Sandringham School is a secondary school with academy status in Marshalswick,

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roma ...

, 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 has now been redeveloped into 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 Beaumont School may refer to: *Beaumont School (Ohio) *Beaumont School (St Albans) *Beaumont College Beaumont College was between 1861 and 1967 a public school in Old Windsor in Berkshire. Founded and run by the Society of Jesus, it offered a ...

. Sandringham school primarily serves neighbourhoods in the north east of

( Marshalswick and Jersey Farm) and the villages of Sandridge and Wheathampstead.

Predecessor schools

The two schools which became Sandringham School were Marshalswick School and Wheathampstead School. The Marshalswick school buildings were built in the 1960s, and the school expanded in the 1970s. Wheathampstead School opened in 1965 and closed in 1988.

Inspection judgements

As of 2022, the school has not yet been inspected by Ofsted since it became an academy in 2012. Before academisation, its last inspection was in 2008, with the judgement of Outstanding.

Achievements and recognition

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 (AITTP) which offers QTS through the GTP programme. The school has hosted a world record attempt for the largest lesson. On 8 January 2016, pupils from the school made the first

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communi ...

call to a British astronaut at the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...

, contacting

Tim Peake Major Timothy Nigel Peake (born 7 April 1972) is a British Army Air Corps officer, European Space Agency astronaut and a former International Space Station (ISS) crew member. He is the first British ESA astronaut, the second astronaut to bea ...

as part of his ''Principia'' mission during Expedition 46.

House system

The school introduced a house system in 2005 with 6 houses named after famous people. These were called Brunel, Descartes,

Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and da Vinci. The names were changed in 2012 to

Boudica Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. Sh ...

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

Erikson Erikson is a common Scandinavian patronymic surname meaning "son of Erik", itself an Old Norse given name. There are other spelling variations of this surname, as it is common amongst Danes, Swedes, Finns, and Norwegians. Erikson is uncommon ...

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...

, Seacole and

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

. Most recently, in 2017, they were changed again, to British figures: *

became

Johnson Johnson is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin meaning "Son of John". It is the second most common in the United States and 154th most common in the world. As a common family name in Scotland, Johnson is occasionally a variation of ''Johnston'', a ...

became Newton *

became Austen *

became Fawcett * Seacole became

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

became Turing The new seventh house was named

. 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 (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 photography. Students are also awarded House Points for high quality work and conduct in lessons. 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 *2009-2010 Einstein *2010-2011 Brunel *2011-2012 Brunel *2012-2013 Brunel *2013-2014 Darwin *2014-2015 Darwin *2015-2016 Van Gogh *2016-2017 Van Gogh *2017-2018 Newton *2018-2019 Austen *2019-2020 Austen *2020-2021 Johnson

SandPit Theatre

The School has used its specialism in the Arts to build and maintain a professional quality theatre on site. Opened in 2001 (at a cost of £1,000,000) the SandPit is used by the school and community and hosts productions and charity events. The SandPit is also used as a teaching space and as a venue for school assemblies.

References

External links

Sandringham School

Sandpit Theatre

BeauSandVer

Sandringham School, formerly Marshalswick School
(local history site) {{authority control Academies in Hertfordshire Educational institutions established in 1988 Schools in St Albans Secondary schools in Hertfordshire 1988 establishments in England