style presentation with Fiona where she will be discussing the work she does in schools and with parents and sharing her years of experience. Toward the end there will be a question-and-answer session.  If you would like to book tickets to hear from Fiona, please book them here. There are 250 tickets available and they will be issued on a first come, first served basis.

Sandringham are currently looking for:

• Exam Invigilators
• Learning Supervisor
• Family Support worker

 to join our fantastic school. More information is available on our website here.

Please share with friends who may be interested.

In the Sandprint, we often feature articles written by students about their experiences either in school or in the community. This week, Sienna in Year 7 has written for our Student Voice about starting at Sandringham School. Thank you Sienna! If your child would like to submit an article, please ask them to email Mrs Holian on their mysandstorm email with a few sentences and/or pictures. 

My name is Sienna and I have just started Sandringham school. Like most Year 7's I will be walking to and from school but with a difference! I am registered blind and use a white cane to navigate my way.

I have been working hard to find a safe route to school but with all the traffic/parked cars on pavements and double yellow lines it makes it challenging for me. If you see me waiting to cross a road please ask me if I need any assistance and I will accept or decline this offer - but never wave me in your car to cross as I can’t see you.  

Please remember to say Hi and who you are as it can be a lonely world.

A message from the Fo$S team.

Thank you to everyone who attended the FO$S Year 7 Welcome BBQ last Friday, the evening was a great success and we raised £2,000 for the school.

Fo$S would also like to thank everyone who volunteered at the event.  We are always looking for new members, so if you'd like to sign up to either help plan events or volunteer on the day then please click here and we will be in touch (link:volunteersignup.org/WQRAD)

It is a great way to meet new people and help raise money for the school so please do let us know if this is something you would be interested in.

Well done to Turing and Shakespeare who enter the TOP 3 this week. Hepworth are still in the lead however with 1697 points. In terms of individual house points this week, the following students all gained 13 or more house points: 

1. Alex C (8J) 14 points
2. William K (12J) 13 points 
3. Naomi S (7A) 13 points
4. Luca F (8E) 13 points

Well done also to Shakespeare for winning this weeks house points (766), Jack Y (8N) for leading the Year 8s (26 points), 8E for the highest quiz score total – 15/20 and Shakespeare, Austen & Turing for winning Staff tug of war. (400 points each)

UPCOMING EVENTS  

• House Assemblies – Next week (Check house google classroom for details)
• Year 7 & 12 House leader elections – Monday 16th Sep and close Wednesday 25th September
• Year 7 Speed stacking – Tuesday 1st October

For Year 11s interested in attending college following their GCSEs, we recommend a visit to Oaklands College, which is hosting open days in November and February. The first date for the Welwyn Campus is Saturday 9th November 10-3 and for the St Albans Campus, Saturday 16th November 10-3. Please see picture above for more details.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the Year 11 information evening this week. If you would like to read the presentation again, you can do so here.

Important upcoming dates for Year 11 are: 

25th September:        ELD 1 Box End Park / Geography Fieldtrip 

26th November:         Trial Exams 1 (results 17th December)

27th/28th November: Pastoral Review Day 

13th January 2025:    YR11 PTC 

16th January:             Into the Sixth Form Evening 

28th February:           Trial Exams 2 24/02/25 (results 27th March)

2nd May:                     Last Day of YR11 

6th May:                       Public Exams Start 06/05/25

25/26th June (Provis) Sixth Form Induction Day 

27th June (Provis):     YR11 Prom 

25th June:                    Last Public Exam 

21st August:                 GCSE Results Day 

22nd August:                Sixth Form Application Deadline 

Every week in the Sandprint we feature our fantastic extra curricular clubs. We have a huge range of activities on offer including subject specific sessions, all different type of sport, dance, music, warhammer, chess as well as all of our wonderful Sixth form led societies.

This week we feature two clubs! Firstly a new Yoga Club, run on Friday lunchtime in the Dance Studio by the lovely Poppy in Year 12. Students of all ages and abilities are welcome! It is a great place to unwind and be calm after a busy week at school so why not go along and try! Thank you so much to Poppy for providing this lovely space.

One of our fantastic Year 11 students Diego D is helping to run a Spanish Club for Year 7 and 8 students and has written the following article. We hope you can join him for what sounds like a great opportunity to meet new friends and improve your language skills. 

Are you ready to take your Spanish to a new level? Then welcome to the Spanish Club, a place where you can chat with friends and get involved in fun activities while practising your listening and speaking skills in Spanish and improve your fluency. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world by native speakers, with 500 million native speakers, and is spoken in 20 countries. Learning Spanish can open the gates to many places such as Spain and Latin America, and it gives you an opportunity to enrich your cultural understanding and experience new places. Spanish Club is open to Years 7 and 8, and it takes place every Wednesday at lunchtime in C7. ¡Bienvenidos!

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?

Student Leadership Team applications are now open for the 2024-25 school year.

Alongside an introduction from our wonderful Head Student Team, we launched the SLT and explained our aims for the year in assemblies this week. We would love enthusiastic students who have ideas and are keen to make a difference to improving our school community to sign up.

More detail about the SLT and their plans can be seen here and this is the link for students to apply for a place -  SLT Application Form 2024-25

Applications close on Friday 27th September.

We look forward to sharing the brilliant work of the SLT throughout the year.

As mentioned last week, we are aware that several of our students in Year 9 and 10 are studying additional languages out of school as native speakers and may be interested in sitting a GCSE or an A-Level in Summer 2025. Although the exact timeline of next summer’s exams has yet to be confirmed, we would be grateful if initial expressions of interest could be emailed to admin@sandringham.aetrust.uk for the attention of David Williams and the Exams office. Please clearly include the student name, tutor group, the language they are studying which they wish to be examined in and whether it is an entry for a GCSE or an A-Level exam.

The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 18th October. After this date we will not be able to investigate entries for Summer 2025. Once we have all the requests, we will work with families to see if we can accommodate them. Thank you.

There were brilliant numbers of staff out for our first house event of the year on Friday evening- the Tug of War. After a VERY competitive tussle- the results were as follows:

• 1st - Austen Shakespeare & Turing
• 4th - Fawcett
• 5th- Hepworth
• 6th- Johnson
• 7th - Elgar
• 8th - Newton

A great example of staff representing their house! We hope that students will do the same for their upcoming events! Before half term we hav

Are you curious about the exciting world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)? 

We are excited to invite you to join our STEM Google Classroom, where we’ll explore cool concepts, tackle fun challenges, and dive into the fascinating world of STEM together! Whether you're passionate about coding, love solving puzzles, or just want to learn more about how the world works, there’s something for everyone.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

🔬 Hands-on projects
💡 Collaborative problem-solving
🤖 Cool STEM activities and experiments
📚 Extra resources to fuel your curiosity!

Join us using the class codes:
Years 7, 8 and 9: u5zobuf
Years 10, 11, 12 and 13: cm5iwdb

In anticipation of next week’s Year 7 trip to the Peak District, this week’s Book of the week is “Lottie Brook’s Totally Disastrous School Trip”, by Katie Kirby.

Woe is me. So much is wrong in my life...Still look like a tomato Am stuck indoors whilst my friends go bowling without me (rude). My parents are leaving me to go out on a 'Date Night'. GROSS!

After a summer of meeting handsome French boys and getting a tiny bit sunburnt. OK, fine - a lot sunburnt, Lottie's heading off on a week-long residential school trip. A whole week away from embarrassing parents and Toby's tasty air biscuits!

But the trip soon turns into a total disaster. The other girls staying at the camp are MEGA-MEAN, best friend Jess is spending all her time with new girl Isha, and Lottie's diary gets stolen! Who knew a school trip could cause so much DRAMA?!

Deni M in 7N has recently read the book and comments:

“I love this book. I've read it at least three times and every time I've been rolling on the floor laughing. It's also so relatable and I truly understand what Lottie has been through.”

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: sans cœur

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: gefühllos

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: 

Thinking Question:

The words are very different in all four languages this week. Why do languages sometimes use such different words to express the same idea?

C is for ... callous [adjective]

Definition: Showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for others.

Example: His callous comments about them made me shiver.

Synonyms: Heartless, Insensitive, Unsympathetic

Antonyms: Compassionate, Concerned, Sympathetic

Etymology: From the Latin callosus meaning ‘thick-skinned’

A busy and successful week for our netball teams!

Some brilliant netball played from our new U14 performance squad. Lots to work on but an exciting year ahead OPOM- Emma D CPOM- Georgia B

Well done also to our Year 11 team in their district tournament today at STAGS! Congratulations to Julia for player of the tournament

Amazing work from our U19 Performance Squad for being crowned DISTRICT CHAMPIONS in the district tournament on Wednesday. POT - Emily W. Huge congratulations to the Senior B Netball Team, who were unbeaten in the District B Team Tournament! And finally well done to the Senior C team aka the Year 12's who came 2nd in the District B Tournament- winning all but one game! A great start to Sandringham Netball for many of our new faces! 

The curtains opened for the Y9 Basketball team this afternoon for the 24/25 season with a home match vs Roundwood. A very close contest ended in the visitors taking the win by 4 points. Well done to all involved with some students representing the team for the first time.

Please see above for our upcoming fixtures

Well done to all of our Cross Country Runners from today, who enjoyed a run in the sun at Nicholas Breakspear. Big shout out to Guy R-J, who was 1st in the Junior Boys Race. An excellent performance by all.

 A mixed bag for football results this week.

Our Year 7's played SJL on Saturday, resulting in goal fest 7-1 win and 6-6 draw. Another match on Monday saw them beat Nicholas Breakspear 8-1 in the National cup. Tomorrow they take on Berkhamsted hoping to maintain their winning streak.

Our Year 8 boys unfortunately didn't fare quite as well vs SJL with a 3-0 loss and exiting the ESFA cup after a 3-1 loss to Brooklands. As always, football gives you a chance to go again as we move onto the County Cup next.

Year 9 made a strong start to the year, with a commanding performance resulting in a 2-1 win. POM Samuel A-A for his defensive efforts. But they sadly went out of the County Cup to Columbus in a hard fought game. The team were up against it after 3 injuries in the first 20 minutes - and unfortunately went on to lose the game after ET. We bounce back with our first ESFA game in 2 weeks time.

Year 10 put in a brilliant performance to ensure a 4-2 win with goals from Will A (2), Max C and Bruce P. 

And finally a good week for the senior football teams with two well fought games against @SASHertsSport The As won 4-2 with a hat trick for Noah B whilst the Bs took the win 1-0.

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

Time for dancing, drinking and the search for true love. The club's getting hot but out in the cold the Bouncers are ready for anything. Meet Ralph, Judd, Les and Lucky Eric as they relive a night in a London disco in the 80s in an outrageous celebration of the UK nightclub scene.

This production of John Godber’s ‘Bouncers’ has seen huge success at multiple Drama festivals across the UK. Most recently at the UK’s largest festival, the National Drama Festival in Coventry. Previously, the show has seen multiple awards at the Welwyn Youth Drama Festival, placing first and winning multiple awards for elements of the show, as well as sold out performances across Hertfordshire. Now, the Bouncers are on their way to St Albans.

Tickets are on sale here and cost from £12.50