Welcome to the Third Year Blog!
When I was 14, if you’d asked me what a magnolia tree was, I would have looked at you blankly before running off to the nearest field to kick balls through goals marked out by jumpers. Now, however, the point at which the magnolia trees start to bloom is the sign to me that we are very nearly at the summer. They are particularly beautiful trees for about three weeks and for the rest of the year you would have no idea what they are capable of. If you’re interested, take the time to investigate what they look like and suddenly you’ll realise they are everywhere in our part of London. They are outstanding.
Of course, the other thing that lets us know that summer is nearly here is the fact that the Easter holiday is upon us. It seems remarkable that we are already at that time of the year, but looking at the amount of work that has been done, the events that have been held, the achievements that have been, well, achieved and the fun that has been had, it makes sense. Of course, all of that carries in to the final weeks of the term and in this instance leads to a bumper blog.
We have a report from the Haileybury Model United Nations Conference, the drama of The Scullery (you’ll need to read to find out), a visit to an exhibition, a Hamptonian exaltation, a description of what being in a sound bath feels like and the results from the Third Year Interform Football and Rugby competitions. If that isn’t enough for you, then you need to have a long, hard conversation with yourself about reasonable expectations.
Hopefully, this will have been enough to prompt you, dear reader, to read on… (as a side note, please, please, PLEASE don’t ever write in one of your English essays that the writer wants us to read on).
Model United Nations
The Haileybury MUN was the last and by far the biggest MUN of the academic year, inviting over 600 visitors (the largest in the country) from the UK, Switzerland, The Netherlands and the USA. Hampton School was represented by 15 boys making up the delegations of the Netherlands, Cambodia and Thailand. I represented the Netherlands in the Human Rights committee (I was also the youngest Hampton representative).
We left School on the afternoon of Friday 17 March before arriving at Haileybury at around 4:30pm. We settled into the General Assembly meeting room and met some of those who had travelled from the Netherlands by ferry (as we were representing them). After the opening ceremony, we made our way to our committee rooms and began lobbying. Myself and the delegate of Thailand co-submitted two resolutions but unfortunately neither made it to debate. We had a superb evening meal at Haileybury before checking in to our accommodation.
On Saturday morning, we returned to Haileybury and began policy statements within committees. In Human Rights, we discussed a woman’s right to wear a hijab, the right to contraception, ableism in the workplace and religious discrimination. The whole day was then spent in debate, passing all but one of our resolutions. That evening, we decided to meet with the students from LEH for a quiz. Each group of Hamptonians were tasked with creating a quiz round; my group made one called “where in the world?” where players had to guess which country a town is in by its name. Our team came out victorious with the team of teachers coming in at a close second.
We returned to Haileybury the following morning for our last day of debate. We finished committees with one final resolution before lunch and then the General Assembly. We had some great fun debating before the conference ended and after the closing ceremony, we came away with five individual awards (including one highly commended for myself) and one delegation award for Cambodia. We then enjoyed our victories with a bit of karaoke in the minibus on the way back to Hampton.
Report by Leander K-B (3J)
Sound Bath
Ms Gorrido-Soriano has started to run ‘sound baths’ at Hampton as a way for pupils to unwind and get a chance to take a bit of time away from the fast paced reality of the corridors and classrooms of the School. But what do the boys who go to the sound baths think of them? Below is a report from Omer O (3C)…
I am a regular attendee at the Sound Bath on a Tuesday and Thursday in the learning support room. Personally, I think that it is an amazing way to just switch off during a busy time in the week and it helps you reset and comeback stronger to tackle your work. Ms Gorrido-Soriano, who runs the Sound Bath, is a professional at them, so it is a great opportunity and privilege to have her run the Sound Bath at Hampton.
You might have also seen posters to attend the big Sound Bath in the Hammond which runs at the end of every term and is great as there is an even wider variety of instruments and you are able to lie down and maybe even take a nap.
The Scullery
It’s been a busy term out on the water for our J14 rowers, Patrick M (3C) tells us more:
On Monday afternoon the A and B crews of the J14 squad travelled to Dorney Lake to compete in the Junior Sculling head, or The Scullery as it is more commonly known as. The course consisted of two 1.8km stretches. The times of these stretches are added together to give a resulting time with the fastest time winning. After preparing the boat and a short warm up we boated ready to race. We had a quick technical warmup on the water, before moving out under the training bridge and waiting to be given our lane.
After readying ourselves in lane three we set off, bringing the power up stroke by stroke till we burst through the start line at race pace. We held a strong rhythm the whole leg only interrupted by a crab at one point which was recovered excellently and allowed us to reset and finish the leg with the fastest time of any of the forty crews with an impressive 6:31.2, overtaking crews from many different schools and clubs along the way. Of course, at the time we didn’t know this, so instead took the time while spinning to take air back into our lungs and prepare ourselves for the second leg to come.
Once we were ready, we set ourselves up and once again burst through the line at pace. We could not quite replicate the same form as the previous run, exhausted from the effort. We still managed to overtake a Cheltenham College crew and another Cheltenham College crew in our own lane. An honourable mention must go to the shouting of our cox (Johnny R) to ask them to give way into another lane, as it was heard on the other side of the course.
After carrying the boat out of the river and eating some food for much needed energy we began to de-rig the boats. Having finished this, the results came in. We went to the Eton’s boathouse which overlooked the lake to collect our medals. My crew (bow to stroke: Thomas L, Boris D, Aidan H, Daniel T, Zach K, Oliver S, Patrick M and Will L, Cox: Johnny R) had finished second overall with a time of 13:20.4, narrowly missing out on first place which went to Windsor boys school by just nine seconds (13:11.5). We were also tightly pursued by Abingdon school who came third (13:32.3).
The B crew (bow to stroke: JR Ozen, Billy T, Harry G-W, Leon McQ, Archer J, James B, Alex P and Ben F, Cox: Akshay Phian) finishing 9th overall with a time of 14:05.6 which made them the fastest B octo in the event.
Natural Photographer of the Year Exhibition
Hopefully lots of you will get out and about over the Easter break. Robbie McQ (3E) tells us about an exhibition that he’s recently visited:
Recently, I went to see the Natural Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum. The exhibition showed some of the best photos submitted for the competition, along with a background to the photos. The exhibition was sorted into different categories which focused on different areas of nature. My favourite categories included ‘Behaviour: Mammals’ and ‘Young Wildlife Photographers’ because I found it interesting to see the quality of photos that people around our age are taking and enjoyed comparing them to the photos I have been taking. I enjoyed Behaviour: Mammals because there were some photos with very intriguing backgrounds and I found it interesting to find out how each photo was taken.
All of the photos had a clear link to disappearing environments, and endangered species. One photograph in particular caught my eye, named ‘The picture that cleared the rubbish’. The photo effectively conveys the size of the landfill site incredibly well. This caught my eye because it shows how powerful photography and other forms of art can be in helping the environment. As the photo’s name suggests, it encouraged people to clear a landfill site in India and the site is now protected.
Additionally, the exhibition showed the two winning photographs, ‘The Big Buzz’ and ‘The Beauty of the Baleen’. ‘The Big Buzz’ depicts how male cactus bees fight over a female in a ‘mating scrum’. The photographer makes use of techniques such as juxtaposition to show how many bees there are in this habitat. The number of bees in the habitat is because this species along with many other species of bee is facing risks of habitat loss. This is directly caused through human intervention, specifically urban development and for the uses of intensive farming. ‘The Beauty of the Baleen’ shows how the baleen whale feeds on fish by zooming in on the mouth of baleen. The baleen whale utilises a feeding method called ‘lunge-feeding’ where they tread water and catch lots of fish in their mouth before filtering out the water and swallowing the fish. The photographer utilised the negative space behind the whale to bring focus onto the whale and to develop the photo. Many species of baleen whale are endangered due to over-hunting and environment loss.
I found the exhibition incredibly interesting and the photos have influenced the photos I have taken. The exhibition took around an hour and a half to look around and was presented in four conjoined rooms. The photos were presented well and easily conveyed the exhibition’s underlying message. Overall, I give the exhibition 4 stars out of 5.
History WW1 Battlefields trip
The second half of the year went on the WW1 Battlefields trip last week, which was a moving and educational experience for us all. While we don’t have another report on the trip, we do have a couple of photos of the ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres that the pupils attended. At the ceremony, Samuel H, Juan Leonardo S-H and Alexander L had the honour of laying a wreath, while Samuel H was asked to read the Exaltation, speaking excellently well as part of the ceremony. When asked what his favourite moment of the trip was, Mr Cross had no doubt that it was Samuel’s clear voice ringing out through the monument as hundreds of visitors gathered to pay their respects.
Interform Rugby and Football
Truly one of the highlights of the year, the Interform Rugby and Football tournaments took place on Thursday afternoon. Beyond being great fun it is a chance to settle the debates that will have been raging through the classrooms of the School over who would beat who. So, without any further ado, let’s see who did beat who.
Rugby
- A
- D
- F
- J
- B
- C
- G
- E
- H
Football
- G
- C
- H
- F
- A
- E
- J
- D
- B
Two truths and a lie
When Mrs White sent me her contributions last week, I could hardly believe it. If ever a teacher would refuse to willingly offer a lie, it was her. But, no. Even the best of us are willing to lower ourselves for the glamour of featuring in the Third Year blog. But, which one was the lie?
- Mrs White is fluent in German and Spanish.
- Mrs White grew up in Siberia where the winter temperatures reached as low as -40C.
- Mrs White’s PE lessons included cross-country skiing and ice-skating.
As it turns out, while Mrs White is fluent in plenty of languages, Spanish isn’t one of them – the first one was the lie.
This week, Mr Walden is the Form Tutor facing the music. Here are three things that may or may not be true.
- Mr Walden once hiked up and down Mount Fuji (in Japan) in one night.
- Mr Walden is a qualified diver.
- Mr Walden and his band once supported The 1975 on stage.
Which is the lie? Find out after Easter!
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 the first names of the four Gospel authors. Alas, although the answers are all famous that wasn’t the connection we were looking for. Big shout out to Ollie W, Oliver A, Avraj M, Max F, Ben B, Teddy H, Agalyan S, Josh G, Samuel H and Joshua R.
In case, you’re still perplexed here are the answers from the last week’s conundrum:
Who played Ferris Bueller in the iconic 1980s film? Matthew Broderick
Who founded Facebook and is still the Chief Executive of the company? Mark Zuckerberg
What is the name of the Man Utd defender who plays in the number 23 shirt? Luke Shaw
Which actor starred opposite Olivia Newton John in Grease? John Travolta
Connection: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – Four Evangelists, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel
We’ll be back with more fiendishly perplexing conundrums after the break!
