History Society, Marvellous Music & Rowing Champions!

Welcome to the Third Year Blog!

Lordy beans it was warm on Thursday! One of the primary indicators of the rising temperature as the year progresses at Hampton is the rising percentage of boys on the 3G who choose to take their shoes off when playing Football on the 3G (of course, this isn’t allowed, so their socks only experience a very brief freedom). On Thursday, the teachers on duty would barely have had the chance to try to deal with the Rugby players grappling with each other because of the amount of footballers they would have been having to tell to put their shoes back on. Such is the way of the Hampton summer.

But it is not yet summer. No! Thursday was merely the Vernal Equinox, as you all knew. This means that, actually, it is only just the start of spring. On Thursday at noon, if you were on the Equator (which you probably weren’t), the sun would have been directly above you. You would have had no shadow at all, unless your hair was particular voluminous (which is not a problem the Third Year Blog faces). In astronomical terms, the equinoxes are the moments when the northern and southern hemispheres get exactly the same amount of day and night time hours as each other. The solstices, which happen in the middle of summer and the depths of winter are the points when the difference between the day and night time hours in the different hemispheres is at its greatest.

What does this mean for the Third Year? Precious little. But, what knowledge to be able to take with you. Never underestimate the importance of knowing something that other people might find interesting!

So, what do we have to report in terms of the Third Year? Well, this week’s blog is one of the moments where the Third Year Blog itself can only sit back and admire the sheer variety of pursuits that the pupils pursue. Bravo all. Read on, champions!

Heads of Year Message

We are pleased to have been promoting Neurodiversity Celebration Week and endorse the feature on this later in this blog. It is important that we all respect and celebrate our diversity in this regard, with each bringing distinctive strengths and superpowers, and we regularly reinforce this message with the boys at school.

Notices

• Please can all pupils ensure that they check their school email once a day, but not during lessons or school hours unless with the express permission of a teacher.
• Please can all pupils take a moment to respond to the summer term Sports Options email from Mr Mills by end of Monday.
• Midday on Friday next week brings the end of another action-packed term. The final half day of school will be a mufti-day with funds raised towards our nominated Form Charities for the year.

Form Charity

All funds raised from the billed contribution will go directly towards our three charity partners for this academic year, Shooting Star Hospice, Alzheimer’s Society and UNICEF.

Form Charity will also be running a donation collection for Feltham Food Bank on Friday 28 March. Find out more about this later in the blog.

Reports

Reports will be available for parents to view via My School Portal from 4.00pm next Friday. We encourage all parents to review and discuss your son’s School Report with him over the holidays. Form Tutors will conduct academic review meetings with their tutees from the start of next term.

Exams

Third Year internal exams will take place during the week before summer half term from May 19-23. We would like to emphasise that the Easter holidays should not be treated as study leave. We do not expect Third Year pupils to start their revision over the Easter holidays. However, the holidays do present the ideal opportunity for everyone to ensure that any missed work is caught up and there are no gaps in notes, so that we are all ready to “hit the ground running” from the start of the summer term. We will cover Study Skills with all Third Year pupils during PSHE lessons from the start of next term and there will be no “new” homework set (other than structured revision tasks) by teachers in the two weeks leading up to exams.

Vaccinations

The Richmond Immunisation Team will attend school on Tuesday 25 March to administer DTP teenage booster, MenACWY, and MMR (for anyone who has not already had two doses) vaccinations. The nursing team wrote to Third Year parents on Monday 3 March to share the letter containing the link to the parental consent form. The deadline for completing the consent form is Friday 21 March (today). Please contact the School Nurses if you have any questions about the vaccinations: Nurse@hamptonschool.org.uk.

Absences

If your son will be absent from School for any reason, please complete the absence reporting form, which can be found on My School Portal on every morning of your son’s absence.  For absences other than illness e.g. if a pupil has a dental or medical appointment during School hours, notice of this should be given in advance. For planned absences, please contact Heads of Year requesting the absence with as much notice as possible.

Boys – Please let us, your Form Tutors or the relevant subject teachers know if you have any difficulties. Have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Mr T Rigby & Mr H Moore

Rowing

Let’s hear all about the recent Kingston Head, which took place last weekend:

On the 15 March, at around 9:30am, three J14 octos set out from the boathouse for nearly everyone’s first race. We left after the older year groups, due to our start times being later than theirs. We rowed lightly down to the lock, where each of our crews experienced the odd sensation of the water simply sinking beneath the boats, which was quite the spectacle. We rowed down a new stretch of the Thames about 1.5km down the river, and then stopped at the bank, just tapping up, waiting to start.

It was a cold morning, and everyone there was shivering; everyone who brought layers was extremely glad! Our crews were 113th, 115th and 117th in the order of boats, and so we did have to wait quite a while. However, our top octo started our race first, and we started off very strong, holding a fantastic pace down the first one or two kilometres of the river, all the while keeping an eye on our technique and sitting up straight. However, when we turned round the large bend in the river, we were hit by a huge headwind, slowing us down a reasonable amount. We were still travelling quite fast, however, and we kept this speed all the way down the river, and then all the way to the welcome finish line.

All three crews rowed as hard as they could over the 5.2km of the race, and the results show. Our C crew, the only C crew in the competition, came seventh, but only twenty-five seconds behind a strong B crew; a tremendous effort. Our B crew rowed outstandingly, coming third overall and beating two A crews in the process! Our A crew rowed fantastically as well, just taking the win over a very strong Brentford boat, winning by just 0.2 seconds!

It was a great day, and, despite the difficult distance and conditions, everybody had fun and enjoyed a day of rowing. Our next race is on Wednesday 26 March, where we will take on some more challenging opponents at Dorney Lake.

By Joe B (3B)

History Society

At Hampton there are many clubs on offer, one of which I attend regularly is History society, which takes place every Friday at 1.10pm in the Lecture Theatre. It is a fun club, that is open to all year groups. Usually it is a history-based quiz. There are typically three rounds, and they all test your historical knowledge in different ways.

The main round is the general knowledge round, which is pretty self-explanatory, with random questions about history. However general knowledge is not the only skill you need to have to get high scores on the quiz, as there are different rounds each week. My favourite round is the AI round, where Mr Roberts asks ChatGPT to pick ten words relating to a historical figure, we then have to pick three words we think are going to be on that list and one point is awarded for each correct answer. If you win, there are edible prizes on offer. It is not just quizzes that happen though, sometimes A Level pupils give talks about historical events or sometimes even artefacts are brought in!

Last year Mr Roberts let us see his Dad’s WW1 battlefields collection, meaning we got to see old guns, helmets, and much more. This was the first time me and my friends saw real battle material and it was amazing. Overall, History Society is a very good club that we are fortunate to have at Hampton. I would recommend it to everyone!

By Dennis H (3G)

Chamber Concert

At Hampton, there are so many opportunities to play music, and I am fortunate enough to be part of one of the many chamber groups that run at Hampton School.

I am part of a very talented piano quartet, and the instruments in this are: a violin, viola (which is what I play), cello, and a piano. We have been preparing for the Chamber Concert for quite some time, making sure our piece was perfect, and after many rehearsals it finally came. The night we all were waiting for. We were also able to sneak in a rehearsal right before the concert!

Luckily, we were in the second half, meaning we could watch all the groups from the first half perform. There were so many talented musicians and it feels like quite a privilege to be in a school which has so many amazing musicians. Finally, it was our time to perform, we waited to the side of the stage and, with nerves, we all walked onto the stage of the amazing Hammond Theatre. The second we started playing, my fears left: it was so much fun! We played really well and I must give credit to the piano player who had an incredibly difficult part but played it very well.

Once again, thank you Hampton for giving all these pupils such amazing opportunities to play in groups like these.

By Pierce B (3G)

Choral Society

On Saturday, we had the choral society performance at the Hammond Theatre, featuring multiple pieces. The evening began with Haydn’s ‘Insanae et Vanae Curae,’ followed by Nelson Mass’ ‘Missa in Aguiistis.’ We also performed Fauré’s ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’ and Lili Boulanger’s ‘Vieille Priére Bouddhique.’

The performers included various choirs from LEH and Hampton, along with an orchestra. The performance was an extremely successful evening, with some amazing singers and orchestra members who all contributed to a memorable experience.

By Devam K (3F)

Badminton and Table Tennis

At the beginning of every Thursday lunch, Badminton and Table Tennis Club starts. You can challenge your friends to a fun game of Badminton or try to beat your friends in an intense game of Table Tennis!

I tagged along with a few of my friends, and we decided to play an intense game of around the world on a table tennis table. Around the world is a simple active game where the players hit the ball to the opponent’s side and run to the other side to receive it. It may sound easy with four people, but with four people running around, it can be confusing!

Badminton Club is more well known here at Hampton and lots of people come to play weekly. On Thursdays, you could see people waiting around the courts to play. Come along to Badminton and table tennis club on Thursday lunch time!

By Kevin K (3G) 

The drive to dunk

After a brief pause for illness, let’s hear from Jojo O’S (3F) and his pursuit of a dunk continues….

A few days ago, I was watching the U16 3v3 Basketball tournament in the Sports Hall, and thought that maybe I could try again for a dunk. As the Fifth Years watched, I rose up and just about dunked. It was a good start and, even though it was not the most emphatic dunk, it was a place to grow from. On Wednesday, the day of my basketball training, I had just finished playing a practice game, and our coach said that we could shoot around for a bit until all of the U18s and U16s had arrived.

I thought that it would be the perfect time to attempt another dunk. With the adrenaline still in my body, I slammed some much better dunks in front of my friends, kids in older years and my coach, who I hope was suitably impressed.

Everyone was pretty shocked that I could dunk, but I think that my jumping ability simply stems from just jumping a lot, in my garden and in training and games. Also I am pretty tall so that helps a bit!

I have now dunked at a younger age than excellent players such as Kobe, Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid, and dunked in the same year as prestigious athletes like Lebron James and Anthony Edwards. Next step: in game!

While it is great news that Jojo has managed to dunk, the Third Year Blog is still keen to be able to present video evidence. Hopefully next week… Well done, Jojo!

Food Bank Collection

Please support our Feltham Food Bank on Friday 28 March. They are particularly in need of cooking oil, instant coffee, sugar, vegetable noodles, tinned meat, tinned fruit and vegetables, dried lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans. Please bring your donations to the front of School from 8.15am. Thank you!

Neurodiversity Week

This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week. It’s when people all over the country are encouraged to think about and celebrate neurodiversity, as well as challenge stereotypes people might have about it. There are plenty of resources available, so why not take a look here and find out more!

Two Truths and a lie

As you will all remember due to the sheer scale of the event, last week we had Mr Rigby, one of the Third Year’s illustrious leaders, as our resident liar. Rumour has it that he had to be physically restrained from issuing himself with a 30 minute conduct detention for lying.

Anyway, here is what he claimed…

• Mr Rigby once featured in a BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel ‘Persuasion’. His role was to fall out of a tree and ‘have his brow mopped’
• Mr Rigby represented Durham University at Ultimate Frisbee
• Mr Rigby sets the thermostat in the Third Year Head of Year Office so that it is one degree centigrade higher than the temperature in the rest of the school

Which was the lie?

Mr Rigby is an athlete. This has never been in doubt. This means that OF COURSE he represented Durham University at Ultimate Frisbee. He is also a thespian. This means that, while the Third Year Blog has not seen his performance in the BBC adaptation of ‘Persuasion’, its power is legendary. Never has a brow so convincingly needed to be mopped. Never has a tree been so truly, emotionally, compellingly fallen out of. Of course, what this all means is that the thermostat in Mr Rigby’s office is not set a degree higher than the rest of the School, even though he tells the Third Year Blog that that would be something he would quite like. The Bursar runs a tight ship!

This week we have Mr Perry, the U14A Rowing coach pulling the wool over our eyes. Here are his claims:

• Mr Perry won the national schools’ regatta
• Mr Perry climbed Macchu Picchu in a Huddersfield Town shirt
• Mr Perry coached a crew to a Bronze medal at the coastal rowing world championships

Which is the lie?

Connection Corner

Well done to the everyone who had a go at last week’s Connection Corner. Merits go to all those who correctly guessed that the answers were all British Prime Ministers! Big shout out to Alex G, Matthew L, Ishaan M, Huw C, Oscar S, Oliver Y, James G, Luke F, Liam C, Joe B, Josh B, Shishir V, Sebastian W and Dennis H.

Another tricky one this week, have a go over the weekend and see if you can spot the connection:

Have a great weekend!