Hampton was looking wonderful last Saturday for our annual Open Morning. We had well over 1000 prospective pupils and parents through the doors, so we were all very busy! The First Years played a key role in what was a very successful occasion. Particular praise should go to those who acted as guides; who, despite their relative inexperience of the School site, expertly guided our visitors around the route and talked effusively about their first few weeks as Hamptonians. Some helped out in Departments, and some were involved in sports fixtures and practices. Many made fantastic contributions to the charity cake sale, baking all sorts of delicious cakes, cookies and biscuits and I know these were appreciated by visitors, current students and the odd member of staff too!
Everybody made a superb contribution, and several people looking round commented how quickly the boys has settled in, and how proud they all seemed to be at Hampton. I was certainly very proud of them – they were fantastic ambassadors for the School.
And I cannot let this opportunity pass without mentioning our speaker: Aadam Shazad (1P). Aadam is this week’s tutee of the week. He courageously spoke three times at Open Morning to a vast hall of visitors. He wrote his own excellent speech and delivered this speech with poise and confidence. We were all incredibly impressed with Aadam’s ability to conquer his nerves and perform so well. Congratulations Aadam.
Mrs Peattie was delighted to see so many parents at the HSPA First Year parents’ reception on Monday, and to be able to show you some of our Avon Tyrrell photos. I know that the whole First Year Team are all looking forward to meeting many of you at the First Year Pastoral Forum on 13th October. If you haven’t already would you be able to return your meeting request slip to your son’s Form Tutor as soon as possible?
On the sporting front our Rugby players had a busy weekend. William Aust reports for the A Team:
“On Friday afternoon, Hampton’s U12s headed to Twickenham for only their second rugby match of the season against Orleans Park. Orleans provided tough competition in what was an extremely tight and physical game. Unfortunately, our opponents came back in the dying minutes to level the score. The game ended in a 10 all draw. Well done to the boys on a good team performance.”
Meanwhile the B team had two fixtures to contend with. Ollie Tynan reports:
“Hampton played extremely well against Orleans Park, in the first half the score was 15-0 to the opposition. But in the second half we managed to bring it back scoring three tries with an overall score of 25-15 to Orleans Park. Our game against Colet Court was played on the 3G pitch, our first home game of the season. Colet Court are an extremely strong team, yet none of us were afraid to do the best we could. In the first half the score was 45-0, and in the second half we fought on scoring a try and finishing up with an overall score of 50-5.”
The Footballers weren’t to be left out either. Adam Coombs tells us about the B team’s efforts: “Last Saturday Hampton U12’s B-team travelled to Glyn to take them on. In the first half Hampton found themselves 1-0 down but after a quick turn around after half time the boys knew what to do. First Archie Kimble got on the scoresheet with a curling shot from a tight angle. Soon after Adam Coombs put Hampton 2-1 up and it wasn’t much longer until Jack Farthing converted a penalty. After that, William Knowles scored from a corner assisted by Jack and in the dying seconds of the game Zach struck the crossbar with Kyan Soni putting in the rebound. Not to mention Ben and Louis hitting the woodwork with long range efforts”.
Meanwhile, Eric Rodrigues tells us that “The A team started slow against Glyn and conceded an early goal. We started to find our game towards the end of the first half and dominated for the second with Joseph Treacy scoring a goal in the final 10 seconds of the match to draw the game 1-1”
Finally, with apologies to anyone with affections for the Welwyn Garden City, it is not a natural rival to Courchevel, Zermatt or St Moritz as a skiing destination. And yet it’s indoor snow centre was the recent venue for our School ski team to show off their stuff. Well done to Freddy Liang, Toby Gwyenne, Euan Gallagher, Xavier Miklichansky-Maddocks and Daniel Clarke on their performances against touch opposition. Subsequently Freddy was selected to compete for the school at the British Independent Schools Ski Championships in Hemel Hampstead on Monday. Well done everybody for calving up the slopes in such style.
I look forward to seeing what sporting exploits the boys get up to over the next week!
Mr T. Hill
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