A HUGE thank you to Mr Smith and Mr Cracknell for all of their efforts keeping everyone fit and entertained through the Sandvent initiative throughout December. We hope that you enjoyed joining in with the daily exercises and seeing some of your teachers featuring in Oscar-worthy cameos. They would also like to thank families for all of their engagement, support and kind messages which kept them going throughout.

With the combined efforts of Charity Day- they raised an amazing £3,039 which will all go to FareShare, fighting hunger and food waste in the UK. The Charity helps with redistributing good food to almost 11,000 frontline charities nationwide and your donations, now more than ever, are greatly appreciated and will go a long way towards helping those in need.

If you would still like to donate, the link is https://justgiving.com/fundraising/sandvent

As a PE Department, we have been incredibly impressed with the engagement of all our KS3 students who have experienced ‘PE with Sandringham’ (our very own version of PE with Joe!). We know that lockdown has made it very easy to become sedentary, with much of our focus upon computer screens / devices, but we want to stress the importance of staying active by doing at least one form of Physical Activity per day.

• Improvements in concentration
• Release of ‘feel good endorphins’
• Improves mental health
• Reduces the risk of depression
• Improves overall feeling of wellbeing
• Numerous physical benefits such as reducing risk of heart disease

Currently KS3 classes will be completing a variety of activities, such as HIIT Training, Circuits and Yoga, all which will be ‘live’ and led by various members of the PE Department. Whilst these are aimed at our classes, we encourage the whole family to get involved and have a break from sitting down and working. The PE Department are all struggling to walk having completed up to 4 ‘sessions’ per day and so we would love to see photos and videos of your exercise efforts!

D8 is named after Emma Willard, an American women's rights activist whose pioneering work in women's education paved the way for high schools for girls, women’s colleges and coeducational universities.

Born in Connecticut in 1787, Emma was the second to last of 17 children and encouraged by her father to acquire an education beyond the ordinary. She was enrolled in her first school in 1802, by 1804 was teaching there and by 1806 was in charge of the whole academy.

Her experience at Westfield Academy at Middlebury (where she mastered the subjects but was not allowed to get a degree as she was female) encouraged her to open the Middlebury Female Seminary in her home in 1814. Her success in showing that women could also study subjects such as Science prompted her to write An Address to the Public; Particularly to the Members of the Legislature of New-York, Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education in 1819 and this article caught the attention of New York Governor DeWitt Clinton who encouraged her to set up her own establishment.

The Troy Female Seminary, the first establishment where women could receive higher education, opened in September 1821 and was pioneering in the teaching of science, mathematics, and social studies to female students. And it's principal paved the way for more equal opportunities for women in both the content they studied and the qualifications they could acquire. Willard’s later years were filled with travelling, lecturing, and writing. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2013 for championing education among women and in 1941, a memorial was erected in Middlebury for her achievements in education. 

"There is no improvement if there is no alteration."

Every week the Mathematics Faculty publish a puzzle for you to try.  For every entry you will receive 1 housepoint, if you answer correctly you will win 2 housepoints and if you are the fastest person to answer the puzzle correctly then you will win 5 housepoints!  To enter, simply scan the QR code and fill out the google form.  Good luck!

Happy New Year everyone. We hope that you are well. If you are making New Year's Resolutions, perhaps reading more books could be one of them?

It has been proved statistically that children who read fiction regularly, get a grade higher in their GCSEs across the curriculum. Here at the LRC, we explain to students that the exam will be written in English and they need to understand precisely what is it asks for, and then write (in good English) their answer. We feel that the best thing a student can do to help with their studies and grades, is to read fiction regularly to advance their literacy skills.

Literacy is given a high priority at Sandringham School and therefore we suggest all students in KS3 to read fiction books for about 10 minutes a night or at least 30 minutes a week. This can easily be incorporated into their routine by going to bed 10 minutes earlier and turning off their devices to read. This has the added benefit of removing them from the blue light that affects sleep and helps them to switch off from the worries of the day.

We kindly ask parents to help their children to get into a good routine with this, as their New Year’s Resolution.

Learning resources (such as exercise books, paper etc.) can be collected from Student Services on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday between the hours of 9am and 12pm.  Please adhere to social distancing rules and wear a mask when you come onto site. 

Sopwell Community Trust are continuing to supply food parcels with the help of St Albans and District Foodbank and Herts Fruit & Veg. All diets are covered including halal and they will be providing toiletries with the assistance of The Hygiene Bank Harpenden & St Albans. These packages will be delivered to doorsteps so if you or anyone you know would benefit from this support, please do get in touch via email below.

To aid those struggling with homeschooling they have also set up online catch up tutoring sessions, led by qualified teachers from TFF Tutors. If you are facing financial difficulties at this time please contact them to apply for a means tested place. 

They also have a limited number of devices available for free rental and can print documents free of charge. To apply and/or learn more about all of these services email sopwellct@gmail.com

As you may have seen on the news, BBC Two will be helping to support secondary students with programming including adaptations of Shakespeare plays alongside science, history and factual titles.

Bitesize Daily Secondary will include two hours of features every day and also be available on demand on iPlayer so you can watch after you have completed the work set in Sandringham's own VLC. 

Please click on the link for more details https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/secondary

Until students can return to school, we are reinstating our Click and Collect system. The LRC will find a book for you, issue it, disinfect it and place it in a clean box. You will then be able to collect the book from Student Services on Mondays and Wednesdays between 9am and 12 noon.  They will email you when to collect it and please practise social distancing & wear a mask when you do.

To reserve a book: Go to MySandSTORM and click on the Accessit Learning Resource Centre link. Log in using your SSO (MySandSTORM) log in. Using the SEARCH bar, find a book you wish to borrow and reserve it.  If you do not know which book to choose, search for a genre e.g. Horror or a favourite author, or try under Quick Lists to see some drop down lists of suggested reads. Or...ask the LRC staff by email and they will suggest a few titles for you. Happy reading! 

We are now starting the application process for Year 11 to join our Sixth Form in September. Year 11 had an assembly this week to explain the timeline and the website has now been updated with our subject presentations, as well at the application form and lots of other useful information. We recommend that students start to look through this now using the link below. On Thursday next week, 14th January, we have our virtual ‘Year 11 into the Sixth Form’ presentation which will go through all aspects of the Sixth Form. Students and parents should access the link on the school website to watch the presentation at 6.30pm. We are also posting out an application pack to all students to include the prospectus and a hard copy of the application form. We will remain in close contact with students and parents over the next few weeks to help guide them through the process. Please click on the link below for further details https://sandringham.herts.sch.uk/sixth-form-admissions/

A huge congratulations to Nico C in 9S who passed his Grade 6 saxophone exam just before Christmas.

Due to the current situation, this was done remotely by submitting a video of his exam performance, so well done to Nico for showing such resilience and commitment during these difficult times to achieve such an impressive grade.  

Last summer, local BBC radio stations helped members of the public donate thousands of old laptops and tablets for schoolchildren to use across England. For pupils who were sharing phones at home while learning in lockdown, it made a huge difference.

With schools now closed again, the BBC are once more asking you to help those pupils still in need, if you feel able to. We understand that these are difficult times and the ability to help others will not apply to everyone, but if you received new laptops, tablets or mobiles for Christmas and would like to donate the older devices that you don’t need anymore then this may be something you would like to consider. 

For more details you can click on the link  BBC Laptop Appeal

Miss Chapman, one of our English teachers, asked Year 7s to take part in a Christmas Card appeal making and signing Christmas cards for care home residents who wouldn’t have any visitors this year due to Covid. She was amazed to receive 183 cards, filled with kind and thoughtful messages to bring cheer to people at this difficult time. Pictured are just a selection of the cards created. What a lovely Year 7 we have! A huge thank you to everyone involved and we are sre they will have brought a lot of joy to the care home residents. 

Instrumental and Vocal Lessons

All instrumental and vocal lessons will switch to online delivery during this period of school closure. This worked very well indeed last year and our priority is continuity for all students and high quality provision. If your child is having lessons from a Hertfordshire Music Service teacher then you will be contacted directly by their teacher and lessons will be taught via their own online system ‘Music Tutors’. For students of Laura Bookbinder, Oliver Buckingham and Boris Peck, an email was sent out on Tuesday 5th January instructing you to fill out a very short google form to enable us to set up your online lessons. Please do check your emails if you have not responded so that we can begin virtual lessons as soon as possible.

If your child is unwell or unable to attend any of the lessons of remote learning on any particular day, please can you email absence@sandringham.herts.sch.uk informing us that they will not be attending lessons, giving a brief reason for their absence.  Please do not call the absence line as it may not be recorded.  It is essential that we receive this information every day before 9.00am so that we can effectively monitor the engagement of students with their learning.

F is for… furtively [adverb]

Definition: In a way that attempts to avoid notice or attention; secretively.

Example: I furtively glanced over at my father to see his reaction.

Synonyms: Covertly, Stealthily, Surreptitiously

Antonyms: Publically, Openly

Etymology: Its root is the Latin ‘fur’ meaning thief