From the Headmaster's Study
04 July 2025
As the summer break beckons for pupils and teachers alike, it’s a pleasure to reflect on another joyful, vibrant and hugely fulfilling School year. In keeping with our ethos and values, Hamptonians have enthusiastically embraced the wide-ranging opportunities available to them with characteristic energy, intelligence and good humour.
Across all year groups, our pupils’ achievements have been many and varied during 2024-25. In early May, our Second XI footballers completed an historic treble by adding the English Schools’ FA (ESFA) U18B national title to their Elgin League and London Independent Schools’ Cup trophies. Only last week, Hampton’s talented Chess players joined them as national champions after winning the ECF National Schools’ Chess Championship. Rajat Makkar of our Upper Sixth led the team to victory and continues his ascent toward Grandmaster status.
Our senior dramatists and their LEH counterparts were deservedly awarded ‘Best Musical’ at the National Schools’ Theatre Awards for their dazzling joint production of 42nd Street. And back on the playing fields it has been a vintage summer for Hampton Cricket, with our U17A and U13A teams both progressing to English Schools’ Cricket Association national finals and our U12As winning the County Cup. Meanwhile, three Hampton athletes – Joe Timba, Marcus Solomon and Luke Mills – will be representing Middlesex at next week’s English Schools’ Athletics Championships.
On the water, it has been a successful summer regatta season for the Hampton Boat Club, culminating in two senior crews racing at Henley Royal Regatta this week. After Wednesday’s thrilling victory over the undefeated Australian national junior champions St Ignatius’ College in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup, Hampton’s Championship VIII will face St Edward’s School at 6:45pm this evening. I have no doubt that Hamptonians of all vintages, myself included, will be tuning into the YouTube livestream (linked here) to support our oarsmen. Come on, Hampton!
You can read more about the above alongside reports on our exuberant Summer Show, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and the excellent Leavers’ and Summer Concerts, in the latest edition of News from Hampton (NfH), or via the news feed on our website (linked here).
I cannot claim to be impartial on the subject, but it remains a happily distinctive feature of Hamptonians that they carry their considerable talents lightly. They do so while supporting those around them with kindness and respect, and this spirit was palpably evident during this week’s Giving Day events. This wonderful shared enterprise was a timely celebration of commonly-held values, as families, pupils, staff, and alumni raised funds for the Fitzwygram Foundation’s single, transformative aim: to increase the number of means-tested Hampton Free Places. From bake sales, darts competitions and penalty shoot-outs… to inter-form relays and triathlons… to our very own edition of The Chase, it was an event blessed by sunshine, laughter and collective generosity in support of this most important of causes.
At time of writing, our fundraising total has reached over £250,000 with donations still arriving. All of them will help us to ensure that talented young people – regardless of their background – are able to benefit from a Hampton education. A Free Place here can be truly life-changing and this was poignantly expressed by Aadam Shahzad OH (2023) during our Founders’ Day assembly this week: ‘Without the support of the School and the Fitzwygram Foundation, my life would certainly be completely different. Not a single person in the area of London where I live had ever been to Oxford, and yet thanks to my Free Place at Hampton here I am, about to graduate there in a year’s time.”
The end of the current academic year represents a significant milestone for our departing Upper Sixth. As you’ll read in NfH, they thoroughly enjoyed their final days at School, and we bid a fond farewell to a year group that has really made the most of their time with us. Hopefully their Head of Year, Miss Smith, won’t mind me referencing her final address to our Class of 2025: “Upper Sixth, you are – in the best possible way – a year group full of personality. You’re bright, curious, and unafraid to be yourselves. But, perhaps more than anything else, you are notably big-hearted. That generosity – the willingness to be open with each other, to laugh together, to share burdens and lift spirits has been a defining feature of your year group and is foremost among the many things that we shall remember you for so fondly.”
We wish all of our Upper Sixth Leavers, and similarly our Fifth Years, every good fortune when their public examination results arrive in August. But beforehand there is plenty of time for rest, relaxation and perhaps some adventure…
Hamptonians and members of the Common Room will be heading off together on July or August trips to destinations such as Borneo, Ireland, Konstanz, Loughborough and Washington. As you read this, I shall be on my way to ‘ein Rendezvous’ with six colleagues and 45 Fourth Years in Berlin. It will be a personal pleasure to revert to being a History teacher and share a few days in my favourite European city with another inquisitive and vivacious group of Hamptonians.
I wish everyone in our Hampton family a restful, relaxing and restorative summer.
With kind regards
