Welcome to the Second Year Bulletin!
Thank you for all your submissions. In the end I’ve received so many that I’ve decided to roll over a couple to next week, so log in then to read about Bridge, Model United Nations and much more. Let’s start this week with a big well done to all the following:
MERITS
Matt L (2P) – 10
Max M (2P) – 10
Andrew B (2W) – 20
Melan W (2H) – 20
Aryan K (2P) – 20
Stefan D (2P) – 30
Adam J (2P) – 50
Tom S (2W) – 50
Saganan T (2P) – 60
Henry H (2P) – 60
Findlay B (2H) – 70
Rory P (2H) – 80
Ben MJ (2W) – 80
Vishal S (2W) – 120 (AMAZING!!)
TUTOR PROFILE
It’s 2J again this week, profiling their other Form Tutor, Miss O’Connor. Thanks to all involved, especially Matthew B & Felix VdG (2J):
Before teaching, you had a job at Wagamama. Can you tell us any insider secrets?
Just that the Chicken Katsu Curry had more than 30 different ingredients in it, it’s not just pure curry.
If you were stuck on a desert island and you could bring two teachers and two possessions, who and what would you take?
Firstly I would bring Mr Draganov because he is a fabulous co-tutor and we could talk about 2J. Also I would bring Ms Goodman as she is my colleague and my fellow psychology enthusiast. For the two items, I would probably bring my record player and my cat Oscar.
What has been your best job experience and why? 
Well I love working at Hampton. I think one of my best experiences has been running Psychology Club. I really love running it with Second Year pupils. They have a whole new perspective on Psychology and it’s really interesting and exciting to see younger pupils getting involved in the subject as well.
On the other hand, what about your worst job experience?
In my first job as a teaching assistant I was helping out on sports day firing the start gun and there was a heatwave. I ended up getting heatstroke and spending the whole day in the medical tent with a cold flannel on my head.
What do you think is the least helpful subject in school?
I wouldn’t say the most unhelpful subject but I would say the subject I am not very good at and that is anything to do with sports.
How did you get into Psychology?
Well, I did it at A level and was always interested in why people do the things they do and why they think the way we think and I just loved it at A level and went on to do a degree in it as well which I really enjoyed.
What’s your favourite book?
The Great Gatsby.
In your opinion, are criminals born or made?
I like this question, as we discuss it a lot in Psychology. I think it’s a combination of things. I think it’s a combination of environmental factors, triggering off potentially genetic predispositions but working out how much of one or the other it is, it’s one of the biggest questions in Psychology.
And finally, do you support a football team?
I’ve only been to one football match ever and that was Oxford United but the football team I have been most excited to watch recently was 2J in the inter form when they just narrowly missed out on first place on penalties and that was gutting but I’m not a massive football fan.
Thank you Ms O’Connor for your time.
If you would like to come along to Psychology Club (run by Ms O’Connor), it is at 1pm on Thursday lunchtimes. It would be great if you can come along!
Great to see 2J plugging Psychology Club at the end of that interview! They are also trying to launch a Cubing Club – watch this space for more details.
BOOK Character DAY
This Thursday saw World Book Day, with the Second Years (and a few teachers) donning a range of fantastic costumes and enjoying a special talk by an author. Well done to all and thank you for getting into the spirit of the day and for raising some sponsorship money in the process. Special congratulations go to Seb P (2L), who was awarded the best outfit prize. You can see him in the Trivia section below. For now, I’ll leave it to Mo O (2W) to describe the day much more eloquently than I have:
Books, books, books, who doesn’t like a good book? Whoever you are there is at least one book you will enjoy. Books are so enjoyable that at Hampton the entire Second Year dressed up as their favourite character on Thursday to show their love for books. Some boys came in as Tin Tin, others came in as Mr Strong. There was the whole range. One of my favourite costumes was Tom’s, he came in as Mr. Strong and managed to hide from teachers in multiple lessons! One of the best parts of World Book Day is the fact that along with all the enjoyment that’s involved with it many people raised a lot of money for charity. We got to hear a talk from Ruth Eastham – an author who has written many books based on real life stories such as Arrowhead, The Memory Cage and more. In summary World Book Day was a massive success for everyone!
Second Year Book Character Day Gallery
MATHS CHALLENGE
Now for a special report on the UKMT from Henry A (2B). We put out a strong team but would it be enough to get us in-te-ger next round? (thank you).
On Tuesday, Henry A (2B) and George B (2B) went to the UKMT Team Maths Challenge, along with Krishna W and Akshat M, two Third Years pupils. After a long journey to Trinity School in Croydon, we were finally there and ready for the competition. In the first round we had to solve ten maths questions as a team, some of which were divided into two parts. Somehow we managed to get them all right and had started off amazingly well. The second round was a cross number, where we had to solve a puzzle a bit like a crossword but with digits as answers. The twist was two of us had the across clues and two of us had the down clues, and we could not see each other’s clues. This made it harder but we managed to complete it and only get two digits wrong, which was good. After having lunch (and a lot of biscuits), we went into the third round. This was the shuttle, where we were working in pairs and the answer to a question would be required for the other pair to work out their question. However, we did not do very well (but this was partly due to a teacher from another school marking it incorrectly). We knew that we had to do well in the final round, the relay. This was a chaotic event where we had to solve a maths puzzle, then run across the hall for a teacher to mark it, run to our other pair and give the next question to them and then run back to where our pair was based to wait for our other pair to solve the question and give the next question for us to solve. We got all of the questions we did correct but we did not finish all of them. When the results were read out and we found out that we had come joint first we were ecstatic but shocked as none of us expected to win. We were awarded some prizes and we are going to receive certificates, but best of all — we have qualified for the national finals in June, which we are all looking forward to. I would like to say a big thank you for Ms Reyner for taking us to the event and helping us practice every Friday lunch, and I cannot wait for the national finals.
What a fantastic achievement! Well done and please let us know how you get on in the National Finals.
CREATIVE WRITING AWARDS
Well done to all students who submitted an entry for this. The competition was very strong and the judges had a tough job but in the end the following Second Years were shortlisted as finalists. Well done!
| Thomas B (2B) |
| Felix D (2J) |
| Ben H (2B) |
| Ishaan D (2B) |
| William G (2J) |
| Will C (2L) |
All the finalists will take part in a masterclass with author Sara Grant on 21st March.
SPORT
Now for another report from Vishal S (2W) on the table tennis team. I think I’ve already used every conceivable table tennis pun in previous blog reports (serve, smash, spin, bounce, slice, ping…). A merit to anyone who can send me a new one.
On Monday 4th March the U13A Table Tennis team played a league fixture match against Coombes Boys School. The team consisted of Ed GJ (2L), Vishal S (2W) and two First Year pupils, Caleb and Ronit. Our first round of matches were singles and we each played two matches. We all won one match, with Ed managing to win two. This meant we were in the lead at 5-3. In the doubles round, Ed and Vishal played some great, fast-paced points winning their match 3-1. The First Years, Ronit and Caleb, also showed some impressive table tennis skills, managing to win a very close doubles match. Overall, we won 7-3 against Coombes Boys School. It was a good match and an improvement from our last fixture against Wallington.
We were also lucky enough to be visited by the William Webb-Ellis Trophy this week. Boys from all year groups were able to get their photo taken with it as it embarks on its journey from Twickenham to Japan before this Autumn’s Rugby World Cup. Will any Englishman get closer to the trophy this year than Josh H (2W)? I hope so, but if not, at least we have this photo:
TRIVIA & JOKES
Plenty of merits were won last week, well done if you worked out that the answer was Treasure Island. Same theme but something a bit different this week. There are some familiar faces below but can you identify all the characters? A point for each, whoever sends me the most correct answers wins a merit so don’t worry if there are a couple you’re stuck on.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Boom boom.
Have a great weekend!
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