All blog worthy news can now be sent to thirdyearblog@hamptonschool.org.uk

This week’s Third Year blog starts with the first of (almost certainly) many shameless plugs for the ROAR Challenge…

The ROAR challenge encourages 13-16 year olds in schools across the UK to develop a sense of global citizenship. Corporate volunteers assist with a ten week programme of tutorials and activities which allow participants to develop business skills enabling them to set up their own social enterprise. The proceeds are donated to help facilitate rural education in India. Participants in the challenge also get to communicate with the partner schools in India via organised Skype calls, so gain a deeper understanding of the contrast between their educational experiences and the subsequent need for support.

Hampton Third Year boys will have the opportunity to sign up to the ROAR Challenge before the end of this term.

Mr Woods and Miss Millar are thrilled about the number of boys that are getting their merits signed off each week. With one week of the Autumn Term to go, over 100 merit certificates have been written, representing over 1000 merit worthy pieces of work or good acts around the School. A number of boys already have over 50 merits – well done, boys! At the end of the Autumn Term, the Third Year Merit Raffle will be held so boys are reminded to keep getting their merits signed off – each set of 10 merits eqates to one entry into the raffle where three Amazon vouchers are up for grabs! All boys who have got through the term without a detention will also be entered in the “No Detentions” raffle.

A note from Mr Agulian about Benenden Model United Nations Conference on Monday:

I just wanted to say a special well done to all those Third Year boys who participated in BMUN yesterday: Matthew Cresswell, Thomas Reilly, Benjamin Green, Egor Kaygorodov, Tom Patterson, Josh Bartholomew and Sathin Wijesena.

All were very impressive in their debating and diplomacy across a line of thought-provoking topics like the militarisation of space, the protection of rights of the LGBTQ+ community, integration and assimilation of migrants into new environments as well as the containment of the Zika Virus.

It was particularly pleasing to note how well the boys have picked up the United Nations language, as speaking in the third person is not always easy!

News from around the Forms:

Further to Mr Agulian’s earlier praise, Thomas Riley and Matthew Cresswell took on the Model United Nations as representatives Togo and successfully declared nuclear war on Nigeria – I’m not sure he would have been so effusive in his praise had he known that!

Thanks to Rohith Ratnam who helped the Senior Badminton Team out of a tight spot on Wednesday when they ended up short of players. He rose to the challenge in the match against both Wilson’s and Isleworth & Syon and played with determination. Well done to Rohith for how he played and the spirit with which he did so.

Alex Mason, Sami Omaar, Shahryar Rezvani, Oscar Murphy and Josh Tatters all feel that they represented 3F admirably in the Inter Form Volleyball competition last week – well done boys! There will be further Inter Form competitions throughout the year!

 This week Sathin Wijasena has been showcasing his musical talents; while most of us would be impressed to be at Grade 7 standard in one instrument, Sathin has been examined this week in both Grade 7 Piano and Grade 7 Singing with the exams on consecutive days- ouch! We’re all keeping our fingers crossed for the results! And if it wasn’t enough to have two music exams in one week, he will also be performing in the School Christmas Concerts in the Hammond Theatre. We would like to wish Sathin and all of the other Third Year musicians the best of luck for these concerts; Callum Daniel reports he’s feeling excited about performing in the Concert Orchestra and The Reeders – go get ‘em boys! These concerts are always a highlight of the School’s music programme, particularly the audience participation carols which round off each night!

Freddie Rees is looking forward to the upcoming rowing social trip – paintballing. We’re not sure the coaches are as excited as they typically end up worse off! The paintballing trip rounds off a busy weekend for the Third Year rowers as they will be competing in the annual “Christmas Pudding Races” on Saturday; this fun set of races sees scratch crews formed from the boat clubs of Hampton, LEH and Kingston Grammar School; it’s always a great set of races, with festive fancy dress strongly encouraged! And you guessed it – the winning crews receive a Christmas Pudding!

Josh Batholomew reports that Josh Culshaw “got” Mansour Bahrami’s signature. He also lets us know that the U14B Football Team won their third round ESFA game 3-0 and are excited to be in the fourth round! Good luck boys in the upcoming game!

Several Third Year runners have been in action this week with the first event seeing James Bradley, Tom Netterfield, Danilo Delic, Jamie Benson and Theo Radicopoulous competing in the Richmond Schools’ Cross Country race. The boys all put in a very impressive performance with James Bradley finishing in eighth place in the ‘Year 8/9’ boys category; the team performance saw them finish third overall – well done boys! When combined with the performances from the rest of the School, this put Hampton in an impressive second place in the “overall boys secondary” category.

The second athletics event was the annual Hampton-St Pauls 24 minute Paarlauf held at Hampton on Wednesday 7 December. Again, the whole School performance was impressive, winning the U15 and U17 races, but notable Third Year performances were from James Bradley and Declan Connolly (racing in the U15 A Team, first place with Kabir Sait from the Second Year) and also from Danilo Delic and Tom Netterfield (racing in the U15 B Team, second place with Luke Walsh from the Second Year). Congratulations to all boys on these fantastic results!

U14A Football – Match Report against Bradfield College:

The game started off evenly, although Bradfield put Hampton under a lot of early pressure. Hampton scored first through James McMullin‘s powerful shot,which was too much for the goalkeeper to hold and despite his attempts, the ball crept over the line. Hampton seemed to lose concentration and let Bradfield back in the game with a goal, which flew straight past Oscar Murphy. The second Hampton goal came soon after through James McMullin again, this time it was a tap in from a ball which had deflected off a Bradfield defender, this took Hampton into a 2-1 lead. After several chances and a disputed goal-line decision by the referee, Hampton extended their lead to 3-1 through Declan Connolly’s (Captain) shot after Shahryar Rezvani put in a great cross which Declan met and calmly placed into the corner of the net. Following half time break, Hampton patiently waited to score having created several chances with shots wide of the goal but Alasdair Bolling finally managed to find the net from one of the tightest angles possible. Hampton soon scored again from a Thomas Banks free kick which Theo Radicopoulos met perfectly with his head and placed neatly in the bottom corner. Alasdair soon got his second goal from a strike from inside the penalty box after a loose ball fell invitingly to his feet. In the final minutes of the game there was just enough time for another score. Sami Omar sent in a cross which Declan directed with his head to score his second goal and Hampton’s seventh. Overall it was a reasonably comfortable 7-1 win for Hampton against a good Bradfield College side and a good defensive performance. – Declan Connolly

U14A Rugby – Match Report against Brighton College:

A positive and intense warm up and team talk from our coach and captain made us extremely confident and ready for the upcoming match. It wasn’t an easy game, however, straight from kick off they turned us over in a number of rucks and they had much more physical forwards. When we had the ball we looked extremely dangerous especially out wide. As the game progressed, our intensity slipped a little and some tackles were missed and balls dropped. However, led by our captain for that match, Alex Taylor, we kept our heads up and went on to score a brilliant try.

During half time we knew we were not playing our best and we really had to up our standards. There wasn’t time to make any more mistakes and as the whistle blew for the second half we were ready to win this match. The ball was sent high and the ball sailed along the back line with pin-point precision. We made some big hits and their forwards had changed. They were now hitting every ruck with every ounce of power they had; this made all the difference. We were able to get the ball out wide and make half the pitch nearly every time we had possession. This led to another try from our side and the score was 14-0. This was still not a good enough score to sit back and relax on, with 20 minutes left. Unluckily we let them slip through and their player ran through us and scored. 14-7.

The final whistle blew and we were all disappointed with how we played individually and as a team. Towards the end of the match, our standards slipped, however we really did all give it our all and that made the difference. – Luke Greenall, 3D

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