Head's Newsletter 7 October 2016

Dear Parents It has been good to see so many of you at the Open Forums we have been holding for individual year groups during the course of this half term. Year 11 and Year 7 are still to come but I hope that parents have appreciated the opportunity to meet with their son’s form tutor and head of year, and found the information useful. It has also been at those Open Forums that I have been introducing our new building fundraising campaign (this will be done later for Y7 and Y11). It is tremendously exciting to know that we will be constructing a new two storey building from January to replace our dilapidated canteen. It will be transformative for the school site and the educational environment for Tiffin pupils. Although the core funding is in place, just as in the previous developments such as the LRC and Sports Hall, we are looking to raise further funds from the Tiffin community to fit and finish the building as we would like, and as our pupils deserve. Many thanks to all parents who have so far donated. If you were unable to attend the Open Forum there are easy ways to donate, in particular through ParentPay. Simply log in to ParentPay , click on ‘pay for other items’, then ‘New Building Appeal’ and put in the amount you wish to donate. Alternatively you can donate by bank transfer or cheque; please see the form to do so. Please also remember to tick the Gift Aid consent if you are eligible to do so as we are able to then claim back from the Government 25p in every £1 donated! As well as the Open Forums there have been

a number of other significant events taking place in the last few weeks. We have had our first stage 11+ this week: thanks go to all the Year 12 and 13 prefects who helped out. We also hosted an evening about admission to American universities. On the Music front the choir continue to sing at extraordinary occasions and venues, recently appearing at the Royal Festival Hall, as well as singing at the Kingston Crown Court Service. For Year 7 parents there is a wonderful occasion coming up when all Year 7 sing in the inter-form singing competition, for which we use the fantastic venue of all Saints Church in central Kingston. It's a great occasion and always good to see so many parents supporting their sons. On the Sports front we have been running regular rugby fixtures, including some early fixtures for Year 7, the vast majority of whom have never played rugby before they come to Tiffin. They have enthusiastically given a very good account of themselves in the first few games. Cross country also continues to be involved in a number of fixtures and you can read about these in the newsletter. We have a number of very exciting trips away at the moment. The Year 8 trip to Pompeii left today, the Year 13 German students are in Berlin, and Year 12 Geographers are on the field trip to Devon and Dorset next week. Year 10 geography students conducted fieldwork last week, and year 10 Art students had a very successful trip to Kew. We look forward to hearing reports of the trips upon their return. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES Y11 into L6 evening

Monday 17 October

Y7 Inter-form Choir Competition 7 pm All Saints Church

Thursday 20 October

HALF TERM

Monday 24—Friday 28 October

Y13 Parents’ Consultations; school finishes 2.40 pm

Monday 7 November

MUSIC

On Sunday 25 th September the choir trebles were back on duty at the Royal Festival Hall singing Stravinsky’s Perséphone with the London Philharmonia Orchestra and Philharmonia Voices, under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen . One of Stravinsky’s most rarely heard works, Perséphone was originally conceived as a stage production with the text based on an old Greek myth. The melodrama-recitation role of Perséphone was beautifully portrayed by native French speaker, Pauline Chevaller, and the tenor part was sung by Andrew Staples, who will be remembered by many of us for his past performances in Tiffin Oratorio. The boys should be applauded for their rapid learning of the French text, a challenge for those studying German rather than French, and committing it to memory. Positive reviews include: ‘Still younger, of course, were the 28 members of Tiffin Boys‘ Choir, from the Kingston upon Thames school of that name, all attired in their distinctive striped uniform, and lending extra vocal colour to the top line when the score asks for it.’ Alan Sanders, Seen and Heard International

CROWN COURT SERVICE On 3 rd October the choir sang at the annual Crown Court service at All Saints Church, Kingston. The service marks the formal beginning of the annual start of the Crown Court’s year and is attended by the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the Judges of the Crown Court wearing full ceremonial dress. Students from local schools led and joined in the prayers with the choir singing the Introit, Psalm and Anthem. The service was led by the Reverend Jonathan Wilkes and a thoughtful sermon on the importance of traditions in our own lives was delivered by the Reverend Ken Walker, Minister of the John Bunyan Baptist Church.

Marshall Society Student Essay Competition 2016 The Marshall Society is the primary economics society at the University of Cambridge. It was established in 1927, and is named after Alfred Marshall, the prominent economist who was Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge from 1885 to 1908 and established the university's economics Tripos in 1903. Notable former members of the society include economists such as John Maynard Keynes, Nicholas Kaldor and Joan Robinson. This prestigious competition attracted a large number of essays from students from throughout the UK and overseas and all of the judges were impressed with the standard of writing, the level of research and the ability of so many pupils to make such carefully drafted arguments. Tiffinian Jung-Hoon Seo’s essay, “Autocracy and its role in inducing economic growth and prosperity in South Korea” written as part of his summer project, was a thoroughly researched exploration of the topic showing excellent understanding of the context of South Korea’s economic miracle. Jung-Hoon’s essay was placed in the final 15 and judged Highly Commended. Many congratulations to Jung-Hoon.

Art Trip to Kew Gardens 40 Year 10 Art GCSE boys visited Kew Gardens on Monday 26 September, conducting research as part of their Observational studies, to draw and collect photographs.

SIXTH FORM DRAMA PRODUCTION

Tiffin Drama present the annual Sixth Form production. This year we will be staging ‘Jez Butterworth’s’ ‘ Mojo ’. A modern classic that is both humorous and tragic in equal measure. It was most recently performed in the West End featuring Ben

Whishaw and Rupert Grint. The production will be running from Monday 17 th to Thursday 20 th October 2016 at 7.00 pm in the drama studio. Ticket prices are £8.00 for adults and £5.00 for students and concessions. The show will run for approximately 2 hours with an interval. Minimum age requirement 15 years. Tickets sold at the following link: www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/150088

Harvard/Yale Evening at Tiffin Last Friday we were delighted to welcome Janet Irons, Senior Admissions Officer at Harvard, and Keith Light, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions at

from several distances and the winner is the competitor with the highest score at the end of the stages. Many congratulations to Oliver Tse in Year 13, who emerged as London Youth Games Archery Champion. For the uninitiated a Topper is an 11 foot 43 kg (95 lb) sailing dinghy constructed from polypropylene, and is popular as a racing boat or for sail training. The RYA run events and talented young sailors are given specialist race coaching. Many congratulations to Magnus Handley in Year 11, who won the Stride Treglown Welsh Topper Open held at Llandegfedd Sailing Club. WELSH TOPPER OPEN RACE

Yale, who gave a very informative and enjoyable talk to sixth formers thinking of applying to American Universities, about their respective universities, their undergraduate liberal arts programmes, admissions criteria, qualities they seek in candidates, and also in general about opportunities for higher education in the U.S.

NEW HOUSES

Pictures below are the House Masters of the two new Houses: Darwin Wilberforce, led by Mr Karski (left) and Turing Nightingale led by Mr Costello.

At least 250-300 students and parents from over 25 south west London schools attended the event.

The formation of the new houses has drawn interest from far afield with Dr Glasscock of St John's College, Cambridge, writing to say that our already well established connection with the college has been strengthened, at least in name, as both Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and William Wilberforce were students there!

LONDON YOUTH GAMES

Archery is an ancient sport and was historically associated with hunting and warfare. It is now a modern sport and features in the Olympic Games. Competition involves a minimum of two archers accumulating points by hitting a circular target. Archers shoot at the target

Pictured above are 26 or the 42 athletes who set a Tiffin record for the most athletes competing in a Surrey match. Also shown are Mr Martin, Head of PE, and Mr Costello, cross-country coach.

Kings Trophy Against the south east of England the senior team made the top dozen of the nearly thirty teams in the Kings Trophy on Wimbledon common (photo below).

Oxted Relay Fixture

Results so far this season are very encouraging: Oxted: Seniors 2 nd ; Juniors 1 st and 3 rd Tiffin home fixture: Seniors 2 nd ; Juniors 1 st Individual results: Tom Armstong 1 st ; Will Murphy 2 nd and Luca Jackson 3 rd John Fisher: Seniors 2 nd ; Juniors 2 nd Individual results: Will Murphy 1 st ; Luca Jackson 4 th

Mr Costello took the Junior team to the first round of the English schools cross country cup. Tom Armstrong, Will Murphy, Euan Sinclair, Joe Murphy, Jack Hartrey and Alistair Brendon all ran well with Tom and Will making the top 10. The school won through to the South East Regional Cup Final with a great 2 nd team place.

A tough start to the rugby season has seen some great performances but some disappointing results. It began with a pre-season camp down on the South coast. 41 boys and 4 staff headed down to Brighton University for three days and two nights of hard work and team building. It was a great success with both Upper and Lower 6th mixing well and fitness levels been tested to the max. On the journey home there was barely an open eye on the coach. Losses to University College School, KCS Wimbledon and St Pauls were followed by an overdue win against Haberdashers’ Aske’s School last Saturday. This will hopefully be repeated again with a match this Saturday against Gunnersbury School. The 1XV lost their 1st round National Cup match against Trinity school on Thursday, 7 October. But a very open and expansive

game saw Trinity run out winners by 42 points to 30. Defences on both sides had had better days! This does however mean that they have dropped into the plate competition which should see the side achieve a good cup run. Fingers crossed for a good draw in the next round.