Well done to Lucas H in Year 7 who has had his contract at MK Dons Academy extended. This is a fantastic achievement and requires a lot of dedication with juggling school work, representing the school at various other sports, training 3x a week and matches as far as Liverpool, Nottingham and Portsmouth. It is a great opportunity and we look forward to hearing about his progress. Well done Lucas! 

As we previously mentioned, Kooth online counselling service came to an end on 31 March. A new service , The Sandbox, which is a free, NHS funded service to support children and young perople in Herts with their mental health and wellbeing has now been launched. Sandbox offers access to internet enabled Cognitive Behavioural therapy, one to one support from professional therapist by texts, phone, online chat or video calls including

• A website which is open 24/7
• Therapy sessions: 7am-10pm Mondays-Fridays and 10am-10pm Saturdays and Sundays
• Live Chat: 10am-8pm Mondays-Fridays

Signing up is easy and doesn’t require a referral from a professional. You can visit The Sandbox website or click here

We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Year 13’s Last Day this morning. There was a brilliant parade of costumes, videos of school memories and a whole host of special awards! As a year group, they have been fantastic; not only working incredibly hard over the last two years, but participating in and giving back to the school and wider community. It was great to celebrate all their achievements and the community that they have built. We wish them the best of luck for the future, and look forward to further celebrations at their prom in July. Well done to the class of 2023.

This week’s whole school theme celebrates the Whole School Read: ‘You Don’t Know What War Is’. This short, intense memoir of Yeva Skalietska is the record, told in diary form, of the transformation of the life of a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl from Kharkiv. Yeva writes in direct, unadorned prose and the poise and precision of her language are extraordinary, given her age and the fact that she has constructed this record in words she has only ever encountered in the classroom or on television. The students received an excellent assembly from Dr Creaby, Mr Leat, Nataliya (Yr12), Miss Critchley and Mrs Thomas. It was fantastic for the students to hear from Nataliya about her experiences as a Ukrainian refugee and for staff to champion the importance of reading to understand the experiences of others. We hope that as many people as possible get a chance to read the book and it encourages more tolerance and understanding in the school community.

Hundreds of Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 students have attended our series of 2023 Career Talks this year. Speakers included an actuary, an apprentice, an architect, a data scientist, a designer, an economist, an engineer, a geographer, an illustrator, a journalist, a lawyer, a linguist, a music technologist, a psychologist and a scientist. After each talk, students were invited to ask questions and many fascinating ones were posed. A huge thank you to our contacts and parents/carers that volunteered to come in and give talks. If you are interested in giving a career talk next year, please email sally.griffithsplunkett@sandringham.herts.sch.uk

T.K.Minimum, Sandringham School Sixth Form's Young Enterprise Company, had a successful night at the North and East Hertfordshire Area Final this week. They won the area's Sustainability Award. To achieve the award, the company had to write a final report, prepare a presentation, run a stand and undergo an interview by the judges. The company was praised for their efforts to counteract the 350,000 tonnes of still wearable garments that go to landfill in the UK annually. To do this, they set up and operated a business selling eco-friendly, hand-printed bags and secondhand clothing. Well done to all the students in the team. We are very proud of them for winning this award after all their hard work.

A big shout out to the Year 13 Film Society, which was also joined with the Year 11 Film club this year on Friday lunchtimes. It has been a pleasure to watch a brilliant group of film enthusiasts discuss and present aspects of their favourite films & other media over the last year, every Friday lunchtime. Some highlights include fantastic presentations on Batman, Puppetry, Semiotics & Colour, Happy Films, French New Wave and an almost half hour long history of the Dr Who franchise (with accompanying sonic screwdriver props). The endless film tier lists, quizzes and games have also made Friday afternoons fly by.

It was amazing to see such great collaboration between KS4 & 5 students; sharing knowledge, good humour and their passion for film. It was truly inspiring to see!

Heidi Ward (one of our TA's/EAL tutors) is studying for a MA in Fine Art at the University of Hertfordshire and currently has a solo exhibition (including some free workshops) at the Trestle Arts Base in St Albans https://www.trestle.org.uk/whats-on. The exhibition investigates the relationships between colour and light through a series of experimental and unusual techniques and processes and the event also includes workshops on the subject. Do pop along to support Heidi for what looks like a fantastic event.

Year 13 student, Zac P, took to the centre stage at the Royal Albert Hall Gala performance last week as the winner of the Herts young songwriters competition. The prize was a solo slot at the prestigious venue. Zac performed his song ‘Love You The Same’ and was accompanied by older brother and former Sandringham student Fin, and two other students from Herts schools. Congratulations Zac- what a fantastic experience.

Congratulations to Year 10 Drama Students for successfully completing their Devising Drama examination on Wednesday. We're really proud of you for performing in such a professional manner and stepping up to the demands of the Sandpit stage! Well done!

There was an exciting buzz in the Art department this week when local artist Ant Steel visited the Year 12 art students and did a Graffiti painting workshop. Ant and the students worked together to paint using spray cans to create a beautiful mural inspired by the painter Van Gogh. Ant showed the students how he designed the mural on his i-pad using procreate and used a special doodle grid to draw out the design on the boards. The Mural will be displayed in the art block to inspire students of all years.

Ant is the artist in residence at St Albans Cathedral and you can find out more about his work here. Well done year 12!

Well done to the 30 Sandringham School students who entered stunning artworks to The Royal Academy Young Artists Summer Exhibition. The judges said the standard was very high and showed immense creativity. Out of 21,000 nationwide entries, Jodie H from Year 9 has been chosen to display her picture “Cornered” in this historic Gallery. This is an amazing achievement so congratulations and we can’t wait to see your work on display in the summer. Details of times and dates will follow.

Well done to Newton who continue to lead the house points this week with 14,211. Fawcett and Shakespeare are not far behind with 13,983 and 13,721 respectively. The most individual house points this week goes to Theo S (7A) and Hepworth won the overall house points for this week (165). Keep up the good work everyone!

Students aged 15-18 might be interested in this summer work experience programme run by the Civil Aviation Authority, the UK’s aviation and aerospace regulator.  Click here for more information.

Well done to everyone who entered previously and got the answer right! This week's puzzle is shown above. For every entry you will receive 1 house point, 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 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?

Please can we ask all families to check their catering accounts on Parentpay and ensure that they have settled the accounts and that there is adequate provision. There are quite a few overdrawn accounts at the moment. Thank you. 

MFL students at Sandringham School have been working hard on @languagenut and we are now number 21 in the world with 1,518,600 points! You can join in here and help take us even higher on the leaderboard! 

To our current Year 11s on your final day- there has never been a dull moment with you as a year group! From the Peak District Trip in Year 7, to the challenges of Covid, to your most recent mocks- you have overcome many obstacles and certainly kept us on our toes. You have gone on to become an incredibly successful cohort of students; working hard, engaging in extra-curricular activities, experiencing success, overcoming challenges, and becoming lovely young people. We hope that you have enjoyed your final day of reading your Year 7 letters, hearing from your parents, seeing photos of the last five years, shirt signing, and spending time with your friends and teachers. We wish you all best for your upcoming exams and look forward to hearing about your future endeavours! Well done the class of 2023 from Mr Allday, Mr Smith, Ms Pitsillis, Ms Semple and all of your form tutors.

Year 10 dance students took part in a Self-Identity Inspired Outreach Workshop with Christopher Tendai Company last week and created a piece based on their professional dance work, Wonderland in Alice. Students gained a lot of understanding and experienced the choreographic process in action. See the result in the Summer Dance Showcase later this term!

It was an emotional day on Thursday as well for the Dance department as Miss Davies and Miss Wilson said goodbye to all our Y11 and Y13 Dance students. We wish them all the best in their examinations this summer!

Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games.

There is only one rule: kill or be killed.

Oliver G 9N who has recently read the book says 'The story is really gripping and the riot scenes are very powerful. You never feel like Katniss is safe. I like the way the friendship subplot between Katniss and Peter develops throughout the series.' 

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: Mystérieux, Éstrange, Troublant

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: Unheimlich

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: Asombroso

Thinking Question

• What are the effects of globalisation on the languages spoken across the world?

U is for… uncanny  [adjective]

Definition: Strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way.

Example: She had an uncanny feeling that she was being watched.

Synonyms: Eerie, miraculous, supernatural

Antonyms: Commonplace, conventional, expected

Etymology: From late 16th century Scottish, in the sense of relating to the occult or malicious. 

A busy week for athletics as the season kicked off with various events.

Our Year 7 and Year 9 students had a promising afternoon at Westminster Lodge on Wednesday with lots of students getting their first taste of a District friendly competition. Other schools included Marlborough, STABS, Athletes of the meet: Year 7 boy: Lucas H Year 7 girl: Erin C Year 9 boy: Tadi F Year 9 girl: Lulu H

On Thursday, we had more athletics in Stevenage . There was some tough competition but Sandringham held their own and secured some solid points. Athletes of the meet: U14G- Lexi K U14B - Diego D U16G - Sam B U16B - H. Smith

Year 8 cricket: On Friday, the team had a close game against Verulam in the county plate today which ended in a 10 run win for Sandringham. Toby P 35* & Jack P were 3 for 11 help secure a place in the next round. Earlier this week however, a 10 over per side game ended in defeat in the district cup v SJL. 54 to chase was too much for Sandringham.

An evening of Fleetwood Mac and Cheese performed by Big Love UK featuring a 5-piece tribute to Fleetwood Mac, Plus some familiar cheesy dance floor classics! 

Flat £15. 

The critically acclaimed creative team that brought you ‘Hansel & Gretel’ are back with more fun-fuelled pantomime madness; a joyful new twist on another old story, it’s not to be missed. Rapunzel saves the day (and herself!) in this action packed, magical musical pantomime adventure. Let down your hair with a cast of kooky characters as they dance and sing through this unusual, tangled tale; where people live in giant old boots and tall towers, where frog boys rap about enchanted ponds and girls with long hair battle more than split ends! Tickets cost £10-£17.50 and you can buy them here.

An evening showcasing solo and chamber music including both instrumental and vocal performances from Sandringham students in Years 7-9. This is an opportunity for friends and family to support and celebrate the hard work put in by our younger musicians throughout the year. You can buy tickets for what is set to be a fantastic evening here.