Head's Newsletter 13 December 2019

Dear Parents As we come to the end of the first term this year it has been exciting to see two major developments. Firstly the way in which the new mixed sixth form has been working, and the very smooth way in which in particular the girls, but all new students, have settled in has been excellent, and I very much look forward to meeting Year 12 parents on Tuesday at the parents’ consultation. Secondly the impressive progress on the major development of the sports centre has been great to see. I thank in particular all parents who have so far donated and I would encourage others to also do so to enable us to have the best facilities for all our students. Please have a look at the article on the Sports Centre Extension in this newsletter, and please donate to the cause. On the day of the general election we too at Tiffin have held a mock election. I’m very pleased to say there was considerable interest from the school community and by the looks of it a high turnout of voters! There is lots to report on in this newsletter. In particular there have been a number of very successful house competitions, recently including drama and public speaking, and it is great to see so many students participating. There are also reports in this newsletter of other

competitions taking place including the maths challenge, and piano competition. I’m very pleased that Tiffin was able to host the Kingston dance competition and delighted that Tiffin won it! We’ve also had a large number of trips going out including our day trips on the 'stop the clock day'. You can read about the reports of science museum, and Fishbourne visits, and also the sixth formers to Oxford and Cambridge. I was delighted that the government recently confirmed that not only was our GCSE raw attainment this summer superb, but the progress the pupils make, as measured by the Progress 8 score, showed Tiffin’s score once again in the highest Government classification of ‘Well Above Average’. We have some exciting events coming up at the end of the term in particular the evening carol service next Wednesday and also the Thames Youth Jazz Orchestra next Thursday. Finally at the end of this term I am sad to say farewell to Helen Edwards, my PA, who is retiring this Christmas after 16 years of service to Tiffin; we wish her all the best for the future. I hope all students and their parents and families have an excellent Christmas break Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Y12 Parents’ Consultations; school finishes at 1 pm Evening Carol Service, All Saints Kingston, 7.00 pm

Tuesday 17 December

Wednesday 18 December

School Carol Services, 1.15 and 2.30 pm

Thursday 19 December

End of Term—pupils dismissed approx. midday

Friday 20 December

Start of term —normal 8.30 am start

Monday 6 January

Y11 Parents’ Consultations; school finishes at 1 pm

Thursday 9 January

We are delighted that the building of the new Sports Centre Extension is proceeding well and on course to open for use in June 2020. The roof lining has been fixed in place making the building watertight and the internal blockwork is well underway.

The front of the building, showing the existing sports hall where there will be a new entrance to the left

Inside the new gym

We are nearly half-way towards our £200,000 target and very grateful for the donations we’ve already received. However we really do need further donations to properly fit and furnish the building. To donate online please use the button on the Tiffin School website; for information about donating by

bank transfer, cheque, PayPal or ParentPay, please see the official gym donation form . We will soon be compiling the commemorative webpage on the School’s website for donors gifting £50 or more, and once the new building has been completed we will commission a commemorative plaque to record the names of donors who have donated £500 or more to the project. Director of Sport, Mr Blackburn, comments: “the new gym and facilities represent an exciting opportunity to improve our sporting provision and success and we are very grateful to all parents who have so far donated”. Click to see the new building’s floorplans .

Internal walls dividing new changing areas

The roof is almost covering the first floor of the building where there will be 2 new fitness studios

The emerging new Tiffin gym area

SENIOR TEAM MATHS CHALLENGE There has been much success by students within the last month! On November 6 th , four students pictured right: Christian Cases (Yr12), Arnav Jadhav (Yr12), Jack Yu (Yr11) and Ojas Gulati (Yr10) represented the school in the SW Regional Final of the UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge (intended for Sixth Formers). These students were selected after an intensive try-out process for which over 30 students in the school took part. The competition consists of three rounds: a Group Round, involving 10 difficult questions the team work on together, a ‘cross number’ round (think crossword clues but with numbers), and the dreaded ‘Relay’ round, where the answer to one question feeds into the next. After two of these rounds, Tiffin were level pegging on full marks with Kings College Wimbledon. But our team’s prowess and experience shone through on the last round, where we again achieved full marks bar a single lost time bonus, achieving an amazing score of 178/180 vs King’s 168/180 (who finished in second place). We will once again be taking part in the National Final in central London in February. Congratulations to the boys! SENIOR MATHS CHALLENGE On November 7 th , 127 Sixth Form students (and younger) took part in the Senior Maths Challenge. This is a challenging paper, taken by hundreds of thousands of

students across the UK, consisting of 25 multiple choice questions of increasing difficulty. We are delighted at the record results, with 11 students qualifying for the extremely prestigious British Maths Olympiad, reserved for only the top 1000 students nationally. Congratulations to the Year 13s (Ollie Coppelotti, Haotian Wu, Gus Goodman and Saomiyan Mathetharan), Year 12s (Christian Cases, Gianluca Maffi, Arnav Jadhav) and the Year 10s (Nathaniel Johnson, Ojas Gulati, Arlo McKillop) who achieved this accolade. A further 40 students achieved a Gold certificate (top 10% of entrants nationally), with special mention to Kai Jewson and Lucas Bowman, who are only in Year 9. The Olympiad will take place on 29th November and consists of a 3.5-hour exam consisting of just six incredibly challenging questions. A further 29 students have qualified for the Senior Kangaroo follow on round. We wish these students the best of luck.

BRITISH INFORMATICS OLYMPIAD On 12 th December a number of Tiffinians took part in the British Informatics Olympiad. This is a 3 hour exam consisting of three difficult programming tasks, in which students code in any programming language of their choice. At least one Tiffinian has managed to reach the National Final at Cambridge University (consisting of the top 15 across the country) each year for the last 3 years. We wish them the best of luck!

On Wednesday 11 th December Tiffin School hosted the annual Kingston Secondary Schools Dance Competition in our Dance Studio. Tiffin Junior Dance Company (Year 9 dancers) won the KS3 category with their army and operation Neptune inspired piece ‘Front Line’. They will therefore, represent Kingston Borough at the London Youth Games finals at the Copper Box Olympic Park in March. Very well done! Participating schools: The Tiffin Girls’ School, Coombe Girls’ School, Surbiton High, The Hollyfield School, The Kingston Academy

Ashwin and Ojas taking the exam!

Below is an example problem from last year's paper.

classes did this first), where we were given a sheet full of questions on the war and our task was to find the answers within the exhibition. To find them we needed to read the information within the many displays which made us find out much more information than was needed simply to answer the questions. The model of a trench was especially crucial towards our understanding of how exactly trench warfare was carried out. We learnt about events such as the battles on different fronts and weapons, including gas and shells, used during the course of the war. We found the trip to the Imperial War Museum very fascinating. A great thank you on behalf of the whole year to the History department for organising it. By: Inul Gunawardana, Louis Stoller, Zach Storey, Juan Carlos Dauz

Over three days in November, Year 9 students visited the Imperial War Museum (organised by the History department) to improve our knowledge on the events of WW1 and the Holocaust. Upon arriving an expert on the Holocaust exhibit briefed us on what we could expect throughout the day; she also showed us a model of a wind-up dancing bear and the story it conveyed of a teenager hidden in a cupboard by his elderly piano teacher with the toy bear his only entertainment. Very helpfully, we were each given a headset that had a virtual tour guide to take us through the Holocaust exhibition. This was a very effective and valuable device, and we exited the exhibition with a far more detailed knowledge of the horrors that the Jews were subjected to. The second half of the day was in the WW1 exhibition (some

On 28 November the whole of Year 7 visited the Science Museum. They thoroughly enjoyed the museum’s fantastic hands on attraction – the Wonderlab. This was followed by visits to a range of galleries including ‘Top Secret’ where they discovered the remarkable world of codebreaking, were able to see an original enigma machine, and learnt about the topical issue of cybersecurity.

On 28 th November, Year 8s went to Fishbourne Palace for Stop The Clock Day. We were able to look around the palace; it really was a brilliant archaeological site. Throughout the day we also had the opportunity to learn more about the site and the Romans through workshops about Roman schools and archaeology. Additionally, we toured the Fishbourne museum, learning about Fishbourne’s past, and looked at mosaics that were found when the site was excavated. On this trip, we also started filming a Grand Designs-based Fishbourne Palace video, intending to ‘sell’ the palace to a lucky new owner. Thanks go to Mrs Attenborough for organising such a fabulous trip. Harvey Walsh-Whitfield 8SW

a presentation about the university process and the complexities of applying to ‘Oxbridge’. Then, we grilled five current undergraduate students about all things Oxbridge in a Q&A, ranging from the collegiate system to the Assassin’s Guild society! Afterwards, the undergraduates gave us a tour of Homerton College and disclosed what university life is really like. Next, the students were greeted by a Tiffin alumnus, Max, who recently joined the college. He presented the personal statement workshop, which took us through the core structure and content of the document. We took a bus into the heart of Cambridge, where we were taken round Trinity College by another Tiffin alumnus, Adam. We stopped by the gilded chapel, the numerous courtyards and the dining hall, as well as learning about the long history of the college and the connection with Isaac Newton. In a somewhat daunting setting, seeing the student that we once saw on prefect duty in the canteen at such a prestigious institution made the prospect of going to Cambridge or Oxford less surreal.

Visit to University of Oxford On Thursday 28 th November, a small group of year 12 Tiffin students went to the University of Oxford to have a look around some of the colleges. The day began at Somerville College, which is north of the main town of Oxford and is a relatively large college. As Tiffin School’s link college, we had the opportunity to go around the building, library and gardens. We were then invited to have a taster seminar of history, which helped us see one of the main teaching methods that we would encounter at Oxford. After lunch, in their notably ornate main hall, we proceeded to walk down to the Museum of Natural History, where students studying, for example, biology and art, are able to study artefacts. We were able to spend an hour or so in the town to help us get a sense of its atmosphere, which is as important as the educational aspects of the university when it comes to deciding whether to apply. The town was buzzing and is comparable to a very condensed London. To finish the day, Vith, an ex-Tiffinian, gave us a tour of Pembroke College. It is, similarly to Somerville, one of the larger colleges, and we were able to talk to Vith about his experience thus far at university. He gave us some helpful subject-specific information and the day helped us see what Oxford is really like and definitely helped us to decide where to apply next year. Visit to University of Cambridge The day began in the drawing room of Homerton College where we took our seats along two long oak tables. The Homerton schools’ liaison officer delivered

Thanks to Chloe Hunkin for the Oxford write-up and Arjan Madaher for the Cambridge piece.

Tiffin Piano Competition 2019 With over 40 entrants, the Piano Competition 2019 included many impressive performances given by pupils from every year group. The final, which took place on 5 th November, was adjudicated by Gramophone prize winning pianist Nigel Hutchison. It was a challenge for the adjudicators to select just fourteen performers to go through to this second round, in which all of the players performed confidently and expressively. Particularly impressive was the challenging repertoire prepared by the Senior finalists: Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise (James Y12), and Nocturnes Op.9 (Jacob Y8, Benjamin Y11), Rachmaninov’s Elegie (Zac Y13) and Prelude in C sharp minor (Zaheer Y12) and Raymond Yiu’s Lullaby (Daniel Y12). The winning performances were given by Gavin Y8 (Junior Category) performing Mike Cornick’s Film Noir and Alan Y9 (Senior Category) with an outstanding performance of Liszt’s Mazeppa. The evening was concluded with a second performance of Liszt: a transcendental etude performed by Nigel Hutchison. Congratulations to all participants, including all prize winners and those selected for the final.

House Public Speaking Finals

We so enjoyed the fine reading of Joshua Cruice, Lottie Shaw, Arjan Dhatt, Meet Thakkar, Arthur Pritchard and Seon Shanmugathasan, then marvelled at

ridiculously superb speeches from Pranav Sharma, Yashas Beludi, Amadeus Jeetla- Lang, Ben Luca Atassi Quinton, Pollyanna Roberts, Ewan O’Connor and, in a brilliant finale, Lottie Fry. Former Head Boy, Gethin Anthony, public speaking finalist himself and Game of Thrones actor again adjudicated adroitly and impartially to conclude an outstanding example of this discipline. Students at Tiffin School are helping beat leprosy by fundraising and collecting donations for Lepra. Over 180 students in Year 7 took part in a Fundraising Educational Project and were able to raise £4128.29 for the international charity. Leprosy is a curable disease that affects millions of people across the world, but is often misunderstood or ignored, along with those affected by it. Lepra work in India, Bangladesh and Mozambique to find, cure and treat those affected, along with educating their communities to help reduce prejudice and fear around leprosy. It takes just £25.00 to treat one person with Leprosy so Tiffin School have raised enough money to help 165 people. Year 7s raise over £4000 for international charity

team in the pools) were short-staffed due to losing 4 boys to choir performances in London, but they still managed a narrow 1- 0 win over DW with a squad of 10 and the only goal a penalty. In the other semi-final, Drake took on Scott, and the match was goalless at full time. The first 9 penalties were scored, before Scott’s 5th was saved and the win went to Drake. In the 3 rd place play off, DW were unlucky to lose again to a single penalty as Scott took the win and 3 rd place. In the final, Drake were 1-0 up at half time with the match finely balanced, but injuries for TN left them down to just 8 players for the second half, and they ran out of steam as Drake punished them with 3 late goals. Well done to Drake, the year 7 house football champions 2019-20! Final Standings: 1 st – Drake 2 nd – TN 3 rd – Scott 4 th – DW 5 th – Raleigh 6 th – KM 7 th – Livingstone 8 th – CG

Year 7 House Football Now in its second year, the new format for Year 7 house football again resulted in an excellent competition. It was run on six afternoons after school on Fairfield and this year no matches were forfeited due to a lack of players, which shows the commitment from all Year 7s involved. The quality of football on show was also very high throughout, but what was even more impressive was the number of Year 7s who came along to support their houses and to scout the competition each week! Thank you to all staff and prefects who gave up their time to make this happen. On 5 th November, in the plate finals, Raleigh came out on top, winning their first game on penalties against Livingstone after the match finished 1-1 at full time. They then went on to beat KM 2-1 in another close game to secure 5 th place in the competition. In the other match, Livingstone beat CG on penalties to finish 7 th . A week later, on 12 th November, the top four houses from the pools faced each other in the semi-finals. In the first semi- final, TN (who were the only undefeated

CROSS-COUNTRY On Wednesday 4 th December at Hampton school, our cross country team took part in the Christmas Paarlauf relay. Three participants from the Tiffin girls’ team performed terrifically in the short, intense sprints that repeated for 24 minutes. We are delighted to announce that they came in a very respectable second place. Well done to Lottie Fry, Charlotte Whiteman and Neve Husaini, a fantastic achievement.

NETBALL

The Sixth Form Netball team braved the elements on Wednesday 11 th December for their first fixture of the academic year. Although the game started with beautiful blue skies, after the first quarter, grey clouds appeared and rain fell creating a challenging playing environment. The team battled through tricky conditions with a positive outlook, and although the result did not go Tiffin’s way, the experience has spurred the team to improve on today’s efforts and all are excited for their next fixture in the New Year.

Well done ladies and keep on smiling. Final score Tiffin 12, Grey Court 19.

Hampton and junior sides won well against King’s College. The most recent fixtures versus Wilson’s, who are traditionally the strongest on the circuit, proved sterner tests for all teams. The seniors fought hard but were outplayed in the end by Wilson’s strength in- depth. Basketball has started slowly but with fixtures lined up for the senior team on the 16 th December and after Christmas, we look forward to successes on that front. The U15s played Hampton at home in November and, in what was a close contest, narrowly lost out 43 -37. The girls have settled in well with regular rugby training sessions on Friday evenings under lights, which is great to see and netball now in full flow with our first fixture.

School Sport December 2019 As we approach Christmas it is always nice to reflect on what has been another term packed full of sporting events. As the weather starts to affect the style of rugby played, with an unusual amount of rain falling in November, those teams who are able to adapt and play in a more abrasive fashion seem to be showing more success than those used to a free flowing game. The U13s, having had an unsuccessful start to the season, have won five games from their seven after half term and have enjoyed grinding down opponents such as Royal Alexander and Albert, Epsom College and St Benedict’s on cold winter mornings. The irrepressible U14 side continue their onslaught on all that come their way, only suffering a narrow 7-5 loss to a sizeable Royal Alexander and Albert side. Numbers of students playing at U12 level remain high and every effort to keep them playing and improving is being made with fixtures for ‘A’ to ‘F’ teams just around the corner in January. The 1st XV, having beaten ACS Cobham convincingly, have found it tough going through November losing to Reading Blue Coat and Christ’s Hospital, then missing out narrowly in their most recent game against St Benedict’s. Defence has been an issue and one cannot help but think this is not due to a lack of ability but belief in themselves. With so much attacking threat on display, it is clear one result could turn things around. Moving indoors, we have had some success on the racquets front. Both U16 and U19 table tennis teams qualified from the borough competitions and took part in the county finals. They showed good fight but ultimately lost out to more experienced opposition; with many students playing up age groups the future looks bright. The U19 badminton side recorded great wins against Reed’s and

Trip and tours are upon us soon with the very talented U15 and U14 cricket sides travelling to Dubai in February and respective rugby teams travelling to Wales in the same month. A local trip for the senior end on the school saw us take the short journey to Twickenham where a group of our Year 12 girls and boys watched the women’s and men’s Varsity matches and in the break between them were able to gain advice on admissions to both Universities. We look forward to an exciting Spring term ahead!

The SCHOOL SHOP have been working closely with one of our major suppliers to reduce our carbon footprint. The trousers the school shop sell are made from recycled water bottles and this poster highlights some incredible facts you may find interesting.

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