Welcome to the First Year Blog!
It has been a wonderfully lively week in the First Year. Art Week has brought colour, creativity and a noticeable buzz to classrooms, corridors and even the occasional science lab. The boys have been sketching, sculpting, experimenting and imagining with great enthusiasm, and it has been a joy to see their ideas take shape. A reminder to all pupils that our Harris Neckerchief Competition is still open. We are looking for a design in Hampton colours that Harris the dog can proudly model, so we hope to see many inventive entries.
Across the week the boys have also been busy writing about their experiences. From football triumphs to creative workshops, from bustling tours around the school to musical adventures featuring a certain marmalade loving bear, their pieces show how varied and energetic First Year life continues to be.
Amid the excitement, we also turn our thoughts to next Tuesday, when the school will mark Holocaust Memorial Day. The boys will spend time considering the significance of the day with the respect and thoughtfulness it deserves.
TIE-DYE TRIUMPH
It was Art Week, and I decided to try the tie-dye workshop. What I did not realise was that I had to sign up for it. Luckily, to the great generosity of Ms Elliott, I still got to do some tie-dyeing. There was a choice of two different ways of tie dyeing you could do. One was marble dye; just as the name implies it, you would use marbles to dye. I did this one because Ms Elliott showed us a picture of the result and I thought I looked quite cool because there was an explosion effect. The second way was an accordion-like dye, I also thought it looked interesting. There were multiple choices of colours: I added all of them! In the end, I tried them both and now are waiting for the results.
Other events in this week were also full of creativity, fun and joy, like Art Club, Henri Mattisse styled clay workshop, and a look at different subjects in the Art view. This was my first tie-dyeing, and I would never have found out about how amazing tie-dyeing is if I did not come to Hampton. Once again, it has proven that how full of opportunities that Hampton has introduced to me.
By Julian H (1H)
FABULOUSLY ARTY FRENCH
As this week was Art Week, our French lessons were filled with fun and full of artistic drama. This week, our French lessons were like no other as we studied the impressionists; a group of French artists that changed the ways of painting. Let’s dive into more detail about this…
The impressionist was a group of 19th century French painters including Monet and Degas who revolutionised art as they painted outside, which funnily enough was quite abnormal at the time. Most painters in the 1800-1900 usually painted in factories and usually focused on things like academics and traditional subject. When the impressionists came, they created a new idea that impacted the history of art, painting outdoors. They also painted with more vibrant colours and with short and quick brushstrokes. This allowed them to almost embrace modern life and focus on everyday life as part of their paintings. The painting was vaguely influenced by Japanese prints.
Overall, I really enjoyed our French lessons combined with the spirit of Art Week; it really did uplift my spirits whenever it was time for French (I already liked French anyways… it just uplifted my feeling more!) and I think it was a more creative way of learning French. In the future, I think every subject should do the same by combining Art Week with different subjects. I really enjoyed Art Week also in general; so, thank you to the Art department and I look forward to Art Week next year!
By Avirat P (1H)
CREATIVITY IN EVERY CORNER
This week was Art Week and we got to indulge in many fun and innovative activities in three different subjects: Spanish, English and Physics! In Spanish, we are covering the fascinating topic of Spanish artists and artworks. The main artists we looked at were Pablo Picasso and Diego Velazquez.
Pablo Picasso, we learned, was a rather two-faced character. He stood up to dictators like Francisco Franco and used his fame as a lever to expose the brutality of the Spanish Civil War. However, Picasso would turn up to people’s houses and ask parents to borrow their child to paint them. The parents would agree, delighted at the idea, but then the child would be locked in a basement until Picasso had finished his masterpiece. The main Picasso painting we studied was ‘Guernica’, one of the very most famous in the world. Picasso painted ‘Guernica’ after Guernika, a town in Northern Spain, was bombed by Hitler during the Spanish Civil War. The painting shows animals and people in pain and dying, although in a very abstract way. Diego Velazquez painted ‘Las Meninas’ for the royal family as they wanted a picture of their daughter. Velazquez wrote in his painting a secret message, subtly suggesting that the Princess was a pain to paint.
In English, we drew pictures relating to a poem of our choice (three options). I chose to do a poem about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly and drew pictures of caterpillars, butterflies, eagles and frogs and hybrids of each of them. It was a very fun thing to do and my favourite drawing of mine was one of an eagle in Hampton uniform!
Finally, in Physics, we were measuring the density of irregular objects. To do this, we had to put them into a Eureka Can (my new favourite type of apparatus!) with water and measure the volume of liquid that came out of the spout. It was very fun and Mrs Reilly, our Physics teacher, even showed us a metal bird statue that she found on a walk near where she lives and we got to measure its density!
In conclusion, Art Week was an amazing experience, and I can’t wait until the next one!
By Alex B (1L)
PICASSO, PHYSICS AND PURE FUN
As talked about in many of my previous blogs, we usually have weekly events every now and then in Hampton School. This week is a particularly special one as well. Exciting, creative lessons and fun competitions have been arranged to commemorate for this.
Firstly, I would like to talk about Spanish, where Profe Blachford taught us about famous Spanish artists. One of the artists we explored was Pablo Picasso, where we looked into one of his famous paintings named ‘Guernica’. What I found interesting about this painting was the backstory. Guernica was meant to be an eye-catching image on the front page of a newspaper in 1937. Basically, Nazi soldiers back in the day wanted to test explosive devices, so, the Nazis sent his army to drop bombs on the rural Spanish town of Guernica. Picasso made sure he included death, destruction, grief and pain all in black and white. Another thing we covered was the Spanish art styles, where we saw Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Goya, Romanticist, Realist and Modernist art periods.
Next, in Physics, we learnt about finding the density of irregular objects. However, these were not just any ordinary objects, they we stone sculptures of art! Ms. Reilly brought in some sculptures and one of them that was found outside buried in debris.
After learning about Spanish art periods, the background of Pablo Picasso’s art and learning about density of sculptures, I really have had a fun week.
By Owen S-W (1L)
U12B BOYS BAG THE WIN
Last Friday the Hampton U12B Football team went in a minibus to Glyn School to play in the fourth round of the ESFA Cup. It was a tight game to begin with, but once Alexander Dale got the ball in the net for Hampton with a delicate chip over the keeper, all spirits rose. 1-0. We kept up the high press, and it wasn’t long until Eric M got his head on the ball from a corner, scoring the second goal. 2-0. Not long after, we reached half time.
Blood rushed through my veins. My heart was pumping out of my chest. I was exhilarated. Mr Boyes told us what to improve on as we all chugged down our water. We stepped out onto the pitch with confidence and belief in ourselves and showed it for most of the second half. Shamefully, we conceded a quick goal that gave Glyn a little hope of winning the match. Unlucky for them, that little hope wasn’t enough as we ended up taking the tight win back to Hampton. The final score was 2-1 and Hampton went through to the next round.
By Miguel B (1B)
FOB-MAKING FRENZY
During DE, which is my favourite subject, we were unusually in a different room. A workshop. Something which, from my first term of Hampton, was uncharted territory. Over the last couple weeks of last term, we had got started on an idea for our next project: to create a key fob. With ideas aplenty, we were told we were going to get starting on cutting the copper and start creating our little masterpieces. We learned about the different tools (the junior hacksaw, Abrafiles and hand files) and began to carve our design. I chose to make a silhouette of a controller; the shape was quite tricky, and I was still new to the process. Our teacher, Mr Zannettou helped us all and eventually I was able to make real progress. I was so locked in that I hadn’t realised the period had finished! Overall, I’d enjoyed this lesson thoroughly and I am looking forward to next week’s to finish it off!
By Pesandu W (1W)
PYTHON POWER-UP
On Wednesday, I attended the Programming Team at lunch. At the club, we code using Python (the main coding language) and it is totally fine if you haven’t the faintest idea what Python is because you can use the GCSE Tutorial on PythonSponge (see Python Sponge to find out more). I find it fascinating because you can create games such as Geometry Dash and you can find it in the base code for games such as Snake Game. In two weeks time we will have the PCTC Coding Challenge where we can work in pairs or on our own. I cannot wait till the PCTC and programming in the future.
By Edward G (1J)
HAMPTON HOSTING HIGHLIGHTS
This Wednesday, I was thrilled to serve as an ambassador for Hampton, welcoming a perspective Hamptonian as well as his family, and offering them a glimpse into the vibrant rhythm of everyday school life. Compared with the Open Morning held last September, having completed the autumn term as part of the school community, I am more acquainted with our vast campus and much more confident in presenting our experiences to the visitors.
Over the course of the 30-minute tour, we traversed almost the entire school campus. However, as it was a regular school day, access to individual classrooms was not permitted. Throughout the journey, I endeavoured to share as much information as possible and concluded the tour punctually.
Overall, it proved to be yet another enriching and memorable experience for me.
By Hiu Yeung K (1P)
BEAR-ILLIANT DAY OUT
Over the holidays I was lucky enough to go and see Paddington the Musical with my family. It was an amazing experience and was truly heartwarming, if only it were possible to give a show a 6-star rating. I would recommend it to anyone. It is too hard to choose my favourite part of the show but two things that stood out to me were the Paddington costume, it was amazing and so realistic, and the fact that it was Tom Fletcher who wrote most of the songs. My sister loves his books and songs (and so do I). After that amazing experience we went to see the biggest Christmas tree in Trafalgar square, which is gifted by Norway every year. Finally, we were all hungry and tired and my parents surprised me with the treat of going to a place called Burger Lobster. We walked back to the train station via the famous Oxford Street lights. It was the perfect Christmas day out with my family.
By Aryun R (1F)
LOWER SCHOOL SUMMER SHOW AUDITIONS
We are looking forward to the auditions for Hampton’s Lower School Summer Show, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
The first round of auditions is on Tuesday 3 February 4.10 – 5.30pm in the Main Hall and recall auditions are on Wednesday 11 February 4.00 – 5.15pm in the Hammond Theatre.
If you are wanting to attend, please ensure you complete the form that was sent to you via e-mail by Thursday 29 January.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Auditions – Fill in form
Please check the audition packs previously sent out for more information regarding the auditions. Any questions, please speak to the Mrs Richardson and the Drama department.
Hampton Innovators Competition
Do you enjoy creativity, teamwork, and a challenge? Want the chance to win a trophy and prize while tackling real-world issues? The Hampton Innovators Competition is now open and focuses on protecting the environment. Your idea should link to one of these UN Sustainable Development Goals:
• Responsible Consumption – reducing waste and using resources wisely
• Climate Action – tackling climate change
• Life on Land – protecting forests, biodiversity, and wildlife
Pupils can work alone or in a team (up to four pupils). Your idea doesn’t need to be fully practical — it can be creative, ambitious, and original, as long as it helps build a greener world.
📅 Deadline for applications: Friday 30 January
Finalists will present their ideas at a grand final later this term. Check your email for the entry link and full details.
Good luck!
The Hampton Environment Society
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).
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 Zac K (1W) on being named this week’s Tutee of the Week!
Zac is always very polite, unfailingly kind and has been enthusiastic and inquisitive in PSHE too. Zac also replaced a hugely popular book in the library that was falling apart, without being asked to – well done Zac!
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 who knows – you might get to know the School better in the process!
Last week’s challenge: Which city appears in the photo? You could find the city on the wall of the languages corridor, it was Nice!
A big shout out to the First Years who correctly found the answer to last week’s Hampton Hunt. Well done to Alex B, Miguel B, Ayaan S, Rowan F, Hiu Yeung K, Andreas C, Shrey S, Aditya S, Arav B, Rishaan G, Jack M and Ronak B.
This week’s challenge:
Which country was this School trip photo taken in?
HINT: You might be able to find the answer on a wall in the School!
Don’t forget to enter your answer before next week!
