Head's Newsletter 1 April 2022

Dear Parents, Time seems to have flown by as we have now reached the Easter holidays. The School is of course not isolated from the events of the world and I was very pleased that the school council chose to support the refugees from the war in Ukraine on the last mufti day. Thank you to all those who donated and I ’ m delighted that we raised almost £10,000 to help those in need. We ’ ve been celebrating a number of things this term including women ’ s history month, which you can read an article about in the newsletter. We ’ ve also had a very successful week of assemblies and tutor times looking at neuro diversity, exploring different perspectives and appreciating what makes people unique. In the newsletter you can also see some summaries of other competitions and events that students have been involved in including the successful debating team outings, and in particular the incredible popularity and success of our chess, which seems to be going from strength to strength under the careful guidance of Mr Pereira. Another indication of the extraordinary range of provision and opportunities at Tiffin was the Chinese immersion experience where students were able to link online with their peers in a school in China. As part of our careers programme Year 10 followed up their internal exams with a day focusing on careers opportunities and the development of skills that employers value.

It ’ s also been very good this term to go out on trips and some of these are highlighted in the newsletter this week including the Year 12 trip to Bosworth and the grave of Richard III, the Year 12 Psychology conference, and the fantastic Design Ventura competition that the Year 9 students were involved in. Sport of course continues apace. We ’ ve seen some of our first rowing competitions of the season and particular congratulations to our Year 9 and Year 12 students who performed extremely well . We ’ ve now come to the end of the rugby season and there have been some very good results in the Rugby Sevens competition. Furthermore, there is more success in cross country to report. It is good that we are now able to get guest speakers in again. I ’ d like to particularly thank Krishnan Guru Murphy for coming to speak on politics and the media to a packed lecture theatre. We are very grateful to him, especially as he flew out to the Ukraine the following morning from where he has been hosting Channel 4 News over the last two weeks. I wish all parents and students an excellent Easter holiday and look forward to seeing students again when term resumes on Tuesday, 19th April. Yours, Mr M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday 19 April

Start of Summer term— ( week B) 8.30 start Years 7 - 9 and 9.20 Years 11 - 13. Year 10 Parents Consultations, school finishes 12.30 for Years 7 - 9 and 1.20 for Years 10 - 13

Tuesday 26 April

Bank Holiday - School closed

Monday 2 May

PDD—No students in school

Friday 27 May

Half Term

Monday 30 May— Friday 3 June

ROWING

We had lots of crews in Kingston Head on Saturday 19th from both boys and girls squads. The race ran from Hampton Court back to the boat club which was challenging in windy and rough conditions. We had success in both Year 9 (J14) and Year 11 ( J16 ) crews and a very credible 2 nd place in J15s ( Year 10 ) and 3 rd place in J18 ( which was year 12 racing in the year 13 category ) Congratulations to Daniel Youseff | Noah Moore | Zach Storey | Oscar Luck in Year 11 and Lucas Wilde | Vlad Markov | Shan Lieu | Shawn Dickinson & Leo Bullinger in Year 9. Last week the rowers did their first National Event at Eton Dorney. The event includes both schools and clubs from the whole UK,rowing over 3.6 km.

All crews did well ; Year 12s rowed up a year in the Championship division. They produced a time that puts them in 8 th position from 24 clubs in their year group. The Year 11s finished a very credible 13 th from nearly 40 crews. 5 seconds was the margin from making the top 10.

Year 9s produced the best result of the day coming 5 th and 14 th out of 40 ! The A boat was 5 th by 15 seconds off 1 st place but had to stop when they couldn ’ t pass other crews in their lane having caught up several hundred meters ! Without this delay who knows … Congratuations to Lucas Wilde, Vlad Markov, Shan Liew and Shawn Dickson in what was their first ever race.

NEURODIVERSITY CELEBRATION WEEK

Our celebration of Neurodiversity Week is coming to a close, and the SEN department would like to thank all those who were involved in raising awareness of neurodiversity. The event was a rousing success, and we were able to enlighten both students and teachers about what it means to be neurodiverse. By shining a light on this issue, we aimed to challenge stigmas and misconceptions about neurodivergent individuals by highlighting the valuable contributions they can make by approaching problems in a different way. Staff and students were able to learn about some of the challenges of neurodiversity and celebrate the fact that we are all unique. This is something that we aimed to achieve, and I think that Tiffin excelled in its endeavour. From the neurodiversity assembly where students were offered a brief glimpse into the biological working of the human brain, to the tutor time exercises, students were given an opportunity to explore a different perspective and appreciate what makes people unique. As part of the celebrations, a display was also set up outside the JLT highlighting the many aspects of neurodiversity, including some designs for products useful for those with neurodiverse needs designed by Year 11 GCSE Design Technology students. A large variety of exceptionally well - made items were created, and we showcased three: an alarm clock designed to help vulnerable youngsters develop better sleep patterns; a writing slope to aid students with dyspraxia; and an accessory that supports restless learners who have an ADHD diagnosis. We would like to thank the three year eleven students George, Hamza and Sufyaan who graciously allowed their DT projects to be displayed. These projects showed the creativity of Tiffin students and their ability to think outside the box. In celebrating Neurodiversity Week, we hope that everyone at Tiffin has gained a greater understanding of and appreciation for the wonders of neurodiversity found in all of us.

CHEMISTRY

DOWNS LEAGUE SUCCESS

Success for Year 10 Chemists in RSC Chemistry Challenge

The Downs league Epsom was the latest back drop for the running club success. The strong intermediate team were first school in the Four Match series. Ever present Atharv Pruthi had a brilliant series smashing his personal best or the course. Andrew Tian also matched this feat with a decimating of his personal best. Athav was the 4th athlete of the whole series which was even more impressive as the opposition was mainly club athletes and this was his first full year of competition. Eric Matthew Sukandy also smashed his personal best winning the most improved athlete in his division. His efforts in the first and last race coupled with Tin Fung in the second and Seni Adeyinka, Edward Brown, Stefan Ioanou and Ishan Patel placed us as first school in their junior section.

Twenty six Year 10 students put their chemistry to the test in the Local Heats of the Royal Society of Chemistry ’ s annual Chemistry Challenge for Year 10 pupils across the country. The students worked in small teams to answer questions that covered a range of topics, from calculations to identifying unknown compounds. Excitingly, all of the teams received awards, achieving at least 50% in the challenge – an outstanding achievement. Most excitingly, one of the teams, “ Friends of Tiffin Chemistry ”, performed so well they are through to the local finals. Vincent Xue, Arnav Vacher, Kaizad Kapadia, and Eric Meng will represent Tiffin in the Downlands Local Section Finals which will be held in May at Kingston University. We wish them all the best!

participating in the grand final were from England, which speaks to the truly global nature of this competition. Solace can be found in the fact that James and Janindu did actually beat the overall winners of the day in the very first debate. However, the fact that Tiffin managed to make it to the finals in the first place is a truly remarkable achievement for James and Janindu, and Tiffin debating. It was also a very valuable learning experience for all the Tiffin teams that participated to go up against other schools, in what is the most prestigious debating competition in the world. AWARD

OXFORD DEBATING SOCIETY

On Saturday 12 th March, Tiffin took part in the Oxford Schools ’ debating competition finals day. The day comprised a gruelling six debates, beginning at 8:30 in the morning and the last debate finishing well after 10:00 in the evening. At the beginning of the day, our team consisting of Janindu Weerasinghe and James Maloney quickly distinguished themselves as strong competitors. As the day went on, our team became more and more confident, taking on board any advice given by the judges of the debates. The motions ranged from contemporary issues, such as the merits of social media, to more abstract ideas such as parenting styles. Our team took all the motions in the stride, maintaining a highly impressive degree of focus throughout the whole day. Unfortunately, we did not make the cut for the final debates, however the finals were hotly contested, with the final in particular being a highlight from which our team learned much. The motion took the form of a fiendish, abstract moral dilemma. Remarkably, none of the teams

Congratulations to Ben Luca Atassi Quinton who received a Highly Commended Award in the prestigious Lytham St Anne's Classical Association 2022 Classics Competition. The LSA CA Committee really enjoyed watching Ben Luca's presentation and was hugely impressed by his research, delivery and passion for his choice of unsung hero, Cyrus the Great. The standard of entries was very high this year and it is a real achievement for Ben Luca's efforts to be recognised in this way.

TIFFIN CHESS UPDATE

Tiffin Chess has had an excellent half term. In the Ivan Gromov League, our A and B teams now sit at third and second after 11 rounds and a massive showing in a recent Friday inter - school Blitz tournament helped clinch second in a hotly contested event where the top 5 were separated by just 3 points.

Both the A and B teams made it through to the second knockout stage, beating KCS U13b and Guildford County school respectively. The A ’ s then drew old rivals Hampton in a difficult fixture where they were massive underdogs. Despite Hampton fielding a master on board one and an ex - Tiffinian on board three, Tiffin started well. Samvrit Subin gained an early positional advantage with white against a French however a couple of slow moves brought back equality. As all the games transitioned to the middlegame, Hampton were winning on boards 1, 3 and 6 and later converted on 3 and 6 as Tiffin missed their opponents ’ tactical shots. Despite this, Sagnik Chatterjee on board 2 eased past his higher rated opponent playing possibly the best game we have seen this year to win with white. Then in a bizarre twist, within minutes of each other, both Hampton players on boards 1 and 4 blundered into mating nets in seemingly innocuous positions. Samvrit and Ron Usharovsky both found these to leave the score 3 - 2. Sadly Anixton Linton was unable to overcome his king ’ s weakness and lost on board 5 but this 3 - 3 score meant a victory for Tiffin on boardcount. They then went through to face Eton in the regional finals but the team, hampered by illness lost 2 - 4, only able to win on boards 5 and 6, Anixton and Tong. They can still qualify for the national finals but will have to win the repechage event next term. Sadly the B ’ s were unable to replicate the A ’ s win against Hampton as they faced a very strong RGS Guildford team with the strongest u18 player in the country. However they did stave off the white wash as Alex Wang drew on board 5 and Johan Mathew very comfortably held rook and two vs knight and four against his much higher rated opponent. After a third place finish in the last JTCC qualifier at King ’ s, Tiffin ’ s strong U13 team travelled to Wilson ’ s to try again to qualify for the national finals, this time with a B and C team for company. They began well with a 4 - 0 win over Wilson ’ s D however they stuttered in round 2 as only David Varghese, who finished with 3.5/4, won on board 3 in a 3 - 1 loss to KCS u13 B team. They recovered well though in the final rounds beating KCS u13 A team 2.5 - 1.5 and Eltham A 3.5 - 0.5 to clinch the final spot in the national finals (11/16). Congratulations are in order for all 4 boys, Samvrit Subin, Johan Mathew, David Varghese and Shriyans Muddana for all their hard work this year and let ’ s hope they can go on to even better things in April. The B and C teams also played very well between them beating JAGS A, Reserves, Trinity B and drawing Eltham and Wilson ’ s D to come 8th and 12th in a field of 16. The big brother of the JTCC, the TCC qualifiers were also held this half term, once again at Wilson ’ s. Tiffin ’ s A ’ s began well with 7.5/12 in the first three rounds courtesy of wins against Caterham and Eltham A either side of a close loss to Wilson ’ s B. However they were joined on 7.5 points by 3 other schools with another on 7. With all to play for, Tiffin “ enjoyed ” their usual luck in swiss pairings, drawing the strongest team in the whole competition, Wilson ’ s A. Ron Usharovsky and Isaac Lam then managed to play utterly fantastic games as massive underdogs to force a draw against Wilson ’ s, 2 - 2. At the same time, all other schools drawn on 7.5/12 also happened to draw their games leaving Tiffin tied for second with 4 other schools with the best tiebreak. Qualifying for the national finals is difficult at the best of times but to do so with a team missing two of the top is even more so. Well done to Johan Mathew, who played in the As for both the JTCC and TCC and Anixton Linton for a clutch hold down a rook. The B ’ s managed wins against Wilson ’ s F and Caterham schools to score a credible 10th in the upper section while the C team beat JAGS A, Sutton B and Sutton C to come third in the lower section, just a point (or backrank mate) away from first.

PSYCHOLOGY A LEVEL CONFERENCE

On Monday 21st March, seventeen intrepid psychology students ventured into central London, keen to listen and question some key thinkers in psychology. Professor Phil Banyard opened the conference and introduced students to the idea of self, consciousness, phantom limbs and natural born cyborgs. Mike Cardwell then spoke offering some optimism in a lecture entitled, ‘ Toward a Culture of Peace ’. Here we were introduced to

research on nonviolent protest effectiveness, citing examples such as the 2017 Plaza de Mayo marches against the Supreme Court. He went on to explore examples of the power of art, women, photography and voice (for example in Estonia, 1991) as being successful at contributing to peace in times of conflict. Cara Flanagan, author of our main A - Level textbook and a chief examiner, focused on persuading the students to revise efficiently, applying concepts from memory research. Next up was a technical lecture from Professor Chris French. He talked about publication bias, peer review problems and

the difficulty of replication within the context of his investigation of anomalistic psychology.

The highlight of the day was when students were able to question Elizabeth Loftus. Professor Loftus has had a unique career as one of the foremost psychologists of her generation. She has been an instrumental figure in cognitive psychology and has published over 24 books and over 600 articles. She was particularly controversial as she was called by defence teams for defendants such as Harvey Weinstein to provide expert witness evidence. She had some fantastic insights into false memories, misidentification cases and the pitfalls of psychodynamic therapy. It was good to get out to a conference, mix with other psychology students and experience normality in this way again. The students reported that they got a great deal out of the day.

DESIGN VENTURA COMPETITION

Design Ventura Competition is a competition that has been running for the past 12 years, aimed at individuals to shortlist and showcase pupils who have the qualities needed for any entrepreneur - like endeavour. It is a national competition and it consists of shortlisting all the entered schools down to 10 schools, and then to an overall winner. It was made clear that only 1 team out of the whole of Year 9 would be entered by Tiffin, and this selection process initially included the shortlisting of 5 teams. Our first task was to create a product that would meet a required brief, and we developed the idea of Quadible - a portable set of square shapes that could be arranged and stuck together by magnets to create anything a user desired. By no means, was the development of this initial idea easy and it took a lot of organisation of google meets outside of school hours to get the product ready for the deadline.

Picture of our first idea ‘ Quadible ’

Our new idea ‘ Drummable ’

DESIGN VENTURA COMPETITION

Before we knew it, we were heading off to Deutsche Bank to pitch our idea to a panel of renowned judges . We entered a room with plush chairs, huge projectors and cameramen following our movements(the latter was probably the coolest part of our trip). There was an air of enthusiasm tinted with nerves of presenting in front of every shortlisted school - the cream of young, aspiring entrepreneurs in England. Hence, on observation of every other pitch, I realised that

everyone was quite nervous during their pitches and each team made their own unique mistakes. We were probably the luckiest group - being the last to pitch - as we corrected the mistakes of other groups to make our pitch perfect. The beauty of our pitch was that we had little preparation in terms of pitching, for we were a group driven by confidence and the ability to speak spontaneously. This did us good, for when it was our turn to pitch, we were not nervous but rather energised by the audience and we spoke about our product with so much passion that we even considered turning our product into something commercial afterwards!

At Deutsche Bank

After treating ourselves to some scrumptious appetisers and listening to comments from the judges, we went home knowing that we had a good chance of winning the competition(the results will be announced next month). We all felt so privileged to have such an experience at such a young age, and this experience is one we will all remember for many years to come. I would like to give a special thanks to Mr McKitrick for making Tiffin ’ s entry into this competition possible and Mr Haycocks for aiding us in our final prototype development. Written by Saahil Karthikeyan

TIFFIN ART DEPARMENT NEWS

YEAR 9 ARCHITECTURE PROJECT

If you walk into the Art Department at the moment you ’ d think you are in an Architectural Firm! Our Year 9 students have created hundreds of Architectural maquettes, exploring space and connections between shapes. This a very popular project with students and the results, as shown below, speak volumes about their ability to improvise and invent sophisticated constructions. This Scheme of work is the foundation of further explorations in Architectural Design in our GCSE Course .

Hugo Dulson

Sam Goldsmith

Arian Perovic

Xavier Flambert

TIFFIN ART DEPARMENT NEWS

Year 7 Clay project: Clay Fish.

As part of our introductory lesson on clay, Year 7 students explored a number of techniques, such as rolling out slabs, joining pieces of clay together as well as considering the use of patterns through impressions. Year 7 students worked with enthusiasm on this project and we are very grateful to Mrs Read for glazing and firing schools of fish recently. We are unloading the kiln every week, thus look out for a little fish coming to your home soon!

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONT H

Over the past month, Tiffin History Society has created short biographies of significant and vilified women over the course of history, whilst Tiffin students nominated their History Heroes. So, why is it necessary to explore women ’ s history specifically? To understand the importance of women's history, we must first look to the false historical narratives about women and the role history can play in either consolidating or quashing these myths. An overwhelming majority of notable women from history have been

subject to vilification as a result of their gender, receiving criticism for the same attributes for which men have been praised. These false portrayals of women are not confined to their times, but are in fact prevalent centuries or even millennia later. For example, Cleopatra VII was villainised by contemporaneous writers, such as Cicero who ‘ detest[ed] the Queen ’ and demonised her with a focus on her sexual allure. This decidedly negative portrayal was later corroborated by Plutarch and then Shakespeare, who portrayed Cleopatra as an evil seductress. In reality, however, she was a brilliantly intelligent leader who commanded the vast Ptolemaic kingdom and influenced the formidable Roman Empire. Importantly, Cleopatra displayed praise - worthy skills as seen in other leaders of the time, the crucial differentiating factor being her gender. This narrative has pervaded history, with women noted for their intelligence or outspokenness, vilified: framed as witches during the Middle Ages or characterised as subversive troublemakers, as the Suffragettes were during the early 20th century. On a historiographical level, many academics overlook the role of women in history, reducing women to the supporters of the “ more important ” men in society or failing to mention women at all. Once again, if we look a little deeper, we see that this was far from the case, with women having played an active role in shaping history. For this reason it is imperative that we aim to find out the truth about women from history by identifying and understanding the biases in the sources and histories that dictate accepted historical narratives. Over the past month, Tiffin History Society has produced short, weekly biographies on important women from history, explaining and debunking their negative portrayals. We looked at figures such as Charlotte Corday, whose actions were deemed distinctively vile in their breaching of the conventional societal role of women, but who was viewed as a heroine by others for the disregard and political activism she demonstrated through her assassination of Jean - Paul Marat in 1793. Other notable women we analysed included Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn. During Women ’ s History Month, Tiffin students were asked to nominate their History Heroes and justify their choices. We received many responses – Rosa Parks, for example, was chosen by Paras Zalke (Year 8) for her vital role as “ the mother of the freedom movement ”. Another History Hero was Sybil Ludington, who rode nearly 40 miles during the night to warn Patriot soldiers of the imminent threat of British troops in 1777. Paul Revere ’ s similar but less remarkable actions during the American Revolutionary War were immortalised in a poem, whilst “ Ludington ’ s tributes have been on a somewhat smaller scale, ” as she “ was honoured with a postal stamp in 1975,” explains Lucas Sood (Year 8). Without scrutiny and study directed exclusively towards women ’ s history, it is difficult to overcome the overwhelming negative narratives that have come to define the perception of important women. Women ’ s History Month offers the opportunity to do this. However, we must not confine our historical inquisitiveness and curiosity to one month, but instead continue to question the sources and writing we encounter in search of the truth. James Maloney 12 MB

HISTORY NEWS

Visit by Krishnan Guru - Murthy The celebrated journalist and broadcaster Krishnan Guru - Murthy visited school in March to give a talk t the Politics Society on the UK media, journalism and politics. Krishnan recounted how he first became a TV presenter while still a teenager and explained how a modern newsroom works. Krishnan also answered many questions from a packed audience in the JLT, and offered insight into how traditional news operates in the social media age.

Year 12 Trip to Bosworth Field Recently, fifty A level historians took a day trip to Leicester in connection with their study of the Wars of the Roses. First they viewed Richard III's grave (previously under a car park) in the Visitor Centre and also learnt about the archaeological techniques involved in its rediscovered in 2012. Then they travelled out to Bosworth for a tour and reenactment of the battle in 1485 that took Richard's life and marked the dawn of the Tudor Age.

CAREERS DAY

On the 21st March, Year 10 had the wonderful opportunity to take part in an interactive Careers Day with the focus of the day being on developing skills that employers value. We were working on 8 in particular, those being speaking, listening, thinking positively, aiming high, teamwork, leadership, creativity and problem solving. The day started with a quick assembly on what the plan was for the day with focus on the different skills and what each skill compiled of, as well as why it was important. After this, we went with our forms into different rooms to do some careers research. We heard 3 minute interviews from different Tiffin alumni and what careers they decided to pursue, from photographers to journalists. These were incredibly inspiring videos showing the routes into different careers and what the day - to - day life of people in different careers is. From this, we were able to do an online career quiz to give us ideas as to what different types of careers could be out there that we had not heard of before. This created a lot of discussion in the room as to what different careers suited people!

Following on from this, we had a short break before going to our choice of activities, kindly put on by BP and Unilever. The BP game was a game which simulated the stock market, with players put into teams of 6 and different fictional scenarios were presented which affected the price of one barrel of oil, and teams needed to buy and sell the oil depending on whether we thought that the price would go up or down: the winning team was the team that made the most profit. This game worked on teamwork, leadership and aiming high as it was vital to work as a team with a clear plan and the winning teams were the ones who took some risks to aim to get a large amount of profit even if sometimes it didn ’ t work, as the more barrels of oil that were bought the bigger

CAREERS DAY

Alternatively, we had the choice to do the Unilever game where teams created products based on Unilever ’ s current brands, and then pitched them. This task focussed on teamwork, creativity and speaking as the teams had to work together to create the best product they could whilst being creative to make a unique and exciting product and pitching these products by speaking to an audience was extremely important in order to demonstrate their product. Both games were very fun and interactive and the whole year group enjoyed whichever game they took part in.

After lunch, the day ended with a Taskmaster activity. Based on the popular TV show, we got into groups of 6 and were given 6 minutes to run around the school and try to take pictures of things that were bigger than a tennis ball but smaller than a small car, and the biggest set of 3 pictures won. However, the twist was that if you took a photo of the same thing as someone else, both teams who took that photo would be disqualified. Interesting photos were taken, from murals on the walls to motorbikes on the street outside the school. This task required a combination of all of the 8 skills as teamwork, creativity and speaking and listening were needed to communicate effectively with your team and to decide who went where, and aiming high was crucial as the teams who were safe and took pictures of small things so that they would not copy anyone else or be over the size limit did not win as they were not ambitious enough. Overall, the whole day was extremely enjoyable and was very useful in finding out about and developing skills that employers value and the activities that we took part in made the whole day an amazing experience. Kaizad Kapadia 10 TW

RUGBY SEASON RUNS ITS COURSE

The sevens season has finished with a flurry of fantastic performances from across multiple year groups. Theyear 7s completed clean sweep for Tiffin with every year groupwinning their respective Boroughs 7s tournament held at RichardChalloner School. First upat the Rosslyn Park sevens tournament was a Y11 side looking to build on their already impressive school recordwhich has seen them only lose one game in the past calendar year. Unfortunately the Tiffin side came up against some strong competition in their group, losing out to Millfield School (28 - 15) and Plymouth College (19 - 24) before sealing a consolation win

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againstWaterlooSchool (24 - 17). Next upwas theSenior 1st teamwhostarted the tournamentwith two dominant performances againstRoyalWoottonBassettAcademy (36 - 7) andHarris CityAcademyCrystal Palace (32 - 5). This set up a clash with Eastbourne College at the top of their pool to determine who progressedthroughtothenext roundof thecompetition.UnfortunatelyTiffinnever reallygot going inthe match and the score finished 35 - 7 to the team from the south coast. Despite this loss the team can be proudof thereperformance,whichincludedsomefantasticfreeflowingrugby.

Senior Football

After a strong opening win against Kingston Grammar School the 1st XI travelled to Richard Challoner for their second outing of the season. Richard Challonger has had a great season to date reaching the semi final of the regional tournament and beating local rivals Hampton School. In terrible weather conditions the home side started much brighter and 20 minutes into the game Tiffin found themselves 2 - 0 down through lack of intensity of pressure. This pattern continued to half time which saw the hosts double there lead to 4 - 0. The second half saw vast improvements across the whole team and Tiffin were unlucky not to come away from the match with a couple of goals to their name. The match finished 4 - 0 with everyone happy to get inside out of the rain. Next up for the first team they travel to face Royal Alexandra & Albert School.

technical rehearsals where we made sure our choreography was pitch - perfect, ready for the performance. The organisers of the Laban Theatre were intent on getting everything right in the real performance, and hence we practised the final

DANCE TRINITY LABAN Of all the trips the Tiffin Dance Company has taken, this was evidently the climax and the most valuable to the development of us as dancers. After arriving at Trinity

bows repeatedly and in a highly meticulous fashion. It was rather cool to think that we were part of such a

Laban, we began the day with a Hip - Hop workshop. Most of us had never explored

professional performance, and it made us crave even more to perform in front of a live audience as soon as possible. Trinity Laban was undoubtedly the climax of our dance careers, and it added just that extra colour to make each of our respective careers that bit more vibrant. For some of the Yr9s - potentially being our last dance performance, Laban was the perfect time to look back and acknowledge how much we have developed as dancers over the years. Looking back, I can proudly say that I enjoyed every minute of dancing and will continue to dance for as long as I can. Written by Saahil Karthikeyan CHINESE IMMERSION Chinese immersion experience. The students had the opportunity over Zoom to interact with Chinese peers in a school in Wenzhou and to explore Chengdu ’ s famous landmarks – all from the comfort of Tiffin School! They had the opportunity to have an online tour of the Chinese school led by the students, sing Chinese songs, talk to Chinese students and practice their language skills. They also did Chinese calligraphy. The day was hugely enjoyable for all the participants and our thanks go to Miss Chen Thursday 17th March, 23 Year 7 students participated in an online

the Hip - Hop sector of Dance, and so we all found it quite fascinating to dance along to the really fast - paced beats and choreographies. The workshop was led by one of Trinity Laban ’ s own teacher and professional dancer working in the Centre for Advanced Training (vocational dance training for young people). Throughout this workshop, we explored how dance and musical rhythms link in so many ways, as well as how to express ourselves through dance. All in all, it was the perfect start to the day and I remember feeling absolutely breathless by the end of it! Immediately after this workshop, we headed to a National Youth Dance Company workshop, which delved into the internal and external universes of one ’ s self. This slow - paced workshop was a perfect contrast to the fast - paced Hip - Hop workshop before it. Personally, I loved this one the best, as I got to see Dance through a new light and explore my own dance style in the best way possible. I especially enjoyed the last section of the workshop where we choreographed our own dance moves spontaneously, and got to work with members of the other Dance Company. It was then time to head to the Laban Theatre. Of all the theatres we had been to so far, this one was by far the best. Large lights illuminated the stage from offstage and the large projector at the back made this theatre stand out to the other theatres we had been to. Having never been to a professional theatre before, we were all exhilarated by the prospect of dancing on such a stage. We explored this excitement during our