Head's Newsletter 12 February 2021

Dear Parents, Welcome to the newsletter for this half term. It has obviously been another extraordinary time, as we moved into the lockdownandonline learningagain. Although there are some advantages with being online, no one pretends that this is an ideal situation, and we would much rather have the students back in school. Undoubtedly though, with all students in Years 7 to 11 equipped with Chromebooks, and Sixth Formers with their own devices, coupledwith our use of Google classroom, the online experience has been very good. In addition we have made the most of online extra curricular activities, many of which you can read about in this Newsletter. I am very grateful for the terrificsupport thatwehavefromourparents,and I know it has not been easy for any parent having to monitor their child, whilst managing their own job! I’msure theparents, aswell as students, are looking forwardtogettingbacktosomelevelofnormality. We do not yet knowwhen schools will return. We know that itwill not bebefore 8thMarch, soonline learning will continue after half term. When I have some news about the return, I will of course let parents and students know. It is possible that the return will be staggered, with exam classes first; however, we do not have any confirmation of this yet. We do of course have a number of students and staff in School, and I am delighted that we have been doing regular weekly Covid testing for them. Thishasgoneextremelywell thankstoPublicHealth

Kingston, who have been superb in supporting secondary schools in the borough. The intention is that this regular testingwill apply toall students and staff when the school fully returns, so it has been beneficial to trial it with smaller numbers. By identifying any cases of Covid, we can hopefully isolate them quickly and prevent the spread of infection. In the meantime much of the normal life of a school still continues. Year 11 students have been making their A-level choices, and Year 9 their GCSE options. In addition, we have held a number of online parent consultations, and these have been very favourably received; indeed in many ways these are more convenient for parents than the old style consultation, similarly, the online sessions the school has done, on internet safety, and drugs and alcohol awareness, attracted a much greater parental take-up than sessions at school.

IMPORTANT DATES

Friday 12 February

Professional Development Day: No lessons

Students back after Half Term, normal start, online Lessons continue Y7 Parents’ Consultations online: school finishes at 12.30 for Yr10-13 and 1.20 for Yr 7-9. Y8 Parents’ Consultations online: school finishes at 12.30 for Yr10-13 and 1.20 for Yr 7-9.

Monday 22 February

Wednesday 24 February

Thursday 4 March

I’m also very pleased that we’ve also managed to organise the usual Year 9 vaccinations, which obviously still need to go ahead. Continuing with the normality of school, I’m delighted that the number of applicants for the Sixth Form is again extremely high and another record number. We look forward to meeting many of these applicants. Finally despite all of the Covid complications, the University application process continues for Year 13. Many of our students have now had offers, and I’m pleased to say that we have had a record number of Oxbridge offers. This is particularly satisfying as not only have Oxford given out fewer offers this year, but those students had to be interviewed online through a more unusual process. We congratulate them, and all students who are receiving offers and making decisions about their futures. We welcomed two new teachers this term. Ms Andrews in DT and Ms Huckstep in Geography who have settled in well to online teaching. Please do read about the many activities that have been taking place during the lockdown in this newsletter. I thank parents for their support, and wish all students and parents a restful half term. We look forward to brighter news as we enter Spring, and ultimately look forward to opening up the School to all students in due course.

The Hall transformed for COVID testing of staff and students

Snow at Tiffin February 2021

Yours, Mr M D Gascoigne

"Tiffinomics”, the School’s student-led humanities blog, ran its first ever essay competition before Christmas, focusing on, perhaps, one of the most turbulent US presidential elections of all time. 21 incredibly impressive essays were submitted by students from Year 11 to Year 13, with entrants having the option to choose questions aimed at exploring the election from historical, political, economic and legal perspectives. The 4 winners of the competition have had their essays published on the Tiffinomics website, available for all Tiffin students to read. Bulcsu Diossi’s essay entitled Should the popular vote be prioritised over the Electoral College? issued a robust defence of the Electoral College. Bulcsu creatively constructed the argument for the necessity of diluting democracy so as to avoid the exercise of excessive and tyrannical power, whilst also impressively arguing for the limitation of presidential power to a ‘constitutional last-resort’ in order to ameliorate current constitutional arrangements. Mikela Persson Caracciolo’s essay skilfully tackled the question, Which was the most significant US election ever?. Employing three yardsticks of significance, Mikela concluded that the 1980 presidential election, which pitted Reagan against Carter, was the most significant due to its role in the entrenchment of social conservatism within the GOP, as a result of greater evangelical influence, and the subsequent impact this had on the rise of Trumpism.

Lottie Fry’s essay entitled Following the monetary advantage enjoyed by Bloomberg’s presidential campaign, is it time for congress to revisit campaign finance reform? methodically argued that the inherent flaws of the current system, of which Bloomberg’s campaign was just a symptom, require a congressional remedy. Concluding that such reform is the only way to truly ensure the integrity of the democratic system in the US. Shirav Medepalli’s essay What does Amy Coney Barrett's appointment to the US Supreme Court mean in relation to the future of human rights? employed a ‘positive rights framework’ to systematically demonstrate the potential threat posed by Coney Barret’s originalist judicial philosophy, exploring the possible impact of this on a range of areas from healthcare to women’s rights. All the submitted essays were truly a pleasure to read, and we look forward to launching more of these opportunities in the future! The Tiffinomics Editorial Team

In collaboration with the Young Reporter Scheme, the English Department was pleased to host an online mentoring session delivered by Diana Jarvis, a journalist and the scheme’s organiser, for participating students. It was a session filled with tips and advice for keeping safe as a journalist and guidance on how to write sharp and informative news articles. Some of the legal issues that journalists face in the field were also discussed giving our students an excellent insight into several aspects of the career. Here’s what a few of our students had to say about the session: “I thought the mentoring session was most definitely useful, for me and my future article writing. The guidance was enlightening, beneficial, convenient and applicable, with the most helpful thing being the queries answered by Miss Jarvis on the security and format of our / my articles.” - Armaan 10LF “ The mentoring session gave us insights into deeper issues in journalism, such as defamation and quotations, and was also really helpful for the future.” Ben, 10MJG When the scheme reaches its conclusion in April, participants will have an opportunity to compete for prizes. Winners will receive an undergraduate day at a London University and top thirty-three students will attend a Media Award Ceremony. The English Department is hopeful that a number of our students will become successful competitors; we wish them all the best of luck.

As the year of 2020 came to a close, the English Department marked the year with a collection of microfiction written by the students at Tiffin. In addition to compiling the best stories in collaboration with the Creative Writing Club, we offered the author of the winning story a £50 Amazon voucher as their prize. The Department and the Club are pleased to announce Marcus Vilay-Underhill (11CC) as the winner of the competition - congratulations, Marcus! The English Department would like to thank the Creative Writing Club reps - James Baker, Marco Forlin, Jai Patel (Y7), Kripa Prasad (Y8), Toby Perot, Pranav Sharma (Y9), Sanmay Parkhi (Y10) and Linus Alpsen (Y12) - who had the responsibility to choose the top 3-5 stories from their year group. A special thanks to Linus, who helped with Y11 and Y13 in addition to his own year group. The team’s shortlisted stories along with all the entries received have now been published online and you can read them here. We offer our warmest thanks to all our entrants, and hope you enjoy reading the collected stories.

Year 10 'Gratin' students took part last week in the UKLO (UK linguistics olympiad). This is similar to the Maths challenge, and really puts students' skills to the test with a variety of language-based problems. Among the languages students had to tackle was Kabyle, a language spoken by natives of Northern Algeria; Ditema, a language spoken in Lesotho whose written form is expressed using geometrical shapes, and Filipino. The students who took part had to solve a range of problems involving translating to and from the target language, conjugating verbs, and even coming up with their own grammatical explanations for certain aspects of these languages. Needless to say, the paper would have been a challenge for anybody; however the boys fared very well indeed. Armaan K in particular managed an astonishing 65/67, a feat for which he is to be congratulated. Leo F and Daniel Y also scored very highly. I would like to congratulate all members of the class, each of whom applied themselves fully to the challenge and achieved a score to be proud of. It is my hope that next year we will be able to build on this success and compete at the advanced level of the competition.

Looking for something that chimes with the times? Well look no further than the English Department’s latest offering of aural goodness. With the long nights and isolation becoming a new normal, what better way to while away the socially distanced wintery hours than by listening to some dramatic readings of Year 11 Tiffinian writing? Well now, thanks to the marvels of social media platforms, you can do just that! Tune into the podcast here or Spotify here: for spooks and scares galore!

Readings will be added regularly, so keep tuning in to hear if your son’s work has made it to the wider audience it deserves.

We were very fortunate to be able to host Fiona Spargo-Mabbs, founder of the DSM foundation this month here at Tiffin. She spoke to all of Year 11 on Tuesday 2nd February as part of the 21st Century Life programme, and followed up with a talk to parents on the evening of Tuesday Feb 9th, where she was accompanied by Ruth James. Fiona told the story of her son, Daniel. Daniel, a very popular and sociable boy, tragically died aged 16 after taking MDMA at a rave party which he was attending with four of his friends in January 2014. Fiona recounted Daniel’s life and the circumstances of his death in a gripping and moving way. A full account of the story is available here: Since Daniel’s death, Fiona and her husband set up the DSM foundation in Daniel’s honour to try to prevent other families from having to go through the pain of losing a child, and to stop the damage done by drugs to young lives. She provided insight, guidance and expertise to empower pupils to overcome the challenges of peer pressure, and make informed decisions on their behaviour surrounding drugs and substance use. She also offered strategies to combat the inertia surrounding conversations about drug use, and how parents and teenagers can co-operate to keep everyone safe.

Fiona's book, 'I wish I'd known' is available to pre-order now. All monies raised will go to the DSM Foundation and their continued work to educate teenagers and parents about the risk of substance use and risk-taking behaviour in teenagers. She is a brilliant speaker, and we were very pleased that she could come and talk to us. Thank you!

You are invited to the upcoming Soloists’ Recital , at 7pm on Tuesday 23 rd February . This performance, pre-recorded by Tiffin pupils. Please click here to attend. All pupils have been invited to perform in this recital. Performances of music in any style are welcome. Pupils can find out how to take part by visiting here. Through the Tiffin Music Virtual Concerts page, all streamed performances given by Tiffin musicians, can be watched again. Please click here to listen to the recent highlights .

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Year 8s have been busy taking part in video competitions this half term. The first competition was a ‘trick shot’ challenge run by 8MRL. Students interpreted this in different ways and submitted videos of trick shots involving footballs, ping pong balls and water bottles. Congratulations to all those who took part and especially Enzo Brown who won this competition with his video entitled ‘Enzo’s mission’. He displayed extraordinary ability and amazing video editing skills which created a lot of tension whilst he was throwing ping pong balls into a cup from different angles.

Many students in Years 10-12 are still taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award in lockdown. A lot of the regulationshavebeenrelaxedtoallowstudents to complete the award fromhome. Students have beenwalking, running and cycling for their physical sections.

Lots of families have enjoyed meals cooked by the students for their

skills section. Students havealsobeentakingpart in first aid courses, music lessons and computer programming. For the volunteering section, some students havebeen fundraising online and taking part in online

This fortnight’s competition is magic tricks and the Year 8 tutors and myself look forward to watching these this week. Enzo bounced a ping pong ball along the frying pans and into the cup. He also hit the golf club to knock the domino line and then the ball into the cup

volunteering projects. The scheme now allows students to countmentoring siblings as part of their award. If your child is stuck for a volunteering opportunity inlockdownthenthereare lotsof ideas here: The Duke of Edinburgh ambassadors, Deep Shah and Zameer Shahpurwala, are always happy to answer questions if students need help completing the award.

feedback took place almost entirely in French, and that they had been asked to prepare both sides of eachmotion, to be toldonly just before the start of each debatewhether theywould be arguing for or against. As well as the quality of their French and their arguments, debaters were marked on their ability tousenotes as aprompt rather thana script, their teamwork, attitude and ability to react to the opposition. Considering that the eventual qualifiers all walked awaywith combined scores of between 24 and 26 outof30for their threedebates,Tiffin1andTiffin2 can feel confident that they made an impression, with scores of 20 and 19 respectively, finishing aheadof teams fromStOlave’sandDulwichCollege intheirtwopools. For me, the highlight of the evening came nearly four hours after it had started: a debriefMeet after the results, at which our students’ enthusiasm for and enjoyment of the event was plain to see. We now know far more about the event and the high standard expected, and I feel that competition for places (witha capof two teams per school) is going to be fierce this time next year. And who knows? By then, we may even be able to do it in person…

On Tuesday 2 February, two pairs of Year 12 students (ElliotLoweandMikelaPerssonCaracciolo, Freya JohnandAmberWest) took part in the tenth annual Joutes oratoires (literally ‘oratory jousts’), a debating competition organised under the auspices of the Institut Français. This was the quarter-final for the London area. Despite our preparation, I certainly felt a certain amount of trepidation throughout Tuesday, as this was a first not only for the students but for the French department as a whole, inspiration having come fromsuccess insimilaroutings inGerman. A lookat the list of competitors made me excited and nervous in equal measure: if the samewas true for ourstudents, theyhaddonewell tokeepitquiet! We all loggedon to the zoom link at 16.15 sharp – the four students plus Martin Williams and I, who had been brave (cf. naïve) enough to volunteer our services as adjudicators. This was quite the largest such call I have ever been on, with nearly 150 accounts signed in from a total of 16 schools and including twovolunteer adjudicators fromtheSwiss embassy.Theregisterreadlikea ‘Who’sWho’of the capital region’s most prestigious institutions, from Eton College and KCSWimbledon to St Olave’s and GreyCoatHospital. Each of our teams debatedmotions on civil liberty in the pandemic, the perceived threat of artificial intelligence, and the green revolution – challenge enoughbeforeyouconsider that thedebateand

Five of our Year 12 chemists put their knowledge to the test on Saturday 6th February in the Cambridge Chemistry Race, a competition where sixth formers race to finish increasingly difficult chemistry questions related to, and outside of, the A-Level specification in a period of two hours. Ibrahim Alkashem, Chloe Danno, Martha Old, Jade Tedaldi and Abimen Thusyanthan were chosen to represent the school after taking the lead in the internal try outs held in November. The team held their own in the competition, placing a respectable 34th – an excellent achievement considering most other teams consisted of Year 13 students, and several of the questions consisted of material not yet covered! Although the competition had to be shifted to an online format, the organisers still found ways to make it engaging and interactive. The team especially enjoyed the interface used in the closing ceremony (apparently very similar to Club Penguin!), where they could interact with other contestants through a virtual avatar. Overall, it was a great experience, and it was fantastic to see our Year 12s build their confidence in chemistry outside of the classroom, even in these challenging times!

A huge thank you on behalf of the School's Charities Committees for the very generous donations made for the Mufti. Days this term. We have so far raised over £3700 to be shared equally between Joel Community Services and Great Ormond Street Hospital which is absolutely fantastic. If you have not donated and would like to do so, ParentPay will remain open until the end of term.

Staff arranged for food to be delivered to the Kingston Food Bank drop off centre in Tolworth just before Christmas. A massive thank you to everyone who donated.

With the nation being moved back into a third national lockdown, maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle has never been more important. The Tiffin School Sport department has continued to provide educational and inspirational resources for students from the first day of lockdown, reinforcing not only the physical benefits of exercise, but potentially even more important during these uncertain times, the mental health benefits of being active. These resources can be broadly categorised into four main themes; 1. Education! Being stuck inside couldn't be further away from the traditional setting of PE and Games lessons. However, with the help of our Strength and Conditioning Coach Mr. Thomas the PE department designed a full movement pathway for all students to work through which could be completed anywhere. This movement pathway provided a great opportunity for all of Tiffin’s students to work on their fundamental movement patterns, which will serve them in good-stead for being able to compete at the top of their athletic potential when representing the school sports teams - or simply help them lead a long and healthy life. The movement pathway was split over 6 levels with each level having a set criteria which the students must complete before moving onto the next, this enabled each individual student to work through the pathway at their own pace according to their ability.

2. Fun, Fun Fun!!

With the lack of competitive sport and ability to just play with your friends, lockdown dare we say it has the tendency to be a touch boring. With that in mind the PE department has stepped into the

21st century and has been using social media platforms to set challenges for all students to interact with. These challenges have taken many different forms from irish dancing to catching challenges to the possibility of winning prizes for running a set distance in the fastest times. We have also had numerous students represent Tiffin at the Virtual London Youth Games with Kingston currently sitting in 4th place out of the London Boroughs! Make sure you follow us on Instagram and Twitter to see what we next have in store for you: @Tiffinsport

3. Extras…...

For those who represent the School at the performance level of our participation, progression and performance pathway, there has been extra provision to try and minimise the lack of progress made from lack of training and fixtures. Performers have been expected to partake in two extra sessions per week based on skills or a fitness weakness. Team players have been having strength and conditioning ‘catch up’ and review sessions with Coaches and have been set goals for their return to play (whenever that may be!)

4. Guest Speaker Inspiration

“Everything negative - pressure, challenges - are all an opportunity for me to rise” (Kobe Byrant). In these troubled times it helps to look to the future and see the potential in how much better we can be. One way to get better, is to learn from those that are operating at the top of the game. With that in mind, we provided our senior rugby players with the opportunity to learn from one of the best coaches around, in the form of a Q&A session with James Parkes from Exeter Chiefs. Mr. Parkes is a former professional rugby player and is now a senior member on the coaching staff at the reigning Premiership and European Champions, the Exeter Chiefs. Over 70 students joined the online Q&A and spoke with Mr. Parkes regarding all things rugby, performance and life. It was a great learning experience for all students and staff!

This latest edition of a lockdown half-term has naturally presented challenges to the House system. However, now experts in virtual House Meets, the Heads of House have continued to try and keep students across the school engaged with the trials and tribulations of the House Championship. This half-term has seen two virtual competitions taking the fore, Lit Quiz and Debating. In Lit Quiz, following the Junior win for CG before Christmas, KM won the virtual edition of the Intermediate round just a couple of weeks ago to set up a crunch final Senior round after half-term with CG holding a narrow lead overall. In Debating, 3 weeks and 6 rounds of intellectual combat on topics ranging from taxation to vaccines resulted in a resounding victory for TN. A special thanks must go to former students Yuvraj Sehmi and Joseph Niblett for volunteering to help judge these events, as well as Yr12 Ibrahim Ejaz for his continued energy and endeavour to ensure the smooth running of this event. The disruption of this year means that we are still very much in the infancy of this year's competition and all are looking forward to the potential of a bumper late spring and summer of House competitions as we all dream of the heady days of a sunny summer sports day !

The 32 qualifiers for the final assembled online after school on Wednesday for an epic 5 round ‘Swiss’ tournament. Both Ron and Sagnik were undefeated (drawing with each other in the third round) but Ron won on the tiebreak (his opponents won more matches than Sagniks’). Fittingly Ron clinched victory in the final match of the day against Martha (Y12) which swung backwards and forwards watched (and commented on) by most of the other competitors. With over 300 members of the online club Tiffin chess club is thriving in lockdown. We finish the half term with a tournament against 33 other schools at 6pm on Friday 12th Feb. Results of the final of the inaugural Tiffin Chess Cup: 1st: Ron (Y10) 2nd: Sagnik (Y10) 3rd: Tong (Y12)

Young Reporter Sayanen Sawmynaden had an article on the Year 10 annual House chess tournament published in the Surrey Comet. You can read the article here.

Individual meetings with Year 11 students about their future have continued online this term and they submitted their A level choices this week. These 30 minutes meetings give each student time to put their heads together with me, to have an impartial discussion about their ideas for the future, covering whatever is useful and relevant to them at the time. It's a time for students to consider the things they've come across so far in careers lessons and activities and turn their attention to developing their own ideas and intentions. Over the course of 176 meetings, we've talked about their plans for the next two years, subject/course choices, career and university options, work experience and apprenticeships. I have really enjoyed these meetings - hearing about their interests (from film directing to astrophysics) and helping with their plans - and thank all of Year 11 for their openness in this process. (Helen Varley, Head of Careers) The School believes it is really important for parents/carers to have a clear understanding of the benefits and dangers of the Internet for their sons/ daughters. In order to support our parents in keeping their children safe online and to manage a healthy relationship with the Internet, we invited Peter Cowley, the Lead Advisor for Online Services and Safety, for Achieving for Children, to deliver presentations to parents on ‘Online Safeguarding’ in late January. The media regularly highlights issues around safeguarding children online and parents are understandably anxious about how best to keep their children safe and happy in this environment, especially while in the midst of a pandemic. The sessions looked at how they use it, how parents can best support them to avoid problems, and what to do if anything goes wrong. As well as covering topics that parents identified, Peter covered setting parental safeguards, sexualised behaviour, supporting safer social media use and over- sharing. The interactive presentation is available here along with a range of information and guidance from local and national organisations.

Out of thousands of entries, a number of Daniel’s songs have featured in the semi- finals of both the UK Songwriting Contest and the American-based International Songwriting Competition (ISC). Four of Daniel’s earlier singles (namely ‘Slow Car’, ‘Orange Sunset’, ‘Stonewall’ and ‘Valentine’) have already been featured on regional radio shows and on BBC Introducing. You can find out more about Daniel via his Instagram: page and be sure to follow him on Spotify and YouTube to hear his latest tracks.

Daniel Mc Cartthy, Year 11, is an aspiring young artist, who writes, performs and produces all of his own music. Daniel’s music is primarily modern Pop and explores themes of love, friendship and anxiety relatable mainly to teens but also to older people.

From his recording studio at home during the first lockdown, Daniel wrote and recorded his debut album (of 10 songs) which will be coming out later in 2021 and he has already released a few singles from the album.

Ben Moore, Year 11 too has also been writing music during lockdown. His album “Unmatched” can be found on Spotify and Amazon music.

The Tiffin Reading Project

Mrs Langton, is keen to promote reading for pleasure amongst Tiffin students (especially during lockdown) and encourage them to have a regular reading habit. So to coincide with ‘National Storytelling Week’, she arranged for some Tiffin staff make short videos, each of them reading a short extract from their favourite novel. The videos were compiled on YouTube by Tiffin Maths Teacher, Mr Gnanendran, and three videos were released to students each day for a week. Each video is around 10 minutes in length.

We hope that you’ll enjoy listening to the recordings too…

Click to watch Day 1

Click to watch Day 2

Click to watch Day 3

Click to watch Day 4

Click to watch Day 5

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