WELCOME TO THE FIRST YEAR BLOG!
Welcome back! It has been lovely to hear so many amazing stories about the pupils’ winter holidays this week, and whether it was celebrating Christmas with family, trips domestically or abroad, or just relaxing at home, it sounds like everyone enjoyed their time off! Fortunately, there have been plenty of happy faces in the corridors back in school this week, although I know some are still getting used to the early wake-ups again!
The start of a new term is always a good time to look for new opportunities: it’s an excellent time to try a new club or society, and if you’re a keen writer I am always looking for more blog authors too (come see me on Wednesday at break (10.55) in F10!) We’re also looking forward to the Interform Competition continuing, with Interform Poetry and Songwriting, Table Tennis and Badminton coming up this term – more on this from your tutors in the coming weeks.
All the best for the term ahead!
INTERFORM POETRY & SONGWRITING
Calling all songwriters and poets! Win points for your Form by writing a poem or song about friendship. Entries should be a minimum of 10 lines long. For those of you who choose to write a song, there is no need to write the music to accompany it. Remember Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his song lyrics in 2016 so there is a close relationship between the two forms of writing.
All entries will be judged by a panel from the English Office on Friday 7 February with results announced on Tuesday 11 February and published in the First Year Blog.
You may submit only one poem/song for each boy to v.whitwam@hamptonschool.org.uk
Entering the competition = 1 point
Commended entries = 3 points
Winners (x2) = 10 points
Deadline: Friday 7 February
Theme: Friendship
Entries sent to: Mrs Whitwam (v.whitwam@hamptonschool.org.uk)
LIFE AT HAMPTON
After our lovely, long, relaxing (but exciting Christmas term and holiday), days at Hampton have gone back to normal. Thrilling times full of laughter, new learning and most of all fun. We have all been keeping busy with our clubs at lunch and for many of us heading to the 3G at break. From sports fixtures at the weekends to photo competitions, Hampton is a fantastic place for challenging yourself and knowing you can keep striving to be better. More often than not, you will often see a large number of First Years and footballs rolling around on the 3G, a great place for honing your ball skills and certainly a place for teachers to have to dodge balls flying at speed. Sorry about that!
But there’s more to Hampton than just football (even though it is my favourite thing to do in my spare time), there are so many other sport clubs, such as Rugby, Tennis, Basketball, Table Tennis, Badminton – the list is endless. Some people prefer non-sport clubs and they too have been busy attending those. One I would still like to try is ‘Dog Club’ so I can play with Harris the School dog. Clubs run on different days, so you can try as many as you want to. Personally, one of the activities I have enjoyed the most is the competitive U12D Football Team. I am the proud captain of my team and yes, we are undefeated so far. I better not jinx it for this week’s upcoming match against Dulwich! We have played some great teams and some of the matches have been closer than others – a couple of draws but mostly we pushed through for wins. The away games are also fun as we travel on the coaches together.
Lunches are another highlight for us every day, after an exhilarating hour of sports, where you have worked up an appetite, people rush to lunch to eat a delicious meal made by the talented cooks. Recently breakfast has been a huge hit – I love the bao buns on Wednesdays.
Not only do Hampton give you the opportunity to let you show off your individual skills, but you can team up with your classmates as well. Interform is a fun teamwork activity to help your form win awards and get points. So far there has been an Interform photo competition with the theme of ‘Yellow’ and yes, my form, 1W, won. There is also a Interform Poetry competition being held as we speak, where pupils can express their creativeness and hopefully carry their form to glory.
Aside from sport, another fantastic area of the School is music. I spend lots of my life at school in the Garrick building. The musicians in School have been involved in many choirs, and all sorts of music ensembles and orchestras. The Christmas Concerts were absolutely brilliant, and the standard of playing was so high. It was amazing being a part of the Symphony Orchestra. I would recommend to anyone to come to see our music concerts, they are truly wonderful. Soon there is the show ‘Bugsy Malone’ and some of the First Years are in that too. It sounds like a fun show.
So far Hampton has been outstanding, with all sorts of clubs and brilliant teachers. We all really love being there together.
By Rafferty O (1W)
FRIDAY FOOTBALL
On Friday the U12B Football team played the KCS School teams. As all the pitches were frosted, all the matches at Hampton were played on the 3G. This meant that it was a chaotic match with people shooting from anywhere except from their own half because this was disallowed! All of the team played really well and thanks to this we beat both of their teams 5-3 with particular mentions to Alex B for scoring a hat trick in the second game and Bertie E for making some amazing to ensure the victory!
By Emre K (1W)
BOXING DAY Football
On Boxing Day, I went to see the football club that I support (Fulham) away at Stamford Bridge face our West London rivals, Chelsea, who were second in the league and in good form. The hosts took an early lead when Cole Palmer cooly struck the ball into the bottom-right corner for his twelfth goal of the season. Chelsea 1-0 Fulham. We started to gain momentum and create many chances. Early in the second half, Bernd Leno made a fantastic top corner save to deny Enzo Fernandez a goal and keep us in the game. Against the run of play, Chelsea took a 2-0 lead, only for it to be disallowed for offside. It was only a matter of time until, in the 82nd minute, Harry Wilson headed a deserved equaliser off the post and into the net. The away end erupted. Chelsea 1-1 Fulham. Only 13 minutes later, in the 95th minute, Rodrigo Muniz latched onto Sasa Lukic through ball and slotted it into the bottom left corner of the goal. Euphoria in the away end Chelsea 1-2 Fulham. Our first victory at Stamford Bridge in 45 years, a moment I will never forget.
By Faaris MC (1W)
GEOGRAPHY CLUB
In the weeks before the Christmas break, we have been attending Geography club in G67 on Tuesdays at the start of lunch. We do many thrilling quizzes including Kahoot!, learning the history of flags, and making geography-based board games. We recently took part in the ‘World Wise Quiz’, and me and Ethan C in 1P managed to win the competition. The quiz had many puzzling rounds, including ‘Country Outlines’ and ‘Map Skills’ In these, we were tasked at guessing country outlines, and our group did very well in this, getting just one question wrong. We were also given an OS map, and we had to locate different symbols and signs on it. Overall, it has been an amazing start to Geography for us and we look forward to attending later on.
By Yuvan M and Toby S (1P)
1J CHESS TOURNAMENT
Form 1J have been hosting their very own chess tournament during their lunch breaks! Alexander B (1J) has written a thrilling account of how they have been getting on. Stay tuned for future blog posts to find out the winner!
So far, the chess tournament has been great fun and very successful at the same time. The brackets for the tournament were tough to make as they took a long time (due to the number of people in the class). We are entering the semi-finals, which have been very competitive with most of the class rooting for different players. Sometimes making loud noises which could cause a bit of trouble! As I mentioned this idea for our class, many of us thought it was a great idea to do and now, we are creating another chess tournament that has already been made by Agastya J and we are looking forward to that too.
TUTEE OF THE WEEK
Every week, the First Year Tutor team nominate a Hamptonian who they have been particularly impressed with, and Mr Hill and Mr Fuldner present him with a certificate and a tasty treat to eat!
Congratulations to Nico L (1L) on being named this week’s Tutee of the Week.
Nico is always friendly to others and he shows kindness and enthusiasm in everything he does. Well done, Nico!
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 Jimenez (v.jimenez@hamptonschool.org.uk).
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! 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 you will get to know the School better in the process.
This week’s challenge:
WHICH CONCERT IS TAKING PLACE IN THE HAMMOND ON THE 31 JANUARY?
I’m sure you know where to look for the poster!
