Friday 26th February
Headteacher Update
I hope you all had an enjoyable half term and managed to either rid yourselves of the various bugs and germs
doing the rounds or better still managed to avoid them altogether.
I know many of you were working over the half term break and so your children were home alone. I remember
my sister and I were left during holidays. Our mum left us a list of jobs which we argued over and then ignored.
We often bickered and fought, went out with friends and then at the very last minute rushed around washing
dishes or whatever minor job had been left for us to do. Of course, there were no mobiles to enable her to remind
or check on us and our mum didn’t phone the house in case it woke up our dad who was sleeping following a
night shift.
My sister and her two youngest children visited over half term. They travelled from Edinburgh and spent a few
days of their half term with us. Everyone else around us is pleased we manage now not to bicker and fight!
We try hard to visit each other often and thanks to the wonders of mobiles and Facetime we communicate all the
time, usually just to blether to share life’s little ups and downs.
This half term she and her children met our new puppy for the first time. He is now 6 months old and is a lively
Border Collie named Logan. We have had him since September and he has turned our world upside down. The
whole house revolves around him and he is hard work and we are constantly questioning our ability as capable
dog owners.
I cannot explain or understand the small mental breakdown that led to the
purchase of an 8 week old puppy and we have questioned the wisdom of
such an impulsive act many, many times but he is very much adored and the
welcome we get when we see him in the morning or when we return home is
awesome.
We have all, including my grown up children, thrown ourselves into the
nurture, care and training of Logan and we all have more pictures of him on
our phones than anyone or anything else. The boys take him to puppy class
where after a shaky start, including an exclusion from puppy class (the
shame!), he is now the best in the class. That is except when the boys weren’t
available and his ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ took him. Let’s just say Logan
was badly let down by his parents on that occasion.
I grew up with dogs in our home but of course was never responsible for training them and had to be forced to
walk them. I seriously underestimated how hard it would be and am very grateful to those who have offered
advice and listened to my incessant tales of Logan and pretended to be interested in the photographs on my
phone.
I am particularly grateful to Mrs Burgess, my PA and her family who have shared their dog walks with us. This gave
us the courage to let Logan off the lead and we were bursting with joy and pride as he made new friends.
Long term I would like Logan to become our ‘school dog’, a national concept that has been very successful in
other schools. He is some way off yet and requires specialist training and assessing before he would be able to
fulfil this role. I also have to be aware that he might not be cut out for this and whilst he will be blissfully unaware
of what might have been, I will have to hide my disappointment.
Catching up with my sister and her children over half term was lovely and them loving Logan as much as we do
was a bonus. He was particularly adorable, thriving on the attention from a 13 year old and a 9 year old. Sharing
time together was very special.
We are all so busy in our lives that we don’t often get the chance to enjoy the moment because we are planning
for what we are going to do next and worrying about what we haven’t yet managed to do.
Truthfully, I didn’t think we had time for a dog but with all of us working together, we cope and he forces us to live
in the moment. We have walked around our neighbourhood and visited places there for the first time since we
moved there in 1997. People of all ages smile and even stop to talk to you when you have a dog, something that
is rare in this day and age.
I am not saying if you are busy buy a dog – only someone seriously misguided would think that was a good idea –
but for me it has been a revelation. My sister was highly entertained by our mollycoddling of Logan who is
incredibly spoiled but she couldn’t accept my new guilty pleasure of watching Paul O’Grady’s For the Love of
Dogs.
Anyway – I’m sure I will continue to rely on the help and wisdom of others whilst striving for excellence and will, I
hope be able to update you from time to time on Logan’s progress towards target.
The following students have been nominated for the Headteacher’s Award this week:
Soviyan Jabegu (R)
Joe Hopper (R)
Bradley Gibson (Y)
Lydia Lindsay (Y)
Callum Dearman (G)
Tyler Gwyer (G)
The winners of the Headteacher’s Award this week are Callum and Tyler for their help as technicians in the week’s
assemblies.
Debbie Smith
Headteacher
26.2.16
Sport for all at Sandhurst School
The PE department has purchased a new multisport wheelchair to help students at the school with a disability to
be included more in PE lessons. Ben in year 10 is the first student to have benefitted from the new sports
wheelchair. Ben has cerebral palsy and this means that his movement is restricted. The new chair will allow him to
be much more active and gives him access to so many more sports. Ben chose to take PE as a year 10 option so
the addition of this piece of equipment will really enhance his enjoyment of the course.
On top of this, an exciting day out of school was organised for Ben to go and participate in disability sport. The
day was organised by the Youth Sport Trust and consisted of wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis, wheelchair
rugby and boccia sessions. There were also big celebrities hosting the event who have participated in the
Paralympics. Ade Adepitan is particularly famous for being enthusiastic about sport inclusion and having him as
the event host was very inspiring for all the students involved. London 2012 Paralympic wheelchair rugby star
Aaron Phipps was also organising activities during the day. Sandhurst School has now created new links with
Arbour Vale School in Slough which is a wheelchair hub school and so we will be able to attend more events like
this in the future for any of our students who would benefit from access sports.
T.King
Year 9 Football
The year 9s have played two matches this week in the league. The first match was against St Crispin's who are
currently top of the division. The game was tough and Sandhurst had to defend for long periods of the match.
Connor was heroic in goal and kept a clean sheet in the first half despite a torrent of shots on target. The second
half proved too difficult to hold St Crispin's back, although there were still some good phases of play from
Sandhurst. The best highlight came from a wonderful, curling free kick taken by Owen to score a fantastic goal
for Sandhurst. The boys lost the game but had to raise their spirits to face Waingels the very next day. The boys in
year 9 certainly improved in their second match of the week. A good understanding and team ethic was
apparent throughout the match as Sandhurst competed for every ball. Josh scored a volley and Jamie burst
through the backline to score another. Trailing by one goal with minutes to spare, Sandhurst pushed for the
equaliser but the ball just wouldn't go in. A narrow defeat to a good side but the fantastic effort and attitude
seen from our boys more than made up for this.
The team were: Connor, Will, Ethan, Kumbi, Luke, Rojan, Josh, Luke, Owen, Brett, Quincy, Louis, Jamie, Khai
T.King
Calling All Rounders Players!!!
Rounders club has started and we need players to join our successful
teams.
Training:
Year 7 and 8- Wednesday 3:05-4:00
Year 9,10 and 11- Monday 3:05-4:00
Mrs Evans and Mrs Davis
Swimming Champs
Well Done! Lucy and Charlotte who have both won medals for swimming
On the 6th and 7th of February I went to the youth counties swimming competition. To qualify to swim at the youth
counties you need to achieve a certain time and I managed to do this 8 times. My best stroke (No 1 stroke) is
breastroke and at the weekend I raced the 100m and 50m breastroke. In both these races I won county
champion in my age group and juniors category. The trophies are engraved and my 100m breastroke trophy was
first engraved in 1924.
I train 7-8 times a week and I am going to the regionals in May and will hopefully make it to the nationals this
summer. I swim in the Hampshire county which includes Guernsey and Jersey.
As part of the process of decorating the set for the school
production, we are looking for as many old magazines and
papers as possible to create a huge collage. If anyone has any
old magazines at home that they no longer want and would be
kind enough to donate to the school production please bring
them in to reception.
Many thanks
Mr Lovejoy
Robot Battles In The Library!
On the Friday before half-term, the library became the arena for the Battle of the Bots as members of the
Sandhurst School Robot Club (led by Mr. Southwood) showed off their designs and positioned their lego robots on
the red starting grid ready for action. 3, 2, 1, battle! The first battle was won quite dramatically by The Chainsaw
Bot. This robot continued its battling bravado and went on to win several more rounds.
An unsuspecting member of staff gasped in surprise as she entered the library, “I am very impressed by the
designs and the way the students can control their creations with phones and tablets.”
Spectators wanted to know the following:
Q.
“Is Robot Club open to all year groups?”
A.
“No, sorry, it’s currently only open to year 7s.”
Q.
“What is the most difficult element of Robot Club?”
A.
“Having to stop and leave at the end of the lunch time club.”
Q.
“What is the best thing about Robot Club?”
A.
“Everything!”
Q.
“Does it matter if you are a complete beginner at programming?”
A.
“No; it’s more about design.”
Q.
“What is your next project?”
A
“Bigger and better robots.”
Q.
“What made you join Robot Club?”
A.
“I like lego.” “I thought it would be interesting and it is.”
“I wanted to build a robot.”
It definitely wasn’t a silent school library during the battles, but it was inspiring and fun.
Contributed by a year 7 student
Chef Week Winner
Congratulations to the three finalists who had a gateau-off on the last
Friday of last half term.
They were Ellie , Matthew and Kirsty.
Lewis tasted all the cakes and declared Kirsty to be the winner.
Thankyou to all who took part or helped, especially Hospitality prefects
Martine Loveridge, Andrew Williams and Liam Tappin.
Over all we have raised £50 towards Lewis’s cookery book fund.
Sainsbury Vouchers
We rely on Sainsbury’s vouchers to get our basic kitchen equipment
every year, items like wooden spoons, jugs and sieves.
Please can you put any vouchers you receive in the collection box in
Reception or hand them into the Food Tech Office.
CERN Visit
On Monday 15th February Mr Bishop and I flew to
Switzerland to spend the week at CERN, home of the Large
Hadron Collider. We attended as part of the Science
Learning Centre UK teachers programme. We spent the
week listening to lectures on particle physics, particle
accelerators and anti-matter. We made a cloud chamber
in a workshop to watch cosmic rays and visited the Antimatter factory, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) and the
Magnet testing facility. The site was off-line for
maintenance, so we were able to go into the underground
tunnels to visit the actual accelerators. The most impressive
site was the CMS where we were able to see the largest
magnet in the world, 100m below the ground. It was a great
privilege to be able to visit so much of CERN , I personally
learnt so much about Physics and have been inspired to
enthuse about it to staff and students. Mr Bishop and I will be
presenting assemblies to all years soon.
Mrs Tudor
Dear Parents/Carers
RE: Google Apps for Education
As part of our Computing Curriculum, the school is extending a service called Google Apps for Education. This
new service is powered by Google and we will be joining over 8 million other students and teachers that are
already using Google Apps at schools around the world. The service will give our students and staff access to a set
of tools which will support the high levels of collaboration that are required in today’s classroom to prepare
students with communication and collaboration skills for life. Apps for Education will also enhance the delivery of
not only our Computing curriculum, but lessons cross curricular. In order to keep you informed and also to comply
with data protection legislation and Google’s Terms of Service
(http://goo.gl/D9GNB6), we are required to get parental permission.
What’s included in Google Apps?

Gmail provides email storage with extra security including restricted incoming and outgoing email access.
Emails by students are restricted to within school ONLY. These email communications are monitored and
recorded. Students will NOT be able to send and receive emails outside of our school community.

Google Calendar enables us to create and share school or class calendars with events which can be
subscribed to by parents/ carers to receive automatic updates.

Google Docs lets students create and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and forms.
This also allows students to work collaboratively on projects simultaneously in real time. Students will be able
to work on the same document from their own homes.
What are the benefits of Google Apps and what’s included?

Ease of access: Students can access Google Apps at anytime, anywhere. It is designed to work in any
browser (Google Chrome, IE, Firefox etc.) and on any computer or tablet. This enables access to your email,
calendars and documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher alternatives) from school or at home.

Online storage means that no flash drives (memory sticks etc.) are required.

Collaboration between students from other classes, working together on group projects. During
collaborative work teachers can monitor progress of each child and provide instant written feedback visible
to the group or to the individual. This enhances teaching and learning and provides instant and accurate
assessment.

Online portfolios of work can be developed by students.
Within the Sandhurst School Google Apps service:
There will be no advertisements.

No external email addresses can contact student accounts and vice-versa (unless agreed by the school
eg: pen pals with other schools or password reset emails from carefully selected educational websites).

All email communication and comments within collaborative work are monitored and stored. This
information will be used in conjunction with the behaviour policy.

Work uploaded to Google Drive remains the property of the creator; it is not copied or kept by Google if it is
removed by the creator.
Student Access
Students will be shown how to use Google Apps within the Computing Curriculum. Students will be provided with
unique usernames and passwords. Parents/Carers are encouraged to explore Google Apps with their children by
logging in together and accessing their school work stored in Google Apps. (Students will follow school policies for
appropriate use when using Google Apps. The service is an extension of the school’s own network). The school
has the right and ability to monitor user accounts for policy and e-safety purposes as well as having the ability to
remove access to some or all Google Apps.
Summary for Parents
Google Apps for Education is an essential part of the curriculum, for all subjects, and students without parental
permission will be unable to participate in lessons across the curriculum using Google Apps. All email
communication is archived and the school’s Acceptable Use Policy will be enforced. School staff will monitor the
use of Google Apps when students are at school. Parents/Carers are responsible for monitoring their child’s use of
applications when accessing Google Apps from home. Students are responsible for their own behaviour at all
times.
Polite Reminder - Cucina is a Cashless Catering System
Cucina Ltd, have been using a cashless catering system to process the monies paid by yourselves for your
children’s school meals. As you are aware the monies received by parents are credited to each student’s
account by one of three ways:On line payments using secure access via the school’s website.
Cheques made payable to Cucina Ltd
Cash (must be given to Peter Butterworth, the catering manager, before 8.25am if the money is needed on
the same day)
We would like to encourage parents/carers to pay on line as this method is the most secure way for lunch monies
to be credited to the student’s account. There is no risk of the money being lost. It also saves students the time in
delivering cash to the canteen.
If you need any help or advice in how to create an account or make a payment please contact Mrs A Vaughan
in the school finance office or Mr S Bamford on 01344 775678.
Reporting Calendar 2015-2016
You will be aware the school issues student progress
reports at the end of each half term. However the
second half of the spring term is very short this year,
effectively giving only four weeks between reports. It is
clearly not sensible to issue reports so close to each
other. Therefore instead of issuing six reports this year
the school will issue five. The dates of these vary
depending on the needs of each year group.
Progress
Report 1
Progress
Report 2
Progress
Report 3
Progress
Report 4
Progress
Report 5
Not Issued
May 27th
Progress
Report 6
Year 7
Year 8
Mar 23rd
Year 9
Year 10
Dec 18th
Year 11
Year 12
Year 13
July 22nd
Oct 23rd
Feb 12th
Apr 22nd
Jan 12th
Not Issued
Not Issued
BHF Sponsored Swim at the Camberley Arena on Saturday 5th March 2016
Contact Nigel Tottman for details, Entry and Sponsor Forms on 01276 502932 or email Nigel.Tottman@ntlworld.com
Free to Enter
Start Time- phased
5:30 pm for the younger and slower swimmers (Under 11's)
6:30 pm for the older and faster entrants
Location:
The Arena Leisure Centre Camberley
Parking:
Ample Parking at Leisure Centre.
What is required:
Participants may swim up to 50-lengths
Who can swim:
No age restriction:, you only need to be able to swim at least 1 length.
Raffle:
A raffle will be held and drawn on the night of the swim
Support this event and raise funds for the British Heart Foundation, the Nations Heart Charity.
Note: The 2015 swim raised close to £8000
www.bhf.org.uk Registered charity number: 225971
Friends of Sandhurst School
Friends of Sandhurst School, established in 2013, are a small but enthusiastic group of people
committed to raising funds to benefit the school community.
You can support FOSS in the following ways:

When shopping online, please consider using “Easy Fundraising”. You can raise money for FOSS by simply
shopping online, donations are made by the retailers at no extra cost to you. Go to
www.easyfundraising.org.uk/fosandhurst

We also run a school lottery with a weekly prize and chance to win £25,000. Details of how to join can be
found on the school website, orwww.yourschoollottery.co.uk and search for Sandhurst.

We are always happy to welcome new members. Please contact friendss_donna@yahoo.com
Dates for the Diary
Year 10 Practical Exams Start
Monday 29th February
Year 8 Subject Evening
(by appointment only)
Thursday 3rd March
Second Hand Uniform Sale
Friday 4th March
Citizenship Day Year 10
Tuesday 22nd March
AP3 Reports Years 7 – 9 only
Last day of Term
Wednesday 23rd March
Half Term
Thursday 24th March — Monday 11th April
Inset Day
Monday 11th April
Summer Term Begins
Tuesday 12th April