WELCOME TO THE SECOND YEAR BLOG!
This week saw the return of No Limits Week, which encourages pupils to try out three new clubs or activities. Second Year Hamptonians have been having a go at all sorts of fun activities from Beekeeping to Basketball! It also means we’ve got some new writers for the Blog this week, thank you for coming to Blog Club and I hope to see some of you again in the future.
This week is also a homework holiday for the Second Year to allow some time to recharge batteries midway through the half term and get ready for hard work over the coming weeks before we break up for Christmas. In the spirit of No Limits Week, hopefully you have spent the extra time on hobbies or trying something new outside of School!
MERIT MILESTONES
Another bumper week for merits! Well done to the following Second Years:
Ollie Scrimshaw – 10
George Townley – 10
Yule Choi – 10
George McElhinney – 10
Seb Mirza – 10
Ridhaan Gala – 10
Jack Marchant – 10
Alex Barkus – 10
Daniel Staskus – 10
Nirvaan Bal – 10
Jayen Li – 10
Yusuf Hussain – 10
Richard Campbell – 20
Noah Mearza – 20
Justin Kim – 20
Charles Brain – 20
Oliver Hodges – 20
Naivedya Agarwal – 20
Vivaan Senapati – 20
Vivaan Senapati – 30
Leo Syverson – 30
George Wright – 30
Ethan Choi – 30
Ethan Sharma-Wadeson – 40
Colin Yeung – 40
TUTOR QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Each week the pupils decide on a question to ask all the Second Year Form Tutors. This week…
You’re only allowed to eat food that’s either savoury, sweet, or sour for the rest of your life. what would you pick?
A. Savoury – Mrs Owen, 2W, Miss Tiller, 2F, 2H, Miss Holt, Mr Worrall
B. Sweet
C. Sour
This question caused some intense debates amongst our Second Year forms but it seems that Savoury took a narrow win nearly every single time! Mr Worrall very nearly picked ‘sour’ but then remembered his love of Pringles and 2W realised they could probably sprinkle salt on sweets to get around the dilemma!
Have you ever had a burning question you’ve always wanted to ask your form tutors?! If so, then please send your suggestions for next week’s Tutor Question Time to b.tiller@hamptonschool.org.uk.
No Limits Week
Russian Taster Club
I signed up for Russian Club as soon as the notification came out and I think that it if fun yet also a way of learning and keeping entertained at lunch. The Russian classes are taught by Mrs White in the languages department. The Cyrillic alphabet is very similar to English apart from some differences and pronunciations. At the end of the course, we are going to try some Russian food which I am excited about. It also teaches us some of the culture and history of Russia. I was joined by some friends, and it is a very nice environment in the course so far.
By Joe W (2J)
Junior Jazz Ensemble
This week I went to Junior Jazz Ensemble, one of the music groups which we can join. Junior jazz ensemble is a fantastic opportunity for a range of instruments to play some jazz for a about twenty minutes on a Wednesday lunchtime. I joined because I could play the trombone, but there are many instruments which can join. This Wednesday when I went, we played the famous jazz tune Bye Bye Blackbird, what I enjoyed about it, was although there was a set tune, we also did some improvisation, where we just made up our own notes to the music and did what feels right. This happens a lot in jazz, and it is very fun just making it up on the spot. We play a variety of jazzy pieces and even if it is just for a week or two, if you play a jazz instrument, I would highly recommend giving it a try.
By Reuben N (2W)
Blog Club!
Hello, my name’s Sujay and I’m currently writing this article in Blog Club on Wednesday 20 November. Now, you may or may not have wondered what Blog Club is like (you probably haven’t, but at least you can learn something!). So, I’ll take you through what happens every Wednesday in F68 at 1.15pm.
I usually have lunch and come to F68, (which is my form room, how convenient!) and wait for Ms Tiller to come in. After some of my other classmates leave as they suddenly feel the urge to have lunch, we start writing the articles for the Second Year Blog coming on Friday. Occasionally, we have the odd surplus of people to write lots of articles. As you may have noticed, the quiz questions sometimes have a common theme depending on what time of year it is. For example, we had Halloween themed questions in the blog just before half term. Who knows, maybe we’ll have Thanksgiving themed questions next time! You, the reader, can even suggest some of these questions! It doesn’t have to be in Blog Club only. The only limit is that they should be sensible and appropriate (obviously). So that’s a quick overview of Blog Club! It’s fine if you don’t want to join, but it would be appreciated if you come along!
By Sujay N (2L)
Take a look at just some of the clubs Lower School Hamptonians tried out during No Limits Week:
New Club announcement – Drama Improvisation Club!
We have a new Drama Improvisation Club starting on Wednesday lunchtimes at 12.35pm to 1.10pm in the Drama Hall run by Lower Sixth pupils. Improvisational theatre is a form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted and created spontaneously by the performers. If this sounds interesting to you, please come along!
The Comedy of Errors
Take a look at some of the highlights from last week’s play The Comedy of Errors:
Randall Munroe Lecture
Recently, I went to a talk in the Barbican Hall, in a big auditorium which was full of people, who came to listen to Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist who now writes xkcd comics and a popular book series of ‘What If?’, where he answers questions from other people.
What makes him popular is that he uses his scientific knowledge, asks other scientists in an unfamiliar field to help him, and then explains it in an entertaining way with lots of humour.
I wanted to go to the talk as I had read all the books and I had enjoyed them, so when my mum found out that there was a talk in London, I immediately said yes. Randall Munroe talked about his experience with NASA, and how he was working on a group project on a robot that was like R2-D2 from Star Wars, and how he hooked his wheeled chair on it while it was in explore mode. He also answered some of the audience’s questions, and it was clear how knowledgeable he was as he had done it on the spot. His favourite fact was from the research on why hamsters ran on wheels, in which he discovered that even if you put a hamster wheel in the middle of a forest, wild mice would still run in it. I recommend his books as he still explains it scientifically but even people that hate science would still enjoy his explanations.
By Erik P (2W)
Meta HQ
Recently, I visited the headquarters of the tech giant, Meta, arguably one of the most famous tech companies who are known for their social media and their products, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, the VR Meta Quest and the new Meta Ray-Ban Glasses that paves the way for future phones. On the ground floor, there were lots of murals on the wall. During my visit to Meta, the first thing that I saw was the Meta Quest VR. After passing the VR, we went to the elevator. The elevator was really peculiar as the buttons were on the outside of the elevator. After you pressed the button, it tells you which elevator to go to. It seems like it has calculated precisely which one is faster and can fit the most people in!
In the biggest building, there were lots of game rooms and areas. We went to the ninth floor where there were lots of rooms we can book from the tablets outside of the rooms. There was also a micro kitchen. A micro kitchen is a place with lots of snacks and drinks for the employees to munch on in their offices. There is also a stove, a fridge, microwaves and an oven. There is also fresh coffee and tea on the offer. On the ninth floor in the games area, there was a PS5 and a table football. There was also lots of vending machines for plugs and chargers and different connectors. It was really convenient as if you forget, you could just beep your ID card and get a new one. After a bit of play around, we went to lunch. It was pizza and lamb chops! There was also lots of other food on offer like chicken and there was desert and the salad bar. According to one of my dad’s friends working at Meta, you would get allocated a seat in one of the offices but you are allowed to work in one of the work area. The work area looks much like our own sixth form study area. Now, it is time for some history! The place of the Meta King’s Cross used to be a coal drop area where the coal would be shipped up the canal and processed there. Thanks for reading!
By Ian L (2F)
COP29
This week, I will be talking about a topic that you may not be fully aware of, despite its prominent presence in the media – COP29! This year, this month, on the 11 November – 22 November, scientists, politicians and world leaders met at the annual UN climate summit, in Azerbaijan, Baku, during what is set to be the hottest year on record. COP29 stands for the 29th Conference of Parties and in these conferences, they discuss a variety of environmental issues and ways/solutions to solve them. It is a pivotal opportunity for nations to act on the crisis of climate change. One of the main objectives of the UNFCCC (United Nations Climate Change Conference) is to limit the global temperature rise to a certain extent. To achieve this target, the signatory nations have committed themselves to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and will redouble their efforts in the upcoming conference to develop guidelines on how to implement essential matters such as transparency, financing, adaptation and technology. In this year’s conference, COP29 decided to agree a new target for how much money should be provided for developing countries to adapt to climate-fuelled weather disasters and transition to cleaner energy systems. Overall, COP29 is an organisation that brings ideas together on how to make our planet greener and eco-friendlier. I hope reading this has inspired you all to do your part in making our planet a better place to live on. Afterall, ‘’Every Little Helps!’’
By Riyaan G (2B)
Interview with Mike Wooldridge
Ethan SW (2L) had the opportunity to interview Mike Wooldridge over half term. As the interview itself was very detailed, we’ll be including a couple of questions and answers a week! As a reminder, Mike Wooldridge is an academic and author specialising in Artificial Intelligence (AI), amongst being an author he is a professor of AI at the University of Oxford.
How do you see AI changing human behaviour, in how we interact with other humans and in how we make decisions? Are these changes mostly good or bad?
I see artificial intelligence mainly as simply making us smarter. AI will be embedded everywhere that we have to make a decision. Just like satellite navigation systems make the task of navigating on our roads much easier and more convenient, so artificial intelligence is going to do that everywhere. It will make us be able to live better, healthier lives. It will enable organisations to be more efficient and more innovative. The thing that we’re going to see over the next few years is AI embedded in everything and very often we won’t even realise it’s AI there.
In one of your Oxford Union debates four years ago, you implied that “The Singularity” was a long way off. What is Singularity? Have there been any advances in AI in the past four years that could suggest Singularity would be sooner than you thought back then? When do you think Singularity could happen? And as humans do we need to prepare for it?
The singularity is the idea that at one point artificial intelligence will be as smart as human beings. And then, once we’ve reached that point, it seems inevitable that we will pass it: artificial intelligence will be smarter than people. And the worry is that at that point, AI will be beyond our control. There is even a scenario in which AI makes itself even smarter; and then the smarter AI makes itself even smarter; and so on. AI becomes super intelligent! It’s an intriguing idea, but it still feels like science-fiction. It’s recently come to the fore because of the success of programs like ChatGPT. We were surprised at how good these programs were. That success that some people to worry that maybe AI was getting out of control. It’s very hard to know if the singularity is a real concern. Personally, I don’t lose sleep over it. I think there are many more important things in the world to worry about than the idea of super intelligent AI getting out of control.
Autumn Poetry
As autumn’s story is retold.
The air turns crisp, the skies grow clear,
And falling leaves bring signs of cheer.
Pumpkins rest in fields so wide,
While harvest moons in silence glide.
The days grow short, the nights grow cold,
As autumn’s beauty does unfold.
Crisp leaves crunch beneath our feet,
The scent of wood and earth is sweet.
The gentle breeze that sweeps the ground,
Whispers secrets all around.
With every hue, both bright and deep,
The world seems calm, the world seems steep.
Autumn’s here with colours bright,
A peaceful end to summer’s light.
The stars at night shine clear and bright,
As autumn wraps the world in light.
A time for change, a time to see,
The magic of fall’s mystery.
By Shaurya D (2L)
Whiteboard Cartoon of the Week
I know you’ve all been missing our weekly whiteboard cartoons by Ethan C (2L). This week his cartoon is inspired by No Limits Week!
A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story
It’s Christmas Eve. As the cold, bleak night draws in, the penny-pinching Ebenezer Scrooge is confronted by the spirit of his former business partner, Jacob Marley.
Bound in chains as punishment for a lifetime of greed, the unearthly figure explains it isn’t too late for Scrooge to change his miserly ways in order to escape the same fate. But first he’ll have to face three more eerie encounters…
Mark Gatiss’ spine-tingling adaptation is faithful to the heart and spirit of Charles Dickens’ much-loved festive ghost story – with an emphasis on the ghostly. Get your tickets here.
SPECIAL SHOUTOUTS!
We love to hear about what you have been getting up to outside of school and to celebrate your successes in the Second Year Blog! Please do send any information about any of your achievements through to Miss Tiller. B.Tiller@hamptonschool.org.uk
WHO’S THAT BABY?!
Last week’s baby was 2B’s Form Tutor Miss Eamens!
Who do you think it could be this week? Don’t forget, I make all the photos black and white to make it that much trickier!
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 Harry C and Leo S (2L). Why don’t you have a go and enter your answers here.
Here are the answers to last week’s quiz:
- What is a baby hedgehog called? Hoglet
- Pumpkins are a fruit – true or false? True
- In Autumn, Swallows from the UK migrate to Africa. On average, how many miles a day will they cover? 200 miles
- What British garden bird is known for its ‘Autumn Song’? Robin
- Which poet composed ‘To Autumn’ the 1819 poem? John Keats
Well done to Sebastian M, Kaya K, Smyan M, Toby B, Ethan W, Kahana M, Naiveyda A, Ian L, Charlie F, Riyaan G, Caesar C and Milan S.
