Sandringham School


Sandringham School is a secondary school with academy status in Marshalswick, 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 and the villages of Sandridge and Wheathampstead.
The school, from 2019, admits eight forms of entry each year but has admitted an extra form in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Forms are organised into one of seven Houses.
=House system=
The school introduced a house system in 2005 with 6 houses named after famous people. These were called Brunel, Descartes, Einstein, King, Shakespeare and da Vinci. The names were revamped in 2012 to Boudica, Darwin, Erikson, Knight, Seacole and Van Gogh. Most recently, in 2017, they were revamped again:
The new seventh house was named Shakespeare.
As of the 2019-20 Academic year, a new house was introduced - Hepworth House, named after the famous sculptor.
Each house is led by two Co-Heads of House assisted by House Captains and a House Committee.
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 and effort, community service and a high standard of work" according to the House Point Certificates. 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:
The school has specialisms in Arts, Science and Leading Edge.
The school has also been awarded High Performing Specialist School status by the SSAT on three successive occasions. It has received the School Achievement Award.
The school is an Accredited Initial Teacher Training Provider which offers QTS through the GTP programme.
The most recent Ofsted inspection described the school as "outstanding". The school has hosted a world record attempt for outdoor aerobatics and a world record attempt for the largest lesson.
On 8 January 2016, pupils from the school made the first amateur radio call to a British astronaut at the International Space Station, contacting Tim Peake as part of his Principia mission during Expedition 46.

SandPit Theatre

The School has used its specialism in the Arts to build and maintain a professional quality theatre on site. Opened in 2001 the SandPit is used by the school and community alike and regularly hosts high quality productions and charity events, such as the Senpai 2007 pantomime featuring students and staff and the yearly whole school show. The SandPit is also used as a teaching space and as a venue for school assemblies.