Welcome to the Third Year Blog!
Heads of Year Message
You’ve reached the end of the most extraordinary half term at Hampton School in living memory – well done for showing such perseverance and tenacity throughout!
We fully endorse Mr Moore’s video message of congratulations and praise to you all.
We would like to make something very clear in this final blog message as we break for the half term holiday.
You have three priorities over the holidays – REST, RECOVER and revise – in that order.
REST
- Avoid screen time wherever possible to let your eyes rest.
- Get to bed at a decent time, so you can continue to get up in the morning feeling refreshed.
- Enjoy some down time doing the things you enjoy.
RECOVER
- Spend time with your family and do something nice for them.
- Make the most of the new government guidelines on limited socialising (1-on-1 and maintaining social distance).
- Stay active – see the “get up & move” advice published by the PE department for hints.
Revise
- You have worked with your Form Tutors to create a revision timetable that is balanced and achievable. Stick to it.
- Stay hydrated and focused while you work.
- “Chunk” your revision into 30 minute segments, with regular short breaks and switching activities.
End of year assessments
Individual subject teachers should have provided you with guidance on the appropriate revision materials and exercises in each subject – please email your teachers if you need further guidance or support with your revision. Overall, we advise that all boys do some revision over the half term holiday, but that this should be timetabled, “chunked” (with breaks), proportionate (no more than 4 hours a day) and it should not interfere with family time, fresh air or exercise. It is important that you get a chance to rest as well.
| Clash Rules | |
| There will be no teaching on Monday 8 June 9am until midday. This time will be used for pupils to sit assessments that clash in the timetable. When pupils have two assessments scheduled at the same time, the following rules should be followed: | |
| Clash Subjects | Subject to be sat 9am Mon 8 June |
| Music AND Latin | Latin |
| Design Engineering AND Drama | Drama |
| Greek AND Art | Art |
| Mandarin AND Russian | Russian |
| Beginners German AND Russian | Russian |
| Beginners French AND Mandarin | Mandarin |
| Beginners Spanish AND (Beginners German OR Beginners French OR Russian OR Mandarin) | Beginners Spanish |
In the unlikely event of any technology issues during an assessment, the boys should not worry. They should email their teacher (cc’ing their Form Tutor) to explain the situation and endeavour to complete (and submit) the assessment at the earliest opportunity, but by no later than 12.35pm on Monday 8 June.
Year Group Council
Thanks to the fifteen boys who joined Mr Neville (chair), Miss Smith and Mr Rigby for a Year Group council meeting on Thursday morning. The discussions were very constructive and several valid points were raised by the boys representing each Form in the Year Group. The issue that will be taken forward to Whole School Council after half term is:
- Concerns over screen time.
Registration
During Assessment Week (June 1 to 5) only, there will be an updated registration schedule.
You must all continue to register daily on Firefly by 8:45. There will also be a daily Form Tutor registration on MS Teams 8:45-8:55 before your first assessments at 9am.
Blog challenge
Well done to everyone who sent a picture of their food as a flag this week – please keep your blog contributions coming via email to Mr Moore (h.moore@hamptonschool.org.uk).
As always, please do let us or your Form Tutors know if you are having any difficulties.
Well done for all your efforts this half term. We have been so impressed with the response of Third Years to the challenges of the new learning environment.
Enjoy the half term holiday!
Best wishes
Miss Smith & Mr Rigby
Thank you Hamptonians
The Year Group teams say thank you and well done to all Hamptonians for how they have coped with e-learning in lockdown. Well done Third Years!
Third Year Special Mentions
Well done to the following Third Year boys for placing in the Third Year top 5 in the Trinity 1500m Challenge:
1st – Freddie Bate (04:44)
2nd – Hayden Christian (04:53)
3rd – Jamie Wilson (05:04)
4th – Aaron Mills (05:07)
5th – Rory Patterson (05:17)
Mrs Arnott reports that Theo Mathers-Jones’ work on the Holocaust has been brilliant:
Particularly his explanations of the history of antisemitism. This is a complex subject and so Theo shows great maturity to understand it and to be able to explain it so well for a Third Year.
Mrs Booker reports that 3C have done some really excellent descriptive writing this half of term:
3C have been working really hard on their individual pieces of descriptive writing which included lots of evocative details, creative ideas, excellent imagery and sensory language. They have really begun to master how to use language to paint vivid pictures for the reader and the art of effective creative writing.
Here’s a piece of collaborative writing, describing a fairground, based on a photo:
Music from the tangled array of rides blended to form one strange, droning song over a thumping back beat. Lively and fast, the bass vibrated through people’s bodies and kept them pressing through the crowds, onward in movement. Swathes of people moved in herds, navigating their way through the fairground maze, a matrix of stalls and rides trapping people, enticing and drawing them away from the crowds, to partake in shiny, nostalgic games.
Desperate stall owners bellowed over the deafening noise, offering discounts and free tries, while shrieks of electrified children echoed around the fairground, spreading a low hum of noise across the land of fun. The same packs of exuberant children tussled to the front of the queues, as their parents chattered noisily in multicultural speech, turning a blind eye.
Rides twisted and turned, coiled and unravelled like elongated snakes in the sky. People were spun through the air, tossed and turned like acrobats. Light, laughter and screams of joy emitted from the snaking rides above, penetrating the heavy, smoky skies to reach all the corners of the fair.
Sounds blended into a thrumming, discordant clamour; a constant din, jarring and dissonant. The churning of the ride engines gave a sense of rhythm to the scene, their mechanical nature ensuring that this eclectic fairground song would never fade.
Stalls jostled together, competing for attention. A woman in a booth used a microphone to try and entice people to her ride. She sounded bored as she sat with her cold coffee, hunched over in a beaten-up chair. She repeated the same words over and over, never stopping. Her face was old and tired and her eyes showed the strain of years of late nights working the fair. She never smiled. Ribbons of people streamed along the pathways, before scattering like confetti, caught up in the dazzling lights, unsure of which ride to try first. Children dragged parents from one stall to another with relentless determination. One lost child wailed for its mother but was drowned out by the muffled screams of excitement which echoed all around and spread like a contagious disease.
Sticky oils and gases lingered in the air, robbing sweet smells of popcorn and candy floss of their enticing scents. The smell of drying mud remained forever potent, as an ode to the once green land that this fair had adopted. The inescapable stenches of the fairground blended together into a poisonous concoction, deadly to all who had not grown accustomed to it.
Gradually, the familiar sound of children squealing with insuppressible excitement was lost in the wind, which whipped at the ankles of the sea of people, bellowing the announcement of its arrival, as its giddy currents sliced through the landscape.
A boy waded further into the park, enticed by the dizzying blend of spinning colours embroiled on the metal skeleton of the fairground rides, an inescapable epileptic nightmare. Mucky, green water scratched at his legs with is soggy fingers, as he tried to avoid the ocean of puddles.
Mrs Reilly reports on how impressed she has been with the mature and diligent way 3J have been approaching their lessons in lockdown.
I’m very proud of you all, well done!
Beautiful Burnout
Renowned theatre company ‘Frantic Assembly’ have been setting Frantic Create challenges on their new platform Frantic Digital. Hampton’s Third Year Dramatists have taken on a sequence from Beautiful Burnout, a play about an amateur boxer who gets the chance to go professional. Take a look at what they’ve created below:
Third Year Wellbeing
Here are some top tips for looking after your mental and physical wellbeing during the lockdown period:
- Stay active – get some exercise every day (see below for PE and Sports activities available).
- Stick to your revision timetable – take regular short breaks – stay hydrated – maximum 4 hours a day.
- Speak to your friends and family.
- Find time to read a book.
- Give yourself some space and time to reflect.
- Keep your room and workspace tidy and clean.
Third Year Lockdown Challenge
Please send in photos of your Lockdown challenge and we will publish them in the Blog next week!
The Challenge this week was to make a flag out of food. Well done to everyone who took part!
Here is Dylan Rutter’s Mongolian Flag made out of Mango, Strawberries and Blueberries! Well done Dylan.
Here is Tom Holland’s Guyana flag made from food:
The Third Year Lockdown Challenge for next week is… develop a sporting skill of your choice!
Third Year Lockdown Activities
Please send in your photos and we will publish in the Blog next week!
Here are Max Irens’ “Naughty Brownies” that he made for his family. I’m available for taste testing Max!
Here is Leo Sutherby’s painting of a whale. Leo spent 6 hours practising his digital art skills to create this fantastic painting! Well done Leo.
Get Up & Move!
The PE Department have put together some advice and ideas, to help the boys with getting up and away from their tables and laptops, during the weeks ahead.
We will be sending it to the boys on Friday, with the idea that they have a quick flick through and return to certain sections, when they want to take a break.
https://hamptonschool.org.uk/2020/05/workouts-exercises/
Third Year Inter-Form Activity Competition
The results of the inter-form are in! Well done to 3F, who’s 16 participants earned them the all-important three point bonus, integral to their victory! Special mention to Mr Moore, who tried his all to prop-up 3J’s score with a 40 minute run.
| Form | Participants | Average | Bonus | Final Pts | |
| 1st | 3F | 16 | 4.5 | 3 | 7.5 |
| 2nd | 3G | 14 | 4.7 | 1.5 | 6.2 |
| 3rd | 3A | 12 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 6.0 |
| 4th | 3E | 10 | 4.4 | 1.5 | 5.9 |
| 5th | 3H | 13 | 3.6 | 1.5 | 5.1 |
| 6th | 3C | 6 | 5.0 | 0 | 5.0 |
| 7th= | 3B | 8 | 4.5 | 0 | 4.5 |
| 7th= | 3D | 8 | 4.5 | 0 | 4.5 |
| 9th | 3J | 6 | 3.8 | 0 | 3.8 |
The PE Department have sent you a booklet to help with your activity during breaks, even if you only have 5 minutes to do something.
