NEWS FROM
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S PR I N G 2 0 2 2 INSIDE THIS IS SUE • BOOK CHARACTER DAY • ESFA FINALISTS • ISSP SCIENCE DAY • PERFORMING ARTS • ROYAL ACADEMY SUCCESS • TALK! • TOP PHYSICIST
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Hampton’s chemists have excelled in national competitions, with 27 Sixth Formers achieving medals in the UK Chemistry Olympiad, eight of them Gold. Hamptonians also took home 17 awards in the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge, with Upper Sixth Former Pallav Bagchi scoring in the top 1% of pupils sitting the paper and securing a Roentgenium medal.
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02 | NEWS FROM HAMPTON SPRING 2022
HOLOCAUST EDUCATION AWARD Hampton has been awarded the prestigious ‘Quality Mark’ by University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education, in recognition of the ‘world-leading’ quality of its Holocaust and genocide education provision.
The UCL assessment team also praised Hampton pupils for their subject knowledge, describing them as ‘being at the forefront of student leadership in this area’.
TOP PHYSICIST
In a first for the School, Upper Sixth Former Pallav Bagchi has achieved a Gold award in the British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad, an outstanding result that places him in the top 12 pupils who sat the notoriously difficult exam. Pallav will now attend a training camp at Oxford University and hopes to be chosen to represent the UK at the International Olympiad later this year.
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MUSIC SCHOLAR
Talented musician Henry Ward has been offered a four-year full Wind & Brass Scholarship from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Henry, who has played with both the National Youth Orchestra and the National Children’s Orchestra, will focus on the French Horn during his Music Degree and hopes to become a professional orchestral musician following his studies.
ROYAL ACADEMY First Year Leonardo Falcone’s lino print The Colours of my Notes was not only selected for the Royal Academy (RA) Young Artists’ Summer Show but will also be included in the RA’s annual calendar. Art Scholar Leonardo spent weeks carving the lino print which depicts him playing his acoustic guitar.
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BOOK CHARACTER DAY Literary characters ranging from Sherlock Holmes to Willy Wonka, alongside perennial favourites Harry Potter, Arthur Dent and Where’s Wally? roamed the Hampton corridors on Second Year Book Character Day. Leander Koutsoudis-Bhuller, who spent the day as Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, won the prize for best costume. The day included creative writing workshops led by young adult dystopian author Sarah Govett, who spoke to pupils about the inspiration behind her novels.
COOKING WEEK
First Year pupils were let loose in the kitchen during their annual Cooking Week. During the ‘Homework Holiday’, the boys were encouraged to hone their culinary skills and cook a family meal. The week culminated in a tea party held in the Dining Hall where there were plenty of homemade treats for pupils to share with the rest of their Form.
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SNAKE ENCOUNTER First Year biologists learned lots of fascinating facts about reptiles when groundsman Mr Gareth Hunt brought his collection of ball pythons to Biology Club. The young scientists had plenty of opportunity to handle the snakes, including some in the famous black and yellow colours of Hampton School.
STEM FAIR NO LIMITS WEEK
Lower School pupils were challenged to try out as many co-curricular clubs as possible during No Limits Week. With over 50 clubs on offer, there were plenty of activities for Hamptonians to choose from including Lego Architecture, Cryptic Crosswords and Dungeons and Dragons Club.
Over 80 Hamptonians from across the year groups exhibited projects at the inaugural STEM Fair held at Lady Eleanor Holles School. There was some impressive ingenuity on show with work on synthetic nylon muscle fibres to a hands-free bicycle indicator, and a robot that can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 102 seconds.
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ROCK CONCERT
Hamptonians from across the year groups raised the roof of the Hammond Theatre in this term’s Rock Concert. Sixth Form Band Atlanticus Oceanus opened the show, playing a stylish rendition of a Catfish and the Bottlemen track, and Fifth Years Felix Von der Geest and Leo Sutherby performed their own song Do you know who you’re voting for? Another highlight was Alas, No Moore’s cover of AC/DC’s It’s a Long Way to the Top with an unforgettable bagpipes section from Upper Sixth Former Shane Bowden.
STRING CONCERT
The Chamber Orchestra opened the String Concert with a vibrant rendition of Spring and Summer from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Younger musicians played an eclectic range of pieces from the contemporary Despacito on the classical guitar to a Bach prelude on the cello. Sixth Formers Johnny EvansHutchison and Freddy Liang, accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra, brought the evening to a close with Vivaldi’s Autumn and Winter concertos.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST The Sixth Form production of the Oscar Wilde classic, The Importance of Being Earnest, attracted rave reviews.
Directed by Upper Sixth Former Tom Ketel, the cast of senior pupils from Hampton and Lady Eleanor Holles transported the audience to Victorian London where the protagonist Jack creates a fictional brother ‘Ernest’ to escape his monotonous country life. Wit, humour and confusion ensue as Jack’s façade is unravelled.
MUSIC WORKSHOP Third Year musicians travelled to the Caribbean for an energetic Steel Pan Drumming workshop. Often described as the sunniest music on the planet, Hamptonians mastered an uplifting traditional piece from Trinidad and Tobago. The end result was a vibrant celebration of Calypso music in the Hammond Theatre.
CHORAL SOCIETY CONCERT The 2022 joint Hampton and Lady Eleanor Holles (LEH) Choral Society Concert, involved over 40 Hampton pupils plus many staff and parents. The 150-strong choir, accompanied by a full orchestra, performed the finale of Mahler’s Symphony No.2, a Shakespearean cantata by LEH composer-in-residence Mr Brendan Ashe, and Handel’s Zadok the Priest.
08 | NEWS FROM HAMPTON SPRING 2022
UKRAINE APPEAL The Hampton community has rallied to support the people of Ukraine. In conjunction with the Prosperity Café in Twickenham, the School organised a collection of items including torches and portable battery chargers. Our families have also raised over £15,500 to support the work of the British Red Cross and UNICEF in and around Ukraine.
SMELLS GRRREAT!
ZSL London Zoo thanked the Hampton Community for donating over 100 bottles of unwanted scent to help enrich the lives of the zoo’s gorilla population. Zoo keepers use perfume to encourage natural behaviours – replicating the scent trails animals follow when hunting for food in the wild.
FELTHAM REFUGEE APPEAL
There was an overwhelming response to our Feltham Refugee appeal this term. Dozens of bags of shoes and clothing were delivered to over 450 families, being temporarily homed in Feltham, who have arrived in this country with few or no belongings.
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TALK!
Pupils, parents, staff and partner schools filled the Hammond Theatre for our first public Talk! event for two years. Renowned political historian Sir Anthony Seldon provided an entertaining whistle-stop tour of 300 years of British Prime Ministers, offering his views on who have been the best - and why.
CHEMISTRY PARTNERSHIP As part of our secondary school partnership programme, Year 13 pupils from Reach Academy, Feltham made full use of our laboratory facilities to conduct experiments, as well as taking advantage of team teaching from the Heads of Chemistry from both schools.
ISSP SCIENCE DAY Hampton School hosted the first Independent State Schools’ Partnership (ISSP) event for over two years as pupils from seven partner schools came together for a fun day learning about Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The aspiring scientists investigated energy changes in chemical reactions, the effect of pH on digestive enzymes, and constructed hot air balloons to explore the concept of upthrust.
10 | NEWS FROM HAMPTON SPRING 2022
CROSS COUNTRY
Hampton’s runners excelled at this year’s Middlesex Cross Country Championships, with Second Year athlete Marcus Solomon finishing well ahead of the rest of the field to win Gold in the U15 event. There were also strong performances from Fifth Year Freddie Bate, who finished fifth in the U17 race, and Sixth Former Henry Fagan, who completed the U19 event in ninth place. The three runners went on to represent Middlesex at the English Schools’ Cross Country Championships, where Marcus ran superbly to finish 13th out of a field of 330 runners in the U15 race.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SUCCESS
Current and former Hampton gymnasts enjoyedmedal success for Team GB at the World Acrobatic Championships. Fifth Year Rex Booth produced a brilliant combined routine with his teammates to secure a Bronze medal. Also in superb form, Finlay Gray OH (2021) was crowned a senior double world champion and brought home a Gold and Silver medal in the individual events.
RUGBY
A strong Rugby VIIs season saw the U13s win their groups in the Surrey and national Rosslyn Park festivals. Our First VII won the Plate at both the Hampton Founders’ Day tournament and the Surrey VIIs, and the U15s reached the final two at both the Wimbledon College and Warwick School VIIs. The U16s brought home the Shield from RGS Guildford and congratulations to our U14s who won at the Ibstock VIIs.
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HAMPTON HEAD More than 2,000 young rowers from across the country competed at this year’s Hampton Head. Our oarsmen chalked up some great results with Captain of Boats, Jake Murray, finishing first in the J18 coxed four, along with James Radford, Jake Green, Alex Cresswell and cox Abhay Bahl, a feat matched by the J18 coxless four of Arjun Kang, Charlie May, Alex Duguid and Toby Gwynne. In the junior categories, there was also victory for the J14 octuple sculls and the J15 crew took Silver.
BOAT RACE
The 2022 Boat Race selection included an unprecedented five Hamptonians – three of them coxes. On 3 April, Charlie Marcus OH (2018) will cox Cambridge University Men’s Boat, while Joe Gellett OH (2018), coxes Oxford University’s Women’s Boat In March, Harry Fieldhouse OH (2018) helped the Cambridge Lightweight crew to a convincing victory, with Rollo Orme OH (2020) and Ed Campbell OH (2019) in cox position and seventh seat respectively for the Oxford Lightweight Boat.
DOUBLE ESFA FINALISTS!
Congratulations to our U13A and U16B footballers who are through to their English Schools’ Football Association (ESFA) Cup finals.
The U13 ESFA competition commenced with 630 teams and culminates with a Hampton team in this age group final for the first time in the School’s history. They now face Chesterfield High School, Liverpool in the summer term. The U16B tournament began with 57 teams, with Hampton making it through to the final two after an excellent 2-0 semi-final victory against Tunbridge Wells Grammar School in front of a delighted home crowd.
Director of Football, Mr David Burke warmly praised the players: “These results are just reward for all the hard work invested by every player. Demonstrating exemplary team work and determination, they have certainly lived up to our Hampton values.”
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