WELCOME TO THE FIRST YEAR BLOG!
After last week’s break the First Years have come back to School with renewed energy, and they have certainly needed it in this busy week! There has been plenty of sport and clubs as always, and some forms involved in tours around the School for new joiners; thank you for sharing your enthusiasm and insight into life as a First Year! To any brand new Hamptonians that happen to already be keeping an eye on the First Year blog: congratulations on your place! It was great to meet you this week and welcome you to the Hampton community from all of us in the First Year team!
INTERFORM FOOTBALL AND RUGBY
Last Friday was the Interform Football! Interform. Yes, Interform Football which we (1F) won! During interform, we lost only one match (probably the case but I might – emphasis on the might – be right). During this blog, I am going to leave you out on the details and zoom you right in on our last match against 1H. When we were due to play against 1H, we were informed that we were head-to-head against each other on points and both 1H and 1F are on top of the leaderboard. So basically, who won that match would win the whole interform. We were all really nervous and excited about the match. At the start of the game, I rushed straight forward, trying to tackle the ball (with about 70% success rate). Both teams defence are really hard to get through. 1H seems to gain the upper hand. About halfway through the match, 1H almost scored. Soon after, we were down to one minute left with the score still 0-0. As time approaches the end, 1H made a quick attack but we blocked it. With only about 50 seconds left we (1F) attacked, and we missed. But out of nowhere, Thomas (our right-back who was standing in front of the goal) kicked it into the back of the net and scored the wining goal that led us to victory. But 1H was desperate. With only 20 seconds left, they tried to attack but when they approached, they were blocked. This was their last chance to score. It ws a throw-in. As they threw the ball, I moved myself into the path of the ball and kicked it out again the moment it came onto the pitch. It was another throw-in. 1H got the ball when suddenly, Thomas tackled the 1H player and sent the ball out of the pitch one last time and after that, the whistle sounded which signalled the end of the match. We were overjoyed. After the result was announced, we went back to our changing room where we celebrated after the tournament. We made so much noise that we were told even to be quiet by our PE teacher! Before we all left for half term, we all took pictures to celebrate. The end. Oh yeah! I should also thank you for reading this so thank you!
By Ian L (1F)
It was the last day of school until half term, and it was also Interform day. This Interform was football and rugby. I did rugby. Initially, I had no experience with playing it, but I tried it anyway. I bought a mouth guard to play but I had no clue I was meant to mold it! This didn’t put me off, as I still wore the guard, and it was fine apart from minor discomfort here and there. On the day of the Interform, we all got categorised into our forms and into our sports. We didn’t play the first match, so my teammates taught me the basics – each match was 10 minutes long, so we didn’t have to wait for long to play. Our first match was against 1P whom we beat; we also defeated 1F; we tied with 1H and 1B; and lost to 1J and 1L. Rugby was great fun and I do recommend it in the future if there is an opportunity to do it. I never thought the experience would be so muddy and wet, but it didn’t affect our game play! Thank you for reading!
By Amaad B (1W)
MACEDONIAN EMPIRE TALK
On Wednesday, it was a treat to have the opportunity to take part in my first Hampton talk. Ben Kane’s talk about the Macedonians was a real ear opener. Ben Kane is a novelist who has published numerous books. He specialises in the genre of Historical events and classics. I really enjoy my History and Latin lessons and I was sure that I was going to enjoy the talk ahead of me.
The lecture theatre held about 100 pupils. There he was Ben Kane and it looked like he had bought some historical armoury with him. Amazing. The talk began and I was already consuming a load of information on the Macedonian empire (if you would like to find out more about this, I would recommend reading Clash of Empires by Ben Kane himself)!
The talk was about Alexander the Great and his triumphs over the other empires. Something that was appealing to me, was the fact that Alexander the Great was able to take down the Persian Empire (starting in Turkey and ending on the border of India) with only 50,000 men.
Sadly, after taking the Persian Empire, half the Macedonian army perished in the Babylonian desert. Surviving the desert, which was in fact the greatest loss Alexander’s army had, the great Alexander died in Babylon. The mystery of Alexander the Great’s death remains but many theories believe that he died of a fungal infection in his wine or a poisoning or could it be something else?
By Ethan S-W (1L)
MUSICAL MUSEUM VISIT
During the half term holidays, I visited the Brentford Musical Museum, and I would like to share my experience in the First Year Blog on Friday. Music is one of my favourite subjects at school, which is why I was very excited to go to the Hounslow Brentford Musical Museum! The Musical Museum is where you will find many artefacts related to music, three of which are the theremin, the Walkman and a self-playing piano! I’ll go through each of them one by one:
The Theremin:
A ‘psychic’ instrument that is played by only using and analysing different hand movements, it’s amazing how this was made in the 1930s!
The Walkman:
A small device where you were able to listen to music while walking, hence the name. This led to the creation of the iPod, and then eventually the mobile phone which most people have today.
And finally, the self-playing piano:
It’s in the name. Special, customisable scrolls with special holes inside would be inserted in the piano, and a specific piece would be played. A popular piece is “Schmetterling”, or “Butterfly”.
I even got to play some of the instruments myself! It’s really brilliant to see that these artefacts have been preserved for the younger generation, so thank you Frank Holland! You can find the wide history of music from the 1500’s water organs in Italy, to the Gramophone in the late 1880s, to the very first radio broadcasts, to the digital world of online music. This was a very exciting experience, and I would highly recommend going there when you can!
By Sujay N (1L)
English in Action
This week in Mrs Whitwam’s English lesson, 1W have been learning all about Alfred Tennyson’s classic poem The Charge of the Light Brigade. Tennyson was one of the most important poets of the Victorian period and the poem is all about the failed attack at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. A brilliant way to learn all about different techniques and structures in poetry. Take a look at their fantastic performance below:
DISCOVER HAMPTON – The Power of Poetry
In our latest podcast, we marvel at the power of poetry. Join English teacher Mr Baker with our Third Years and Lower Sixth discussing how poetry reflects the complexities of real life. Click on the link below to listen.
TUTEE OF THE WEEK
Every week, the First Year Tutor team nominate a boy who they have been particularly impressed with, and Mr Hill and Mrs Peattie provide him with a football to use on the fields for the week!
This week’s tutee of the week is Ethan S-W (1L) for his incredible and consistent contributions to the blog, and throwing himself into Hampton life – well done Ethan!
SPECIAL SHOUT OUTS!
We love to hear about what you have been getting up to outside of school and to celebrate your successes in the First Year Blog! Please do send any information about any of your achievements through to Mr Fuldner (d.fuldner@hamptonschool.org.uk).
PROJECT EXPLORE
Project Explore is an exciting opportunity for all First Year pupils to get involved in! You should visit a local site that you are interested in, tell your Form Tutors about your visit, and with some inspiration from your visit produce your own project. There are no guidelines on what you can make: you could choose to write a poem, cook a meal, make a piece of art, record and edit a film, or any other creative piece you can come up with! The deadline for Project Explore is Monday 22 April – just after the start of the summer term. I know all Form Tutors are looking forward to hearing about your visits and projects, so make sure you tell them all about it!
Mr Hill and Mrs Peattie have recorded this video to explain everything in more detail.
THE HAMPTON HUNT
Each week I will set you a challenge where you need to find out a random fact, number or indeed anything else around the School – you won’t be able to do this from home! Points for the interform competition will be awarded to the Form with the most correct entries over the course of the term! You have until the end of Wednesday to complete the challenge; you will find out in next week’s blog if you’re correct, and you will be given a merit by your Form Tutor the following Monday. And who knows – you might get to know the School better in the process!
The last challenge of the half term: how many games were played in total during the Interform Football and Rugby competition on the Friday we finished for half term?
Looking at the schedule would have told you there were 42 games!
Well done to the following First Years for getting the correct answer:
1H: James A, Ying Z, Liangxu Z, Ilakian D, Julian M, Harry M, Luoke W
1L: Naivedya A, Matthew T
1P: Sasha B, Toby B, Long T
1B: Charlie F, Alex d V
1W: Reuben N, Sebastian M
1J: Finn M
1F: Francisco C I, Ian L
Make sure you collect a merit from your Form Tutor next week!
If you did know the answer but didn’t enter it into the blog last week, make sure you do so this week as it won’t count otherwise!
This week’s challenge:
how many languages are written in blue on the language cloud in their corridor?
have a great weekend!
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