Last week, over 40 students in Years 12 and 13 took part in the Senior Mathematical Challenge run by the UK Mathematics Trust.  The aim of the UK Mathematics Trust is to advance the education of young people in mathematics. The Senior Mathematical Challenge is a 90-minute, multiple-choice competition aimed at students across the UK. It is open to all students in years 13 and below.  This was a fantastic opportunity which offered students the chance to develop their mathematical problem-solving skills. It encouraged mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems.  The problems on the Senior Mathematical Challenge are designed to make students think. Most are accessible, yet still challenge those with more experience. 

Students that perform well are awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze certificates, with the best performing students being invited to take an additional challenge, including being invited to participate in the British Mathematical Olympiad. Best of luck to all those that took part. 

We thought we would share this write up from Annie F and George A in Year 12.

For ELD this week, Y12 had the opportunity to learn about issues our world is facing in a great level of depth and detail. We began with a carousel of sessions based around a range of topics which moved far beyond our normal lessons: gender equality, movement of people, climate change and radicalisation.

These sessions gave everyone an understanding of just some of the issues we face in today’s society – real issues which our generation need to know and understand!

A personal highlight for the day was the gender equality session where we discussed differences between how men and women are treated today, and how these attitudes are beginning to change. We kept returning to the idea that education was key! This day was really enjoyable, we definitely all learnt something.

On Tuesday this week, half of the Year 8 cohort went to the National Space Centre in Leicester, where they spent a day researching space for a project and having fun. Perhaps the highlight of the day was the planetarium show where the students were treated to a stunning visual display of the constellations. The other half of the year group will go in January.

A group of Year 12 Physics students continue to engage with the PhysicsBeyond project at St Albans School. Harry R-N, George A, Joseph L and Ty W have been praised by the organisers for their excellent participation, ideas and talent. Individual areas of research include planetary orbits, differential geometry and astrophysics.

As mentioned as well last week, we are making plans to organise a whole-school challenge to try to achieve a carbon-neutral school day. Net zero itself might not be possible given the need to use electricity and heat the buildings, but we certainly plan to involve the whole school community in producing as little CO2 as possible on that day. If any parents are able to offer expertise in this area then please get in touch.

Our Book Fair is in full swing with students perusing the books and stationery and enjoying taking part in our competitions.

The Fair will continue on Monday breaktime and lunchtime. We hope to see students there.

This week we are launching an exciting new House Modern Languages Competition: a Spelling and Translation Bee.  If you are in Years 7 to 9, we would love you to take part by learning a list of words in French, German or Spanish and seeing how many you can spell (Year 7 ) or translate (Years 8 and 9) in a minute.  The first round will be on Wednesday 1st December, with further rounds to follow.  The winners will get to represent the school at a regional level and hopefully at the national final at Cambridge University next year.  This is a great opportunity to improve your knowledge of and confidence in a foreign language.  Please sign up via the Google Form on your year group Google Classroom.  For further details, please speak to Mrs Webb.

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!

Since September, Year 7 have been reading Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic: A Christmas Carol. Dickens’ timeless message of helping those in need has inspired Year 7 to take part in the Christmas Box Appeal. English classes all worked together to get boxes ready to help to spread Christmas cheer to vulnerable children across Europe. Our original aim was to donate two boxes from each English class but the students exceeded all expectations and we donated a total of 70 boxes!

A big thank you to all the students, parents and staff in their generosity and enthusiasm towards this project.

A reminder that if you ordered the Whole School photograph with free postage, these are now available to collect from Main Reception by students or parents. 

Individual school photographs are still being processed and these will be given to students when they arrive in a few weeks. 

On Wednesday afternoon, our A level students took part in a dance and careers workshop led by a Dance lecturer at the University of Worcester, Paul Golz. He offered a great insight into all the opportunities that Dance A Level offers for future ventures such as; theatre management, dance school owner, dance journalist, creative director, dance project manager, teaching, and many more. 

A practical workshop concluded the workshop which was refreshing choreography and fantastic to see our students’ resilience to perform extremely challenging contact work. Paul gave incredible feedback for our students’ technique and said they were the best group he had seen perform this repertoire! A confidence boost our students need as they head into practical examinations in the next few weeks. 

I found it useful as it allowed me to experience the movement and creative exercises that are taught in dance at university. - Leila

I loved rolling around on the floor! And the calm atmosphere; his approach made me feel relaxed in a dance class. - Grace

The Year 11s were again very fortunate to be joined on their ELD by Chartered Psychologist and educational expert Martijn Van Der Spoel. As ever, he guided the students through the latest techniques and methods to prepare them for their exams, focusing on topics from revision timetables to stress management. We are sure that they found the sessions useful ahead of the mocks commencing Monday 22nd November. Good luck to Year 11 in these, we know you are working hard so keep going.

Students have been working in Visual Arts to create a collective artwork to reflect upon Remembrance as part of our whole school collective remembrance ceremonies. Students were inspired by the embroidered silk postcards which were a common souvenir of the First World War. Students were provided with their own blank postcards and spent time in their art lessons creating their own individual responses. Thank you to Mrs Button for organising this opportunity for our artists and also to Mrs Ross for curating the student’s work.

A huge congratulations to Lucy Pether, who attained her Girlguiding Young Leader Qualification this month. She completed her workbook on 2 November and was awarded her badge this week at her Brownie meeting. Well done Lucy. This is a fantastic achievement which involved a lot of hard work, espeically as some of the timetable of progress was interrupted by the pandemic.

If you would like your son/daughter to be featured in the Student Spotlight, please contact that Admin email address with a few details and/or photographs.

This week’s whole school theme is Remembrance. This weekend marks Remembrance Sunday, when people across the UK honour those who have lost their lives in war. Millions of red poppies are sold each year in the build-up to the day to commemorate the war dead, while the nation will fall silent at 11am in tribute. Remembrance Sunday is always held on the second Sunday in November, while Armistice Day is always held on the eleventh day of the eleventh month to commemorate the signing of the armistice. The students received an excellent assembly from Mr Leat, Director of Learning for History, on the importance of remembering the sacrifice that others have made on our behalf. On Thursday, the students listened to the last post and honoured the fallen with 2 minutes of silence - lest we forget. 

A reminder that the second round of Nasal Flu vaccinations are taking place on 30th November. Consent forms can still be handed directly to Student Services before 29th Nov. Blank consent forms can also be collected from Student Services. Thank you

In addition to the Year 9 ELD NEWS summary, we would like to say a special thank you to the many speakers who donated their time to help make the day such a success:

Amber Mountain, Amazon Web Services, BEAR Snacks, Capcom, Google, Goom Electrical, GSK, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue, Hertfordshire Partnership University Trust NHS, Moody's, Portland Design, Stephanie Belton Photography, T&B Contractors, Uskuri Theobald Architects, Vodafone, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust

Students really enjoyed the experience, as you can tell by this quote from one who enjoyed the day “today I found out more about GCSEs and options for the future (A levels and other later things happening) it strengthened my knowledge and I’m now a lot more confident with what I will be doing in the future, it also inspired me to pursue my previous dream career.”

Our next careers event is the Year 11’s “You’re Hired!” day on Thursday 20th January 2022. We are looking for help with Mock Interviews, Interview De-brief and CV Surgery. If this is something you would like to get involved with, please complete the google form here or email Binh Tang, Careers Coordinator at admin@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

The Music Faculty and Sandpit Team have been hard at work this week setting up the show orchestra room ready for tech run of The Sound of Music at the weekend! You can still buy tickets for what is set to be an amazing show here.

We recently said goodbye to one of our TA's, Mr Astley, who left to follow another career path, but we wanted to share a picture of him with some of the Year 10 students whom he played football with during break time. We are always impressed with how much our staff go above and beyond in their roles and the students' sweaty and happy faces express how much they clearly appreciate it too. We wish Mr Astley all of the luck in his new adventure and, as always, are grateful for all the extra time and effort that staff here at Sandringham School put in to enrich the students' experience. 

In October, students in Years 12 and 13 took part in the Mathematical Olympiad for Girls run by the UK Mathematics Trust.  The Mathematical Olympiad presents 5 challenging questions which require full written solutions, aimed at students across the UK. It is open to all female students in years 12 and 13.  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.  The problems on the Mathematical Olympiad are challenging and designed to make students think and are not suitable for all students. 

Students that perform well are awarded certificates of distinction or merit, with the best performing students being invited to participate in the first round of the British Mathematical Olympiad. 

Overall the students performed well, especially Hannah Burman (12T) who received a certificate of merit. Congratulations to all those that took part. 

A reminder that students should now be wearing winter uniform, which for girls means wearing tights. Thank you

Sandridge Parish Council has resolved to install a bike ‘pump track’ for local young people on the Jersey Farm Open Space next Spring. This, it’s hoped, will compliment the adventure playground, skate half-pipe and rugby posts already there.

As part of their consultation with local people, they are seeking the thoughts of parents and professionals working with young people. They have already received a positive email from an HCC Senior Youth Worker confirming a direct correlation between providing activities for young people and better behaviour (and conversely a lack of facilities leading to poor behaviour). 

They are holding a resident’s information session at Jersey Farm Community Centre on Sunday 28th November between 2pm and 4pm and would like to invite parents (and students) to attend the meeting and voice their opinions. 

Year 9 took part in day focussing on careers and were able to hear from a range of employers and providers as they start to consider their pathway to the future. They were all introduced to careers research and how to look at a wealth of information about thousands of jobs and careers on Unifrog. They all heard from The University of Hertfordshire about life and study at university, and were involved in a Q&A session with some Sixth Form students to discuss what it is like in Year 12 and 13. They were also able to attend three different talks with employees from a wide range of different employers, including Amazon, Google, Vodafone and the NHS amongst many others. (More on this in Careers News.) Students really enjoyed hearing about a range of jobs and about life in the workplace. It was great to invite so many visitors in after so many Covid restrictions in recent times! Thank you to Ms Tang and Miss Richards for putting the whole day together.

It was fantastic to see three of our own Year 9 girls featuring at Sunday's televised match for St Albans City on Sunday vs Forest Green Rovers. Mimi G, Freya W and Rebecca S (all members of St Albans City U14 girls team) were the Guard of Honour and Mimi & Freya we’re also ball girls for the match. It was a fantastic atmosphere and an even more fantastic result and by the sounds of it, the girls had an amazing experience. 

We received the following lovely email this week regarding some of our students out for ELD.

"Good morning, I was out walking this morning and came across groups of your year 7s I think? With their teachers heading into town along the Sandridge road. I stopped on both occasions to let them go by, can I say what a lovely respectful and polite bunch of children, saying hello, have a nice day, thank you and sorry for holding me up. So much negative comments about school children I thought it was worth telling you. You should be very proud of them and them of themselves . Please pass this on to the Head of Year to tell the students."

Well done Year 8 for representing the School so wonderfully

With the increased security regarding entrance to the school, we request that parents, should they need to drop anything off or collect their child for an appointment, please use the deliveries entrance to access the site and then go to the entrance to Student Services by the top car park

Also a notice that parents are not allowed on site during school hours to watch sports fixtures. We are aware that this may feel disappointing, but it is due to safeguarding rules. We try to include as many match reports and photographs as possible in the Sandprint/on Twitter so that you can follow the events that way.

On Tuesday, Year 7 took part in their first Extended Learning Day: Battle of the Poets. After participating in some mini battles, where they worked in a small group to complete Rhyme, Rhythm and Performance challenges, they gathered in the hall to listen to Performance Poet, Ash Dickinson talk about the power of poetry. Inspired by Ash, students worked in groups to write, perfect, and perform a poem on a topic of their choice. Each house voted for their most powerful performance, and the day culminated in a performance in the Sandpit where the wining group from each house showcased their work. 

Ash Dickinson, Ms Summers and Mr Davies had the difficult task of choosing first, second and third place. The standard was extremely high, and Fawcett were awarded third place, Newton, second, and first place went to Elgar for their passionate delivery of their sensitively written poem: Black Lives Matter. Throughout the day, students were enthusiastic, focused and extremely supportive of each other. The day was enjoyed by all, and the English faculty were impressed by the quality of the poems produced. Well done Year 7!

We are delighted to announce our plans to run the Year 8 E Week trips to France (A Half) and Germany (B Half) in June next year. The launch letters have gone out to our Year 8 families where you can find all the details. If you are keen to go, please sign up by 25th November. Please note that key skills students are welcome on either trip. They will be supported with the language. If you have any questions, please speak to a member of the MFL team.

Friday 19th November is Children In Need and, as per previous years, Sandringham will be holding a non uniform day. ParentPay is now open with a suggested £2 donation (or £1 if you are wearing something spotty.) If you feel able to donate more, there is also the option to do that as well. All money goes towards Children In Need, a charity who work closely with a whole range of organisations to help young people in the UK who need support the most.

Year 12 spent ELD considering some really big issues which are often of concern to young adults. They engaged in sessions and discussions on; the climate crisis, movement of people, extremism and gender equality. They also participated in a presentation which is shown to all Year 12 students in Hertfordshire ‘Learn2Live’ about key considerations as a lot of them start to learn to drive. The students were fantastic, engaging fully in lively debate and considering the a range of very big issues which face the world today. Thank you to Miss Potter for leading the day and to all staff involved.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine- condamner

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche- verurteilen

SPANISH- La palabra de la semana- Condenar

Thinking Questions

• Languages naturally evolve over time – what factors affect the evolution and use of a language?

Go on a galactic adventure with the last human on Earth, his alien best friend, and a depressed android. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a funny sci-fi classic.

One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. It's the final straw for Arthur Dent, who has already had his house bulldozed that morning. But for Arthur, that is only the beginning. In the seconds before global obliteration, Arthur is plucked from the planet by his friend Ford Prefect – and together the pair venture out across the galaxy on the craziest, strangest road trip of all time!

Totally hilarious, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been a radio show, TV show, stage play, comic book and film, and is a work of utter comic genius from Douglas Adams.

The LRC stocks a comprehensive collection of books, both fiction and non-fiction about World War One, World War Two, and other conflicts. Whether students would like to read about those who went to war, life on the Home Front, how war disrupted the lives of young people, or are just looking for a good story, we have an excellent selection to choose from. Do come and see a librarian if you would like any recommendations or help finding a book.  

C is for condemn [verb]

Definition: To express an unfavorable on. To indicate strong disapproval of. To pronounce to be guilty.

Example: Star of ‘The Apprentice’ Alan Sugar, was condemned by an anti bullying charity for “publicly

Synonyms: Criticise, Decry, Denounce

Antonyms: Approve, Praise, Commend

Etymology: From the  Latin ‘condemnare’ meaning to sentence, blame or disapprove of.

Well done to all of those students who represented Sandringham at the U13 table tennis tournament this week

The Y11 girls were in action on Tuesday in the Sisters in Sport National Plate Round 2 at home to Hitchingbrooke. A fairly routine win, but still impressive display saw the girls take victory 61-16 and into the next round.

The Year 9 netball team also had an excellent first match in the District League beating Roundwood Park 44-4. OPM - Millie W & CPM - Charlotte H

Please see above for upcoming fixtures this week

Well done to the Senior Girls Football who won 4-1 against Dame Alice Owen’s in the County Cup.

The Y10 football team progressed through to Round 4 of the ESFA National Cup game with a dramatic final few minutes against Enfield Grammar School on Monday. The team, after going 1-0 up and looking comfortable, fell foul to some sloppy defending to give Enflied a 2-1 victory and looking likely we’d go out of the competition. Noah B and Harris Y had other ideas. From a late corner the ball fell to Noah on the edge of the box. Unable to make full contact he stuck out a toe and the ball nestled into the top corner. In what looked like the equaliser to send us to extra time, the restart allowed us to capitalise on our guests demise. Noah spotted Harris Y free on the left, with a great forwards first touch he found himself with a shooting opportunity from 25 yards. Harris gambled, pulled the trigger and a big right hand from the keeper onto the bar, before the ball bounced on the line then up into the roof of the net. Much like the scenes at Clarence Park on Sunday evening and a number of the fans in attendance in there were scenes of ecstasy on the pitch as our fate was sealed and our name into the hat for Round 4.

The Y9 B football team also played in the ESFA National Cup away at Shenfield on Monday. Unfortunately for them, in a tight first half, our hosts bettered us and took victory 4-2 to dump us out. Well done to the boys who travelled.

A busy couple of days for the Y11 football team as well on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, which saw us host Tring in the 2nd round of the County Cup and then travel to Bicester on Wednesday for the 3rd round of the ESFA National Cup. The Tring match was a tense first half with us grabbing a goal to lead into the break 1-0. The second half, however saw us play more freely and 7 goals took us through with an 8-0 win. Wednesday was much tighter. Even with a late penalty going in our favour, we were unable to convert and the match went to penalties. A close round of spot kicks with some calm finishing and cool goalkeeping gave Will J an opportunity to win it. He delivered with the quality we all knew he possesses and finished in the top corner to see the Y11s through to Round 4 and a place in the last 64.

Well done to the boys' rugby teams from Saturday. The Y8 and 9 teams were in action away at Beaumont in our annual block fixture. The Y10 team had the week off so Mr Boak and Mr Hughes could take both an A and a B team to the Nicky B tournament. The Y8 team were superb, Tadi F was again a rock in defence and led the team in tackles to help secure a 5-2 victory over our hosts. The Y9 team went a try down early on in the game. This only inspired the team to up their game as they very quickly turned it around and got themselves back into it with 2 quick tries. Going into half time we had a 3-1 lead and were playing some outstanding offload rugby, with Luca P and Sebbie L running the opposition ragged. Liam C-R with a war wound to show for his efforts gave Beaumont very little respite as his tackles flew in and we eventually took the game 8-1. The Y7 boys had both an A and a B team in their first competitive outing. Mr Boak said that the boys played their way into the tournament as they developed with every game. After a slowish start they upped their efforts and both finished with wins.

The Y9 basketball team had their first league match of the season on Monday at home V Sir John Lawes school. It was a great game to ease the team back into action. We started very well as our press stifled SJL. With an early lead it gave us a great opportunity to play the whole team and get lots of match practice. Harry G and Alfie M were exceptional along with Darcy M. The 80-20 win gives us lots of confidence as we move into a busy week next week with 3 matches.

Wednesday also saw us host St. Columba’s College for our Senior boy’s first game of basketball in some time. A solid performance and in particular a show of resilience on defence after the 1st quarter was a particular highlight. With a number of boys playing in the set up for the first time we got the game to a 1 point lead at half time and looked to have found our rhythm. A press from SCC in the 3rd changed our fortunes and the visitors took a lead. An exciting last quarter and a reall rally of strength from us was not enough to overturn the deficit and SCC took the win by 8. Some work to do, but a promising season looms.

Grab your wands, don your house robes, and apparate yourselves to the box office! A very magical improv show awaits...

The smash hit Spontaneous Potter is an entirely improvised Harry Potter comedy play, based on an audience suggestion of a fanfiction title. Hilarity ensues as an entirely new Potter adventure is magically improvised on the spot - with live musical accompaniment!

Running Time: 60 minutes

Tickets: 2:30pm - £12 / £10 or 7:30pm - £16 / £14

We now sell and accept Theatre Tokens! You can use these tokens to purchase tickets for any of our shows or buy them as gifts to be used at over 260 venues nationwide and in the West End all while supporting theatres including us!

Following Government guidelines, you must wear a face covering while attending The SandPit Theatre and must present a valid NHS COVID Pass or proof of a Negative Lateral Flow Test if aged over 18, unless you are exempt as stated in these guidelines. If you do not wear a mask or do not have a valid NHS Covid Pass/Lateral Flow Test result, you will be refused entry and your ticket will be forfeited.

Our Bar will be open during these performances for drinks and snacks but please note we will only be accepting card payments. Alcohol is available for sale 30 minutes before the shows begin. The box office is open from 11.30am – 3.30pm Monday, Wednesday & Friday. Alternatively, you can call us on 01727 799565 or visit www.sandpittheatre.co.uk

Welcome to our 20th anniversary year as we celebrate The SandPit Theatre turning 20 years old this December!

We can’t wait to see you back through our doors and we have some exciting shows and films coming up for you this season!

All the latest performances are on our website, www.sandpittheatre.co.uk, and you can keep up to date with what’s going on by giving us a follow either on Instagram & Twitter or give us a like on Facebook, just search for The SandPit Theatre!

The inspirational story, based on the memoir of Maria Augusta Trapp, follows an ebullient postulate who serves as governess to the seven children of the imperious Captain von Trapp, bringing music and joy to the household. But as the forces of Nazism take hold of Austria, Maria and the entire von Trapp family must make a moral decision.

This amateur production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. 

www.concordtheatricals.co.uk

Tickets £10 & £7