Aspire  Enjoy  Achieve

These three words sum up what Hampton Community College is all about.

As a specialist arts college we are committed to ensuring that all our students receive a high quality education which encourages them to reach their academic potential, whilst at the same time seeking to broaden their horizons and enrich their learning experience through the arts. Our latest OFSTED inspection in November 2008 observed that ‘the performing arts status of the college is central to its ethos, and is a strength,’ and the community projects undertaken as part of our specialism were judged to be ‘outstanding.’

HCC Year 7 Lead the Way on a National Website

The famous Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” Following a special assembly on the 2^nd November which focused on the importance of doing small positive actions to make the world a better place, year 7s have taken matters in their own hands and have already made a recognisable difference. Starting from the premise that many people doing small actions will make a big change, our students were encouraged to sign up to the DCSF approved website “We Are What We Do” (http://schools.wearewhatwedo.org/).

Here students can create their own profiles, where they can track their positive actions and share their success stories with others, no matter how small they may seem. As of today over 75 year 7 students have joined, acting 4,497 times and posting 133 things. From calculating their carbon footprint to learning one good joke, year 7s have contributed very constructively, making HCC the most active school on the website.

November News from HCC's Library

The last few weeks have seen some exciting activities for many of our students in the Library. There has been little time to report on them as they happened so this is will a ‘bumper edition’ of library news.

Generous donation

The fame of our ‘Battle of the Books’ team has reached far and wide via this website. Over the summer we were delighted to receive a donation specifically for the team to spend on books of their choice for the library. Mr Scruby and I arranged to take the seven students, now in Year 9, to The Lion and Unicorn bookshop in Richmond where we had a full hour to browse and make our choices, ably assisted by Tony and his colleagues at the Lion and Unicorn.
The seventeen books the students chose range from the classic Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred Taylor, through the latest horror by Darren Shan, to a beautifully illustrated 21^st century retelling of Dante’s Inferno by John Agard. All the books are distinguished by a special bookplate and are now available for loan in the library.

Author's Visit

On 6 November we were delighted to welcome Rachel Ward, author of Numbers, to HCC. 

Rachel had read on the HCC website that her book had been championed by HCC in the ‘Battle of the Books’ challenge in July and offered to come to speak to our students. Our ‘Battle of the Books’ team were thrilled to have the opportunity to perform their presentation for Rachel, who commented: “Their performance was excellent. They actually picked the two bits from the book that I tend to read out, and it was wonderful seeing my words performed live - wow! Their drama also made me think about 'Numbers' in a different way - the parallels drawn with Romeo and Juliet were very clever and the whole piece worked beautifully.”

Rachel, who lives in Bath, then gave a fascinating talk about how she got into writing for teenagers and won a book deal after signing up for  a consultation with a publisher at the Frome Festival. She gave an exclusive reading from the sequel to Numbers, to be called Numbers 2: The Chaos, which takes the story forward 15 years. We’re not giving any more away! The Chaos will be published in June next year. Visit Rachel’s website at http://www.rachelwardbooks.com .

Booked Up

After weeks of anticipation, every Year 7 student has now been given their free book provided through the Booked Up scheme during their English lessons in the library. There were scenes akin to Christmas morning as students eagerly unwrapped their books. Students can review their books online on the Booked Up website or can chose to post a review on the gr8 txts website (see below).

gr8 txts

There was another treat in store for Year 7 when staff from Richmond Libraries visited HCC library to help launch gr8 txts – recommended reads for 11-14 year olds. During their 30 minute sessions  students were introduced to many of the books in this year’s list and heard readings from selected texts. Students will be able to enter two competitions this year – either by writing a book review or coming up with a new name for gr8 txts and designing a front cover for the promotional booklet. Reviews can be posted online at gr8 txts  - the closing date is 26 February 2010 and there is the chance of winning a £20 HMV voucher. Prizes will be awarded at a top author event which will take place at Richmond Library in March 2010. All the books in the promotion are available in HCC library and at public libraries in Richmond.

Some comments from Year 7 about the gr8 txts promotion:

“I thought gr8 txts was very inspiring and really good. I can’t wait to get back to the library. I saw about six I really liked! I really enjoyed it!”

“It has persuaded me to read more and also showed a whole lot of new books to read and enjoy. I also like the different competitions and prizes to win.”

“I really liked the gr8 txts promotion! I found it interesting hearing some passages from the books and I feel I will now read some of these books. I also think that all of the competitions are an excellent way to get people involved in reading more books. I hope to see some of the books in our school library.”

Visit the HCC library blog to keep up-to-date with our news.
http://hcclibraryonline.blogspot.com/ 

Jack Petchey Award October 2009

Stephanie, Year 10 student, was our Jack Petchey award winner for October. She received this award for her excellent commitment   and participation in her dance lessons and in the dance clubs.  Stephanie also performed alongside other HCC students at the recent Jack Petchey Celebration at Richmond Theatre which featured  on this website recently. 

She is pictured showing her certificate and holding a cheque for £200 which she can donate to a charity or organisation of her choice and/or spend on a specialist area of interest in the college.  Stephanie has chosen to use some of the money to take the Year 10 GCSE Dance group to the Pineapple Studios for a dance lesson. Well done Steph!For more information on the Jack Petchey Foundation go to their website at http://www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk