Head's Newsletter

Group of universities. Moreover, we will remember them as a group who engaged with everything Tiffin does, producing some outstanding actors and sportsmen (see the articles below); it is no surprise that some of them will be returning to work with us during their gap year! Great success was also seen with this year’s AS and GCSE results. GCSE results were particularly pleasing, with our highest percentage of A* grades ever! Congratulations to all the students taking exams this summer, for their hard work and achievements. Full details of the results will be published later in the term on the website when all results enquiries are completed. Last year, we felt it was an appropriate moment as a School to re-examine and refresh Tiffin’s Vision and Aims. As a consequence of this process, the Governors approved a new Vision Statement and set of Aims. In particular, they reinforce the incredible benefits that we aim to deliver from the extraordinary breadth and quality of education at Tiffin School, as we prepare our students for the wider world that they will progress into. New Vision and Aims

Dear Parents

Welcome to my first newsletter as Head of Tiffin School; I hope you like the new format. Tiffin is a great School and I am very much looking forward to the forthcoming year, and do hope that I will meet as many parents as possible over the next term. I start by thanking Miss Clarke, on behalf of the School, and personally, for her terrific work here, and we hope that she is enjoying her well- earned retirement. I would also draw your attention to the new letter on the website from the Chairman of Governors, Phil Phillips, which can be accessed here . It has been fantastic to see the boys all back at School as we anticipate another extremely busy and exciting term. In particular, we warmly welcome those boys, and their parents, who are new to Year 7 and Year 12. With our new year group of 180 in Year 7, and over 200 in Year 12, we are providing the opportunity and benefit of a Tiffin education to an ever greater number of students. We also welcome some new staff this year. Mr O’Malley takes over as Director of Music, and he is joined in the Music Department by Mr Day as Director of the Choir, and Mr Mylechreest. Mr Kyriakides joins us in the Art Department, which is now headed by Miss Nava. In DT, we are joined by Mrs Wicking and Mr Rowland; in French by Mr Makula; in PE by Mr Balasubramaniam; in English by Mrs Warne and Miss Phillips; Miss Bond in Biology; Mr Watkins in History and Miss Rawlinson in Economics and Maths. In the LRC we welcome Miss Line. Today, we are holding our Leavers’ Celebration for the outgoing Year 13, who have just completed their A Levels, and are going off to university or on their gap years. It is certainly a time for celebration: their A level results were even better than the previous year’s, with over 86% at A*-B, a fantastic achievement, enabling them to proceed to the courses and universities of their choice, the great majority to the Russell Outstanding Exam Results:

Tiffin’s vision: Inspiring students to engage, aspire and excel .

Tiffin’s aims:

To prepare our students for their future lives in the modern world, we aim to:

• Nurture a love of learning , and pursuit of academic excellence and scholarship

Develop

independence, adaptability,

determination and confidence

Stimulate

curiosity, open-mindedness

and creativity

• Foster empathy, generosity and respect for others

Cultivate

participation, commitment,

leadership and responsibility

I hope that you will recognise these characteristics as the hallmark of the fine education your sons receive at Tiffin School, and I have enjoyed going through the new Vision and

Aims with the boys in our first assemblies. In particular, I would emphasise that students never gain the most from the Tiffin education unless they engage with what is going on, and aspire and aim high, hence our strapline of engage ̴ aspire ̴ excel. Please do support and encourage your sons as they participate, commit and involve themselves in all that we do. That participation can be seen in many of the aspects of Tiffin life, even in the first week of term when we had our first rugby fixtures of the season against Wallington Boys’. I enjoyed watching the U15s away at Wallington’s grounds, notching up their first win; with 5 wins, a draw and 2 losses, it was a very good start to the season. In other events in the first week, the Year 7s and Year 12s have had some most enjoyable induction days, (with Year 12 down at Thames Young Mariners, team building by the Thames), and the choir were singing at the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall! More about this next time. Over the summer holidays, Tiffin was still extraordinarily active! Fantastic tours took place: the choir went to the Baltic States and St Petersburg; the senior rugby players went to Canada, and our senior actors were performing at the Edinburgh Fringe. Please do read about these below, and do follow the links to YouTube to watch the incredible choir performances. In addition, the holidays were used to carry out a lot of building work at the School, renovating a number of rooms and corridors, improving the toilet facilities in the Main Building, and completely re-surfacing the playground area in front of Elmfield.

This is looking fantastic, and provides greater space for the boys. It will be complemented by the replacement walnut trees which will soon be planted in the spaces set aside for them, and by the completion of new boundary walls and gates where the site adjoins the new flats being built next to the School. I would ask parents to please not park on the sandy coloured surfaces, but just use the tarmacked surfaces.

I hope that parents will also soon notice the investment in the kitchen facilities in the Harper Pavilion at Grist’s which will soon be complete, and will certainly improve the experience and facilities for the many students and guests who use the pavilion; this project would not have been possible without donations from TIPRA and the Tiffin Foundation, and we thank parents for their continued and vital support of the School which is so necessary for us to maintain the education we provide. Tiffin really is an extraordinary School, offering fantastic opportunities; we are delighted that one of the Government Education Ministers, Lord Nash, will be visiting the School on Monday 21 st September and we look forward to introducing him to Tiffin! The strength of the School lies in the dedication and commitment of the staff and governors, the support of the parents, and in the boys we are fortunate enough to work with. We look forward to a successful and exciting year.

Mike Gascoigne Headteacher

Choir Tour 2015 to Tallinn and St Petersburg

On 27 th July the choir assembled at Gat- wick Airport for Simon Toyne’s last choir tour as Director of Music. We took the scenic route, flying to Helsinki and then the ferry across the Baltic, which offered the added benefit of a superb buffet sup- per. Tallinn is a delightful city with plenty of sightseeing and opportunities to sam- ple the roast bear, wild boar, Vana Tallinn (spiced rum liqueur), Kalev chocolates & marzipan. The concerts at Kaarli Church and Niguliste Museum-Concerthall were well received with large, appreciative au- diences. A highlight (particularly for ex- naval officer, Mr Leeves) was the visit to the recently opened Seaplane Harbour (Estonian Maritime Museum). The coach transfer to St Petersburg involved crossing the visa checkpoint at Nava; eventually, thanks to our Russian speaker Philip Chilcote, everyone was permitted entry. St Petersburg, described as the ‘Venice of the North’ due to its elegant

canals and 342 bridges is a city of excep- tional beauty. Built by Peter the Great it became the Romanovs’ showcase capital and Russia’s first great, modern city. We could have spent days in the Hermitage, seeing everything from Egyptian mum- mies to Picassos, and the endless palaces and cathedrals. Again, the concert ven- ues were well attended, culminating in our participation in the Singing World Fes- tival at Lutheran Church of St Peter and St Paul, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUq 7DyhppV0. They sang out of their skins - Ben Knight's solo in Mendelssohn Hear my prayer was quite the best that Mr Toyne had ever heard from any treble an- ywhere: it starts at 15 mins 50. In addi- tion, The Tiffinians' set at a different ven- ue in St Petersburg was caught on camera at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz AelZ4IvIs. It's pretty special.

A Level Drama students performing at Edinburgh Fringe, August 2015

On 15th August 2015 Tiffin School’s theatre company ‘Triple Fish Theatre’ headed up to Edinburgh for their second foray into performing at the Fringe Fes- tival. Instead of devising this year the students performed Nick Goodman’s ad- aptation of Goethe’s Faust. Nick an ex- Tiffinian and the drama technician adapted the play from its original Ger- man and the boys created an outstand- ing physical and at times absurdist piece of theatre. We again performed at Greenside@Nicholson Square a fantastic venue located in the heart of the city and were fortunate enough to have good sized audiences for all performances.

We received our first five star review from Broadway Baby, which was fantas- tic, and took part again in street perfor- mances on the Royal Mile and flyering on the streets of Edinburgh. Alongside the performances we watched a wide range of comedy and plays across the 12 day trip, including the outstanding Stewart Lee and Reginald D Hunter, alongside more traditional fayre such as ‘Titus Andronicus’. It was a fantastic trip and the boys proved that they were much more domesticated than last year, cooking and cleaning our accommoda- tion with relish! A great end to their 7 years at the school.

Rugby Tour to Canada, July 2015

On the very last day of the summer term 40 Tiffin boys and 5 staff headed off to Canada for a 10 day pre-season Senior Rugby Tour. We landed in Toronto mid-afternoon on the Friday, and by 10:30 Saturday morning the boys were lacing up their boots for their first fixture against TIRF (Toronto Inner-city Rugby Foundation). From there, time seemed to fly. We managed to fit in a six fixtures, (v TIRF won 41 - 21, v Hamilton U16 won 73 – 0, v Hamilton U18 won 46 – 0, v Oakville U18Bs won 20 – 7, v Hamilton As won 29 – 28, v Eastern Ontario U18 won 75 –

12) a baseball game, a trip to Niagara Falls, a lift up to the top of the CN Tower in Toronto, an amphibus tour, a tour of Parliament in Ottawa, some shopping, some training and a lot of eating! As a pre-season tour it was a great success in bringing the boys closer together, and the match results were just an added bonus. Hopefully this has given us a good foundation on which to build this coming season. If you are ever at a loose end on a Saturday morning your support is always welcome down at Grist’s!

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