Welcome to the Second Year Blog!
The Second Year has been buzzing (quite literally for those who visited the Beekeeping Club!) with typical excitement this week. However, the real buzz came on Thursday morning when our pupils swapped their usual timetable for a special, extended PSHE session. They explored the world of social media, investigating platforms and presenting their findings to the class. From filters to followers, they discussed the risks and rewards of online life – there were likes, lols, and lessons learned all around!
We also had the results of the Geography Photography Competition, which took place over the summer. The Geography department shortlisted 30 stunning entries, and visitors at the Open Morning voted for their favourites. Congratulations to the winners:
Abroad: 1st Place – Ollie S (3J), Runner-up – Ryan A (2J)
Home: 1st Place – Alec H (2B), Runner-up – Ralph L (2B)
Well done to everyone who entered; it’s safe to say your entries were picture-perfect!
Finally, today was No Limits Lessons Day! The aim of the day is to encourage teachers to think outside of the box when delivering lessons and to plan memorable activities with their classes. Hamptonians got to experience lots of different ways to learn and engage with their subjects, from the weird to the wonderful; come back to next week’s blog to hear all about it… we promise it’ll be limitlessly fun!
Now, let’s dive into this week’s blog and see what our brilliant Second Year Hamptonians have been up to:
Merit Milestones
Another fantastic week for merit milestones! Big shout out to the following Second Years:
Ansh Rao – 10
Ryan Arami – 10
Ollie Richardson – 10
Rohan Ghugari – 10
Vivaan Keerthy – 10
Rahul Prabhudesai – 10
Kaarthikan Kaarthikan – 10
Ashveer Chohan – 10
Felix Rodriguez – 10
Max Offer – 10
Max King – 10
Yakub Azimov – 10
Joshan Kalsi – 10
Yuvan Meda – 10
Jonathan Greenfield – 10
Kiyan Joshi – 10
Lucas Farnsworth – 20
Ethan Chen – 20
Benjamin McCune – 30
Sebastian Young – 30
Tutor Question Time!
Each week we like to poll the Second Year tutors on a different hot topic. This week’s question comes from Ralph L (2B):
If you could have one superhuman power for a battle, which would you choose?
a) Flight
b) Invisibility
c) Super Strength
d) Teleportation – 2B, Miss Tiller (specifically, she would like to create portals!), Miss Holt
e) Other (please specify!) – 2G (mind control!), 2H (the power to control time!), 2L (although they struggled to agree on an answer!)
Have you ever had a burning question you’ve always wanted to ask your Form Tutors?! If so, then please send your suggestions for a future Tutor Question Time to e.holt@hamptonSchool.org.uk.
Co-curricular Chronicles
For anyone looking for a new and interesting Club, and in the First to Third Year, why not come up to the Quiet Room in the RS tower where the Young Philosophers Club is held. It is held every Friday at 12.35pm and ends at 1.10pm. Every week, there is a new difficult philosophical question brought to light.
For example, last week, we talked about the ship of Theseus. The question which involves this certain ship was that if you replaced every single plank on the ship of Theseus, mast and all, would it still be the ship of Theseus? Or has it become a new ship of Theseus. Then after digging in to it with discussion including everyone there, we were hit with another confusing question. What if you took all of those old planks and made them into another ship, would that be the new ship of Theseus. Somehow, by the time the Club had finished, we were talking about brain transplants and neurosurgery!
It is led by Mr Hill (one of the RS & Philosophy teachers) and I’m sure he would be delighted if you came. Even if you are just a little bit interested in it, you should come!
By Benedict C (2B)
This Wednesday there was a fantastic club where, whatever instrument you play, you can play your heart out. At Junior Jazz Band you get the privilege to play wonderful, yet simple pieces of music that are a treat to the ear. You get to be part of a band which is a unique and fun experience. There were trombones, saxophones, tubas, drums and many more! Even though the muddle of instruments made it seem like a decent piece of music could never be produced, after a few tries, it sounded like a proper, professional jazz band! Overall, Junior Jazz Band is a great club to go to for all flourishing musicians: feel the rhythm, make some noise, and let off some steam!
By George M-H (2B)
Yesterday, I went to Drama Club, and it was great. This week, we got our roles for the play we are doing of The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare about a banished duke who uses magic to shipwreck his enemies on an enchanted island. Considered one of Shakespeare’s last solo works, it explores themes of betrayal, revenge, forgiveness, and power. The cast is very big with a mix of First and Second Years together. There are eight scenes in the play that we are doing. The main characters are Prospero, Miranda, Ariel, Caliban, Alonso, Antonio and Ferdinand. The whole play is humorous, witty and enjoyable. One of the main themes in the play is Revenge vs Forgiveness as the play goes on. There is so much talent among everyone doing the play and I am really looking forward to what is to come. You’ll have to come and watch to find out more!
By Ralph L (2B)
As soon as I heard the bell for lunch, I ran to the Biology labs to prepare to visit the beehives in Beekeeping Club. I joined some of my friends and walked through the football fields to the hives. We wore large white suits to prevent the bees from stinging us.
The air was warm, the sun was shining high in the sky, and the bees were happily flying around their hives. Our Head Beekeeper, Mr Langton, showed us the different layers of the hive. He showed us some frames which bees could put their honey once they made it. Some of them were empty but most of them were full of honey and felt quite heavy.
Mr Langton then explained to us how other Hamptonians had marked a small spot of paint on the queen bee to help keep track of it in the hive. He also told us that the bees also fed on honey during the winter as a food source.
In my opinion, the experience was fascinating, and I will definitely be coming to Beekeeping Club again!
By James C (2H)
This week, I decided to go to Geography Club and for me it was definitely the right decision! At Geography Club, we did a quiz with different topics along the way with the winners getting merits. The quiz was a very good difficulty level and a great way to have fun with friends. I will be going again, and I would highly recommend Geography Club for everyone in First to Third Year, even if Geography isn’t your strongest subject.
By Sammy H (2J)
Meet the Mentor
For this week’s edition of ‘Meet the Mentor’, tutee Kamran C (2F) asked his mentor, Upper Sixth Hamptonian Ed R some questions to help us get to know him a little better…
- What’s your favourite sport? Cricket
- Pizza or Pasta? Pizza
- What’s your most treasured moment at Hampton? It would probably be winning the U18 National Cricket Final
- If you could be a fruit, what fruit would you be? I would probably be a pineapple!
- And finally, what is your favourite subject? It would be physics
Miles of Smiles!
Last Saturday, I took part in the Ealing Mini Mile in the 12–16-Year-old category. I was quite nervous coming into the race as it was my first time racing against people older than me and I hadn’t been feeling well in the week before that. The starting procedure for this race was a little odd as they held us in a pen before walking our 200 strong group down to the start line.
It was quite a chaotic start because the start line was quite tight and most of the older kids sprinted off from the beginning, leaving me a few metres behind the leading group. I knew after this that I would have to play the long game and conserve my energy for later in the race when people started to get tired.
I spent most of my race climbing through the ranks so when I came to the finishing straight, I was in 9th place and 2nd in my age group. Unfortunately, sprinting has never been my strong suit, so I lost three positions on the sprint finishing 12th overall and 3rd out of my age group. Overall though, it was very a successful race and I achieved a personal best time of 5 minutes and 39 seconds!
By Noah L (2G)
Pitch Perfect Performances
On Monday, the U13A footballers had their match against Carrington School, it was at home, which meant that we had good pitches to play on! Anyway, before the game we needed to leave period 6 early and it was very intense walking out of lessons knowing that we had such an important game in front of us. To make it worse, we were in the 1st XI changing room. As we all walked out of the changing room, we noticed the other school were not here yet, which was lucky as we got extra time to warm up.
After warming up, we did our final stretches, our opponents had just arrived and we had to delay the match by 15 minutes. This was slightly irritating because now they had extra time to warm up and it felt like we’d lost our advantage.
Finally, the match commenced, in the first minute my heart was already pounding, I was nervous. We kept pushing and pushing, and finally, it was our first goal of the match. Soon after it was half time, we were talking about tactics and what positions to play. When the second half began, we pumped ourselves up and were ready to go. This round we were more defensive, but we managed another goal. After a while the opponents seemed to concede surprisingly and we managed to score six goals! Now we just need to focus on our next game…
By Alexander B (2J)
On Saturday, all A-D footballers went on the School bus from Hampton to Alleyn’s School or by themselves to play football against Alleyn’s. I was playing in the B’s, and we drew 1-1 after a gutting, late equaliser from the other team. We were a little disheartened as we felt we had played really well and had worked hard to score the first goal after some great build up play. We had a few other great chances that we could have seized but couldn’t get the finishing touch.
Well done to all of the other teams who won, I was really happy for everyone who played well and that we got the opportunity to play for Hampton again. After the game, we had a sausage roll and then went on the long bus back home!
By Felix H (2J)
On Thursday we had our first rugby festival of the year (Surrey Festival). I was extremely excited especially with a much more improved team (and because I got to miss a few lessons…) and I was positive that we could do much better than last year. The festival format was two groups of five, each team playing every other team once and then depending on where we finish in our group we play the corresponding position in the other group. The games were 20 minutes long (although when you’re playing it feels like a whole day) with ten minute halves. In total it would be a tiring five matches not to mention that we only had a three minute break between every game making us even more fatigued, but we were up for the challenge.
Our first game was against Dulwich, who we had never played against and therefore had no idea what we were up against. However, that definitely didn’t get into our heads as we were able to come away with a 20-0 win. We were all very happy with that performance as I scored three tries and Aiush B (2L) also scored one try. It was a positive start to the tournament but before we knew it we were back playing again.
Next up we were playing a very strong Whitgift side in our second match and unfortunately, we came away with a 20-10 loss. I think we were a bit sheepish in the first half knowing that they beat us last year going into the second half with a 15-0 deficit. There were many improvements we could have made during that game and if we wanted to place decently in our group we would have to improve and adapt quickly…
In our third game we played KCS who also we had never seen or played. It was a very tight and tense game. In the last couple of minutes, we were drawn 5-5 but thankfully I was able to score one last try putting us in front and giving us another win. It was a great game and both teams threw everything at each other but fortunately we were able to come out on top. As you have probably noticed the scoreline and tries decreased a lot due to the pitch length shrinking and therefore being little space on the wings and most of the game being played in the middle. This played a massive role in our last game:
In our final game we played Reed’s. Last year we came away with a 25-5 win against them but on Thursday they were much stronger than we expected. We worked extremely hard for our first try, from Luke B (2J) due to the pitch length and not being able to use the wings. The game was in the balance at half time 5-0 to us. However, towards the start of the second half Reed’s were able to break our defence and scored a try. 5-5 again heading into the last couple of minutes… However, I was able to score another last-minute try, winning the match and putting us second in our group!
We were meant to play St George’s but because we are playing them on Saturday, we didn’t play them. We were all extremely happy with our performance and look forward to going again this weekend!
By Kaarthikan K (2B)
Term time Tales
So far in my first half term in Second Year at Hampton I have been enjoying meeting all my new teachers, seeing my friends again after a long summer break as well as learning interesting new topics in all of my subjects.
Some of my favourite subjects this year are:
Spanish which is taught by Mrs Garrido-Soriano who always helps us in our Spanish if we don’t understand something and lets us have another go at tests if our first results weren’t the best.
I have also really enjoyed starting to study drama as a subject this year – it’s been very good so far! Even though it means we have one less period of PE each week I have really enjoyed our lessons as our teacher makes our lessons fun at the start by giving us a warmup game to get ready for the lesson.
Last but not least I have enjoyed playing on the 3G with my friends again!
By Alex S (2L)
Pet of the Week
Every week we are meeting one of Second Year’s furry (or scaly!) friends. This week’s pet of the week is Rexi.
Here’s why Harri C (2L) thinks she deserves to be Pet of the Week:
She is a corn snake that is 5 years old, and her name is Rexi. I think she should be nominated because she is very calm, and we have trained her to do tricks like swimming in the bath!
QUIZ OF THE WEEK
Welcome to the Quiz of the Week! Every week, we’ll post five general knowledge questions. Take a look at this week’s questions, have a go yourself or challenge people at home and see if they know the answer.
Points for the Interform Competition will be awarded to the form with the most entries over the term.
This week’s questions come to us from Ralph L (2B). Why don’t you have a go and enter your answers below:
Here are the answers to last week’s quiz:
- How many zones are there in Russia? 11
- What is the national flower for Japan? Cherry blossom
- How many stripes are there on the us flag? 13
- What is the national animal of Australia? Red kangaroo
- What country has the most islands? Sweden (over 220,000)
Well done to the following Second Year Hamptonians who answered everything correctly – Frankie D, Ojas P, Peter R-R, Harry T, Kyle O, Kaarthikan M, Yuvan M, Lucas O’C, Isaac L, Reyansh K, Ralp L, Rayan A, Ashutosh S, Ansh R, Logan K and Ethan C.
If you’re keen to write some general knowledge questions for the Blog, please email e.holt@hamptonschool.org.uk.
