WELCOME TO THE THIRD YEAR BLOG!
An abiding image which demarcates the true arrival of the Hampton winter is to be able to peer out from the window of the staff dining area and make out (through the gloom and the rain) the 3G still thronged with pupils, (mostly) wearing their blazers for warmth. You’ll also be able to make out your poor colleagues, wrapped up in their heftiest coats, huddled under umbrellas, hoping that the rain becomes brutal enough to warrant calling everyone in. Of course, the downside of everyone coming in, is that then everyone is IN.
Few things can set the teaching staff on a higher alert than a rainy lunchtime when the 3G is closed, the classrooms and corridors are full, the windows are steaming up and the distant, illicit bounce of a football on industrial carpet can be heard.
This is why this week being No Limits Week was such perfect timing. No Limits Week, (which is not to be confused with No Limits Lessons Day) is a week when the boys are encouraged to go and try something new: a club or activity that they have not tried before. The Third Year Blog has previously discussed its disappointment at the School’s unwillingness to have Belgian-Dutch nineties euro-pop auteurs ‘2 Unlimited’ record a Hampton specific version of their hit ‘No limits’ to mark either the week or the day where there are no limits. Maybe, while the School is willing to temporarily forgo limits, the idea of openly associating itself with an entity whose name tells us that they are too unlimited is a step too far? Who knows. Alas, a partnership that would certainly have made waves at the Headmasters’ Conference (and would have made for bracing Third Year Blog content) was not to be.
Of course, some boys do not fully enter into the spirit of No Limits Week (possibly because there is not a suitable anthem or song to promote it), with all manner of reasons for why, instead of trying something new, they will instead be playing football on the 3G and absorbing protein in the lunch hall. There are also those for who the main challenge is finding time outside of all the clubs that they already do to try something else. But there are always some boys who find something that they have not done before that they can really enjoy. The reality is that you will very rarely in your life find yourself in a situation where you have the amount of opportunities that are on offer during the average Hampton lunch break. So if, on reflection, you feel you may have actually remained thoroughly limited during No Limits Week, don’t worry, it’s not too late. The key is to open yourself up to the idea that there could be something out there that you might love, but you just don’t know it yet. The Third Year Blog would love to hear from any pupils who have tried something new this week that they really enjoyed – there are a couple of early examples below, but we would love to hear about some more.
HEADS OF YEAR MESSAGE
Well done to all the Third Year pupils taking part in the Richmond Borough Cross Country Championships today – the cold conditions will have tested their resolve! And to our dramatists we say “break a leg” to all those performing, or helping behind the scenes, on the production of A Christmas Carol next week.
No Limits Week
We have been delighted to see how Third Year pupils have bought into No Limits Week and used it is an opportunity to try new activities. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves in the process and our sincere thanks go to the teachers who put on such wonderful and varied co-curricular activities. Having tried something new, our hope is that boys will keep going to the club(s) that they enjoyed – this could be the start of a lifelong hobby, interest or passion! Boys – these are the things that will enrich your lives, so the time you invest in them now will pay dividends in the future.
Maths Setting test
Please can we ask parents to direct any queries regarding Third Year Maths setting to Mrs Watson-Evans (M.Watson-Evans@hamptonschool.org.uk) in the Maths department.
Uniform
In the colder weather, boys are allowed to wear sensible hats, coats and gloves to keep warm on their journeys to and from school, but they must revert to full school uniform throughout the school day whilst on site. This means they must wear a school tie (properly tied) and school blazer, with a white shirt (tucked in and buttoned up), smart black trousers, dark socks and smart black shoes (non-trainers). If they are cold, it is permissible to wear a vest under the shirt and/or a black V-neck jumper. Coats should not be worn in school. Persistent failure to meet these uniform requirements is a conduct issue.
Absences
If your son will be absent from School for any reason, please complete the absence reporting form, which can be found on My School Portal on every morning of your son’s absence. For absences other than illness e.g. if a pupil has a dental or medical appointment during School hours, notice of this should be given in advance. For planned absences, please contact Heads of Year requesting the absence with as much notice as possible.
Boys – Please remember to let us, your Form Tutors or the relevant subject teachers know if you are having any difficulties. We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Best wishes
Mr T Rigby & Mr H Moore
No Limits Week
So let’s hear from a couple of the boys about what they tried during No Limits Week…
No Limits Week has been five days where pupils have been encouraged to engage in clubs that they have had no previous experience of. The idea? To broaden our understanding of both academic and co–curricular interests.
I chose to participate in the Chemistry Project Club, run by Dr Puljic. It was hugely beneficial to see a variety of practical tasks that others were undertaking, such as assessing the energy values of food! I had the opportunity to help David B write an evaluation for his investigation, a reflection on what went well and what he could have done to improve the experiment, as a whole, in order that the results were more accurate.
Overall, the Chemistry Project Club was enjoyable and one that I would recommend!
By Matthew L (3H)
On Monday as a part of No Limits Week, me and my friends attended Breakdance club with Mr Berezhnoi. It takes place on Monday in the first half of lunch in the dance studio.
I had lots of fun. We learnt some cool moves and at the end had some freestyle time. I would really recommend it to anyone that likes to dance.
By Luca F (3H)
Take a look at just some of the clubs Lower School Hamptonians tried out during No Limits Week:
Junior Royal Academy of Music Award
News reached the Third Year Blog of a wonderful achievement by one of our Third Year Pupils. Pierce B (3G) won the Intermediate viola competition at the Junior Royal Academy of Music. It’s an incredible competition to have won bearing in mind the high standard. Well done, Pierce!
GCHQ Languages Competition
This week, 91 Third Year pupils took part in the National Language Competition organised by GCHQ. Working in teams, they had to decode unknown languages, decipher hidden messages, and find linguistic solutions to problems. An exceptionally difficult linguistic challenge, this was an enjoyable and collaborative experience, and they did very well. The winning team for Hampton’s internal competition was ‘Mellow Lovely Whippet’, finishing 62nd nationally, among over 1,900 teams from schools across the UK. A fantastic achievement for Jai K, Shishir V, Louis C and David W.
U14B Football
This week’s report on the U14B football team is a collaborative effort. The initial, concise, report was produced by Ed R. His challenge was that the team had scored so many goals that he found it hard to clearly remember any of them individually which made for a factually accurate report, but one that maybe lacked the detail that one would ideally want. Who could offer that detail? The goalscorers themselves: the Third Year Blog can attest from personal experience that even the simplest of tap ins lives long in the memory. So, we have Ed’s report embellished with the detail from those glorious goalscorers. Apart from one. Charlie McN scored TWO goals, but was unable to offer detail on either of them. Is scoring goals such a regular occurrence for Charlie that he essentially blanks them all from his memory? Quite possibly. Regardless of the reason, his goals will have to remain expressed in Ed’s understated style.
Last Saturday, Hampton U14Bs won 6-0 against Charterhouse. The goals were scored by Luke M, Freddy R-S, Henry S, Elijah T and Charlie McN with two. The first goal was scored after a bad back pass by Charterhouse was intercepted (one must assume this was one of Charlie’s goals – the Third Year Blog can’t help but feel that he would be in a position to talk about the awareness that led to the interception and the precision of the finish, but that will have to remain speculation), the second was a good shot (Freddie R-S was able to expand a little: ‘Charlie was making a run down the left, so I played a through ball. He then shot and it was saved but luckily I was at the near post to smash it in with my left foot’), the third was a powerful low shot from outside the box (Henry S recollected his evidently marvellous strike thus: ‘Thomas ran down the left wing dribbling past 2 or 3 players then he crossed it into the box where Seb got the ball and tried to shoot but couldn’t find an angle so set the ball back to me and I shot from the edge of the box into the bottom left corner), the fourth was a penalty into the bottom left corner (once again, Charlie’s goal remains as it is. We are left to imagine the cleanness of the strike, the bulge of the net, the slumped shoulders of the keeper, mud on his forehead from his despairing dive), the fifth was a good pass to set up an easy finish (Luke M’s modest description went like this… ‘It started with an attack that was going quite fast. The ball was passed to Freddie, who got tackled. The goalkeeper came out. The ball fell to Charlie. Charlie was surrounded by the opposition. He decided to try to put it past the goalkeeper, but it was going wide. I was still onside so I ran and tapped it into the goal. I was there at the right time. I think it was quite a lucky goal’), and the last was a good tackle that ended up going in the top corner (Elijah T picks up the story… ‘it was 5-0 to us and the game was looking very comfortable. I was waiting from a bit further out than the box and saw the ball bouncing back to me. Someone from Charterhouse went for a tackle and so I did too. I hit the ball as hard as possible and so did he. I’m not entirely sure what happened but I think that he kicked the ball against my shin and the ball went into the goal somehow). Overall, it was an easy win for Hampton.
By Ed R (3F)
Two truths and a lie
Last week, Mrs White was our dishonest pedagogue. Which of these offerings is the lie?
- Mrs White spent her childhood in Germany
- Mrs White’s favourite sport is figure skating
- While Mrs White LOVES ‘borshch’ (the traditional Russian beetroot soup), she has no idea how to cook it
So which was the lie?
Well, it turns out that Mrs White does love figure skating. Whether she loves figure skating more than ‘borshch’ is a question that not even she could answer, but while she does know how to figure skate, she doesn’t know how to cook the soup. Which means that the lie is that Mrs White did not spend her childhood in Germany. Where did she spend her childhood? Nobody knows. Or, is that also a lie? We will never know. Or will we?
This week our willing liar is Mr Berezhnoi. Can we possibly believe any of this?
- Mr Berezhnoi previously worked on a farm
- Mr Berezhnoi is utterly, UTTERLY terrified of volcanoes
- Mr Berezhnoi is a blue belt in Jiu-Jitsu
Which is the lie? Find out next week!
CONNECTION CORNER
Well done to everyone who had a go at last week’s Connection Corner. It was a tricky one and foxed nearly all of you – lots of you said either places in Central London or Tube Stations. The correct answer was Monopoly Board locations! Big shout out to Huw C, Joseph B and Neal H who were the only Third Years to guess the correct connection!
In case you’re still perplexed, here are last week’s answers:
Where would Harry Potter would catch the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4? Kings Cross Station
In which battle did Admiral Lord Nelson die? The Battle of Trafalgar
Ian Fleming is famous for creating which fictional character? James Bond
Which team defied odds of 5000/1 to win the Premier League in 2015-2016? Leicester City
Connection answer: Monopoly Board Locations
