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Year Groups

Third Year

January 2010

Welcome back and we hope that you have all enjoyed a restful Christmas holiday. As a brief reminder, Mr Blyth is on sabbatical leave this term and, as a result, we shall be the Acting Heads of the Third Year (Mr Wiggins – h.wiggins@hamptonschool.org.uk – for forms 3A-D and Miss Shellard – r.shellard@hamptonschool.org.uk – for forms 3E-H). We are both looking forward to a healthy and productive term.

Your son’s Report should have arrived over Christmas, and congratulations to all the boys for collecting so many favourable comments.  May we suggest that you encourage your son to re-read his Report during this next week to remind him of his targets for this term.  One hundred and ten boys have, so far, collected at least 10 Merits, and in excess of 1,500 pieces of work have already been ‘merited’ since September.  The majority of boys are working hard, but this term is about every boy trying to establish effective work habits in preparation for the examination years.

Option choices for GCSE subjects will lead to some difficult decisions having to be made.  All the forms have already had a session with Mr Pat Talbot (Head of Careers) during the last two weeks of last term, and they will be encouraged to think further about future decisions when they undertake a Careers Exercise in the ICT Rooms before half term.  May we take this opportunity to remind you that GCSE option choice forms should be returned to your son’s Form Tutor by Wednesday 13 January.  If boys wish to make a change after this date, we can however usually accommodate their wishes. A request for an option change must be made by a parent or guardian in writing (or by email) to the Senior Tutor, Mr Alasdair McBay (a.mcbay@hamptonschool.org.uk).

We look forward to meeting many of you at the Parents’ Evening on Wednesday 24 February, about which you will be sent further information soon.

Now that the majority of the boys have settled into the new forms, the Tutors will be pushing the boys’ involvement in our extensive co-curricular programme.  We are very fortunate at Hampton that there are so many opportunities – one of the many advantages of a large school.  A revised schedule of all the co-curricular activities on offer to boys in the Third Year will shortly be posted in all form rooms and we would ask you to encourage your son to look at it.  Ideally we would like all boys to set themselves the target of trying one new activity or pursuit every term.

The PHSE programme continues of course, and on Thursdays this term, the boys will be discussing the topics of Prejudice, Alcohol and, after half-term, Sex Education.  You will receive further information about our Sex Education course in due course from Miss Shellard who is also the Assistant Head of PHSE.

We are also developing an enlarged Third Year interform competition this year.  So far points have been awarded for performance in the Team-Building day in September along with points for his form for every 10 merits collected by a boy.  Everyone who, at the end of last term, had also not had a single detention was awarded 10 points to his form and placed into a raffle to win a number of Amazon vouchers.  As an incentive to the boys we will be repeating this at the end of the Spring Term.  In addition, there will be a number of formally organised interform events coming up, including an Activities Afternoon on Thursday 25 March and the inaugural Third Year Quiz!  The form currently topping the rankings is 3E but it is all very close and there is still a long time in the School year left.

With respect to the current cold weather, may we also ask you to ensure that your son continues to adhere to the uniform code, wearing a black V-neck jumper if he so wishes, and travels to school with a coat over his blazer if necessary.  Boys are not permitted to wear sweatshirts, fleeces or hoodies under their blazers.

If you have a spare moment, you may like to re-read Mr Blyth’s September letter which can be found on the School Website under Pastoral/Year Group info/Third Year (http://www.hamptonschool.org.uk/news/yeargroups/third.shtml). We hope that the boys enjoy a good term, working hard and getting fully involved in life at Hampton.

We wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Yours faithfully

Henry Wiggins and Rebecca Shellard
Acting Heads of Third Year

 

Other News for the Third Year:

2009 - 2010

2008 - 2009

 

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