Welcome to the Second Year Blog!
Welcome back to the Second Year Blog. It’s been a busy week with auditions for Macbeth, badminton tournaments and the first ever No Limits Lessons Day! It sounds like there were some really exciting and creative lessons, we’ve got some fantastic articles about lessons such as Spanish, Biology, Music and more. The blog is full of wonderful articles written by our Second Years, so I’ll keep it short and let them tell you all about this week at Hampton.
Merit Milestones
I am delighted to see that merits are being collected and I have been kept busy this week writing out quite a few certificates. Keep collecting, everyone! Congratulations to these Second Years on being the first to earn 10 academic merit certificates.
Armaan Virdee – 10
Patrick Hobbs – 10
Digby Joice – 10
Konrad Granberg – 10
Manav Krishna – 10
Devam Kumarswami – 10
Fred Owen – 10
Neev Gangwani – 10
Alex Hodges – 10
Jonty Gwynne – 10
Alex Andre – 10
Eashan Gudipati – 10
Arshan Mahmoudi – 10
Oliver Yang – 10
Shishir Vaddadi – 10
Siddhant Shetty – 10
Vayun Jain – 10
Anthony Simonov – 10
Tutor question of the week
Each week the pupils decide on a question to ask all the Second Year form tutors. This week we still had food on our mind after lunch and so decided to think about famous movie foods and which we’d most like to eat. There was a popular winner amongst the pupils…!
Which of these movie foods would you most like to eat?
- Pumpkin Pasty and Butterbeer (Harry Potter) – Miss Tiller, Miss Winstock, Miss Mattinson
- Three Course Meal Chewing Gum (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) – Mrs Owen, Mrs Whitwam,
- Ratatouille by Remy (Ratatouille) – Mrs Richardson, Miss Holt, Mrs Kirby
- Krabby patty (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) – 2W, 2F, 2H
Have you ever had a burning question you’ve always wanted to ask your form tutors?! If so, then please send your suggestions for next week’s Tutor Question Time to b.tiller@hamptonschool.org.uk.
Meet Ms O’Connor
Our weekly interviews are a great opportunity for you to find out a little bit more about your Tutors! So, thank you to Oliver Y (2P) who interviewed Ms O’Connor, Psychology teacher and one half of 2P’s tutor team!
What inspired you to become a Psychology teacher and why are you so interested in it?
Who would not want to try to understand the most complex matter in the universe?
What inspired you to work here at Hampton School?
I love working at Hampton! The pupils are always engaged and interested in lessons, ready to get involved in classroom debate.
If you weren’t a teacher, what would you be?
Probably a journalist. I did a bit of journalism before becoming a teacher. However, teaching definitely suits me more.
What is one of your favourite places you have visited?
If it’s local, then I’d say Richmond Park; I really enjoy going for walks, especially at this time of year. An abroad place would be Nice, in France. I enjoy the French cuisine.
What is your favourite hobby?
My favourite hobby currently is completing my own research project and practising mindfulness.
What is your favourite ice cream flavour?
Mint chocolate chip is my favourite!
What is your favourite book?
My favourite book is The Great Gatsby, but my favourite Psychology book would be The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks.
What is the top thing on your bucket list?
I would quite like to do a parachute jump.
No Limits Lessons Day!
No Limits Lessons Day is a time for teachers to try something new for the class and for the pupila to see all the interesting things about the subject that they didn’t know before. I know my class had lots of fun during this time. In Spanish we were allowed to go on the 3G to show off our Spanish maps! We happily strolled on and directed our partners in every which way before letting them guess where we were on our map. In Music were doing Brazilian Samba and got to try out new items we had never seen before.
Last week, in Biology we had laid a petri dish with a swab of the floor on them. We were surprised to see all the fungi and bacteria that had grown on them. It was disgusting but also very fun as we made our own microbe model. Finally, in Physics we learned all about balancing and were shocked to see the most precarious objects balanced perfectly on a pole.
By Siddhant S (2J)
Today was No Limits Lessons Day and that means that each of our subjects did something slightly different and explored areas which aren’t on the Hampton syllabus. A few of my favourite lessons included English and Latin. In English, our teacher – Mr Bradley – arranged cups filled with different strong smells around the room and then gave us a sheet where we were to guess which cups had which smells but also what those smells made us feel. For example, a coffee bean might make someone think of an early morning but to another as a disgusting smell. We went around in groups and filled out the sheet – my favourite smell was the lavender – and then our teacher asked us to write some poetry about some very strong – in an emotional way – aromas. We were given the example of ‘My Ghost’ by Cyrus Larcombe-Moore which is about a boy who has a ‘ghost’ which brings certain aromas. I also enjoyed Latin where we were given a sheet of paper with a noun, adjective, or verb – in Latin – on it before he spun an online cylinder that made a sentence in Latin which the boys with the words on their piece of paper which correlated with the cylinder answered questions about whether it was plural, singular, or masculine and feminine. This is only a few of the many exciting lessons I had today – like making a trailer in RS! – so I think that this was a great No Limits Lessons Day!
By Gabriel R (2B)
Richmond Borough Cup – Badminton
On Monday, me and six other Second Years and two First Years went to the Sports Hall after School, ready to play badminton in the Richmond Borough Cup. The cup is an annual U13 tournament with us – Hampton, LEH and RTS – Richmond-upon-Thames School. I was in a three with David and Zihan and we had to play three matches, of which I was in two. The first one was against two RTS boys both named Ben, which we won 21-8. The next one, however, was a very different story. Me and Zihan were losing 19-16. Then, they slipped up and I smashed. Then, we had got to 21-19. We had won – or so we thought. As the other team pointed out, I had served from the same side twice, meaning I had to serve again. Luckily, I still got the point, letting us win once again!
By Shishir V (2J)
Chess battle!
As a follow up from last week, here’s the update you’ve been waiting for! The results are as follows: we beat KES B’s 6-0 then in round two we played Hampton College who we beat 5-1. Then in round three we beat Highgate’s A team 5-1 again. As matches became tougher and the matches became more crucial in round four we played Latymer’s A team who we beat 4-2. Just before round four had started the rankings were as follows.
Hampton A: 16
Laytmer A: 15.5
Wilson A: 15
Anyway, as the last round of the tournament approached, we played Habs A who were a tough team and we sadly ended up losing. Today was the day that should have been called sadness. To add on because of that draw we came SECOND! We were all so annoyed as Wilson’s had overtaken us but had a great time!
By Jai K (2J)
Bashful Conkers
A couple of days ago we had a conkers competition in our class and I’m going to tell you all about it. One day we came into school and after a week of preparing we all had our conkers ready to battle. As the day went along, I couldn’t wait for form time when it would take place. Soon enough after PSHE it was time… As our form tutors guided us outside there was tension in the air … We were told to pair up with someone else to battle against and I made the mistake of playing against someone with one of the largest conkers I’ve ever seen! As a couple of minutes went by unsurprisingly my conker lost with the smallest of cracks! Of course, I then went to battle the other losers for an extra bit of fun. Overall, there were a couple winners, but the entire experience was really fun. I had a great time collecting conkers with my brother with whom I practised with at home. I can’t wait for the next time we play and then I will find the biggest conker.
By Maximilian G (2W)
Subject of the week.
My subject of the week was Drama because I was partnered with Aiden, and we worked well together. We both got merits because we were so good, and our teacher was impressed with our coordination and how we communicated without speaking. In lessons we’ve been looking at Greek Theatre and Mythology, so then we were planning on how we were going to do our scene from Perseus and Medusa. In the scene, Perseus meets the Gray-eye sisters to tell him where to find Medusa. In this, we must communicate without talking, and act as one, using choral movement. We used the skills we had learnt in the lesson.
By Cillian C and Aiden F (2F)
Club of the week
Chemistry Project Club!
Every Monday, Dr Puljic runs Chemistry Project club. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in Chemistry. Chemistry Project Club is slightly different to Chemistry Club, which was available in First Year. In Chemistry Project Club, you work with much less teaching help, to think of an experiment, as a team that you could do. Once you have an experiment, method and ingredients in mind, the lab technicians will prepare the ingredients and apparatus you ask for, for the following week.
The group I was working with decided to conduct an experiment on bath bombs. We came up with two different experiments we could do, and in the end, decided our experiment would be: Does the amount of baking soda in a bath bomb change how fast it dissolves? This took about 2-3 weeks, until finally we were able to submit our experiment and the ingredients and apparatus needed – next week we could start!
The following week, we waited outside the lab in avid anticipation. Soon, the door was unlocked, and we rushed in and on the desk saw all our equipment on a tray. Quickly putting down our bags, we began to inspect the tray. We began work straight away, but we realised there was a problem – the recipe we had written made far too much mixture. Not wanting to miss our time, we hurriedly scaled down the recipe and began measuring the ingredients. However, in our excitement, one of us accidentally sent one of the beakers toppling onto the floor where it smashed. With help from Dr Puljic, we cleared up the mess and began work again – a bit more sensibly this time. After about 15 minutes of careful measuring, pouring and sieving, we managed to finish the lesson with some of the mixture in a variety of moulds. I can’t wait to go back next week and see how they have turned out! I’ll let you know the results next week.
By Joshua D (2H)
Drama Club!
Last Thursday, I went to Drama Club. It was my first time, and auditions for Macbeth were happening. Everyone was thrilled to be in a play, especially after we found out that there would be space for everyone. Many people tried Scottish accents which I thought were really interesting to listen too, though I couldn’t do one myself! We practised our witch voices, and everyone expressed themselves. I played Macbeth, though I didn’t mind any character to play. The scene we were doing was with not one, but three witches, so a lot of people got to try out their cackling voices. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience, and I would recommend others to try it out.
By Vayun J (2W)
Clubs Galore
Take a look at the full list of all clubs, societies and other co-curricular activities on offer in the booklet below:
Special Shoutouts
We love to hear about what you have been getting up to outside of school and to celebrate your successes in the Second Year Blog! Please do send any information about any of your achievements through to Miss Tiller. B.Tiller@hamptonschool.org.uk
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
There are still a few tickets left for this year’s Senior Musical, the deviously delicious sci-fi smash hit musical, Little Shop Of Horrors! The meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names “Audrey II”. This R&B-singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down and out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it, BLOOD. Over time, though, Seymour discovers Audrey II’s out of this world origins and intent towards global domination! Click on the link here to buy your tickets for what promises to be a great evening!
QUIZ OF THE WEEK
Well done to everyone who had a go at last week’s quiz. Big shout out to Form 2J with the most entries, can anyone beat them? Merits go to:
2J: Jai K, Henry S, Louis C, Siddhant S, Josh B, Shishir V, Joshua A, Devan D, David W
2L: Macsen B, Armaan V, Willoughby E, Konrad G
2W: Vayun J, Anthony S, Isaac d Q
2B: Alex G, Devam K, Ari E, Joe B, Alexander K, Sebastian W
2H: James G, Joshua D-L, Mongomery S, Manilo C
2F: Oscar S, Ben J, Aiden F, Daniel S, Yule O
2P: Sion K, Oliver Y, Ollie B
Take a look at this week’s questions – have a go yourself or challenge people at home and see if they know the answer. Points for the Interform Competition will be awarded to the form with the most entries over the term.
Take a look at this week’s quiz questions. Why don’t you have a go and enter your answers here.
Here are the answers from last week’s quiz:
- What is the most streamed song of all time? Blinding lights
- Which country has a flag with green, white and orange in that order? Ireland
- Sofia is the capital city of which country? Bulgaria
- What is the most common surname in the United States? Smith
- What country drinks the most coffee per capita? Finland
