From The Headmaster’s Study, 12 February 2021

As half term draws to a close, I remain personally grateful for the collective forbearance, ingenuity and good humour of our School community in responding to the continued challenges of lockdown and guided home learning. While e-Hampton 2.0 is not as enjoyable as being together on-site, Hamptonians, parents and colleagues are making the best of the testing circumstances associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully, promising progress with the national vaccination programme means that we shall receive good news from the Government on 22 February about their plans for the reopening of school sites. I am certainly looking forward to welcoming our boys back to Hampton as soon as we are allowed to do so.

This latest edition of Hampton@Home features our diligent Fourth Year online cartographers, who are among those contributing to a digital volunteering project mapping the most vulnerable areas of the world. By doing so, these Hamptonians are taking part in a global effort to enable humanitarian agencies and local NGOs to respond more effectively when crises occur.

I hope that some of you managed to take time out to breathe, stretch and relax when joining in with our online yoga session during PSHE on Thursday. Remembering to take regular screen breaks for fresh air and exercise is essential for our lockdown wellbeing and we are sharing the links to three practices in this edition of H@H, so that Hampton families can try out/revisit the exercises if they wish.

This week’s newsletter also includes information about an engaging careers competition for senior Hamptonians alongside another pair of H@H challenges for boys and parents to undertake. Mr Beattie from the PE and Sport Department asks you to test yourself physically by attempting the ‘bear crawl’; Mr Haynes from our Maths Department demonstrates how to make a bespoke Hampton origami ‘sonobe’ cube.

Thursday Night In continues to prove popular and yesterday evening’s ‘Nacho Night’ cook-along – featuring our School Captains team and our skilled (and extremely patient!) Head Chef Paulie – seems to have been a tasty culinary success in many Hampton households (see H@H story). The next digital event in our series will take place after the half term break, when we shall have the pleasure of hearing from BBC New York and United Nations Correspondent, Nick Bryant. Nick is a familiar face on our TV screens reporting on all things American, including last November’s US Presidential election and the extraordinary scenes in Washington DC ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration. We hope that many of you will take up this opportunity to listen to one of the UK’s leading authorities on US society and politics.

In closing, please can I encourage you to set aside time to experience the (virtual) Spring Rock Concert linked within this week’s H@H. Exuberant and talented musical performers from across our year groups have ensured that we end this half term with a flourish (and a bang!).

I wish everyone a peaceful and restorative half term break – it is most definitely a well-earned one for all of us.

With kind regards and best wishes

Kevin Knibbs
Headmaster