Sandringham School

Infobox UK school
name = Sandringham School


size = 150px
latitude = 51.77074
longitude = -0.30783
dms = dms
motto = "Everybody can be Somebody"
motto_pl =
established = 1988
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = Comprehensive
religion =
president =
head_label = Headteacher
head = Mr Alan Gray
r_head_label = Deputy Headteacher
r_head = Mr Ceddy de la Croix, Mr James Heale
chair_label = Chair of Governers
chair = Lyn Keen
founder =
founder_pl =
specialist = Arts College, Science College
Leading Edge School
specialist_pl =
street = The Ridgeway
city = St Albans
county = Hertfordshire
country = England
postcode = AL4 9NX
LEA = Hertfordshire
ofsted = 117548
staff =
enrollment = 1147
gender = Coeducational
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Six
colours = Red, Gold, Black
publication = SandPrint (weekly)
free_label_1 = Precursors
free_1 = Marshalswick School
Wheathampstead School
free_3 =
website = http://www.sandringham.herts.sch.uk/
website_name =

Sandringham School is a secondary school in St Albans, Hertfordshire. It was established in 1988 following a merger of two local schools, Marshalswick School and Wheathampstead School. It occupies the former Marshalswick site, adjacent to Wheatfields Infant and Junior schools. The former Wheathampstead site was used as a training centre by Hertfordshire County Council until 2007 and is now awaiting redevelopment for housing.

The school works in partnership with two neighbouring schools to enhance post-16 educational provision. This partnership is known as "BeauSandVer" and consists of Sandringham School, Verulam School and Beaumont School.

Sandringham school primarily serves neighbourhoods in the north east of St Albans (Sandridge, Marshalswick and Jersey Farm) and the village of Wheathampstead.

Achievements and recognition

The school is successful, oversubscribed, and popular with parents in the local area. It has been awarded specialist school status as a Visual Arts College and as a Science College, however there has been more emphasis on the visual arts spectrum, and no development on the science facilities has been made: some of these facilities date back to the schools opening in 1988. The science 'block' was build in the mid 70's along with 'G' block, swimming pool, and the old music block. Older blocks date back to the opening of Marshalswick Boys School. Other newer sections where added in the late 90's apart from the rebuild school hall which replaced the old hall which burn down in the early 80's.

The school has been awarded Artsmark one Gold star by Arts Council England. It has received the prestigious School Achievement Award, most recently in 2002, and it is also an IB World School and is therefore able to offer International Baccalaureate qualifications. [cite web
url=http://www.ibo.org/school/003278/
title=Sandringham School
publisher=www.ibo.org
accessdate=2008-02-19]

The school is a Leading Edge School and a Training School which offers QTS through the GTP programme. [cite web
url=http://www.sandringham.herts.sch.uk/albanfederation/albanfederation.html
title=Alban Federation | Home
publisher=www.sandringham.herts.sch.uk
accessdate=2008-02-19]

The most recent Ofsted inspection described the school as "Good with outstanding features". [cite web
url=http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/portal/site/Internet/menuitem.7c7b38b14d870c7bb1890a01637046a0/?urn=117548&providerCategoryID=8192
title=Sandringham School
publisher=www.ofsted.gov.uk
accessdate=2008-02-19] Examination results at GCSE and KS3 are consistently high and students are empowered to reach challenging upper quartile targets. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/education/06/school_tables/secondary_schools/html/919_4197.stm
title=BBC NEWS - Education - League Tables - Sandringham School
publisher=news.bbc.co.uk
accessdate=2008-02-19] The school also hosted a world record attempt for outdoor aerobics.Fact|date=February 2008

Uniform

Sandringham is a traditional school and the school uniform is traditional in design. It consists of a black school blazer with school badge on left chest pocket, a white shirt or blouse, black trousers or knee-length skirt and a distinctive red school tie. A summer uniform was introduced but is in the process of being phased out. However due to various complaints from students, and their parents, the shirt is still allowed in uniform.

House System

The school introduced a house system in 2005. There are 6 houses; Brunel, Descartes, Einstein, King, Shakespeare and da Vinci. The choices of these famous people to be the names of houses was quite controversial due to there being no women, despite Sandringham being a mixed sex school. Each house is led by two Co-Heads of House (staff) assisted by House Captains and a House Committee (students).

The Houses compete against each other to win annual events such as sports day, house drama, house music, house dance and house Christmas decorations. Students are also awarded House Points for endeavour, community service and effective learning. The total number of points for each House is used to determine which house is the winner of the House competition.

The winners of the house competition thus far:
*2005-2006 Descartes
*2006-2007 Brunel
*2007-2008 Einstein + King

andPit Theatre

The School has used its status as an Arts College to build and maintain a professional quality theatre on site. Opened in 2001 (at a cost of £50,000) the SandPit is used by school and community alike and regularly hosts high quality productions and charity events, such as the Christmas 2007 pantomime starring students cross-dressing as Spice Girls. The SandPit is also used as a teaching space and as a venue for school assemblies.

References

External links

* [http://www.sandringham.herts.sch.uk/| Sandringham School]
* [http://www.sandpittheatre.co.uk/ Sandpit Theatre]
* [http://www.beausandver.net/ BeauSandVer]