Welcome to the First Year Blog!
We are waiting with bated breath for the Hampton ducklings to arrive in the Cloisters and, in anticipation, we have an interview with Mrs Moria, our Deputy Bursar and Guardian of the Ducklings. This week we put the general knowledge of First Year Hamptonians to the test with the first round of the Interform Quiz. Teams of four competed and new teams from the winning forms will face each other in the semi-final next Thursday. Do come along to watch and support your classmates.
Public exams are underway which means some classroom moves and plenty of yellow signs telling us to divert and to be quiet. It’s a good way to focus the mind as First Years begin their revision in earnest for their end-of-year assessments on May 19.
Nevertheless, there is still plenty of time for sport and frippery! This week’s blog has a cracking cricket report for you to enjoy.
Enjoy a sunny weekend!
QUIZ update
Let’s hear from Mr Jimenez on this week’s Interform Quiz action:
Well done to 1F, 1G, 1J, and 1W who have made it through to the semi-finals! The semi-finals and final will be played at lunchtime next Thursday 15 May.
In order to get a range of pupils participating, please pick another team of four for the semi-finals. Forms are welcome to pick a third team for the final for in case they win the semi-final!
- Semi-final 1 (1W vs 1J): 12.40pm
- Semi-final 2 (1G vs 1F): 1.00pm
- Final (SF1 winners vs SF2 winners): 1.20pm
Commiserations to the other Forms but well done to all for some excellent quizzing this week!
And Agastya J (1J) tells us about his exciting quiz match against 1H:
Ever since I was picked for the quiz, I was excited to represent my Form. After we entered the classroom, Mr Jimenez showed us what we had to do. Our team was me, Alex B, Arhaan K, Poyraz D and we were playing 1H. The first points went to them but then we started to fight back. It was a close game at the start but then we started to pull away. At the end we ended up winning 80-25 with a valiant contribution from everyone in the team. We were very happy to have got past the first round and now for the later stages we will hand it over to the other people in our Form.
Runs Aplenty
On 7 May, the Hampton A team were set to take on Dulwich College at home. We had to bat first and in 25 overs, we scored just over 200 runs with Smyan M and Bertie E both scoring fifties. Afterwards, we went out to bowl with a high spirit as we had scored back-to-back 200+ first innings scores. We bowled Dulwich’s bagtters out for around 75 runs and I was very proud of the five wickets I took, I also chipped in with a catch. This upcoming Saturday we have Reed’s School (away) and I hope we can repeat this performance.
By Arhaan K (1J)
Hampton Ducklings
The First Year Blog spoke to the Deputy Bursar Mrs Moria about the impending arrival of the Hampton ducklings:
Do you have an idea of how long the ducklings have been coming to Hampton for?
I believe they could have been coming for the last twenty or so years. Before The Barry Martin Centre was built there was an open quad with a large pond in it. They used to nest in there and after that building was built, they moved to the Cloisters.
Is it always the same mother duck who brings them?
We don’t know. We think there must be a family link, so whether it started with one mum and we now have the children/grandchildren of the original Mrs Duck we do not know. Google suggests it is likely to be the same family: “The female, accompanied by the male, searches for a territory. Most often, she will choose a territory close to where she was born. Some females return year after year to the same site. The nesting site may be close to a pond but is frequently at some distance and may even be far from water.”
How accurately can we predict when they’ll arrive?
Normally in March/April mum and two dads will start visiting. Irregularly at first and then increasing the frequency and timing of their stay. Once the mother duck has laid her eggs, she will stay on the nest for 28 days leaving only to eat and drink.
How many were there last year?
We started with 12 ducklings, and we released 10. Unfortunately, we lost one quite soon after they hatched and one just before we moved them. A successful hatch is considered when over 50% of the birds reach it to adulthood, so it was a good year for the Hampton ducklings in 2024.
How long are they here for?
Last year, they were here for three weeks. It’s a judgement call as to when we move them. We try to make sure they’ve had the chance to grow a bit to give them the best chance of survival in the wild. Last year they decided they wanted to stay until they could fly away which was when they were 60 days old!
Are there any predators that they face in the School grounds?
We are very lucky that they are protected from foxes. Unfortunately in the Cloisters, crows are their biggest predator.
Do you see them enough to get a sense of any individual characters?
Unfortunately not.
How do you manage the process of them leaving?
Moving them is quite stressful. Normally, there are five of us who come in early on a Sunday morning to do it. When she feels threatened Mrs Duck flies off and there is the potential that she could abandon the babies, so we have to be careful this doesn’t happen. We funnel all the babies into one area and gently place them into a large high sided container. We put this on the back of the School Buggy and drive slowly over to the back of the field. We may have to stop to make sure Mrs Duck is still around. When the babies are separated from her they make a distress call and you can hear them calling to each other. Once we know Mrs Duck is at the back of the field, we release the babies by the fence so that they can easily access the River Crane which is behind the fence. We then watch from a distance to make sure they are all reunited. The whole process can take about 2½ hours.
I saw the new duck house in the Cloisters – who built that and did they use it?
We bought this one to see if they would use it. They did when they were very little, we think it needs to be a little bit bigger, so Mr Jarvis our Maintenance Manager, who is also a very skilled carpenter, is going to make a new one for next season.
How long have you been in charge of making sure their Hampton experience is a good one?
It’s a complete team effort, my job is to buy the food! The Cleaning Supervisors and Keepers are responsible for feeding them. The Grounds team are responsible for making their accommodation nice and they also put the pond in this year. Quite often when the team arrive at 5.30am in the morning Mrs Duck is at the doors by the Hammond Theatre pecking on the door to remind them that she wants feeding! I think the arrival of the ducks makes everyone in the School feel a bit happier, so it feels right that we do our bit to make their stay as comfortable as possible.
Creative Writing Success
I am thrilled to have been chosen as a finalist in the Richmond Arts Festival Creative Writing competition where hundreds of tenacious, avid contestants all around Richmond were asked to write about a particular topic. For this year, the topic was ‘change.’ There are many propagated ideas that have been written in many articles, so it was quite a challenge to dot the I’s and cross the T’s to get in the top forty spots. I wrote about a boy whose father was made redundant, and they were forced to move to a faraway city, where the story culminated in a cliffhanger in which the boy forms a newfound friendship.
But that was just the beginning. When I departed from the front gate of Hampton, I came to the car and heard the news I had been selected out of over 700 people and the only Year 7 from Hampton School to make it into the Years 7-9 category. With feelings of happiness and anxiety, I was guided down into the cavernous auditorium. It was like being an actor on stage, happy to get the role but nervous you would forget a line.
All the stories were either acted out, portrayed on the screen or simply read. When the director of the competition, Marc Batten, read ‘A New Beginning by Reyansh K’, my heart skipped a beat. It felt amazing to have your work first printed in an anthology of fabulous stories and portrayed on screen. The finale was stupendous. When the list for Year7-9 finalists category was called out, I walked down the stairs to the platform, where I was given a certificate by the Mayor of Richmond, who shook my hand, and took photos with all the other finalists.
It was one of the best moments of my life. I was encouraged to write creative stories when I was around five. Little did I know nearly seven years later, I would be a finalist in the biggest creative writing competition in Richmond. This is unexplainable in mere words to describe how elated I was. This has been great, and I express my gratitude to The Writers’ Room without which I would have never succeeded one of my heart’s most ardent desires.
By Reyansh K (1L)
Special Shoutout
Nico AG (1F) took part in the Surrey Megafinal this past weekend, which is the first stage of the UK Chess Challenge, one of the largest junior chess competitions in the world.
With a score of 5 out of 6, Nico not only secured second place in the Under-12 mixed group, earning a medal, but also qualified for the next stage—the Gigafinal. Well done Nico!
Tutee of the Week
Every week, the First Year Tutor team nominate a boy 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 Agastya J (1J) on being named this week’s Tutee of the Week.
Agastya J (1J) has shown plenty of enthusiasm and great team spirit, particularly during the Interform Quiz this week – well done Agastya!
Artist Anonymous
For Giving Day this year, we are hosting an ‘Anonymous Artist Postcard Sale’ and we would like as many pupils, parents, and staff, as possible to demonstrate their artistic talents. To get involved, you can collect a postcard from either the Art department (F63) or the Alumni office (G3). You then have until Monday 2 June to create and submit your anonymous masterpiece. Members of the Hampton community will be invited to view the art work online (exhibited at School to staff and pupils on Wednesday 2 July) and make a donation to take a masterpiece home. Hidden amongst the masterpieces will be submissions from professional Artists – will you take home a piece created by a current award-winning artist? Or one created by the next Picasso?
Battle of the Bands
The Summer Rock Concert is being held on Tuesday 24 June, and this year will take the format of a ‘Battle of the Bands’ in aid of the upcoming Giving Day. The audience will be given the chance to vote for their favourite band, who will win some music vouchers and the opportunity to play before the Summer Concert at the end of the year.
Auditions are open to bands and soloists from First Year to Lower Sixth – all the required information was sent round in an email last Friday. The deadline for signing up for an audition is Friday 16 May. If you have any questions, come and find Mr Ferrier in the Music Office.
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! Points for the interform competition will be awarded to the Form with the most correct entries over the course of the term! 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: How many different sports can you find on the benches in the Physics Quad?
I had a count myself this week and counted 18 – bonus points if you know what all the sports are! A big shout out to Faris M-C (1W) who was the only First Year to guess this week’s correct answer.
This week’s challenge:
Hampton’s climbing wall is now in full use with climbing being a sports option for Friday afternoon in the summer term! But where is the climbing wall?
