On Wednesday 27th September, four teams of students from Year 10 and Year 12 travelled to Katherine Warrington School in Harpenden to take part in the Rotary Challenge Technology Tournament. It was a fantastic opportunity for our students to be a part of, taking part in a series of challenges throughout the day, culminating in a race to move a car along a path, picking up rubbish as it went and making it to the end of the path in the fastest time. 

Here’s what Mae B in Year 12 had to say about the day: "On the day we arrived and were straight away able to look through our brief where we were asked to design and create an electronic car which travels to one side of a gutter, picks up some debris, and returns with it. We had to use our skills picked up in theory and practical lessons along with our own problem solving skills. When our final product was assessed at the end of the day, it worked; however it could have gone smoother if we spent more time testing it. Overall it was a challenging but enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to anyone interested in engineering or product design."

One of our Year 10 teams came 3rd out of the 55 teams involved in their age category - congratulations to Theo D, Alex D, Finn N and Thomas B. A huge thank you to Mr Neville for organising the trip and to Miss England for accompanying the students for the day - these trips couldn’t happen without the support of our fantastic staff! 

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?

A big thank you to all those who have contributed so far to Sandvent 2024. We’ve currently raised £210. Mr Smith and Mr Cracknell are now a few days into their event; as ever catch-up on their videos and challenges using this link https://bit.ly/sandvent2024. You can donate via Parent Pay if you would like to support further.  

If you would prefer to donate via the Gambia justgiving page, you can also do so here. (Parent pay is preferable as then 100% of the money goes directly to the school.)

Well done to Luke M in 7J who achieved a distinction in his Grade 4 trumpet recently. Amazing work Luke! 

If you would like to nominate someone for the Student Spotlight next week, please send a few details and or photograph to the the admin email address. We love to hear about any students who are going above and beyond!

Sandringham School has a vacancy for an Assistant Operations Manager.

If you would like to join our team of passionate, dedicated staff, visit here for more information and to apply.

We look forward to hearing from you.

A reminder that our Christmas Fair takes place tomorrow from 11am until 3pm. As you can see from the brochure attached, it looks set to be another fantastic event and a great chance to come along, do some Christmas shopping, enjoy some festive food and help raise money for the school. You can still buy tickets for the raffle via parentpay or on the day. A big thank you to the businesses who have supported us as well! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Eleven Year 12 Fine Art students recently completed a 3 week Life Drawing Course held after school on Friday’s by Mrs Gidden and Mrs Stephen. They learnt how to draw in a looser, quicker style and how to measure the proportions correctly improving their observational drawing skills. Well done Year 12, they all look fantastic.

This year, our annual Lessons and Carols event is taking place on Wednesday 18th December at 7pm, in St Pauls Church, St Albans. This is a new venue for us, with increased capacity so we are looking forward to being able to welcome even more people to come and join us.

Our musicians have been busy rehearsing and this event is always a highlight of our year! Tickets are now available from the Sandpit Theatre here and this is always a popular event so please do buy your tickets in advance to avoid disappointment.

This week, we feature Alice D in Year 9, who has been helping her mum with the annual St Albans Postbox toppers community fundraising this week. She has been putting out some of the 92 postbox toppers but more excitingly was interviewed live on Radio 5 Live Drive time show on Wednesday evening and also on BBC Breakfast on Thursday morning. 

Alice said “It was great to be involved with this charity project and exciting to be interviewed live on radio and then television. It was very interesting to see what went on behind the scenes and a lot of fun.”

This is the 7th year of the St Albans Postboxes and as well as raising money for local charities Up on Downs and Gaddesden Place Riding for the Disabled, they are going for a World Record of the largest number of postbox toppers in one district! For more information about the charities and maps on where to find all 92 toppers please see their website https://www.stalbanspostboxes.org.uk

Amazing work from Alice and the the Postbox toppers team- what a fantastic cause.

St Albans & District Foodbank Distribution Centres will be open on the days set out above during the festive period.

Over the festive period there are a number of closures, which may make it difficult for those with mobility issues, a disability or health concerns. With this in mind the Foodbank will be running a limited number of home deliveries to help ease some of these issues.  These will be on Tuesday 24th, Friday 27th and Tuesday 31st December.  Slots are limited, so please email info@stalbansdistrict.foodbank.org.uk  with as much notice as possible.

Huge congratulations to the students and staff involved in the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child show for receiving an outstanding review from the National School Theatre Awards company. You can read the full review here but highlights include:

• This was a magical production in every sense, executed with extraordinary skill and creativity
• The skilful execution rivalled that of a professional West End performance.
• The ensemble was remarkable, working cohesively to transport the audience to iconic moments like the Sorting Hat ceremony and Platform 9¾.
• Each scene was layered with detail, and every performer understood their role in contributing to the production’s overall impact, no matter the size of their part
• Every cast member should take immense pride in their contribution to this production.
• The tech team’s contributions, from magical effects to moving staircases, added an essential layer of authenticity to the wizarding world
• It is clear that the arts are thriving at Sandringham School. This performance was a testament to the dedication, creativity, and talent of everyone involved, both on and off stage. Truly, a magical evening!

This week’s whole school theme is Grief Awareness and coincides with the National Grief Awareness week this year. National Grief Awareness Week is a compassionate and important observance dedicated to raising awareness about grief, providing support to those who are grieving, and fostering a better understanding of the grieving process. It acknowledges that grief is a natural response to loss and aims to break the stigma surrounding this deeply personal experience. We understand that this is a difficult issue but feel that it is important that we tackle it as a school and open conversations between students and staff. This week students spent one form time reading an article from ‘Mind’ which gives tips for dealing with Grief, and heard a powerful assembly from Mrs Pratt and Mr Smith who spoke about personal experiences of grief and gave their advice on how to process difficult experiences.

This week we also feature another one of our talented students. Miles C in Year 8 has recently achieved Trinity Grade 8 in drums, with distinction. He made a big effort over half-term to prepare so that he could complete it before his 13th birthday. This is a fantastic achievement so well done Miles! 

The dates of the French Exchange return trip have changed slightly due to issues with flight availability. Our French Exchange students will now be arriving on Wednesday 12th March 2025 rather than Thursday 13th March. The return date will be Tuesday 18th March rather than Wednesday 19th March.

Parents / Carers who are participating in the Exchange will have received an email with a Google form to confirm you are aware of the change in dates. May we kindly request your emails are checked and the Google form is completed.

This week in the LRC, Mrs Blandford has created our fantastic Christmas book display. If any students are interested in festive themed books or would like to choose a book or two to take for the Christmas holidays, any books borrowed now are not due back until January. Do pop up to the LRC and have a look at our wonderful selection of books for students and staff and our eye-catching new display. Happy festive reading from the LRC team!

Last week a group of our Year 11 students visited the Oaklands Welwyn Garden City campus, for a tour and information on the subjects offered for post 16 study.  There was a particular focus on Business, Childcare, Construction and Hair & Beauty courses.  The students very much enjoyed finding out more and we would like to thank Oaklands for hosting them.  In January we will be providing all Year 11 students with more information on post 16 opportunities, including local college courses as well as our own Sixth Form offering here at Sandringham.

Hepworth still on top of the house point leaderboard with 7,778 points, whilst Austen move up to 2nd with 7,180, just beating Turing on 7,071. Well done to Tommy B for the most points this week (10) and Newton for winning this weeks house points (322). 7A continue to impress with the highest average points in their tutor group (77.3) and well done to Johnson for winning the KS3 boys swimming.

UPCOMING EVENTS   

• Year 9 & 10 House Rugby – Wednesday 11th December
• Year 7 & 8 House Rugby – Monday 16th December
• KS4/5 House Swimming- (girls 9th Dec, boys 16th Dec)
• Fawcett & Hepworth Charity Disco - 6th December (parent pay to sign up)
• Staff Bake Off – Tuesday 10th December
• Sixth Form Quiz – Thursday 12th December

A huge thank you to students and parents who came along to our KS4 Awards Evening last night. It was a lovely evening celebrating the success of our GCSE cohort on 2024. A link to the official photographs will be sent out before the end of term and for those who were unable to attend, the exams team will co-ordinate the handing out of their official GCSE certificates during school time in the coming weeks. If you would like a copy of the programme, please ask your child to speak to the Sixth Form team for a copy.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: méticuleux

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: sorgfältig

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: meticuloso

Thinking Question:

• The French and Spanish translations are based on Latin (meticulosus / metus, meaning 'fear'). In German, 'Sorge'  in sorgfältig not only means 'care' but also 'worry’ which could imply that too much attention to detail might be seen as a negative thing! What do you think?

James hits rock bottom before he is offered a new start in an intriguing organisation. CHERUB agents are aged between ten and seventeen. They live in the real world, slipping under adult radar and getting information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail. For official purposes, these children do not exist.

Zenith L, 7F, who has recently read The Recruit says: ‘This book is really good because there is so much tension and lots of adventure and action.’

M is for ... meticulous [noun]

Definition: Showing great attention to detail; very careful and precise.

Example: The designs are hand-drawn with meticulous care.

Synonyms: Detailed, Accurate, Precise

Antonyms: Inaccurate, Thoughtless, Messy

Etymology: From the Latin meticulosus/ metus ‘fear’. The word came to mean ‘overcareful about detail’, hence the current meaning (early 19th century).

A great week for our basketball teams!

The senior basketball team enjoyed a win in their National schools campaign beating Whitefriars 73-60 at home.

And the Y8 boys basketball team took a 55-50 win over Queens in the County League. Well done everyone.

A massive congratulations to Emily W on her selection into the Ireland U21 squad. We look forward to following her progress!

Another successful week in our other fixtures as well with a convincing win for our U14 squad. It was brilliant to see the girls take what they've been working on in training to the court. OPOM- Maddison CPOM- Phoebe PPOM- Riley Well done girls

Well done also to our U13 girls basketball team who had a fantastic first game as a team managing to secure a 44-18 win! Amazing work and effort from every single player lead to a strong team performance. Great start girls!

Since our last edition of the Sandprint our Year 10 boys have played two rounds of the National Cup. Round 4 was a  brilliant 3-2 win against a strong Ashlyns School and Round 5 brought a Herts clash against SJL. After being 2 down inside 15 mins, Sandringham started to click and drew level before HT. A winner with 10minutes to play secured a 3-2 win & sees the boys into the last 32. 

The Senior Boys team have progressed into the Last 16 of the ESFA this afternoon winning comfortably vs St Crispins School and finally with the wins, a solid win from the U15 girls squad against St Michael’s with all 15 taking to the pitch. 

Unfortunately however, the Y7 B team bow out of this seasons national cup after loosing a very close game eventually on penalties to Dr Challoner’s School. Final score was 2-2 with goals from Alex & Maarwan

A local derby against Beaumont brought the season to a close for our 1st XI with Sandringham coming out on top.

A real squad contribution as 24 boys took to the field in a 31-7 win. Liam C-R (2), Harrison G (2) & Luca P all went over to finish the campaign on a high.

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

Award winning production company, Limitless Productions, are back in St Albans and this time they've got backup!

Welcome to the wild streets of 1920s New York, where gangsters run the show in Bugsy Malone! Join the charming Bugsy as he dives head-first into a thrilling turf war between rival gangs - Dandy Dan’s slick crew and Fat Sam’s lovable misfits. With whipped cream pies flying and laughter echoing, Bugsy navigates chaos while trying to win the heart of the dazzling showgirl Blousey Brown.

As the stakes rise and friendships are tested, Bugsy must step up to save his pals and outsmart the competition. Bursting with catchy tunes and high-energy dance numbers. From the team behind 'Little Shop of Horrors', 'Grease' and 'The Addams Family', this musical is a rollicking adventure not to be missed!

Tickets are on sale here and cost from £17.00