Head's Newsletter 13 May 2016

Dear Parents Welcome to the last newsletter of this half term. It was good to be able to speak to the Year 11 and Sixth Form in their final assemblies; they have now gone on study leave ready to begin their very important exams, the first of which start next week. They will of course be now revising very hard and we wish them all the best in their efforts in the forthcoming weeks. It is also an important time for the rest of the School. The internal exams for Years 7 to 10 start next Friday, and letters have been sent out separately about these. Indeed Year 10 have important exams before Friday. For year 10 this is also a significant moment: with the absence of Year 11 and Sixth Form on study leave, they are currently the senior year group in the School. With this comes responsibility, and we particularly congratulate the 30 Year 10 boys who have been made Junior Prefects; we wish them well in their duties which they have already taken to with enthusiasm and maturity. As always there has been plenty going on at School for the last two weeks. Highlights include the incredible performance of our boys who won the Student Investor Challenge. This competition, which has been running through the year, started with 10,000 teams from across the country. To win such a competition is very special and the boys involved not only gained a superb trophy and £2000 for the School, but also a trip to New York!

Congratulations also go to Year 7, who have been busy raising money for Lepra , fulfilling a key aim of Tiffin to foster empathy, generosity and respect for others. Year 7 were also prominent in the excellent School Concert at the Parish Church. Many congratulations to those who participated in the Jazz Cantata, and the many boys who showed their instrumental proficiency in one of the ensembles or orchestras. On the sporting front it's great to see the cricket season getting under way, and there have been some notable successes in matches so far. We have also done well in rowing regattas, and have had some terrific tennis matches against other schools: congratulations to the tennis teams who have defeated most of their opponents so far. We also congratulate those boys who have been selected this year to be ball boys at Wimbledon. I do hope that you read the Special Newsletter on the new building; this is a most exciting development and we look forward to seeing it progress during this year. I will be writing more on this at a later stage. Following the internal exam week the boys will then be going on half term, and I wish Years 7 to 10 a very good week off, and the senior years a very productive time as they continue their revision. Please note the important dates below. Yours, M D Gascoigne

IMPORTANT DATES Lower School exams

Friday 20—Thursday 26 May

Professional Development day; no boys in school (except those doing public exams on that day)

Friday 27 May

Half Term holiday

Monday 30 May—Friday 3 June

L6 return from study leave

Monday 13 June

Afternoon staff inset: school finishes at 2 pm

Wednesday 15 June

L6 Higher Education activities

Tuesday 21— Friday 24 June

TIFFIN BOYS WIN 2016 STUDENT INVESTOR CHALLENGE

It was therefore thrilling to hear the announcement that Tiffin’s BUYMYECONOMIXTAPE were the winners. Tiffin has been generously awarded £2000 to go with the cup and certificate. The team members themselves have won an all expenses paid 5 nights in New York including some spending money. Winning such a popular competition has been an outstanding achievement for the team members and, as they prepare to leave school, a fitting culmination to their years at Tiffin.

In September 2015 some 10,000 teams from schools throughout the UK registered to take part in the IFS Student Investor Challenge 2015-16. Teams who were the most astute investors on the UK stock exchanges were able to see the value of their initial virtual portfolio grow. From the initial 10,000 teams nationwide, one of Tiffin’s 15 starting teams, BUYMYECONOMIXTAPE, made it to the national finals which were held in central London on 27th April. BUYMYECONOMIXTAPE, comprising Upper Sixth students Aditya Shrimanker, Arjun Popat, Lucas Tishler and Michael Tallent had two tasks for the day: firstly they took part in a fast paced live trading simulation in which they had to decide whether to buy sell or hold shares and other assets in

response to a flow of news. In the second of the day’s activities the teams had to give a presentation to a team of judges and invited audience (including Mr Thomas, Head of Economics and Mr Rennie, Head of Sixth Form) on a particular industrial sector and then recommending a company in the sector in which to invest.

In the face of strong opposition from the seven other finalists the Tiffin presentation about the mining sector was outstanding, displaying thorough knowledge of the industry, diligent research into each of the companies in the sector and finally giving a clearly argued investment decision supported by excellent financial analysis.

have been fighting disease since 1924 and are one of the world’s leading authorities on leprosy. Year 7s have worked exceptionally hard at fundraising and took part in a Zumba workout (photo below) as well as other fundraising activities including a staff v pupils penalty shoot-out; guess the number of sweets in the jar and lots of cake sales. Well done to all of Year 7 for their time and effort in raising money for such a worthy cause.

CHARITY FUNDRAISING With privilege comes responsibility and one of our aims at Tiffin is to foster empathy, generosity and a respect for others. Exemplifying these aims, the boys raised a magnificent £2,422 in aid of Oxfam’s Syrian Refugee Crisis Appeal at our mufti day on 17 March.

ROWING NEWS In the Head of the River race the senior boys came 10th in the country in their division of top quads. Laurence Ellis (below) won a tankard in his first singles race at Chiswick regatta over the weekend of 30 April/1 May. Well done to all.

Pictured above: Oxfam is constructing tap stands and water tanks to provide clean water to refugees in Jordan's Za'atari camp. In addition, their work includes coordinating hygiene training to prevent the spread of life-threatening diseases. In further marvellous fund-raising news the boys in Year 7 raised £3,574.50 for the charity Lepra and were presented with a plaque and certificates from Lepra . This is a school record for fund raising and achieved by the boys in one year. The ultimate prize for the form raising the most amount of money was a football session on the MUGA. The winning form was Miss Bond’s form 7GB. Lepra is a UK-based international charity that helps people who find themselves trapped by disease, poverty and prejudice. They work overseas in India, Bangladesh and Mozambique and work to improve the lives of those who have tropical diseases like leprosy and lymphatic filariasis. They

BASKETBALL TRIP

a quarter of a mile above the ground. However the highlight of the day was travelling to the new Jordan store (the only one in the world), where pupils left with exclusive trainers and big smiles.

21 boys from Years 8 & 9 travelled to Chicago during Easter to play 13 games against local teams. This was Tiffin’s third tour of Chicago.

We travelled back to the Bulls/Sox academy on day 6 for our final training session. The evening concluded with Tiffin visiting the United Centre to watch the Chicago Bulls take on the Atlanta Hawks. This was a very impressive game; unfortunately the Chicago Bulls lost. Tiffin School’s name was up on the Jumbotron!

We headed first to South Suburban College for three games against Lituanic (a local Lithuanian team) and the Jaguars. These were three very enjoyable games and we were extremely grateful to all the players and coaches for their hospitality. On day 3 we travelled to the Bulls/Sox Academy for our first training session. This is the most amazing training facility the boys will ever use, with three replica full size courts side by side for players to use.

On day 7 we played our last three games against ‘Beyond the Ball’ losing by only 9, 2 and 3 points. Again, a valuable experience, and the hospitality by our hosts was amazing. The evening concluded with awards and medals for the boys and pizzas! On our final day we travelled to Woodfield Mall for some last minute shopping before flying home. Mr Martin, Mr McKenzie, Mr Brown and Mr Gunner had a fantastic time coaching, and all of the pupils thoroughly enjoyed being professional basketball players for a week.

On day 4 we travelled to Milwaukee for a tour of the Harley Davidson Museum, Captain America’s Motorcycle was a highlight for everyone. We then travelled to a basketball tournament hosted by ‘PeppNation’ where we came away with our first win by 1 point. The evening concluded with all players gaining early entry to the Bradley Centre to watch the Milwaukee Bucks take on the Charlotte Hornets. We travelled to the Willis Tower on day 5 and stood on ‘the ledge’, a glass floor that is

U14 Basketball League Play-off Finals The U14s travelled to Carshalton Boys Sports College for a neutral venue game against Harris Academy Crystal Palace. This was a repeat of last year’s final where Tiffin lost by 2 points.

Surrey such as Hampton, Whitgift and Reeds were competing for the title and Tiffin could not afford to start slowly. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the senior pair did and following a disappointing 4-3 defeat to a slightly better than average RGS Guildford pair, Ed Hubner and Will Sharp had their work cut out. As the morning continued performances improved and Tiffin won three games on the bounce, including a tense 4-3 victory over Kingston College and a 7-0 thrashing of King Edward’s. Finishing the group with three wins, one loss and twenty games, Tiffin pipped RGS to first place by one game and advanced to the semi-finals, which involved a one set shootout against Hampton School. Hampton were sure to be Tiffin’s toughest test yet, but due to big hitting from Ed supported by solid volleying from Will, Tiffin took the hard-fought set 6-4. After the triumph of the semis the final against an extremely strong Reeds pair went as expected with a 6-0 loss, and so the senior pair finished the tournament in 2nd place. Along with the senior’s success, all the other year groups played some good tennis on the day notably with the U13s making the last 6 from 18 schools. Well done to the 10 boys – Ed Hubner and Will Sharp, Tom Dalby and Alex Step (U15), Ben Larvin and Nhan Pham-Thanh (U14), Charlie Smith and Arjan Madaher (U13), Luis Bullinger and Tom Ogle (U12). Report by Will Sharp 12CR

Photos by Lucy Spiers

The U14s got off to a strong start and having dominated Harris earlier in the season were in control throughout the game. The U14s won 41-34 and ended the season 15 wins, 2 defeats (Barking Abbey & Richmond Knights). Successes include Surrey Cup Winners, Surrey League Play-off Winners and last 16 of the Nationals. PPG Average Ray Holding 10.6 Saarujan Sivananth 9.7 Sung Hyun Yeom 7.9 Congratulations to all boys on a very successful season.

Surrey Pairs Tennis Festival Report Five of Tiffin’s finest pairs set off to St George’s College, Weybridge, to compete in the annual Surrey tennis festival. The weather was hot but the competition was hotter – all of the biggest tennis schools in

Ensemble, String Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra and School Orchestra, conducted by Matthew O’Malley, Director of Music and Julie Monument, Head of Strings. After a quick stage reset a very enthusiastic Year 7 assembled for their item with Simon Ferris, Christian de Podesta and Antonio Yao providing instrumental support. The boys, after only a limited amount of time practising the chorus pieces in class, produced an

ANNUAL SCHOOL CONCERT

The annual School Concert, involving members of Tiffin’s instrumental ensembles and choirs, alongside all pupils in Year 7 who perform a jazz cantata, took place on 28th April. This year’s choice of music was Marco Polo , written by the school’s Composer-in-Residence, Simon Ferris.

For the second year running the concert took place at All Saints Church in Kingston providing more space for the enlarged cohort of 180 Year 7 boys. Thanks to the very able prefect team (led by Matt Stevenson) the church space was

engaging performance, although some of the soloists rather stole the show – including Joe Manley (Marco Polo), Haseeb Rahman (narrator), Alistair Brendon (Kublai Khan) and Gabriel Armstrong, memorable as the beautiful Princess Kokachin (photo above).

transformed to accommodate staging and as many chairs as possible for the audience. The evening got off to a rousing start with Wind Band playing ‘Sing Sing Sing’ and a James Bond medley. This was followed by sets from the String Orchestra, Brass

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs