Headlines

Welcome back and I hope you all enjoyed the half term break. Year 11 and 13 continue with their public exams which seem to be going well. We had our annual inspection of the examination processes which reported no issues and was an exemplary report. I would like to thank Mrs Headland, the exams officer, and the rest of the team for doing such an amazing job.

We are delighted to announce this week that we have been awarded, once again, Artsmark at Platinum level. Artsmark recognises schools’ exceptional commitment to creativity with the Artsmark Award - the only award for arts and cultural provision in England. The Artsmark Award is accredited by Arts Council England and a Platinum Award is the very highest level of achievement. A special thank you to Miss Kelly, Director of Learning (Visual Arts) and Arts Coordinator, and our exceptional Arts team, both teaching and support staff, for their ongoing commitment to ensuring our students receive the very highest level of cultural and arts education. They really do go above and beyond and we are exceptionally proud of the provision that we provide here at Sandringham. More on this under Arts News.

In other school news, our new Head students introduced the main assemblies this week. This gave younger students an opportunity to get to know our senior members of the school community. Many of them start aspiring to such roles in the future as a result of seeing them in action. The theme for assemblies this week was ‘D-Day’ to mark the 60th anniversary of this event.  Miss Constable gave her usual passionate, and highly informative assembly which I’m sure students greatly valued.

On Tuesday all middle and senior leaders spent the afternoon considering our new plan for school improvement (2024 – 2025). This is coming together nicely and for 2024 to 25 with a focus on two key aspects of work. The first is belonging and will incorporate all delivery of plans to ensure students really do feel they belong at Sandringham. The second area is called innovation. This centres on staff, and how we can work together creatively to continue providing the highest quality education to our students. 

And today we saw our students head off for their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition. There were certainly a lot of them carrying all of the equipment that they need. The weather looks great and we hope they enjoy themselves. More news on this to follow next week.

Finally, the merger of our trust with Atlas multi-academy trust continues as planned. We held our second shadow trust board meeting on Wednesday evening and agreed a number of key issues, including the new logo for the trust which is shown in these in these headlines. I hope you like it. The final design was inspired by an idea from one of the children from the Infants’ School. 

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

Mr A Gray
Headteacher

Upcoming Dates

11th Jun - Year 10 Drama Exams
12th Jun - 3.05pm Whole School Show Auditions
13th Jun - 3:15 PM Year 8 into 9 Module Fayre
13th Jun - 6:30 PM Year 12 Futures Information Evening
17th Jun - Monday 17th - 21st June - Year 10 Work Experience Week

Absence Line

Phone: 01727 799564

Absence Email: (Available 24 hours) absence@sandringham.aat.school

Please report ALL absences before 9:15am on the first day of absence and every morning thereafter.

Mr S Kemp
Assistant Headteacher

Headteacher Commendations

Aspiration

Chelsea L7J
Chelsea L7J
Christopher S10S
Clara W7N
Dan G9F
Hannah K7N
Hinna W7A
Illy P10T
Isobel C8A
Layla J9H
Luke D9T
Maddie L8H
Noah H7N
Rachel W9F
Robbie C7J
Salma C9S
Salman E9H
Tilly F9N

Confidence

Initiative

Integrity

Milo M10S
Oliver G10N

School News

YEAR 8 NEWS

A reminder for students that the Year 8 into 9 Module Fayre will be held on Thursday 13th June after school in the Main Hall. This is an exciting time for students to get a taster of some of the fantastic modules we have on offer in Year 9 including:

  • An early taster of the GCSE and A level courses offered at Key Stage 4 & 5, e.g. Media Studies, Dance, Business & Economics or Psychology.
  • The opportunity for those students in sets 1 & 2 for French or German to continue with your second language of Spanish.
  • The opportunity to take another hour of a subject you really enjoy doing e.g. Art, Drama, Music or Food Technology.

From Film Studies to Food Skills, Forensic Science to Music Technology, Personal Finance to Mandarin- there is something for everyone so students are encouraged to come along next Thursday and find out more (no parental attendance required- more information will be sent to parents regarding this process later on in the term.)

Ms M Holian

LRC NEWS

To celebrate Pride Month the LRC has a new colourful display ‘Reading with Pride’ highlighting some of our favourite LGBTQIA+ fiction. All the books featured include diverse characters and brilliant storytelling. If you are interested in reading LGBTQIA+ fiction or just enjoy great books, do pop up to the LRC to see what we have. If you need any advice or assistance with choosing a book the LRC team are always happy to help.

Miss E Critchley

MFL NEWS

A huge thank you to all of our families who attended the information evenings for France and Germany this week. The relevant power-points have been emailed to families. We hope the students are excited about what is set to be another fantastic e Week starting on Monday 17th June! You will be able to follow updates on the  Sandringham MFL page. 

 

Mrs E Kincaid

ARTS NEWS

As mentioned in the Headlines, we are delighted to once again be awarded Artsmark at Platinum level. In order to achieve this award, we worked alongside our students to complete a two year Artsmark journey starting with an ambitious Statement of Commitment against the seven Artsmark principles: Striving for excellence and innovation, Being authentic, Being exciting, inspiring and engaging, Ensuring a positive and inclusive experience,  Actively involving children and young people, Enabling personal progression and Developing belonging and ownership.

At the end of our two year journey, we submitted our Statement of Impact which celebrated the unique learning opportunities that ensures our school is such a special place to be for our students including our Year 8 Musical in a Day, ELD Days, Arts Week, Arts Award programme and our role as a Trinity Champion Centre as just a few of our unique features. We worked with our Arts SLT team to evaluate our progression and were delighted to receive our award and wonderful feedback from the Artsmark assessment team:

'Can we come to your school, please? It sounds brilliant! We were impressed by your strong, long-term commitment to the transformative power of the arts, which is making a difference to arts-based practice within school, and to other professionals within the local area and nationally. Creativity and arts are clearly referenced within the school planning documents and are key to the ‘super curriculum’. Pupils can access an established and stretching range of timetabled provision at KS3, with the opportunity to add more, and a strong range of qualifications at KS4/5, alongside extra-curricular activities, and qualifications (such as Arts Award). It’s great to hear about your international work, work around careers support, and we really want to ‘sew a periodic table’ – that sounds brilliant! You are clearly making an impact on pupils within the arts, and your arts specialist staff are supporting other subject staff within school using their creative techniques. Pupil leadership is strong with older pupils leading activities within school and within feeder primary schools, and through Arts Award and fundraising. Your pilot of the courses for University of the Arts London is positive, as is the case studies with the Education Endowment Foundation for gaining a national reach. Keep doing it, keep shouting about it, and keep measuring the impact.'

Thank you to our highly dedicated Arts Team who have given their time freely to make sure that students have the very best opportunities here at Sandringham School and to our exceptional students who have engaged and inspired with their wonderful participation with all of the events and activities offered throughout our Artsmark journey.

Ms L Kelly

Fo$S NEWS

As mentioned previously, Fo$S will be holding a second hand uniform sale on Saturday 22nd June under the canopy by Main Reception. This will take place between 11am-midday . The team are looking for more donations of uniform if you could please drop these to to 15 Skyswood Road (in the bike store). Students who have finished their GCSEs may want to donate their old uniform if they have finished their exams and it is no longer required. Please do pop along - all money raised goes towards buying equipment for students around the school.

Also a plea from Fo$S- as several members are leaving this year, they are looking for new members to help out with this and other events. Non uniform sales are an easy way to help out and raise money. They hold 3-4 per year and the time commitment is just setting up and clearing down. Anyone interested, please contact the admin address and we can pass the message on. 

Ms M Holian

DRAMA NEWS

We are so excited to announce that this year's Whole School Show is Harry Potter and The Cursed Child! Auditions are being held as follows during the Summer Term:

  • Wednesday 12th June - 3:15-4:00 - Auditions for everyone 
  • Wednesday 12th June - 4:00-5:00 - Principal role auditions (current Year 9+)
  • Thursday 13th and Friday 14th June - Lunch time call backs
  • Wednesday 26th June - 3:15-5:00 - Auditions for current Year 11's/external students who will be joining sixth form next year

For students wishing to audition for a principal role, you should join the Google Classroom to access the audition scripts and all the information you'll need to prepare. Code: cgdv5zm

We can't wait to get started!

Mrs C Hardacre

COMMUNITY/MUSIC NEWS

On Wednesday, the Music Faculty welcomed the whole of year 6 from Wheatfields School to experience a hands-on session exploring music technology. They were welcomed into our Mac suite and had the chance to explore some music software and started creating their own mix using samples and loops. They were all very enthusiastic and enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time here ahead of their transition to secondary school in September. We are looking forward to welcoming them back next week for another session!

Mrs E Beaton

HOUSE NEWS

Another week, another no.1 overall for Turing house. Will anyone be able to knock them off the top spot before the end of term? Special mention goes to Hepworth who gained an impressive 288 house points this week and to the following students who gained 9 or more house points.

  • Alex O-N (8N)
  • Isabella U (8F) 
  • Max I (7T) 

 

Ms M Holian

VACANCIES

Sandringham are currently looking for a

  • Teaching Assistant
  • Teaching Assistant (Visual Impairment Support)

to join our fantastic school. More information is available on our website here.

Please share with friends who may be interested.

L Lee

THEME WEEK: D DAY

This week the theme for the week was the anniversary of the D Day landings. This is since the 6th June marked 80 years since the D Day landings back in 1944. This historic operation saw the Allied Forces, including troops from Great Britain, USA, Canada, and many other countries, mount a large-scale invasion of Nazi-occupied France that ultimately tipped the course of the Second World War in the Allies’ favour. It was the largest amphibious assault in military history and the anniversary commemorates the bravery of those troops, as well as the sacrifices of those who lost their lives. This week students received an excellent assembly from Director of Learning for History, Ms Constable, who educated students on the significance of the day while also focussing on the incredible work done in the lead up to the event such as the ‘Ultra’ machine which cracked the enigma code, and the misdirections employed to help ensure the assault was successful.

Mr O Lacey

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

This week we feature Teresa L in 7S for her fantastic dance achievement. Teresa recently participated in the All England Dance (AED) - East Regional Final on May 29th. She won 2nd place with Honours in Section C Classical Ballet and has advanced to the National Final at the end of July. You can view more details about the event here.Well done Teresa- we are really proud of you.

If you would like to nominate someone for the Student Spotlight next week, please email holianm@sandringham.aat.school with a few details and/or photos. We would love to hear about any students who are going above and beyond.                                              

Ms M Holian

PE NEWS- FIT FOR LIFE WEEK

As mentioned before half term, our theme for Fit For Life week this year is ‘Careers’ and we would love to be able to showcase and inform our students of all the possible sporting pathways and job opportunities that sport/physical activity has to offer.

If you, or someone you know of, has a career in the sporting industry and could offer their time to come into Sandringham to deliver a brief talk to our students then that would be amazing. Even a short video message which would allow us to show our students would be great.

We want to make this a really inspirational week that highlights all the wonderful sporting careers our Sandringham community are involved in.

Please contact keenleysided@sandringham.aat.school if you are able to help in any way.

Mr D Keenleyside

MUSIC NEWS

You can still buy tickets for our annual Summer Concert: A Journey Around the World. This will take place on Tuesday 25th June in the Sandpit Theatre and is sure to be another fantastic showcase of all of the talented musicians we have here at Sandringham School. Tickets can be purchased here so don't miss out!

Also, a huge well done to Austin K for successfully gaining a place on the highly competitive ‘In The Making’ programme for young composers. The programme starts with a week long residential course and provides support to young composers across the year. Well done Austin!

Miss A Stothard

SCIENCE NEWS

Back in March, students from Year 12 took part in the Senior Physics Challenge competition. This is run by the British Physics Olympiad group at Oxford University, and they involve solving fun and challenging problems that are designed to stretch students beyond their A-level courses. The results are as follows:

Gold awards, top 250 students in the country - Oliver B and William M

Silver awards, top 900 students in the country - Nico C, Will B-S, Adam S, and Chace C

Bronze 1 awards - Matthew G, Gabriel D, Sam F, Henry P-B, Ethan K, Daniel M, Aum P, Ryan D, Ethan S, Eden Y, Abigail V, Hanna-Mari S, Bronze 2 awards - Rohith M, Alfie S, James C, Ryan N, Daniel N, Edwina Y, Anson C, Dhanu G, Jay B, Nathan A, Noah L

Congratulations to all who took part!

Mr J Powell

DANCE NEWS

A reminder for ‘Unite’ Dance show consent forms to be completed by Friday 14th June. Google form can be found on the letter or Google classroom.

Artweek Dance Events! 

Sign up to the amazing workshops we have on offer during Artsweek! Read through each workshop and then sign up to confirm your space. It will be first come first served for all workshops which can be found here.

Complete the google form by Monday 17th June! https://forms.gle/kQwsgrB5McfYx1HH9 

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO DANCING WITH YOU ALL WEEK!!!

Miss A Davies

STAFF NEWS

As you may be aware, our talented LRC manager Miss Critchley, is also a published author and we are delighted to say that the paperback version of her successful novel One Puzzling Afternoon is out in paperback this week with a new cover. The novel follows the adventures of 84 year old Edie Green, who is looking back into the past to discover what happened to her friend Lucy, who went missing years before . It has recently been selected as an Indie Book of the Month and is described by reviewers as “gripping”, “heart-breaking” and “completely captivating- a real page turner”. If you could like to buy a copy, you can do so here. Amazing work Miss Critchley!

Ms M Holian

Literacy News

WORD OF THE WEEK TRANSLATED

FRENCH: Le mot de la semaine: aimable

GERMAN: Das Wort der Woche: nett

SPANISH: La palabra de la semana: amable

Thinking Question:

  • This week the French and Spanish translations are very similar - why might French and Spanish have many similarities?
Miss F Baikie

BOOK OF THE WEEK: Montgomery Bonbon: Murder in the Museum, by Alasdair Beckett King

Many people go their whole lives without noticing anything that is afoot, amiss, or even untoward; without ever experiencing that toe-tingling, stomach-twisting sensation that a mystery is about to unfold. Not Bonnie Montgomery – the world’s best detective. Not that anyone (other than Grampa Banks) has heard of her… But they might have heard of the great Montgomery Bonbon, the well-dressed gentleman detective who (apart from the hat and moustache) looks suspiciously like a girl.

Their newest case: solving the mystery surrounding a highly suspicious death at the Hornville Museum. Together they'll interview some dodgy witnesses, scour the scene for clues and – above all – hope no one notices that Bonnie and Montgomery are never in the same room at the same time...

Hazel N in 7E has recently read the book and thought it to be, “A very exciting murder mystery book with lots of twists and suspense. I really enjoyed it as it is a very hooking page-turner, it is really fun to read with an unexpected suspect...”

Mrs S Thomas

WORD OF THE WEEK

G is for ... genial [adjective]

Definition: Friendly and pleasant.

Example: She was a genial student.

Synonyms: Affable, Good-natured

Antonyms: Unfriendly, Morose

Etymology: From the Latin ‘genialitas’ meaning ‘festivity/ pleasantness’.

PE News

CRICKET NEWS

A big win for our Year 8 team against SJL just before half term with Henry R top scoring with an impressive 64. Some tight bowling made sure of the win.

Our Year 10 team unfortunately bowed out of the county cup on Tuesday however, after losing a well contested game with Marlborough. After batting well and setting a score of 82 (15), they were chased down with 2 overs remaining.

Mr D Keenleyside

TENNIS NEWS

This week, two of our students took part in the Year 7 county doubles tournament. They won 2 of their games in the group, putting them in the 3rd/4th play off which they won 3-1. Well done Christie and Fanya, you did the school proud!

Mr D Keenleyside

ATHELTICS NEWS

Well done to Luke C in his new event. He ran a 59.1 in the 400mH at Loughborough. Only 0.3 off of English schools entry standard. #Sandathletics

Mr D Keenleyside

UPCOMING FIXTURES

Please see above for upcoming fixtures. You can follow all of our sports results here.

Mr D Keenleyside

ATHLETICS NEWS

PB’s were in abundance on Wednesday for CL5.

Athletes of the meet

  • U14G - Hannah P
  • U14B - Harry R
  • U16G - Sophie B
  • U16B - Harry W
Mr D Keenleyside

Sandpit Theatre

PUSS IN BOOTS 14th December - 29th December 12pm & 3pm

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

Miss A Carter-Downing