Academic Extension & Enrichment

The vast majority of Hamptonians attend an elite university either in the UK, USA or Europe. Nearly every Hamptonian gains a place at a Russell Group, or equivalent, university and many of our boys move on to read their chosen subject at one of the global top-10 academic institutions, including the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Pupils wishing to apply to Oxford or Cambridge are given support in their application through academic extension classes run by the individual departments as well as general Oxbridge sessions directed at such matters as the UCAS form and interviews. All applicants will have the opportunity to have a number of mock interviews with staff, as well as at either Lady Eleanor Holles School or Surbiton High School.

Many of the staff at Hampton School are themselves Oxbridge graduates and are excellently placed to provide advice and academic support.

The Hampton Extended Learning Project (or HELP for short) is a programme of extended learning open to boys in the Second Year and above.

Pupils undertake projects in the form of extended essays on an area of personal interest, as well as creative projects such as building a model. Each pupil is overseen by a member of staff, who acts as their supervisor, and the skills gained and demonstrated by the boys will be of great use to them as they move up the School. We are in an age where, increasingly, academic success is measured by exam results; one of the main aims of HELP is to encourage a love of learning for learning’s sake. The aims of HELP are:

To foster a love of learning and encourage independent learning
To provide an opportunity for the development of research and organisational skills
To provide an opportunity to develop presentational skills
To encourage creativity and free-thinking outside the everyday curriculum
To better prepare pupils in the Lower School for Controlled Assessment at GCSE and for the Sixth Form

Topics for projects in the past couple of years have included amongst many others: financial fair play in football; computer programming; black holes; neurology; the Battle of Stalingrad; the Big Bang Theory; moral obligation to obey the law; and the war poets.

For Sixth Form pupils, the HELP project provides additional stretch and challenge. It offers them the opportunity to produce an extended piece of work either in an area they are already studying, or one in which they have a particular interest. The process of organising and producing the project develops the skills of research, analysis, independent learning and time-management that are so highly valued by the top universities.

Sixth Form pupils choose topics which interest them either alongside their A Level syllabus or cutting across syllabus boundaries or in a new, but related, territory. They then research and produce an essay of between 5,000 and 10,000 words, fully academically referenced. Once complete, boys will give a presentation to some of their peers and staff on the subject of their research and take questions. The School is able to mention this work positively in the pupils’ university references and several boys have found themselves discussing their research in depth at university interviews. Essays in the past few years have covered such diverse topics as:

Quantum gravity
Napoleon’s legacy on modern France
A comparison and explanation of cross-culture kinship
The concept of the sublime in literature
Epigenetics
The history and future of Bitcoin
The misuse of statistics in the courtroom

The publication linked below showcases just some of the outstanding HELP projects produced by Senior Hamptonians during the academic year 2023-24:

Pupils across the year groups have the opportunity to participate in a number of national challenges and competitions across the curriculum that are designed to stretch and challenge their academic potential.

In Maths, pupils from First Year and upwards take part in mathemarical challenges run by the UK Mathematics Trust. In Sixth Form, Maths extension sessions are geared towards the British Maths Olympiad and university admissions tests. Hampton’s chemists take part in a number of national events and competitions and regularly excel in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge and the Chemistry Olympiad. Our Physicists and Biologists also participate in their respective academic Olympiad competitions.

Sixth Form Modern Languages pupils regularly take part in debating competitions in French, Spanish and German. In recent years, our Germanists have reached the final of the Goethe-Institut Debating competition and Hampton’s Francophiles were crowned winners of the prestigious 2021 Joutes Oratoires Lycéennes competition. The School also enters pupils in the UK Linguistics Olympiad, a national competition which presents pupils with a language that they have not studied before and tests their ability to decode linguistic information.

The Shell Eco-Marathon is a highly prestigious international competition, usually reserved for university students. In recent years, Hampton has put together a team from across the year groups to design and build a racing car for the “battery electric urban concept vehicle” category.

The School offers the Silver Arts Award to pupils in the Third and Fourth Years. The Arts Award, managed by Trinity College London in association with Arts Council England, enables young people to research, plan, complete and review a creative project of their own choosing, as well as developing leadership skills in their chosen area.

They produce a portfolio to evidence their work. There is a great deal of flexibility regarding what projects pupils may choose, possibilities include: performing arts, such as music or drama, visual arts, for instance sculpture or painting, creative writing, multimedia, such as film, photography or web design, a combination, or any other activity which involves a significant element of creativity. The award is a Level 2 qualification, which is the same standard as a GCSE or IGCSE higher level grade.

In recent years, Hamptonians have undertaken projects of impressive quality, including publishing photographic and literary books, making films and building dioramas; examples of some of their excellent can be seen below. They have also delivered workshops to younger pupils to teach the skills they have learnt, enabling them to build strong presentational skills for the future.

The Arts Award is an excellent opportunity for boys to pursue a passion of their own, be creative and gain an extra qualification, without the limitations of a syllabus.

The Young Reporters programme is run in collaboration with Newsquest Media Group and involves schools across London and the South East.

The initiative enables teenagers to gain industry experience, hone their writing skills and develop the discipline of meeting deadlines.

Students who sign up to the scheme will be expected to complete eight different journalism assignments in a range of categories across the year. Their articles will be published online and those who complete all of the assignments by the deadlines will be awarded Certificates of Recognition. Prizes will also be awarded for the best writing within different categories.

Boys who join Young Reporters will have a chance to experience what it is like to be a journalist, and to have their articles, on the local issues that interest them, published for a real audience.

For the First and Second Years, Think! sessions are held once a week during lunchtime. These sessions are centred on the boys displaying marked academic ability.

Boys are encouraged and motivated to take part in intellectually stimulating activities in an environment that will teach them how to think more independently and allow them to stretch themselves academically.

Every week there is a different approach and a different topic, covering all academic subjects. Skills covered include memory techniques, which have helped boys to tackle revision in a more productive manner. Literacy skills are worked on through ‘dingbats’, impossible stories, close reading, lateral thinking and critical thinking; some mathematical problem-solving is also covered.

Three main laboratory based workshops are carried out with the help of specialist subject teachers during the year and the use of computer rooms is also required for certain activities.

Some of the activities are based on the Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is a model for conceptualising higher level of thinking skills for gifted learners. However, the focus of the Think! Sessions lies on the three higher level of the taxonomy (analysis-evaluation-synthesis), enabling all pupils to develop their cognitive processes.

Thinking games and P4C are also useful tools to develop pupils’ curiosity, reason and precision in the use of language, which are the key to promote independent thinkers and learners.

Academic Extension & Enrichment

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Academic Extension & Enrichment

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