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to attract such fantastic speakers and I thank Dr Cable for giving up his time, as well as Upper Sixth Former Gabriel Barton- Singer for taking the initiative inviting him. Our next speaker is Dr Nick Lane who will no doubt offer interesting thoughts on the origins of life.

Dear Parents Once again it has been a busy time at Tiffin. It was great to see so many ex-Tiffin students at the annual Tiffinian Association Ltd dinner in the Main Hall. The links that the school has to the Alumni are very important, and this was also shown in the superb Careers Fair that we held at School last Thursday. I would like to thank those parents, as well as old boys of the School, who gave up their evening in order to talk about their professions with our students. This was a fantastic opportunity for Year 10 to Upper Sixth, and I hope the boys made the most of the chance to speak to so many people from different careers. Thanks go in particular to our Careers Advisor, Mrs Gall, for arranging such a brilliant event. I have also enjoyed meeting parents at the Annual General Meeting of the TPA and I would encourage parents to get involved in the parental associations, whether that be the TPA or other groups such as TIPRA and FOTM; they all need parental engagement to continue to so successfully support what the School provides for the boys. On the same evening as the Association dinner the rowers held their annual dinner where they were fortunate enough to have an Olympian, Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell, as their main speaker. In addition another Olympian, Mark Hunter, came to train with the rowers last Wednesday, creating a great opportunity for the boys to see role models in the sport. Our latest visiting speaker Dr Sir Vince Cable also gave the opportunity for Sixth Form students to speak to someone at the heart of the Coalition Government, in particular about his views on economic policy. We are fortunate indeed to be able

Patrick Rennie, Asst Head, and Gabriel Barton-Singer with me and Vince Cable

It has of course been a very busy time for trips. In addition in music, we have held both the instrumental concert and gig night. Outside of these we continue our busy schedule of sports fixtures, and you can read about some of these events in this newsletter. For many older boys this is a very important time of year: Upper Sixth are engaged in interviews for university, and Year 11 are currently doing their mock exams; we wish all these students well in these endeavours. Finally I would remind you about some forthcoming dates, in particular those days when we will be finishing earlier than normal: Friday 4th December: Afternoon Staff INSET: School finishes at 2.00 (or maybe earlier for sixth formers depending upon their timetable) Tuesday 15th December: L6 Parents’ Consultations: School finishes at 2.40 Friday 18th December: Break up for Christmas holiday: school finishes by midday   

Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

well balanced address to the Assembly on the issues raised by those events which was extremely well received by all in the Congress Hall. Do view this on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n- Wkq_Yhe0o All of the sessions were conducted in English and the standard of the other delegations language was incredibly high.

Nine of our Upper Sixth students, having won the UK national EYP debating competition in July in Liverpool, were invited to attend the EYP International Session in Leipzig in November. Some twenty four national delegations from across Europe, including Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia, assembled for a week of intensive research and debate concluding in a General Assembly. There was some relaxation time including a very high standard concert put on by the students in which Hugo Khan received a standing ovation for his singing finale.

The Tiffin delegation consisted of Jon Dunne, Tom Mills, Jack Nicholson, Michael Tallent, Joe Mackenzie, Louis Sutcliffe, Haris Amin, Joshua Richards and Hugo Khan. A huge well-done to them all. Mr Marley said they were “truly fabulous”.

The UK delegation was separated into international committees who had to research topics and propose new policies which were then debated and voted upon in the General Assembly. All of the Tiffin students contributed to the highly complex debates, some speaking from the podium and others from the floor of the Congress Hall, speaking to over 300 students, teachers, and invited guests from across the EU and the Council of Europe. On the Saturday morning, after the Paris atrocities, Louis Sutcliffe made a short, sensitive and

OXBRIDGE ECONOMICS

Leicester and Bosworth

Field History trip

Since Economics Department at Tiffin has been supporting candidates applying for Oxford and Cambridge by offering lunchtime classes exploring topics beyond the confines of the specification and advising on how to approach the interview. On Monday 2nd November we hosted visitors from Corpus Christi College Cambridge. Dr Jake Bradley, College Fellow in Economics gave our Economics students a range of questions that applicants may encounter at interview. Sam Twells, their School Liaison Officer, gave a talk on how to approach the Oxbridge interview drawing on the experience of previous, successful applicants. September the

On Tuesday 24th November, 44 Lower Sixth historians were treated to a brand new War of the Roses History trip to Leicester and the Bosworth battlefield. The boys embraced what the Richard III museum had to offer in the first part of the trip in Leicester. This offered a chance to see the controversial King’s personal history in a stark visual display, as well as the chronology of the archaeological dig that found his preserved skeleton in 2012. The guides gave everyone a fantastic insight into the dig itself and the forensic procedures carried out to help identify Richard’s remains.

After a quick lunch, it was off to Richard’s final battle site, Bosworth Field, where again we were treated to a wealth of knowledge and insight from the passionate guides, in addition to having the chance to handle authentic weaponry and armour from the Battle. Swords, longbows, halberds and standards were carried proudly around the site as we were talked through the events of 1485. This was an action-packed day and all involved thoroughly enjoyed themselves. See the Tiffin History Twitter account (@TiffHistory) for photos of the day’s best bits!

Our students then enjoyed a lunchtime lecture from Dr Bradley on how an Economist would approach the upcoming EU referendum. He demonstrated how the wording of a question in any referendum can lead to differing outcomes. He certainly gave the economists here an opportunity to assess their thinking skills.

The Tiffinians At a dinner of the Royal College of Surgeons, the entertainment 'star turn' was a set from The Tiffinians. They were outstanding in every respect. One of those present said he thought they would easily be the best school close harmony group in the country. Apparently they charmed a large hall of people, a hall which included Martin Freeman, Lisa Tarbuck, Mark Gatiss and Una Stubbs. And in the Auction part of the evening, Martin Freeman won The Tiffinians to perform at a party - apparently this is going to be a dinner with Benedict Cumberbatch …

The photo shows Ahmed Alhussni, Saamir Mirza, David Cohen and Senthoran Kathiravelupillai shortly after receiving their awards from Former Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames, Councillor Yogan Yoganathan. The ceremony featured pupils from many of the secondary schools in Kingston and Richmond and was a high energy and upbeat celebration of achievement. Tiffin School Boat Club The guest of honour at the Tiffin School Boat Club Dinner on Friday 13 November was double world champion rower Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell. Nathaniel won Gold in the coxed pair in September this year at the World Championships in France and now has his sights set on the Rio Olympics. He trains full time with the GB rowing squad. He gave a captivating talk to the boat club giving a unique insight into the life and work of top oarsman.

Jack Petchey Awards Tiffin's Jack Petchey award winners were presented with their awards during a ceremony at the Rose Theatre on the evening of 11th November.

The photo shows club vice-captain Matt Entwistle presenting Nathaniel with a token of our thanks.

The new Year 7 announced themselves on the Borough

Stephen

Rettke-Grover.

Senior Aelf Vandenbegin and Aranan officials

circuit with a fine win at Richard Challoner school on Tuesday 10th November. Euan Sinclair, Will Murphy, Matthew O’Donovan and Tom Armstrong spearheaded a dominant performance against strong local opposition. They succeeded in closing out all but the bronze medal position in the top 5! Supported by two top ten performances for Ben Couzens and Joe Murphy, both selected for the Borough team, and a Borough squad selection position in the top 20 for Jack Hartley and Alistair Brendon, it was a good day for the ebullient team. Saturday warriors of Luis Bullinger, Gideon Afreh, Nicholas Lan, Milo Morrod and Aryan Aggarwal all performed well as did super-sub Vladimir Kalashnikov. The junior team (Years 8 & 9) battled hard and closed the gap to first position. The team was led by the irrepressible Eyoel Abebaw- Mesfin, Ben D’Souza , Sam Taylor and the all-important last scoring athlete, Umair Azhar. All gained Borough selection. The inter-team was spirited and impressive with Luca Jackson, Ravneet Kapoor, Aum Joshi and star find, David Cho, all scoring and gaining a great top 3 team position. The seniors defied some marshalling shuffling of the finishing order and the 11+ calling away some of our strong Upper Sixth to obtain a fine one point win over the hosts and a multitude of others. Arthur Morris and Sasvinth Sarveswaran looked especially strong in their senior debuts at the Championships, as did relatively new finds Marc Tidon and

Wijayasooria also continued to impress along with the rest of a strong senior squad. National Junior Knole Run At the National Junior Knole run on Friday 20 November at Sevenoaks Eyoel Abebaw- Mesfin, Euan Sinclair, Will Murphy and Matthew O’Donovan all ran magnificently to place us in the top 10 in the country at year 8 age. What is even more remarkable is that Euan, Will and Matt are all in year 7! There were over 100 teams competing with 325 individual athletes to complete the tough 4K course. St Albans Relay On Wednesday 18th November the cross country team ran in the annual St Albans 6 man team relays. The challenge entailed a 3km loop around the perimeter of the sports ground. Stephen Rettke-Grover led team A with a sprint start and Eric Williams ran an astonishingly quick time of 11 minutes and 6 seconds on the second leg. The race was not without difficultly as it started to rain halfway through the competition and soon some lengths of the course became boggy. Tremendously each and every Tiffin participant ran faster times at St Albans than they had done during the 3km Haskell Cup race, with Joe Brown thrashing his former time by almost 2 minutes.

had an enjoyable day, and teachers are looking forward to the excellent pieces of work they are producing based on the knowledge gained from the day.

TIFFIN CAREERS FAIR With over 70 professional participants from a vast array of industries the Careers Fair on 19 November was a tremendous success. The professional participants all remarked how much they had enjoyed meeting our students with one commenting, “It was a pleasure to speak with your students, and I can tell that some of those who visited my desk are destined to go far”. The students found it expanded their career ideas and raised their aspirations of what they could achieve. The wide range of careers talks were well attended and provided both students and parents with an in-depth insight into the varied industries. There will be a further programme of interactive careers events in the Spring term. Details will be published in January.

YEAR 13 GEOGRAPHY TRIP TO PARIS As part of our A-level Geography course (the section on ‘World Cities’) the Year 13 cohort set off on Friday 13th November for a day trip to Paris. Catching the Eurostar train at a very early hour, we headed off, blissfully unaware that the end of the day would bring news of the tragedy that engulfed Paris only an hour after we left there. Mr Brittain, Miss Nava, Mr Courtin and I appreciated the maturity of the students who embraced the day with such relish, and were relieved that the day ended with everyone’s safe return. Wandering the streets of Paris so it could be compared to London as a world leading centre of trade, tourism and culture, we delighted in the students’ interest and joy in learning so much geography.

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM TRIP On Tuesday 17 November, 148 Y9 students made the trip up to South Kensington to visit the Natural History Museum. This was a cross-curricular trip for the students to investigate Biogeography as the unifying theory of the Earth, and how plate tectonics led to the distribution of species across the planet. The students

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