Head's Newsletter 12 July 2019

Ultimate Frisbee Schools’ National Championships This year for the first time Tiffin entered a team in the U14 (Year 7/8) division of the Schools Ultimate National Championships. The 8 boys had a very early start to make the 3 hour journey to Leicester for their first match at 10.30 am. Tiredness did not seem to be an issue however, with the team winning their first game 6-2 against a very experienced team to make an excellent start to the tournament. Their second match was much tougher though, and despite some excellent play in very windy conditions, Tiffin’s slow start to the match proved costly. They fought their way back into it but ran out of time to steal the win, losing 6-5. These results were enough to secure a place in the quarter-finals for Tiffin, where they came up against another team from the same school, but again they couldn't find a way to win against the high- quality opposition. This left the team in the 5-8 bracket where they went on to win their final two games to finish 5 th . That’s 5 th best U14 team in the country, and second best U14 school in the country as the four teams in 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th were remarkably all from the same school. Overall a great result but the boys want to do better next year!

PHYSICS CHALLENGE

11,000 candidates from 205 schools took part in the Year 10 Physics Challenge last month. Competitors sat two 25 minute, 30 mark multiple choice tests and the overall average for all students on both papers was 33/60, the average for Tiffin students was 41.5/60. The aim of the competition is to encourage students in their study of Physics. It is not about practising past sets of questions and short term preparation to get a top mark. Success is achieved by longer term preparation, doing questions regularly at home and at school which stretch and challenge thinking and raise aspirations. It should also be noted that the content of the tests is designed to fit where the organisers believe schools will be in their study of GCSE Physics, but each school will teach the syllabus in a different way and there were a number of questions this year on topics that our Year 10 students have not yet studied. As a result, all those who sat this Challenge should be praised for their participation and effort. Nationally, only the top 40% of candidates received a certificate of any colour, and only the top 10% received a Gold; nevertheless Tiffin achieved 7 bronze, 10 silver and 7 gold certificates from the 29 boys who took part. The gold winners are listed below, but particular congratulations must go to Oliver Tang in 10RC who achieved the highest mark of the Tiffin students (53/60), and was in the top 100 nationally. Gold Emmanuel Dunstan, Benedek Szilvasy, Jack Yu, William Huynh, Asher Kapinos, Matthew O'Donovan, and Oliver Tang