Head's Newsletter 4 March 2016

currently seeing boys participate in rugby sevens competitions as well as starting to prepare for the cricket season. It was good to be able to present medals and trophies at our own Browne Trophy competition in which 16 schools competed. It is also good to see so much high quality work being done across the School. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to, and judging, the History presentations by Year 9 on Tiffinians who had been killed in World War I. Special congratulations to Joseph Waymouth for his excellent presentation on William Palmer, who died of his wounds whilst serving with the Royal Flying Corps, and is buried locally. Congratulations also to all those boys who competed in the Junior Maths Olympiad, and received their certificates this week, and to those boys who were presented with certificates for their merits this week. Our list of guest speakers continues to grow, and it was a pleasure to be able to host a public meeting with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan Howe. Read more about this in the Surrey Comet .

Dear Parents, Welcome to the first newsletter of what is a very short half-term before we break up for Easter. Clearly by now, all students involved in public exams should be working with maximum effort and focus as they see the start date of the exams approaching. Year 12 are also beginning the process of exploring university options, and it was good to see so many parents at their Higher Education Evening. The end of the last half term saw the incredible and fantastic production of Les Misérables , which has to rate as one of the best school productions I have ever seen. With 1200 tickets sold, the four nights were a sell-out, and all who had the pleasure of seeing the show were amazed by the professional high quality of acting, singing, music and overall staging. The staging was particularly incredible with moving bridges, barricades and other scenery! The actors deserve great credit, as do the musicians, and we thank the many girls who also took part from local schools, including Tiffin Girls’ School. Special thanks go to the staff involved including Miss Hughes and Miss O'Connell, who directed the musical, Mr Mylechreest and Mr O'Malley for the music, and Mr Prentice for the production and staging, as well as to all of the parents and others who gave up time to help to create such a memorable experience. Last half term also saw the fantastic finals of the house singing; this is a terrific event with sixth formers directing Years 7 & 8. Life continues at a pace at Tiffin and we are

Please note the important dates below.

Yours, Mr M D Gascoigne

IMPORTANT DATES

Thursday 24 March

Break up for Easter holidays: school finishes just after midday

Monday 11 April

Boys start back at School for Summer term: 8.30 normal start

Wednesday 20 April

Y10 Parents’ Consultations: School finishes at 2.40 pm

After a four-night sellout run, Tiffin School’s production of Les Misérables came to a triumphant close on the penultimate day of the February half- term in front of an ecstatic crowd comprised of special guests of the school, governors, parents, students and the general public alike. The multitude of cast and crew who worked on this, Tiffin’s largest ever production, should all be very proud of their achievements, for putting on what was arguably the most successful show in the School’s history. The shared experience of creating such an ambitious piece of musical theatre is, I’m sure, one which will stay with them throughout their lives. We would like to thank all those involved, directly or indirectly, for their time and hard work which made both the production and the experience for the cast what it was - it is this continued support, alongside the dedication of our staff, which makes Tiffin what it is and continues to be. See below for a compilation of extracts.

After this excitement was over most of the Unison younger boys left, having been corralled in the JLT until their performance time on the stage. After the interval the audience was treated to 8 treble solos with Joe Manley emerging as the winner with his animated rendition of the Venezuelan song Valencianita. Special commendations went to Daniel Blaze, Ben Knight and Duncan Tarboton although the adjudicator was very impressed with the courage and determination of all the younger boys.

The annual House Singing competition took place on 25th January in the Main Hall with guest adjudicator, Hilary Davan Wetton, Musical Director of several amateur choirs and Conductor Emeritus of the Milton Keynes City Orchestra. This event (always a Tiffin music highlight) is organised entirely by the older boys and involves just 3 weeks of frantic rehearsing in any available space in the Music Department. After coming through the heats Drake won the coveted Unison Song trophy with the Duke Ellington classic It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing) , ably conducted by Rob Singleton, who also scooped the award for the best conductor (pictured below).

Next were the Alto, Tenor and Bass solos with counter tenor, Daniel Henderson, proving to be a popular

Joe Manley

winner, singing Purcell’s Come All Ye Songsters , with Rory McKeon and Kit Davey highly commended.

Finally, the Part Song prize was awarded to Raleigh with California Dreamin’ . Kingsley Montgomery emerged

as overall winners, due to their consistent performance across all the categories during the evening. They were followed by Churchill-Gordon and then Drake. Thanks must go to Hilary Davan Wetton for his constructive feedback and warm encouragement and to Matthew O’Malley for accompanying the performers so beautifully all evening.

SKI TRIP TO THE USA

Over half term 41 boys and 5 members of staff enjoyed 5 days of breath-taking skiing and fun evening activities at the Brighton Resort, Utah. Everyone returned safely! Junior rower impresses The first GB Rowing Team junior trials of 2016 took place in Boston, Lincolnshire in February. Cormac Molloy in Year 13 made it into the top ten for final selection with his doubles partner from Globe RC. The next step on the path to selection for this summer’s international competitions is the invitation-only Spring Assessments from March 22-25 in Nottingham. Congratulations to Cormac. Cricket Tiffin Under 15 VI showed a clean pair of heels to all opposition at the Borough

round of the Surrey Indoor Cricket competition. They progress to the next round on Wednesday 16 March at Rutlish School. There is a wide base of players from which to choose but those who make up the team are Sami Shori, Huw Morris, Ravneet Kapoor, Aum Joshi, Jivan Singh, Alex Step and Dillan Goss. ASTRONOMY CLUB A picture of the moon taken by the astronomy club on 20 January using the school telescope. Sharp shadows are clearly visible in the craters along the terminator. Thanks to Ferdie Krammer and Josh Frost, together with Dr Bocchi. New members are always welcome to join us. We meet on Thursday at 12:40 in room 11.

TIFFIN UNDER 15 WIN RUGBY TOURNAMENT

The only undefeated teams in the tourna- ment contested the final, and Tiffin faced the very athletic Rutlish team. Although the continuity of possession from Tiffin was very good in the early stages, the U15s seemed a little reluctant to take the ball forward. That was until the electric Da- vid Mason latched onto Hayden's well- timed pass to burn around his opposite number and score under the posts. The second half started with a fantastic try from Tiffin. Huw's kick-off was perfectly lofted, fractionally over the 10-metre line, and David Mason chased brilliantly, to catch the ball on the full and burst past 2 defenders, swerve around a 3rd and crash over to give Tiffin a 12-0 lead. Great de- fence and set-piece precision, particularly from Benji Speirs, saw Tiffin secure a clean sheet and a tournament win! This was a truly fantastic achievement from the U15 Sevens squad. Congratulations must go to the squad of Mo Zaman, Awsaf Mohamed, Benji Speirs, Tejbir Deol, Jie Long Yong, Gary Pitman, Huw Morris, Hay- den Hyde, Sam Gunman, Josh Bennett and David Mason. Well done indeed. In late news, yesterday, 3 March, the boys won the Shield tournament at the Surrey School VII tournament. They played 8, won 6, drew 1, lost 1 against the best schools in the country.

The 7-a-side season started yesterday at the inaugural Ibstock Place tournament. The U15s were drawn against teams from Rutlish, Grey Court and Ibstock Place in the group stage, and started very strongly in the opening match against Grey Court. A strong run and finish from Hayden Hyde, great hands and continuity from Gary Pit- man, and safe conversions from captain Huw Morris helped Tiffin to a 14-0 lead. Despite going to sleep at a kick off and al- lowing Grey Court to pounce on a kick off that didn't go 10 metres, Tiffin held on to win 14-5. The second game against Rutlish B saw Tiffin meet a very tough opposition. Excel- lent tackling from Jie Long Yong in particu- lar, followed by three tries without reply, including a brilliant score from Tejbir Deol set them up for a second victory in the group.

The last game against Ibstock Place proved to be the decider. Tough tackling from Hay- den Hyde and incisive passing from Huw Morris and Sam Gunman saw Tiffin domi- nate from the beginning. In the second half with great defence from Josh Bennett, Awsaf Mohamed and Mo Zaman we re- stricted the hosts to only a consolation score in the final play, and Tiffin won by 4 tries to one, winning the group and pro- gressing to the final.

A special mention should be made of Louis Samarasinghe, Nhan Pham-Thanh, Mohit Agarwalla, Iliyan Panjwani and Luke Yassine who were deemed to be the winning students for the day. I would like to congratulate all pupils who represented Tiffin School to a high standard and thank STEM for their valued input.

STEM The Design & Technology Department are pleased to inform you that we have maintained our links with STEM. This is a body which actively promotes awareness and opportunities within the field of engineering. The opportunity to take part in a special programme was made available to all Year 9 students. As a result 40 boys applied and took part in a STEM activity day with a guest presenter. The boys were issued with a brief to design and produce a wind turbine to provide an alternative energy source. They had the opportunity to research and gain an insight into a variety of renewable energy sources. As teams they rapidly produced designs and constructed suitable structures to support their mechanisms. Based upon the information from the speaker they proceeded to develop their turbines and attempt to maximise power conversion from their ‘wind source’. After 4 hours of hard labour their concepts were presented. It was pleasing to note the ingenuity of design and enthusiasm of the groups. Their presentations were invariably to a professional standard and gained high praise from the STEM representative. This is the start of a series of opportunities should your son have an interest in any field of engineering. I would draw your attention to the following opportunities for the future: The Smallpeice Trust: http://www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/ Arkwright Scholarship: http://www.arkwright.org.uk/

Year 11 GCSE Art students enjoying their lunch in the peaceful Victoria and Albert Museum's courtyard, having spent the morning exploring art from different cultures and time periods, to support the development of their exam portfolio work. ART

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