Head's Newsletter - 18 January 2019

Dear Parents Welcome to the first newsletter of 2019 and may I wish a Happy New Year to all. Although it now seems a long time ago, I must commend the fantastic choir on their performances at Christmas. We had an excellent evening Guest carol service, with many former pupils, parents and staff attending. With our higher number of pupils we held two School carol services this year organised by houses. This proved to be a refreshing and most successful change to the previous format. In addition the choir were also singing at the Royal Opera House and the English National Opera in performances before, during and after Christmas. Year 11 mock exams were completed well before Christmas and the boys received their results. I hope that Year 11 parents found the consultations with teachers last week useful. As Year 11 meet senior staff to discuss their Sixth Form options, it is good to see them very focused with only four months to go before the first GCSEs. Year 13 are beginning to receive university offers. I'm very pleased that 22 Sixth formers have received offers from Oxford or Cambridge, which is up on previous years. We congratulate all students on the university offers they are receiving in what is an exciting time for year 13. I previously reported the confirmation that our GCSE results were not only excellent in terms of attainment of top grades but also showed the terrific progress that the pupils make between Key Stage Two and Key Stage Four, with the government awarding

us the highest category of ‘well above average’ for progress. I am very pleased that we also received confirmation from ALPS (a national database of A-level results) regarding our A-level results that our performance was not only superb in our attainment of the top grades but puts us in the top 20% for progress between GCSE and A-level. There is of course much activity at school as usual and a number of trips have either gone out or are going out during this half term. Currently Sixth Form German students are in Berlin, and the Year 11 exchange returns to Germany next week. There have been a number of evenings out, including a Year 11 drama trip to see Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- time , and an English trip to Macbeth . We are very much looking forward to the school play Oliver being performed in the Main Hall in February. Please do come along and see what is going to be a terrific performance. We also have the House Singing this term and there is a report on the House Drama which took place in December. The Rugby season has recommenced and thankfully so far has not been disrupted by the weather. We have also seen success in a number of other sports and we look forward to semi-finals this half term in the inter-schools basketball competitions. At the start of this new term we welcome a new teacher to the school. Mrs Boyd joined the RP department and we wish her well in her new post. Yours, Mr M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday 22 January Tuesday 29 January Wednesday 6 February

Y9 Parents’ Consultations: School finishes at 1 pm

Twilight PDD—school finishes at 2 pm House Singing Final, Sports Hall at 7 pm

11 to 14 February Friday 15 February 16 – 24 February

School Play: Oliver! at 7 pm

Professional Development Day: no boys in school Half Term. Boys return Monday, 25 February at 8.30 am

BIG BANG COMPETITION Sanchit Ajmera in Year 13 was awarded a place as a finalist in The Big Bang Competi- tion to be held at the NEC, Birmingham, on 13/14 March 2019. The award of a place at the Finals is a great achievement and testament to the hard work of Sanchit. The Finals are a unique opportunity for young people to present their STEM pro- jects to a panel of judges. Previous win- ners have gone on to represent the UK in international competitions in the USA, Chi- na and across Europe, to appear on nation- al television; to study STEM at the highest levels; to work in some of our biggest com- panies; and to set up their own businesses. Human Rights Project On January 14th. Tiffin Boys’ attended the final event of the prestigious human rights project at Queen Mary College, University of London. This involved the presentation of their final research reports, which in- volved assessment from members of the British Institute of Human Rights, held at Surbiton High School.

We played host to the finest teams in the south east on Wednesday 28 th November at Grist’s for the 70 th running of the Judge Cup. Despite the inclement weather, with a bracing breeze, the event went very well. Year 7s, Nik Hilmy and Jacob Landau, with Ibrahim Dembele, also from Year 7, offici- ating, battled home strongly after a testing first leg. The older A team runners, Connor Foley, super-sub Zach Storey, Tom Arm- strong, Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin worked their way through the field and new find Ollie Coppellotti brought us home in a creditable 8 th place. The B team provided a similar barnstorming performance: Jacob passing on to Ben Coats, then the B team super- subs Elliott Rutt and Matthew O’Donovan were followed by a Captain’s performance from Kai Pischke and a strong surging per- formance from Magnus Handley to finish 7 th . The officials managed to keep the course from taking off and ensured the smooth running of the event. Well done to Year 10 pupils who collected essential food items for the Kingston food- bank which were very gratefully received and no doubt made a massive difference to families in need over the Christmas period.

All four groups presented fantastically well, with confidence, knowledge and enthusi- asm for their chosen topic area. They han- dled questions from the audience with ease and professionalism, and we came away with an award for the “best written report”. Thank you to all of the boys for their hard work and commitment to the project.

Best Actor, and Scott Smith (photo top left). The humorous piece with a well- developed yet concise story was a worthy winner. Best Writer went to Elvy McCrudden for A Matter of Moors and Maulings performed by Scott house (photo bottom left).

On Thursday 13 th December five houses (Scott, Kingsley-Montgomery, Churchill- Gordon, Raleigh and Turing-Nightingale) competed in the annual House Drama event. Judged by school alumnus and Game of Thrones star, Gethin Anthony, and recent school leaver and previous Best Actor winner, Ben Willows, the evening was a brilliant showcase of the acting prowess that Tiffinians throughout all year groups possess.

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s main school production ‘ Oliver! ’. In this adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the Charles Dickens novel, 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist falls in with a group of street-urchin pickpockets led by the Artful Dodger and masterminded by the criminal Fagin. When Oliver's intended mark, Mr Brownlow, takes pity on the lad and offers him a home, Fagin's henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy to keep him from talking. We are putting on a total of five performances; each night from 11-14 February at 19:00 and an extra matinée at 13:30 on Wednesday 13 February. Tickets are available to purchase at www.ticketsource.co.uk/tiffinschool or direct at the Drama Office, and range from £3 - £15. The cast performance schedule is now finalised and to help you decide when to come you can view it here http:// bit.ly/2FBZ2GN . The School production is one of the best adverts for the school and its talents, so do Book a Ticket or Two and come to see Oliver!

The overall winner was Raleigh House with a play called "Aladdin and the Beast" written by Aaron Thakar, who also won

On Wednesday 16 th January thirteen dancers from Y7-10 from the Tiffin Dance Company performed in the Edmund Kean Theatre at Richmond upon Thames College as part of the ‘Ignite’ dance festival. It was a great opportunity for the local youth companies and schools, as well as adult dance groups, to showcase their work. Tiffin dancers performed their piece ‘ okra’ where dancers explored the energy within the group.