Hampton School
Encyclopedia : H : HA : HAM : Hampton School
 |
|
| |
 |
|
| Headmaster | Mr Barry Martin MBA (Aba) |
| Founded | 1557 |
| School type | Independent |
| Religious affiliation | Secular |
| Location | Hampton, London, England |
| Enrollment | 1,313 pupils |
| Campus surroundings | Suburban |
| Main Sports | Rowing, Rugby, Football, Cricket |
| Mascot | Lion |
| School colours | Yellow, Black |
| School Motto | Praestat Opes Sapientia (Wisdom surpasses wealth) |
Hampton School is a prestigious independent school for boys, located in Hampton, London, England. Originally founded on March 7 1557 from the will of Robert "The Hammer" Hammond, the early school assembled on the site of St Mary's Church and later moved to a purpose-built campus in 1880 on the Upper Sunbury Road before its move to the present site on the Hanworth Road in 1938.
The School returned to its status as an independent, fee-paying school in 1975 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 and facilities.
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 on the Wednesday closest to 7th March.
Hampton prides itself on its all-around successes, combining its sporting successes with a strong academic record, coming 18th in the country on A Level scores in 2004.
Sports
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.
HSBC is based at the Millennium boathouse which it shares with the Lady Eleanor Holles School Boat Club.
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 four treble winning 1st VIIIs in its history and has been represented at every Junior World Rowing Championships since the events' creation.
Many rowers from Hampton have also gone on to compete at higher levels such as The Boat Race, the World Rowing Championships and the Olympic Games.
Cricket
Hampton school has a fine cricketing tradition. Throughout the early 1990's it was inspirationally led by Jon Cook who set the standards to follow for the vast successes in the latter 1990's and early 2000's. Under Edward "Wessy" Wessons stewardship Hampton have enjoyed considerable success, including an unbeaten season in 2003 and successful tours of Barbados, Sri Lanka and most recently Cape Town, South Africa.
In 2005 a specialist coach was appointed; Lancastrian Chris Harrison - a former postman, window cleaner and teacher whose rise to coaching stardom has been remarkable. In his first season, with the excellent Toby Rowland-Jones as captain, the trio; Wesson, Harrison and Rowland-Jones helped Hampton reach the Independent Schools 20/20 final at Edgbaston only to lose to Champions Felsted. Promising cricketers currently at the school who look to have a bright future in club cricket include Chris Sellick (future 1XI captain), Sam Saidman (future 2XI captain) and Ryan Ramdin (former 2XI captain).
Rugby
Rugby at Hampton School of excellence is also of a high quality and former pupils include Simon Amor (England Sevens Captain) and Andy Beattie (Bath back row and current England 'A' player). Recent successes include winning the Middlesex Sevens in 2006.
Clubs
Philosophy Circle
Hampton School holds a distinguished philosophy circle on Friday luchtimes as meeting place for the school's philosophical community. All boys are eligible for membership. There were two distinct societies at one point: The Friday and Tuesday circle, and the Natural Philosophy Circle. On the dissolution of the Tuesday event, and due to the unfortunate departure of the founder, the Friday and Natural circle's were united in order to create a more focused productive meeting.
Talk!
The school runs a programme of visiting high-profile speakers, called Talk!, open to the public and to visitors from local schools. It was begun in the year 2000, attracting figures from a wide spectrum of achievement, and politicians of varying allegiances. It has been very popular thus far, being held in the Shepherd Lecture Theatre.
Trivia
- It is interesting to note that the head of Information Technology at Hampton is, indeed, purely fictional. He is specified throughout school publishing as Ian Trevana, whose intials spell "I.T". A running joke throughout the I.T. Department in recent years has been to "leave it to Ian".
- Football and rugby matches played against Kingston Grammar School are always referred to as "Home" whether they are played at Hampton or not.This is because the KGS team must travel further to reach their pitches (located in nearby Hampton Court) than the Hampton team does.
Old Hamptonians
- William Page (Highwayman)
- Brian May
- Paul Samwell-Smith
- Simon Amor
- Paul Casey
- Greg Searle
- Jonny Searle
Notable Teachers Past and Present
- Martin Cross - Olympic Rowing Gold Medallist
- Maurice Xiberras- The first leader of the Democratic Party of British Gibraltar (DPBG)
- Robin Bigwood - Famous harpsichord player and writer for Sound on Sound magazine
- Bruce Payne - Famous actor. Known to staff and pupils as Martin Payne. Featured in films such as Passenger 57.
External links
Sources
"School by the Thames" (Edward Wild and Ken Rice, Butler and Tanner Ltd 2005).
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.