As mentioned in the Headlines, on Thursday we welcomed our whole Year 13 cohort into the Main Hall for our annual KS5 Awards Celebration Assembly. It was wonderful to welcome parents of the winners and also Deputy Lieutenant Marion Brown and Linda Randall (who has donated several awards for the ceremony.) It was fantastic to hear from Head Boy, Henry, and Head Girl, Nabrissa, about their experience of Sandringham School life and to celebrate not only the winners of the academic and extra-curricular awards, but also to reflect on how the year group as a whole have flourished despite the challenges they have faced. As Marion Brown mentioned in her email after the event "it was so nice to be able to hold this wonderful event with the whole year group and the parents and carers and hopefully this will be one of the occasions the students remember warmly for many years to come." A very warm congratulations to Year 13 and we wish them all the best on the next stages of their journeys.

We have lots to report on in Careers News this week!

Work Experience: We would like to thank the Year 10 students, parents and carers for taking the time to work with us to find work experience placements for students in June. We look forward to hearing about their placements and speaking to the employers involved!

Spotlight on opportunities: 

• The Royal Navy reached out to Sandringham School to let us know about their Role Finder tool for anyone interested in joining.  There are also scholarship and funding opportunities to be found here
•  Students aged 15-18 interested in being a doctor of medicine might be interested in The Young Doctor Summer Experience.  Information is offered here

GSK Virtual Work Experience 2022 Sign-Up  

30th May - 2nd June GSK are offering virtual work experience suitable for students in Years 10-13 to learn about how GSK takes products from molecules to market, take part in virtual team building exercises to develop their skills, learn about different career opportunities across Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, gain job application hints and tips and gain an industry-accredited Bronze Industrial Cadets Award. Find out more and fill in the survey here

Borras Construction Ltd 

This could be of interest to our Year 13 students.  Borras Construction is looking to employ 2 apprentices starting September 2022, to join their Management Trainee Programme.  AS or 2 A levels required.  Driving licence and own transport (preferable although not essential).  Students should ask for a job description and forward their CV and covering letter before 6th May 2022 if interested to dchapman@borrasconstruction.co.uk or jshields@borrasconstruction.co.uk

Please contact Mrs Eady for any Careers information or insights eadyc@mysandstorm.org

Well done to Alice L-Y in 7S who completed her PADI Junior Open Water Scuba diving qualification in Egypt recently. On the suggestion of the dive instructor, she also went on to complete her Junior Advanced Open Water qualification which is a fantastic achievement. Alice said it was an amazing experience and recalled, "I did some compass work to be able to find my way underwater along with identifying different fish, diving off a boat and also deep diving. I learnt the effects on your body and mind of going deeper than usual. I went down to 21 metres which is the most I’m allowed until I turn 14. "

It is great to hear about our students going above and beyond in and outside of the classroom, so we would love to hear from any parents or fellow students who would like to nominate someone to be featured. Please email Melissa.holian@sandringham.herts.sch.uk with any details and/or photographs to include.

This weekend sees the first ever St Albans Visual Arts Festival featuring the work of some of our talented Sandringham staff. For more information you can visit www.enjoystalbans.com/event/st-albans-arts-festival/

Join Miss Juleff in I7 on a Friday lunchtime for Maths Pi club including fun puzzles, games and problem solving. Students are really enjoying the interesting activities and challenges. Bring your lunch and join in the fun!

This week’s whole theme recognises Stephen Lawrence Day (SLD). SLD is celebrated each year on the 22nd of April. It remembers Stephen Lawrence, who was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993. Stephen Lawrence Day is about the part we all play in creating a society in which everyone can flourish. It is an opportunity for children and young people to have their voices heard, make the changes they’d like to see and create a society that treats everyone with fairness and respect. The students received an excellent assembly that explained Stephen Lawrence’s story and got them to reflect on how we can prevent discrimination in both school and society. 

Herts for Learning are hosting a free forum on Thursday 19th May 5.30 – 6.45pm as an opportunity for parents and carers who are and/or have children from Black and mixed heritage backgrounds to participate in a facilitated discussion (with Wellbeing and Race Equality Advisers) about Black History Month.  They would like to hear direct experiences, find out what is working well and hear suggestions about where improvements could be made. They will then share the findings and use the feedback to provide further resources and support to maintained schools in Herts for BHM 2022 and beyond. 

To attend, you will need to book their free place in advance via the Black History Month Parent and Carer Online Forum event platform or contact the HfL Events Team directly at training@hertsforlearning.co.uk or call 01438 544477.

This week, we were delighted to welcome Japanese independent journalist, Nana Takamatsu, and Naoshi Owaku (who works for the Ministry of Justice of Japan) to the school. Having been awarded a SMSC Gold level last year, Ms Takamatsu was interested to see how Sandringham weave their Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development ethos into the curriculum.

Both visitors enjoyed meeting with Mr Nicholls, Ms Wills, Mr Lacey, Mrs Coy, Mrs Holmes and various students throughout the day and we are sure that Ms Takamatsu and Mr Owaku took lots of information away with them about the fantastic SMSC provision here. A huge thank you to Mrs Dudley and Mr Nicholls for organising.

On Tuesday, the school entered two teams in the Year 8 Mathematical Team Challenge run by HertsforLearning.  The school was competing against 15 other schools across Hertfordshire. The Sandringham teams consisted of Max C (8F), Hubert G (8F), Ridhi R (8E), Haniyah Y (8T), Arielle F (8H) and Emily N (8H).

The challenge consisted of three rounds of 6 mathematical problem solving questions and a memory round.

Round 1:     General Maths Questions

Round 2:     Memory Round (Two students are allowed to view a mathematical poster.  They then have to describe the poster for the other two team members to draw.  (The poster is withheld from these other two team members.)

Round 3:     Estimation and Problem-Solving

Round 4:     General Maths Questions

Both teams did very well, finishing 8th and 9th.  Well done to everyone.

On Tuesday night we were treated to an evening of rock and pop at our annual Battle of the Bands competition. Alumnus Charlie T was our adjudicator for the event which featured 35 students across all year groups. He had a very difficult task to award a junior and senior overall winner as the standard was incredibly high this year. Our junior winners were Destiny C, Denise C and Rhia H with their performance of ‘No Scrubs’. The senior category was won by Mona A who sang and played guitar in a performance of ‘Blouse’ by Clairo. The evening was a really lovely event which was a true celebration of self-led student performance and an opportunity for our rock and pop musicians to showcase their work.

Barracudas Activity Day Camps for children aged 4½ to 14 years will once again be open at Sandringham School this summer! They provide 80+ exciting activities including fencing, archery, swimming, football, arts and crafts, dance and much more. They are Ofsted registered and have high staff to child ratios, plus parents of Sandringham School receive an £10 off a full week by applying the code HSCH22 in the promotions box. Please visit here for more details.

Last month, several students in Years 9, 10 and 11 took part in the Kangaroo Challenge run by the UK Mathematics Trust.  Entry to the challenge is by invitation only and is open to those students gaining a qualifying score from the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge. The Kangaroo Challenge is a 60-minute, multiple-choice competition comprising 25 more challenging questions.  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. 

Students that perform well are awarded Distinction or Merit certificates so well done to Lauren D (10A) who achieved a merit certificate.

As the Jubilee bank holidays get closer, we would like to mention an event which may be of interest. The District Council is delivering a ‘Platinum Party’ in St Peter’s Street on Thursday 2 June from 3pm-10pm, to include a beacon-lighting ceremony at 9.15pm. There will be lots of family-friendly activities taking place, including musical entertainment, with seating for anybody looking to enjoy street food from the assembled traders and caterers. This is suitable for all ages and looks set to be a great day. More information can be found at www.enjoystalbans.com/jubilee

Junior Recital Evening

We are looking forward to our next event on May 9th which will be a chance for our Year 7,8 and 9 musicians to perform a solo on instrument or voice. Students can sign up in the music faculty to take part.

New Music Ensembles

We are delighted to offer some new extra-curricular music groups this term:

Monday lunchtimes: Ukulele group for any ability and no instrument necessary

Tuesday lunchtimes: Rock School for students that sing, play guitars, drums, bass or are interested in being in a band.

Wednesday lunchtimes: Jazz combo is returning for students in Years 7-10 who play wind, brass, guitar, drums or keyboard.

Well done to KS3 students who attended TripleEdge dance company auditions on Thursday. Everyone did so well and was lovely to see so many students there. Miss Davies and Miss Wilson are proud of you all (as you should be too!). Names will be on the dance noticeboard by the end of the week. 

It was fantastic to see pictures of the whole school read, I Am Malala, making it all the way to Iceland wth some students on the Geography trip over Easter. We would love to see pictures of you reading it in unusual places. Please tag @SandringhamRead in your photos!

Congratulations to Samira, Hina, Rachel C and Oliver S (Yr 7), Oliver G (Yr 8) and Joe (Yr 11) who have recently read ‘I am Malala’ and submitted their review.  All students who read ‘I am Malala’ and submit a review will be awarded the Whole School Read Achievement Award on ePraise, so please encourage your child to participate. 

Thanks to Jessica R (Yr 9) for this brilliant review: 

"I loved this book. It follows Mala as she begins her fight for education as well as describing her life in Swat. The description is so vivid of the streets of Swat and her father's school, that you feel like you're there yourself, taking it all in. Malala serves as an inspiration as she talks about what education meant to her- it stopped and made me think about how much I take school for granted.She also shows her humanity- as she spoke about her fights with her siblings or jealousy of classmates. You can relate to her and feel her emotions with her, which I loved. I would recommend this to anybody looking to get a closer look at Malala and her fight for education or even if they are interested in Pakistan."

All students (and their families!) are encouraged to read the text and to join the conversation about the text, either with their peers, their teachers, their families or on Twitter @SandringhamRead. If you haven’t started reading yet, there are still a few copies available in the LRC, including a ‘short read’ edition and a ‘teen’ edition of the text. PDFcopies are also available on the Sandringham Reads Google Classroom (Class code: 5ukzdug), where students can also submit their short review of the book to receive the Whole School Read Achievement Award.

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine- Le manque

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche- Der Mangel

SPANISH- La palabra de la semana- La escasez

Thinking Questions

• Nouns in French, German and Spanish all have a grammatical gender. Why do you think this is? What impact does this have on the way people potentially view certain objects and abstract concepts?

D is for… dearth  [noun]

Definition: A scarcity or lack of something.

Example: There is a dearth of evidence.

Synonyms: Absence, Paucity, Shortage

Antonyms: Abundance, Adequacy, Enough

Etymology: Derived from the Old English word ‘deore' OS DIURIPA

meaning precious or costly.

Well done to the U18 girls tennis team for beating Bedford Modern 8-4 in round 2 of the Aberdare Cup! And to the U18 A boys team who had a great fixture away at Sevenoaks school. Good to see the boys take the win and on to the next round of the Glanville Cup.

The  U13 girls' tennis team also had their first competitive match of the season yesterday. Depsite losing 10-2 against Watford Grammar, lots of lessons were learnt and there was a good doubles win for Katie J & Bea T.

We also had a fantastic day at the Herts Schools Tennis Doubles Championships bringing home 3 out of the 4 titles. U18 Cup Champions,  U18 Plate Champions and U14 Plate Champions. And finally well done to Marelie R for another amazing achievement, finishing runner up in the @ItfJunior J4 at Aldershot. 

Well done to the U14 squad, who went to Northampton this week for the National Cup quarter final but sadly lost by 11 points in the end in a well fought match.

A huge well done to the U15 Boys football team who took part in a thrilling match against Sir John Lawes to see us win 4-2 and take the @WixFootball Senior Shield back to Sandringham School. Amazing goals from Bolding, Gaines, Howgego and Cohen. Well done team! 

For more news, fixtures, team sheets and results don’t forget to follow us @SandringhamPE on Twitter and at www.sandringhamsport.co.uk

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!

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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

IT’S TERRY!

“…Unstable and deliciously unexpected” The Guardian

It’s Terry is a brand new knock about show Introduced by the world famous character performer ‘Richie Raganoo’ - who by his own omission, says Terry Alderton is the “weakest character he does. But his most successful!”

It’s Terry has narrative, it’s a throw it up and see where it lands kind of show. So those that Know, Know, and those who don’t…will!

Tickets - £17