The Bulletin Edition 8

This half term, we continue to celebrate the centenary of Hampton Prep, and our theme of “100 Wonderful Years” therefore remains. We have already enjoyed a variety of assembly presentations from boys and staff, each interpreting this theme in their own way last half term, myself included. I have chosen to leap about across the last ten decades in a pretty random order, drawing out remarkable stories and figures who have inspired generations across the past century.

This week, I had the privilege of introducing the boys in the Prep to an extraordinary British figure from the 1930s: the fearless aviatrix, Amy Johnson. We discussed the term “aviatrix,” an elegant but now less common word. I observed with the boys how now in our increasingly linguistically gender-neutral times such a word is no longer fashionable, and actually these days many would prefer to describe Amy Johnson simply as a fearless aircraft pilot.

In an era when women were rarely seen in the cockpit, Amy Johnson defied expectations and made history. In 1930, she became the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia, an extraordinary feat of courage, resilience, and self-belief. At the time of course, our school was only a few years old, but the boys attending it then would have doubtless been completely astonished by the news of her accomplishment.

Amy Johnson’s story taught us so much about determination and the power of believing in one’s own abilities. I shared with the boys how she faced numerous challenges and setbacks on her journey—yet she bravely kept going in her splendidly named aircraft ‘The Jason’, driven by a belief in her mission and in herself. The lesson arising for us from the assembly was that sometimes, the only thing standing between us and our dreams is self-doubt.

For a bit of fun, I invited the boys to imagine they were Amy Johnson touching down in Darwin, Australia, all those decades ago and to come up with what they thought she might have shared as an example of what kept her motivated during such an epic adventure. The boys shared quotes that reflected bravery, courage, and resilience. Finally, I shared her actual words, which resonate powerfully:

“Believe in yourself, and the world will believe in you.”

This is of course an inspirational reminder to all our pupils that their dreams, too, are within reach if they have the courage to trust in themselves. Thank you in advance for your continued support over the busy half term ahead of us, as we near the end of our celebration of the past 100 wonderful years!

It was straight back into football this week, as every boy played in a fixture against Surbiton Prep at some point. For the U8s this was a return fixture having put in some good results on the away leg. Unfortunately, the first half of the matches were a prime example of Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve in action, as the two week half term demonstrated its effect: boys playing with heads down and forgetting to spread out. For the As, they were 2-0 down before they knew what was happening. Fortunately, some half time reminders reinforced some prior learning, and the second half performance was a marked improvement, resulting in 2 goals. The score finished 3-2 to Surbiton. The Bs, Cs and Ds who shook off the rust a bit quicker, winning 4-0, 2-0 and 3-0 respectively.

STEM Day in Prep was exciting and inspiring, engaging boys in various hands on STEM activities and enlightening talks. Mr Iyer, a parent of a Year 4 boy, kicked off the day with an insightful talk on STEM and the importance of sustainability to each year group, generously taking time out of his busy day to share his expertise. His talk captivated the boys, who asked numerous thoughtful questions demonstrating their keen interest in these important topics.

Everyone has returned to school refreshed and ready to embrace the second half of term, which promises to be especially busy in the run up to Christmas. We have several key events happening towards the end of this term. Here’s a quick reminder of what’s coming up—we hope to see many of you at these exciting events!

The children have been full of excitement as they’ve come back to Kindergarten and jumped straight into our fun daily routine! We began our week by celebrating Diwali, also known as ‘The Festival of Light’. This is a special celebration for Hindus and Sikhs, but it’s enjoyed by lots of people around the world! We read the story of Rama and Sita, learning that Diya lamps are lit to welcome them home and to help Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, find her way into homes. The children enjoyed sharing their own Diwali celebrations with the rest of the class; we enjoyed hearing about Rangoli patterns, special outfits, parties with families, fireworks and sparklers. The children then got creative, making their own Diya’s using bright paper plates, colourful paints, and lots of sparkly gems to decorate them.

Reception focused their learning on the theme, Autumn Festivals of Light. On Monday, we enjoyed learning more about Diwali following on from our time in Kindergarten. Tuesday saw us discussing the origins of Bonfire Night and fireworks, which we used as inspiration for our literacy tasks. The class split into two groups to collaboratively write a Bonfire Night poem. It was wonderful to see how creative the children were, using lovely adjectives to describe their experiences of a Bonfire Night party.

In English, we have been immersing ourselves in poetry – listening to poems, joining in with reading poems and identifying rhyming pairs. It’s been a busy week! We will be continuing this focus next week. We have tried to use plenty of adjectives in our work, discussing how this can make our writing richer, and more interesting to read.

Year 2 were lucky enough to enjoy an African workshop, led by African Activities, allowing the children to be immersed in a variety of African experiences and cultures: First of all, the children learnt about adinkra symbols and their meaning; Adinkra is a cotton cloth produced in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire which has traditional Akan symbols stamped upon it. The adinkra symbols represent popular proverbs, express particular attitudes or behaviour uniquely related to abstract shapes. It is one of several traditional cloths produced in the region. The moon and star, for example, are a symbol of faithfulness, fondness, harmony, benevolence, love, loyalty, and femininity.