Welcome to the Third Year Blog!

It’s been another extremely busy week for Third Years!  The end of the academic year is on the horizon but our pupils are showing no signs of slowing up.

Last weekend, a busy sporting week kicked off with fixtures for our U14A, B & C Cricket teams against King’s College School, Wimbledon. Other sport for the week has included the U14 Surrey Tennis Finals and Richmond Schools’ Athletics Competition, as well as Hampton hosting the Richmond Schools’ Golf Competition at Fulwell Golf Club on a glorious sunny day!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, lots of Third Years were on stage performing in the Lower School Summer Show, Alex.Wonderland. Months of hard work has gone into this, which was clear to see as both performances were superb and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Yesterday, Third Year candidates for this year’s Silver Arts Award ran creative workshops for Year 6 boys at Hampton Prep. It was great to see our boys’ leadership skills in action, and the Prep pupils loved being introduced to an eclectic range of skills including animation, diary writing, nature photography and designing streetwear.

Next week is another busy one, with lots of sport, an interform competition and Third Year Prizegiving.  I hope you enjoy reading through the blog – have a great weekend everyone!

Heads of Year Message

Congratulations to all the Third Years who have been nominated to receive an award at our Prize Giving ceremony. The list of prize winners is below. Their achievements are rightly recognised at this time of year and we look forward to applauding them on Wednesday evening. However, we are always very aware that prize winners (although worthy) are only a small representation of the achievements of the Year Group as a whole. We cannot award prizes for every effort grade 1, note played in tune, line rehearsed, goal scored, tackle made, ergo test completed, wicket taken, mountain climbed, or homework handed in on time, but this should not detract from the recognition of each of those achievements. Well done to everyone for what you have achieved this year.

Prizes for the Academic Year 2021-2022

Form Prizes for academic excellence

  • 3A: Xavier Fricot & Amar Gil
  • 3B: Alfred Bancroft & Sam Moylan-Jones
  • 3C: Ben Wisniacki & Sam Barnett
  • 3D: Oliver Pryce & Ryan Chen
  • 3E: Gabriel Kelly & Jayden Oni
  • 3F: William Squire & Oscar Cacheux
  • 3G: Eddie Haycock & Ralph Yao
  • 3H: Matthew Greene & Oscar Paterson
  • 3J: Nathan Navarro & Harresh Jayanthan

Tutors’ Prizes for all-round achievement and contribution to School life

  • 3A: Joshi Rasi de Mel & Will McTavish
  • 3B: Mitul Aggarwal & Trivikram Prashanth
  • 3C: Shane Karunakaran & Peter Cole
  • 3D: Erik Domsodi & Lewis Warms
  • 3E: Samrath Singh & Daniel Metzgen
  • 3F: Ollie Swetman & Kenny Anyawu
  • 3G: Zaidan Amiji & Ewan McVey
  • 3H: James Eggleton & Thomas Tatnall-Schreve
  • 3J: Ben Robinson & Noah Kelly

Headmaster’s Merit Prizes

Oli Lenox-Smith, Rayaan Raza, Richard Page, Trivikram Prashanth, Max Turner, Avi Bhatt, Alex Rust

School Prizes for original work

This year these prizes have been awarded for STEM Fair Prize winners, for outstanding English Reading Projects and outstanding Arts Award Projects.

Mitul Aggarwal, Charlie Childs, Shane Karunakaran, Rohan Paul Muktieh, Falak Khan, Zakariya Hayat, Ibraheem Khan, Alex Rust, Ralph Yao, Xander Buchan, Noah Kelly, Gabriel Kelly

Prize for original work in the field of Art

Leo Robertson

Parents’ Association Prize for Art

Euan McVey

HELP Project Prizes

Oli Hudson, Thomas Wray-Miller, George Boyd, Alex Rust, Matthew Greene, Thomas Tatnall-Schreve, Jayden Oni

Co-curricular Awards

  • Music Prize: Nathaniel Carson
  • Chess Prize: Zaid Ahmed
  • Rugby Prize: William Squire & Leo Luczkiw
  • Football Prize: Ollie Swetman
  • Rowing Prize: Ben Knight, Leo Robertson & Rohan Lavda
  • Athletics Prize: Sam Moylan-Jones
  • Cricket Prize: Aaryan Desai
  • Tennis Prize: Aleks Lorenc

Head of Year Prizes for contribution to School life

Monty Seager, Dante Patel, Eddie Haycock, Tobi Quigley

Fahad Bhaiji Prize

Oli Hudson

Harris Prize

Freddie Mundell

Headmaster’s Prize for academic distinction
Oli Lenox-Smith

Mistresses’ Prize
Avi Bhatt

Sports Round Up

U14A Tennis vs St George’s Weybridge by Eric D:

On Monday 20 June we made our way to St George’s Weybridge for the Surrey League Finals Under 14 Tennis Tournament. Our first games were against King’s College School, Wimbledon and despite our best efforts we were beaten. After a short break, we returned to the courts for a third place playoff against Trinity College. Once again, we gave it our all however we lost two out of three games, putting us overall in fourth place out of 18 schools that had competed. It was an enjoyable event, and I am sure that we all were able to learn from our mistakes in order to perform better next time.

U14B Cricket vs King’s College School, Wimbledon by Rohan P:

Last Saturday, the U14B Cricket Team played away from home, in an action-packed match against KCS Wimbledon. Hampton won the toss and elected to bat first. Both openers had great starts, but both got out to very good balls. Zak H settled the innings down by scoring a boundary-packed 26. There was some great batting at the end of the innings, especially from Monty S, who scored 36 of just 16 balls. His innings saw us reach a very competitive score of 150-6. After a great innings of batting, it was our turn to bowl. Our opening bowlers started off excellently, with Harresh J picking up a wicket on the second ball of the innings. There was some great bowling in the middle overs, especially from Zak H who picked up two wickets during his spell. However, after 22 overs, the game was very close, with KCS needing 20 runs of 18 balls. On the last ball of the innings, KCS needed two runs to win. Their batsmen hit the ball straight up in the air, straight into a gap. They managed to scamper 1 run, meaning that the match was tied. This finished a great game, with two, pretty much evenly matched sides.

U14C Cricket vs King’s College School, Wimbledon by Ben B:

Last Saturday, the U14C Cricket team travelled to Wimbledon for a game against KCS. The fixture started off well, with captain Shane K winning the toss and choosing to bat. We followed up this positive start with a fabulous batting performance by the team, with Arun B scoring an impressive 70 not out. When it was KCS’s turn to bat, our bowling performance was just as good – Sam V took 4 wickets from 5 overs.  Overall, it was a fantastic win for the team.

Arts Award Workshops

The workshops at Hampton Prep were a storming success on Thursday. The Third Year boys conducted slick, engaging and imaginative workshops for the Year 6 boys and the feedback was enthusiastic. Max C was unruffled by the rain that came down during his outdoor workshop on designing streetwear and everyone gathered under the gazebo and kept going – very British!  Lewis W and Xander B had to deliver their workshops via Teams because they were isolating. Xander was teaching cyanoprinting in the Art Room and Lewis was encouraging the boys to create comic characters. They both rose to the challenge with some help from adults in the room. Xander had the boys spraying vinegar and sprinkling turmeric and magical things happened in a UV light box and they produced stunning prints. Lewis was his usual calm self and the bouncing Year 6 boys turned into tranquil buddhas under his influence. Ambar C was quite a hero with his stop animation class and was ably supported by Pedro C-M, who later had the boys photographing portraits. Noah Kelly’s workshop on architecture was enthralling the boys wouldn’t leave; Ruben B-R had to deal swiftly with the unexpected when two boys fell over the bench they were using and cut their knees. Ibby K encouraged the pupils to take stunning photos of wild flowers in the garden of the school. Well done to Gabriel K, Harresh and Max C and Monty H who, in separate workshops, inspired the boys to write creatively. Max had them writing poems inspired by music and Harresh taught them key skills for journaling. Shout outs to the digital creatives: Max R and Maneet B for their gaming workshops and Ada G and Alex N for their ambitious digital art.

Mrs Whitwam

I really enjoyed teaching the groups about how they can make their own comic character. Hopefully, they found the part where I talked about ambition quite helpful as that is something I struggled with when making my comic. Obviously, it was quite a lot harder to do it at home, as I was unable to interact with the pupils during the lesson and I couldn’t look at their progress. I also couldn’t easily ask or answer questions, but Mrs Minchin was really helpful with that. There were definitely a lot of good ideas and characters, and I think the two different groups actually approached the task slightly differently which was really interesting to see. Overall, it was really fun, although I don’t think I built up my confidence to speak.

By Lewis W

Interform Competitions

The penultimate Interform Competition of the academic year took place this week. Tuesday saw great numbers of Third Years descend upon Room 98 to crack a series of codes, such from Caesar Ciphers, Affine Ciphers and Morse Code.

The results were as follows:

1st 3A

2nd 3B

3rd 3E

4th 3G

5th 3D

6th 3C

7th 3F

8th 3J

9th 3H

Next up is…BASKETBALL

This will take place on Friday 1 July on the Garrick Tennis Courts starting at 12.40pm

The format will be 5 minute ‘3 vs 3’ half court matches but each form needs to have at least 5 players in their squad and you cannot just play the same 3 players in all matches.

Poetry Translation Competition

Do you fancy a creative challenge using one or more of the languages you study at school? How about exploring another language that you or your parents speak at home? Keen to write some rhymes or craft some quatrains?

THEN TRANSLATE A POEM FROM ANY LANGUAGE AND SUBMIT IT TO THE STEPHEN SPENDER PRIZE! This is a national poetry translation prize with categories for all ages, as well as cash prizes and publication for winning entries.

Find out more at Poetry Translation Club with Mr Gordon in 11a on Tuesdays at 12.40, or by visiting Firefly here.

Litter Picking Club

Miss Rommer is planning to run litter picks during lunchtime (13.10 – 13.45) on Tuesdays in the last couple of weeks of term, where staff and pupils will be visiting local roads around the School to help clean up the often large amounts of litter scattered in the area. The aims behind the litter pick are to:

  1. Do something good for the planet by clearing up the mess that we leave behind in our everyday lives
  2. Do something good for the local community
  3. To raise awareness of the issue of litter. It is easy to miss the odd item of litter, however once you take part in a litter pick and see first-hand how much litter there is, it becomes hard to un-see the problem and spurs you on to help the cause of combatting litter
  4. To provide an enjoyable activity

If you are interested in joining the club, please could you either email Miss Rommer directly or visit the library to sign up. Parents will need to confirm that they are happy for you to take part and will be sent an email via SchoolPost where they will be able to do so. Due to the availability of staff members we will be limited to 15 pupils currently. This will be on a first come first serve basis, so please sign up as soon as possible to increase your chances of taking part.

Upcoming Clubs

As we enter the final half term, it’s your last chance to try something new from the wide range of activities that are offered at Hampton.  Here’s a reminder of ones that you might like to check out:

  • Croquet Club takes place on a Wednesday from 1-1:45pm between the Porter’s Lodge and the tennis courts at the front of school.  No previous experience necessary – just a steely streak of competitiveness!  Come and enjoy the sunshine – all welcome.
  • Psychology Club will be running this term on Thursday at 1.15-1.45pm in Room 98 – all Third Years are welcome to come along. We will be discussing fascinating psychological phenomena such as déjà vu and the Placebo Effect, and even be conducting our own experiments!
  • Garden Club takes place in the Geography Department Garden from 1pm on Thursdays. If you are interested in how to grow your own food from seed, propagate plants from cuttings and generally want to experience a rewarding and therapeutic new life skill then come along and see what green-fingered Hamptonians are up to.
  • Photography Club will be happening on a weekly basis this term – a chance for any budding photographer interested in developing their skills. It will take place in Art5 every Tuesday and will run by Aryan S in the Sixth Form.
  • Current Affairs Club is up and running! The club is open to all in the First to Fourth year, and happens every Friday at 1.20pm in Room 99.  From exciting debates to interesting news stories that you may have otherwise missed, this club is all about digesting what’s going on in the world in a fun and engaging way.  Attendance is not compulsory week on week, so if the club is not for you – no worries!
  • Maths Club takes place on a Friday at 1.10pm in Room 7. New members are always welcome – you don’t need to have attended before.
  • Climbing Club happens on a Friday at 12.35pm by the climbing wall. Any level of experience is welcome – come and try something new!
  • Philosophy Circle run by Mr Scott also happens on a Thursday at 1.20pm, taking place in Room 21. Come along and get involved in some thought-provoking discussions!

TALK! CINDY ROSE

Do you fancy yourself as a global tech leader of the future or perhaps want to find out more about how tech innovation continues to change the world, then come along to the next Hampton School Talk! event on Monday 27 June at 1pm in the Hammond Theatre when we’ll be joined by Cindy Rose, President of Microsoft for Western Europe.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear Cindy talk about the future of Microsoft and her mission to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. The global tech leader will also be shining a light on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and discussing all things tech, from artificial intelligence to the internet of things, tackling climate change to explorations in space. It promises to be fascinating event.

Digital Parenting webinar 

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve seen all the wonderful benefits technology has to offer; but with issues such as inappropriate content, misinformation and abuse increasing at worrying rates, it’s never been more important to know how to protect young people from online risk. For this reason, we have invited back the leading online safety organisation Digital Awareness UK to deliver an online safety webinar to help our parents feel empowered about keeping their child safe online.

The 1-hour webinar, on Monday 27 June at 6.30pm, will talk you through:

  • Major trends in how young people are using apps and games
  • Critical digital issues to be aware of
  • The practical steps you can take to protect your children from online risk and to encourage happy and healthy tech habits

If you are interested, please sign up for the webinar here. Could we kindly request you do not forward on this event invitation outside of the Hampton School parent community. If you have any questions about the webinar, please contact me at g.haynes@hamptonschool.org.uk.

We look forward to seeing you at the webinar!

Dingbats

In last week’s DINGBATS feature you were asked to work out what common phrase was described by the clue below.  The answer was of course: ambiguous!

Good luck for this week – Can you work out what word is described by the clue below?

Connection Corner

Well done to the everyone who had a go at last week’s Connection Corner. Merits go to all those who correctly guessed that the answers were all kinds of mint. Big shout out to Monty S, Arun D, Oliver D, Samuel B and Thomas W-M.

Another tricky one to have a go at over the weekend:

In case, you’re still perplexed here are the answers from the last week’s conundrum:

Which Scottish tennis player won Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016? Andy Murray

Inches, yards and pounds are all types of what measurement? Imperial Units

What is the name for a slow-moving body of ice? Glacier

The game ‘noughts and crosses’ is known by what name in the United States? Tic Tac Toe

Connection answer: All kinds of mint (Murray, Imperial, Glacier, Tic Tac)

Have a good weekend!

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