Head's Newsletter 19 May 2017

It is great to see the summer sports thriving. The Cricket fixtures have gone very well and the weather has so far been kind. We had an especially successful day last weekend against Reigate. Once again the U12s deserve particular mention; they are certainly turning into an exciting side with great potential (photos below). On the Rowing front it is excellent to report our successes at the Thames Ditton Regatta. It has also been good to see our athletes training and we look forward to them competing later in the term. Outside of sport you can read in the newsletter about some of the other competitions and events that we enter. In particular you can see the boys who participated in different science and engineering competitions, including STEM, EES, and Go4SET. You will have seen in the news coverage regarding the funding shortages that schools are suffering from. These shortages affect Tiffin, and we are doing all that we can to ensure that we run the School efficiently, whilst raising as much as we can to enable us to sustain the outstanding education we offer, including the many things you read about in this newsletter. One of the key ways we generate income is through the voluntary contributions of parents into the Tiffin Education Fund . These donations are needed more than ever, and if as yet you do not donate to the fund, I would urge you to do so. Please do read the special email about school funding sent to parents last week, also detailing how you can donate. Yours, M D Gascoigne

Dear Parents With half term approaching, the exams are well underway. We wish Years 11 and 12 all the best for their revision and hope that their GCSE and AS exams have started well. Year 13 depart today to go on study leave for their A Levels. It is always a poignant time for both the boys and staff as we say goodbye; many of the boys we have known for seven years, and we have watched them grow into young men. For others who joined us new in the sixth form, we have enjoyed their company for less time, but have also seen them progress and take hold of the opportunities available here. Their successful integration is marked by the fact that it is always difficult to remember who has been here seven years and who has been here two! They all leave today with many memories, and indeed a deep-seated fondness for Tiffin, equipped not just for the forthcoming exams but also for their future lives. We pass on our very best wishes to our Leavers of 2017 and hope they achieve the results they want for the next stage in their lives. Internal exams for Years 7 to 10 take place next week, as does the very enjoyable House cricket competition which we deliberately run alongside. The last couple of weeks have seen a number of interesting activities taking place. I particularly enjoyed watching the Year 7 take part in the Bhangra dance workshop. We have run this for some years now, and is it is always entered into with gusto by the participating boys.

IMPORTANT DATES

Friday 26 May

Professional Development Day—no boys in school

29 May—2 June

Half term

Monday 5 June

Boys return to school after half term Twilight PDD—school finishes at 2 pm

Wednesday 14 June

the information from the speaker they proceeded to develop their turbines and attempt to maximise power conversion from their ‘wind source’.

STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHS) The Design & Technology Department have maintained our strong links with STEM, the 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 50 boys applied and took part in a STEM activity day with a guest presenter.

After 4 hours of hard labour their concepts were presented. It was very 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: Smallpeice Trust and Arkwright Scholarships. Ray Shin, Nick Belemet, Shivam Nautiyal, Mehul Arora and Nikhil Gorrepati were deemed to be the winning students for the day. Congratulations to all pupils who represented Tiffin School to such a high standard and thanks also to STEM.

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

exceptionally hard and achieved the award for Best Project Report. The Year 12 students tackled a six-month engineering project based on a real world challenge that the mentor’s company is currently facing. One Year 12 team was set the task of developing a device to detect leaks from underwater pipelines and wells. A solution to this could, in theory, help BP use existing ageing oil and gas infrastructure in the North Sea to transport and store captured carbon dioxide thereby assisting the move to a low carbon future. The other Year 12 team worked with Air Products to build a functioning prototype of a molecular weight sensor. The device could be used by operators to identify the type of gas present in a system. All the students are encouraged to show industrial enterprise, creativity and innovation when developing their solution. As they work together they gain extensive experience of problem-solving, team- working and project management. Both teams received the CREST award and the Industrial Cadet Award, and the BP team won the Contribution to the Business award. Congratulations to the Year 9 boys (left)

EES/GO4SET SUCCESS On Thursday 27 th April one team of Year 9 students and two teams of Year 12 students attended the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) and Go4SET celebration day at BP’s International Centre for Business and Technology (ICBT) in Sunbury. They have been working with a business mentor to produce a creative and sustainable solution to a variety of challenges faced by industry. The day is the culmination of months of hard work and gives the teams an opportunity to showcase their findings to parents, teachers, fellow students, industry experts and a panel of judges. The year 9 team, worked on a 10-week project, ‘Challenging Environments’. The students explored how science and technology could be used to help people live and work in some of the harshest environments on Earth. Working in small teams they developed a project plan, wrote a report and built a physical model that demonstrated their approach and solution. The team was allocated a business mentor to provide guidance, to challenge their thinking and to provide industrial context. The boys worked

and the following year 12 students: Arthur Leech, Harvey Wong, Rohan Vijjhalwar, Peter He, Tejas Katyarmal, Shiv Kapila, George Neville White, Aditya Deshpande, Mohamed Dawood, Manish Manoj, Shezoo Rahman and Chinmay Joglekar.

BHANGRA DANCE WORKSHOP On Thursday 11 th May all Year 7 students participated in a bhangra dance workshop taught by Vijay Mehay from Nachda Sansaar Dance Company, Birmingham. During the workshop dancers learned about the origins and music of this vibrant dance style and explored and learned a short piece of choreography. The class was accompanied by live music.

THAMES DITTON REGATTA

We had a good weekend at Thames Ditton Regatta on 13 th May. The J15 doubles made it to a semi- final and a final in close-fought races; our finalists losing due to a steering incident (ie they hit the bank!). Our J14 quad beat Hampton School in their semi-final and in an EPIC battle in the final beat The King’s School, Canterbury, by 3ft over the 1000m course, rowing through them in front of a packed KSC marquee! This was a great result.

formidable opposition yet. They racked up 186 in their 30 overs, dominating our bowling in a way that we had not yet experienced. In reply, runs came steadily, but our first 3 all fell without really getting going. Enter Alex Cormack who proceeded to bat with impressively controlled aggression, hitting 14 boundaries on his way to 89 not out. He required the steadfast support of Farhaan Shaikh as a partner who was run out with just 4 to win. Their stand of 63 for the 6 th wicket proved a match winning one. As the team continue to experience pleasing levels of success, they do so with humility, enthusiasm and eagerness to learn. We are very fortunate to have two parents who volunteer and come in regularly to help with maintaining the ’Head’s Garden’. They could really do with some help, so if there is anyone who could help on a fairly regular basis for a couple of hours a week or a one- off more intensive few hours we would be so grateful. If you can help, please email dcarpenter@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk JUNIOR MATHS CHALLENGE The first week after Easter saw over 260 boys in Years 7 & 8 sit the Junior Maths Challenge. 87 boys managed Gold certificates which is slightly down on last year's record of 99. However, when we include Silver and Bronze, 227 boys across Years 7 and 8 were awarded certificates and this is a new Tiffin record. Further to this, an impressive 46 boys have been invited to compete in the prestigious follow-on rounds: the Junior Maths Olympiad and the Junior Kangaroo. These competitions take place on Tuesday 13 th June and will be eagerly awaited by some of our most talented young mathematicians (and their teachers).

Since the opening weekend of the season, the U12s have continued to enjoy their cricket and have gelled together to form an impressive team. Having beaten John Fisher, a much stiffer task against Hampton followed. Chasing 132 Jaiveer Johal and Datta Vasireddy began with an opening stand of 51 and Iain Westbrook batted very intelligently for 29. As wickets fell so did our run rate. We inched towards their target, losing confidence in our ability to find the remaining 25 runs despite having 5 wickets in hand. It was intense to watch. The outcome swung both ways and as our 8 th wicket fell, the last 10 runs seemed out of reach. Not so though. Shashank Iyer confidently pulled the ball to the leg side boundary twice to relieve the pressure. A great game of cricket was eventually decided by a wide, which although an anticlimactic way to finish, did not undermine the team effort that bought about our first win over Hampton since 1991.

This confidence boost led to an emphatic 150 run victory over Latymer Upper including maiden 50s for both Datta Vasireddy and Iain Westbrook, 3 wickets for 2 runs for Jaiveer Johal and 3 wickets for 1 run for Aryan Patel. The following day we faced Reigate, who presented as our most

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