Hampton School

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Hampton School
HamptonSchoolLogo.jpg
Motto Praestat Opes Sapientia
(Wisdom surpasses wealth)
Established 1557[1]
Type Independent school
Day school
Religion Non-denominational
Headmaster Mr. B. Martin
Founder Robert Hammond[1]
Location Hanworth Road
Hampton
London
TW12 3HD
England England
DfE URN 102946
Students 1,405
Gender Boys
Ages 11–18
Colours

Yellow & Black

         
Former Pupils Old Hamptonians
Website www.hamptonschool.org.uk

Hampton School is an independent boys' day school in Hampton, London, England. In 2009 it was ranked as the best school in the country at A-Level by the Independent.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1556, Robert Hammond, a wealthy brewer who had acquired property in Hampton, left in his will provision for the maintenance of a 'free scole' and to build a small schoolhouse 'with seates in yt' in the churchyard of Hampton Church .

Although Hampton School was founded in 1557 there was provision in the will that the school would only continue as long as the vicar, churchwardens and parishioners carried out his requests. If not, then the properties would revert to his heirs. It seems that the school (in its first incarnation) did not survive beyond 1568, or possibly earlier, and the properties reverted to the heirs.

Subsequently, however, the school was re-opened in 1612. This was as a result of a Commission that was established to enquire into the fate of Tudor charities that had disappeared for various reasons in different parts of the country. The "learned counsell on bothe sides" reached a deadlock at the Commissioners. However in the spirit of compromise and through the generosity of the then legal owner of the properties, Nicholas Pigeon, the school was re-endowed. The school has continued in various forms and in various buildings ever since.

The early school was on the site of St Mary's Church. It moved to a purpose-built campus on Upper Sunbury Road in 1880 before moving to the present site on Hanworth Road in 1939.[citation needed]

The School converted from voluntary aided status to become a fee-paying independent school in 1975[2] in the light of changes to the administration of secondary education in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and remains independent to the present day. It is located next to The Lady Eleanor Holles School for girls, with which it shares several classes, clubs, facilities and a coach service.

Founders' Day is celebrated by the school each year. The occasion is marked by a procession of boys walking from the school down to St. Mary's Church by the Thames, towards the end of the academic year.

[edit] Campus

The main School buildings includes an assembly hall, sports hall, theatre, classrooms, and specialist facilities for the Sciences, Technology, ICT, Art, Music, Drama and Modern Languages. The site of 29 acres (120,000 m2) includes playing fields including four rugby pitches, seven football pitches, six cricket squares, three astroturf and three acrylic tennis courts, athletics facilities, a climbing wall and the Old Hamptonians’ Pavilion. [1]

[edit] Charity

Through the Form Charity programme the whole school community helps raise money and awareness for good causes locally (e.g. Princess Alice Hospice, Barnardos, Home-Start and the Shooting Star Trust), nationally (Jeans for Genes Day and Breakthrough Breast Cancer), and internationally (Opportunity International, the African Medical and Research Foundation, Pahamune House and Kiira College). In 2004/5, over £22,000 was raised by Form Charity.

An Inter-Form Form Charity Competition is run in the first three year groups with Form Charity Cups presented in the last assembly of the academic year. A range of Whole-school events are organised each year. These include an annual Staff Stars in their Eyes, a Staff Cabaret, and a Staff versus Student University Challenge, sponsored cricket matches and mufti days, and an Amarillo video featuring staff. Individual form activities include sponsored silences and fitness programmes, the design and sale of Teacher Top Trumps Cards, cake and sweet sales, and auctions. An annual Second Year Sponsored Character Day is also organised by a member of the English Department to mark World Book Day. A member of staff swam the English Channel in aid of the local Shooting Star Children's Hospice.

[edit] Carbon offsets - climate neutral school

Hampton School is the first school in the world to move towards Climate Neutrality.[2] Working with Climate Care, one of the leading companies in the field, the school has taken steps to offset all the emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases produced by the daily running of the school site, by the flights and bus journeys involved in all School trips, and by the coaches which bring over half of Hampton pupils to school each day. Climate Care is offsetting all of these through a portfolio of projects including the provision of renewable energy and energy efficiency schemes in Southern Africa and India, and forest restoration in Uganda.[3] The climate-neutrality scheme was formally launched by Vince Cable MP, the Liberal Democrat economic spokesman.

In developing the climate neutral scheme, the school has also undertaken student-led "waste audits" designed to reduce greenhouse gases like methane and carbon, and is currently working with environmental architects to create a state-of-the-art "sustainable laboratory" within its Biology Department. Other projects, developed alongside Climate Care, involve building energy efficiency schemes in Southern Africa and India. The school has also added solar panels and a wind turbine.

[edit] International aid

Hampton finances a link with Kiira College, a secondary school in Uganda. Hampton has also actively aided countries such as Peru with charity, by establishing a microfinance bank helping those suffering economic hardship to set up small businesses. Hampton School has been awarded an S.O.S. Kit Aid Certificate by the International Rugby Board for providing sports kit for children in Eastern Europe and South Africa. Other overseas links include: Konan High School Jazz Band, the Mathieson Music Trust, Calcutta, St Hilda's School in Buenos Aires and Children's Art School No.5 Kiev.[citation needed]

[edit] Sports

[edit] Rugby union

Rugby union at Hampton School is of a high quality and former pupils include Simon Amor (England Sevens Captain) and Andy Beattie (rugby union) Bath Rugby and England 'A' player). Recent successes include winning the Middlesex Sevens in 2006, and 2007. The 1st XV reached the Daily Mail Vase Final at Twickenham in 2009 all players were given their honourary MBC's after the game. And the U15s reached the semi-finals of the 2010 Daily Mail Cup.[citation needed]

[edit] Football

Football is a very popular sport at Hampton, with a number of competitive teams in each year group. The school regularly takes part in national competitions, winning the Boodles ISFA Cup in 1999 and 2007 and reaching the final in 2005 and 2009. The 1st XI has been coached by former professional player Iain MacLean for over 30 years. In 2004, Carlos Mills began coaching the 1st XI, partnering MacLean. The school also hosts a 'Social League' for boys in 5th form and above. In the 2009/10 season the Hampton 2nd XI reached the 7th round of the English Schools Football Association U18 Cup.[citation needed]

[edit] Cricket

Cricket is of a high standard at Hampton and there are several teams at all levels. A school cricket "academy" provides coaching through the winter, headed by cricket coaching specialist Chris Harrison, with the aid of video technology. The 1st XI reached the National Independent Schools Twenty20 competition Finals in 2005 and 2007.[citation needed]

[edit] Rowing

Main article: Hampton School Boat Club

Hampton School Boat Club is one of the top school rowing clubs in the country and each year produces 1st VIIIs that compete at Championship level. The boat club is based at the Millennium boathouse which it shares with the Lady Eleanor Holles School. Rowing at Hampton is open to boys in the third year and above and the boat club competes at many races both at home and abroad. Hampton has produced three treble winning 1st VIIIs in its history and has been strongly represented at the Junior World Rowing Championships. Martin Cross, a history teacher there, is a gold medalist from the 1984 Olympics and won bronze in 1980. Many Old Hamptonians have gone on to compete at higher levels such as The Boat Race, the World Rowing Championships and the Olympic Games, with Greg Searle and Jonny Searle perhaps the most famous of those, winning gold in the coxed pair in Barcelona in 1992.

[edit] The arts

[edit] Music

In addition to class music, nearly 400 boys receive instrumental tuition from visiting teachers. Guitarist Brian May of rock band Queen was a pupil at the school. One pipe organ pupil at the school, Timothy Burke of The Mules, served as Organ Scholar at Exeter College, Oxford from 2001-2004. More recently, Lawrence Thain FRCO became Organ Scholar of New College, Oxford in 2008. Another boy, Tim Lambourn, became Organ Scholar of Jesus College, Cambridge in 2008: a fourth, Henry Chandler, was elected Organ Scholar of Pembroke College, Oxford with effect from autumn 2010. A fifth, William Round, becomes Organ Scholar of Brasenose College, Oxford in autumn 2011. All five were taught by Julie Ainscough. There is a full Symphony Orchestra, as well as a String Orchestra, a Chamber Orchestra, Wind Band and two Jazz Bands. There are about thirty different music groups playing regularly. Frequent concerts provide performing opportunities for these groups, and for soloists and chamber groups.

[edit] Drama

Dramatic productions also range widely: a typical year might see a Shakespearean or classical play, many studio presentations including pupils' own work, a musical, and evenings of junior drama, with each Form in an entire year group putting on a play, or a whole year group involved in a major production, an excellent example being the "450th Musical," a work designed to commemorate the schools 450th anniversary, which involved contributions from every year of the school, and was devised entirely by the 5th and 6th Forms. Part of it was shown to Prince Edward when he came to lay the foundation stone for the new 450th Performing Arts Centre, and he was said "to have laughed all the way through."[citation needed] A Hampton School Theatre Company, “In Human Form”, took its own plays The London Thing, which was well reviewed in both the Scotsman and the Times Educational Supplement,[citation needed] to the Edinburgh Festival in August 2000, and returned there in August 2001 with their play Lucky. A newly formed Theatre Company, “About Turn”, took its first production to the Edinburgh Festival in August 2002 and returned in 2004. A new Sixth Form drama The Dating Game, including a number of girls from Lady Eleanor Holles School, was shortlisted for the National Student Drama Festival in Scarborough in 2006 and was taken to the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, to highly positive reviews.[citation needed]

In 2008, the school (in association with Lady Eleanor Holles) performed Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". The staging was highly elaborate, including props (such as chairs and razors) from original productions at the National Theatre. In August 2009 the group, as Artfelt Theatre Company, took this production (albeit in shortened, reduced orchestration form) to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[3]

Boys from Hampton School have also a long history of being heavily involved in the production of the newspaper of the National Student Drama Festival (Noises Off). Current alumni on the staff there are John Winterburn (Office Manager), Henry Ellis, Euan Forsyth and Ben Lander.

[edit] Debating

A range of topics is addressed and boys of all ages are encouraged to participate, either as a main speaker or from the floor. Debates are held with the Lady Eleanor Holles School and teams are entered in national events, notably the Schools’ Mace and the Oxford Union competition.

[edit] Writing

The School Magazine, The Lion, which is distributed free and is produced by an editorial team of pupils, led by a teacher. It is produced at the School on its own desktop publishing equipment and supplied for printing on disc. This magazine includes boys’ creative and original writing. Boys, on their own initiative, also produce several student magazines, which offer much scope for creativity, and amusing insights into life at Hampton. An arts magazine called The Literary Lions is also issued on a regular basis.

[edit] Talk!

In September 2000 a lecture series “Talk!” was inaugurated. Since then over one hundred distinguished visiting speakers from the worlds of art, business, the media, politics and science have spoken and answered questions from large audiences.

[edit] Art

The School offers great encouragement and opportunity for boys to develop an interest in the Arts, with several going on to study Art and Architecture. The Art Club provides facilities for work in a range of media with competitions for those interested. In 2000, new facilities for Art were opened: these consist of four art studios (one for the Sixth Form) including a suite of 15 iMacs; a kiln for production of ceramics; and a gallery for student and external exhibitions. In 2004 a further studio was added.

[edit] Old Hamptonians

 This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (Consider using more specific cleanup instructions.) Please help improve this section if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (September 2010)

in alphbetical order See also Category:Old Hamptonians.

[edit] Notable teachers past and present

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Hampton School Archives, accessed 2011-04-29
  2. ^ Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 5 November 1980, column 579W.
  3. ^ http://ed.thestage.co.uk/productions/1655
  4. ^ http://fn.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/91/2/F150, http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/91/2/F150.pdf

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

  • Wild, Edward & Rice, Ken (2005) School by the Thames. Frome: Butler and Tanner Ltd (Ken Rice retired from teaching history at Hampton in 2007)
  • Hampton School Book
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