WELCOME TO THE THIRD YEAR BLOG!
Yes. It is blog time.
As of Thursday, we moved past the quarter way mark in the spring term, which seems ridiculous. It seems like only last week that the Third Year blog was sweeping the last of the mince pie crumbs from the kitchen floor and girding their loins for the start of the year. As an aside, there is great optimism in the naming of the school terms. Spring term barely contains any spring, if we are honest, but there is a refreshing positivity to the pretence that it is all daffodils and lamb, as opposed to biting winds and cancelled sports fixtures.
Either way, the spring term is now definitely moving at least in the direction of spring. The darkness is arriving later and this week there was a moment when the sun on one’s face actually offered warmth. It was almost enough to make a red blooded Hamptonian want to put all their winter clothes in the loft. I say that, but the rising levels of glove wearing amongst the Hamptonian football players in recent weeks suggests that it will take a while before the hoodies and North Face jackets are safely stowed away until next year. The sight on Saturday of a young, unnamed Hampton football player (not a Third Year, for clarity) attempting to take to the pitch wearing gloves, a woolly hat and a snood (a snood!) would have had the coaching staff of previous decades in apoplexy, one suspects. Fortunately, their modern equivalents are more measured in terms of their response.
As always, it is a busy time for the Third Years. While many of the weekend’s sports fixtures were cancelled due to the weather, there have still been a few matches, with some reports below. Third Year rowers had the opportunity to go to Dorney Lake on Thursday, after a fairly lengthy period of predominantly land based training. Another notable element of this week was our PSHE lesson referencing Holocaust Memorial Day, and one of our pupils offers their own thoughtful reflection on this in the blog below. There are a few arts events in the offing, with the Rock Concert on Friday (which we will hopefully have a report and video of for next week), the upcoming auditions for the Lower School play (‘The Playhouse Apprentice’) on Tuesday 6 February (more details below) and the ISSP Music Day next Tuesday which several Third Year pupils are helping out at. It all adds up to another lively week for the young lions. Let’s get into it!
HEADS OF YEAR MESSAGE
Third Year Parents’ Evening
We hope that parents have all been able to make video call appointments for Third Year Parents’ Evening on Wednesday 31 January. We will write to parents separately next week with a progress report on the year to date to accompany your Parents’ Evening feedback from subject teachers. Please read the guidance on how to join the video call appointments carefully in advance of Parents’ Evening. Please contact Mr Gray (s.gray@hamptonschool.org.uk) if you have any queries regarding your Parents’ Evening appointments.
DASH and Lucid testing
We wrote to all parents at the start of term explaining that DASH and Lucid testing will take place this term. These tests are nothing to be worried about – the boys cannot and should not attempt to revise for them. There is no pass or fail, and the tests will not affect grade cards. The DASH tests will take 10 minutes during Form Period on Thursday 1 February, whilst Lucid testing will occur during timetabled Computer Science lessons during the week commencing 5 February.
Wellbeing Survey
On Thursday this week, we asked all Third Year pupils to answer a few questions related to their experiences over the last two weeks. The results from this voluntary survey will help us continue to develop and guide school wellbeing support for pupils. The results will be looked at and followed up with individuals if appropriate. We do not routinely share the results of this survey with parents.
Co-curricular activities
There are some fantastic co-curricular activities taking place during lunchtimes at the moment. Form Tutors remind the boys about these via notices at morning registration and there are further reminders on the digital displays around school. Boys can view the full range of activities in the co-curricular guide here.
Absences
Thank you to parents for adhering to our requests regarding absence notifications, especially at this time of year. For medical absences, please notify your son’s Form Tutors via email (cc’ing absence@hamptonschool.org.uk) on the morning of each day of absence by 8:45am, or complete the absence form via the parent portal. For planned absences and appointments, please contact Heads of Year requesting the absence with as much notice as possible.
Best wishes
Mr T Rigby & Miss M Bedford
U14A Rugby
On a cold and windy Saturday, we kicked off at 10:00 against Tiffin. Both sides started the game strong, but no points were scored in the opening stages of the game. Unfortunately, towards the end of the first half, Tiffin took advantage of a few mistakes from our team and scored two well deserved converted tries.
However, in the first play of the second half, a spectacular try was scored by Oliver MH with Benedict B making a tough conversion to make the score 14-7. Soon after, we struck again with another great team try. Unfortunately, the conversion was narrowly missed so the score remained at 14-12 to Tiffin. With 10 minutes left of the game, we were desperate for another try or even a drop goal. However, Tiffin made one last break through our defence and scored another try making the overall score 19-12 to Tiffin.
We were all gutted after such a close game; however, we look forward to our fixture against Whitgift tomorrow where hopefully we can come out as victorious.
Holocaust Memorial Reflection
Rory M (3A) reminds us all of the horrors of the Holocaust and the importance in marking Holocaust Memorial Day:
Yesterday, on 25 January, Third years were given a presentation on the very sad but necessary subject of the Holocaust, where six million Jewish people were killed under the orders of Adolf Hitler. We learnt that the 27 January was chosen as the day of the memorial because it was the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the concentration camps, was liberated by British soldiers. We were asked to study the lives of four members of an ordinary Jewish family. We learnt how, of those four, one was lucky and managed to flee Germany, another was captured and moved between concentration camps for six years doing backbreaking work every day and the other two were unfortunately killed. Very few Jewish families remained together during the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was an event in history so shocking and so brutal it is hard to come to terms with it, even today. As we proceed with our everyday existence, perhaps we could take a moment to remember the lives of those who were killed in the barbarity of a concentration camp, separated from their families with no one to turn to for comfort. I am glad we were able to cover the topic in PSHE, as it allows us to have a sombre conversation on a harrowing subject.
Discover Hampton Podcast
This week saw the launch of the very first episode of Discover Hampton, now available wherever you listen to your podcasts! In The Magic of Maths, we meet Hampton teacher Mr Griller whose love of Maths is infectious. His lesson is all about combinatorics – a kind of clever counting! Join us in the classroom as Mr Griller shows his pupils how to apply strategies and short cuts to help them count without actually needing to do all the hard work – why not have a go at the questions yourself?
Have a listen here.
Calling all budding Actors!
This year’s Lower School Summer Show is The Playhouse Apprentice, a fun and comical production with pupils from Hampton High. Performances will be on 18, 19 and 20 June in the Hammond Theatre. Auditions are open to all First, Second and Third Year pupils, and will take place on Tuesday 6 February 4.00pm to 5.30pm, with recalls on Thursday 8 February 4.00 to 5.30pm. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Richardson in the Drama Department.
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE
Mr John was last week’s liar and what lies/truths they were!
- Mr John has had afternoon tea with King Charles
- Mr John is a speedcuber – he can consistently solve a Rubik’s Cube in under 8 seconds
- Mr John has written a book
Of course Mr John has had afternoon tea with King Charles! King Charles tells his staff about the time he had afternoon tea with Mr John. Of course Mr John has written a book! It was a tank gunnery drills. I’m not sure that it is in the School library, but it should be. The Third Year blog is going to suggest it finds its way onto the Third Year English curriculum so that you can all offer ideas as to how his writing ‘makes the reader want to read on’ (as guidance, please don’t offer ideas on that in an English essay). What this means is that Mr John is emphatically not a speed cuber, a fact which the Third Year blog is, frankly, surprised by.
That is all well and good, but this week we have one of the big dogs coming in – Mr Rigby! It goes without saying that it took all of the Third Year blog’s persuasive power to get Mr Rigby to be willing to lie (he had to be talked down from giving himself a 30 minute conduct detention and a stern talking to), but here are his offerings.
- Mr Rigby captained Warwickshire’s U11 cricket team
- Mr Rigby once featured in a BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel ‘Persuasion’. His role was to fall out of a tree and ‘have his brow mopped’
- Mr Rigby sets the thermostat in the Third Year Head of Year Office so that it is one degree centigrade lower than the temperature in the rest of the School
CONNECTION CORNER
Well done to everyone who had a go at last week’s Connection Corner. Merits go to all those who correctly guessed that the answers were all part of the phonetic alphabet. Big shout out to Huw P, Charlie E, Manraj G, Hamoodi A-A, Umair M, Sanjit B, Oliver C, Ollie N, Jaime R B, Darshan S, AJ C, Olly P, Kiran G, Rory M and Svajan G.
Another tricky one this week, have a go over the weekend and see if you can spot the connection:
In what country would you find the cities of Jodhpur and Chennai? India
What is the name of the famous moustached silent film actor who often donned a bowler hat? Charlie Chaplin
Which Canadian province has the highest percentage of French speakers? Quebec
What is the capital of Peru? Lima
Connection answer: All part of the phonetic alphabet (India, Charlie, Quebec, Lima)
