Head's Newsletter 11 December 2020

I must start this newsletter by offering our full congratulations to Dr Frost. To even be shortlisted for the Top 10 in the Global Teacher Award is a remarkable achievement, but to be awarded the prize of COVID-19 hero is a superb accomplishment. The award for Dr Frost is very well deserved following the remarkable success of his Dr Frost Maths website, which attracts millions of downloads and has helped thousands of students worldwide. To be mentioned in the House of Commons, praised by the Prime Minister, receive an accolade from the UN, and be given an award by Stephen Fry is quite something in a day’s work! Well done Dr Frost! In a further award, parents may have seen in The Cricketer magazine in November, that we are once again listed as one of the top 100 schools in the UK for cricket. This is a terrific testimony to the pupils, to the pitches, and most of all to our dedicated coaching and grounds staff. Despite the lockdown, we have been able to make use of the new gym facilities, and I’m sure many of the students will have been telling you of how they have been using the new space and equipment. It really is a terrific addition to our facilities and it is getting much use. Although it has been very difficult during the recent lockdown to carry on with extra curricular activities, I’m delighted that we were able to continue with much of our music activity. The huge amount of work put in by Mr O’Malley as Director of Music, and the whole Music department, has ensured our Music continues. There was a wonderful concert given on Tuesday, and we are in particular looking forward to our annual guest Carol

Service, which for the first time everybody will be able to attend who wants to! Normally, we have to limit tickets for the event, but the online carol service means that that is no longer the case. It truly is a magnificent service by our renowned choir, who sing to the highest professional standards, and I hope that parents and wider families will take the opportunity to watch it. In addition, the choir have released a marvellous CD of theirs and previous performances of the Tiffin choir for Christmas. A Tiffin Christmas has many favourite carols on it, with digitally re- mastered recordings of the choir going back to the 1950s. It is a very special CD, and would make an excellent Christmas present. This term has not been easy, and there have been many frustrations with the way that we have had to operate. Nevertheless, in contrast to the Summer Term, it has been fantastic to have students here, engaging and learning. Our number one intention throughout has been to operate the School in as safe a way as possible, and for the most part, until the last week or so, we have avoided the worst disruption that inevitably comes from Covid cases. I hope that all students and their families continue to remain fit and healthy, and enjoy the slightly different break in store for us all this year. Let us hope the New Year brings more good news with the rolling out of the vaccines. I want to thank all parents for their support, all students for their patience and co-operation, and most of all all the staff, whose sterling work allows Tiffin to be the great School it is. Have a very good Christmas and Happy New Year. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Y13Parents’ Consultations online; school finishes at 12.30 for Yr 7-9 & 1.20 for Yr 10-13

Tuesday 15 December

Nine Lessons and Carols 7.00pm (virtual)

Wednesday 16 December

End of Term - School finishes 3.00 for Yr 10-13 & 3.50 for Yr 7-9

Thursday 17 December

Start of term - 8.30am start for Yr7-9 & 9.20am for Yr 10-13

Monday 4 January

Y12 Parents’ Consultations online; school finishes at 12.30 for Yr10-13 & 1.20 for Yr 7-9

Thursday 7 January

Alongside these concerts presented by the school, the choir will also appear in the London Handel Festival (recorded in November) and on CD, with the release of ‘A Tiffin Christmas’ featuring not only our choirs of 2020, but also Tiffin’s choirs of the past 60 years.

In place of our live concerts, this term Tiffin musicians have appeared in an array of online performances, collected to form our series of ‘virtual concerts’ streamed in October, November and December. Beginning with the annual Inter-form Choir and Piano Competitions, the series has continued with our recent Soloists’ Recital (1/12) and Autumn Ensembles Concert (8/12). Technology has allowed more musicians than ever to participate, recording from different times and spaces to assemble solo and ensemble performances of all kinds. With improvised, in-house interpretations of the click tracks used by film and television orchestras, and with a little multi-tracking and video editing, it has been possible to bring the performers together as live.

Whilst Tiffin musicians, like those across the world, are looking forward once again to performing live and unrestricted, online performance brings with it the opportunity to listen again. And so, if you’ve not yet experienced any of this term’s concerts, do drop by the Tiffin Music Virtual Concerts page, where you will find these performances and more: Click here to view all the Tiffin Music Virtual Concerts Click here to listen to the Autumn Ensembles Concert on 8th December 2020

Click here to listen to the Soloists Recital from 1st December 2020

Click here to listen to the Piano Competition Final 11th December 2020

Click here to listen to the Year 7 Inter-Form Choir Competition

But VoTY’s not limited to writing. We also record regular Broadcasts, discussing topics ranging from the Orchestra, to YouTubers, from Social Change, to WW2. And that’s not all. We have original compositions, music covers and videos. Our Voice is not bound to words, but can be expressed in many art forms. To listen to our voice, and to show your support for the Voice of the Youth, click here: where you can find all of the above. Feeling uneasy about the handover from Trump to Biden and Trump’s allegations? Our coverage on the election offers clear, concise details on this important election. To read our latest magazine on the US Election or to listen to our analysis and discussion of the results, click here:

Voice of the Youth (VoTY) Voice of the Youth have meetings every Tuesday where they discuss upcoming article deadlines, for the website, the world of politics and record their weekly podcast. Here is a recent article from Ben Luca who is the Chief Editor. As a second wave of COVID-19 spreads among us, and the elected president, Biden, battles against allegations of a rigged vote, reporting and journalism are as important as ever. However, one large gap remains in the electorate, the youth. The youth have their futures decided for them, and not necessarily in their best interests. However, at the Voice of the Youth (VoTY), we aim to change that - to give the youth of today, a voice for tomorrow - and there’s no better medium through which to do this than journalism. Donald Trump’s treatment of the Black Lives Matter protests, as well as Coronavirus have created, or resparked, debates across the globe, debates that the youth can’t shy away from. With a pandemic changing the way we live, threatening our mental health and casting a shadow on business, VoTY aims to give insight and analysis into the issues of today, with weekly Newscasts, and frequent News articles. However, the Voice of the Youth is not restricted to news and politics. Instead, our journalists’ writing discusses a range of topics and issues; our journalists never miss a moment to reflect upon the world around them. There’s truly something for everyone at VoTY, from the insight of our culture articles, the wit of our opinion pieces, the ingenuity of the latest scientific discussion and the imagination and hilarity in one of our many stories.

Ben Luca Atassi Quinton VoTY Chief Editor

Assembly on Testicular Cancer from the Oddball Foundation

Year 10 recently had an online assembly from the Oddballs Foundation on Testicular Cancer. The assembly covered the signs and symptoms, what do if you are concerned and the success rate in young males, which is an amazing 99%. The assembly was both informative and reassuring. Its main goal was to get young men talking about health issues and sharing concerns as quickly and confidentially as possible .

Art Mural by Year 13 Year 13 Tiffin Art students painted lovely mural at Melbury College organised by Neve, a Year 13 Art student and her mother that works at the College. Looks Amazing!

Volleyball Success for Jake Sanders

Jake plays for the national club champions Richmond and regularly trains with the Volleyball England Cadet squad. His talents have been further recognised by Volleyball England selecting him to enrol on the prestigious Diploma in Sporting Excellence run by Loughborough College.

This is a fantastic achievement as, to quote the College’s Elite Sport Administrator, “Only those athletes from across the country that their National Governing Body deem as having the potential to progress to a higher level of elite performance are selected.” Well done Jake!

Dr Jamie Frost

Poetry Competition

Dr Jamie Frost has been working tirelessly to create and maintain his maths website drfrostmaths.com a teaching resource full of videos and exam questions that anyone can use for free. When the coronavirus pandemic shut down schools all over the world, DrFrostMaths became a lifeline for students learning from home. Within a week, the site’s pageviews had jumped from 0.4 million to 1.3 million per day. Jamie spent every free hour he had coding to adapt the site to meet the needs of students and teachers in this new environment, developing virtual white board software and tools to help teachers monitor students’ progress in real time. The site has now had over 7 million resource downloads and is used worldwide. Dr Frost was shortlisted for the Top 10 in the Global Teacher Award, an award presented annually to an exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession. This is in itself a remarkable achievement, but to be awarded the prize of COVID-19 hero by Stephen Fry is a superb accomplishment. Consequently, Jamie received an enormous amount of media coverage some of which caused a huge stir at school, such as when the BBC Breakfast News came to interview him alongside some willing students. You can view the clip here alongside many others here including Sky news, and BBC Newsround.

Interested in performing or poetry? This year, the English department is delighted to announce the Poetry By Heart competition will be running in school. Poetry By Heart is a national poetry competition in which pupils compete by performing poems they have learned by heart. The winners from the school will go on to compete nationally with other schools, with a chance to compete in the final in front of top UK poets. In addition, year 12 and 13 have the opportunity, if they go through to the national competition, of being asked to represent the nation in an international poetry event in Canada. The competition is open for years 7 to 13, with winners taken from each key stage. Entry closes on 18th December, with the heats taking place in the new year. If students are interested, they should sign up on the form previously sent by email. The previous winners' performances are available on the Poetry By Heart website.

School Sports Report December

House Summary

Having been locked down for a month has not helped activity levels in sport this half of term but a lot has gone in to preparing for restrictions to be lifted. The news that rugby will be returning in January has lifted everyone’s spirits, not only in the rugby section, but in all areas as this gives hope for competitive sport returning across the board. Gym usage by student athletes has been good and they have all really bought into the importance of conditioning in the modern world of school sport. From seeing races and press up competitions in the playground to improvements in measurable fitness scores, it has all been great to see. There have been no competitions against other schools but house competitions have been running in various activities including badminton, football and the run, providing some competitive sport for the masses. As we all look forward to more sport in the spring term we know that the future is bright and that we will be much better placed to compete at the highest levels with preparation moving towards professional levels in the time allowed. We hope that all our students have a rested winter break and come back eager to perform in 2021. The Cricketer Top 100 Schools Its official! Tiffin is one of the top 100 Secondary Schools in The Cricketer Schools Guide 2021. Click here to read more.

After a slow start as we acclimatised to COVID life, the House competition has started in earnest now. For the past several weeks, Mr. McCann has selflessly surrendered several hours of his time to hear dozens of speakers from every year group both in school and from home as they eloquently read from pre-prepared prose and verse or self-written speeches. Now he has the unenviable task of trying to rank the many competitors for a winner to be announced before Christmas! Other events have also got started including Football where, with just the Seniors to go, there is a tie for the lead between Raleigh and Turing-Nightingale, and Badminton where Darwin-Wilberforce have taken a very early lead. Special shoutouts should go to Churchill-Gordon for their victory in the Junior Lit Quiz and Livingstone for their resounding overall victory in the first ever virtual House Chess competition ably organised by Mr. Ingall. This means that Livingstone lead the Championship going into Christmas, perhaps dreaming of a first Championship since 2006!

Biology Field Studies

Spanning six days in October and November 2020, A-Level Biology students took part in a series of Field Studies trips to Bushy Park. For such a well known and frequently visited park, it was fascinating to see how much hidden nature there was within it. Each cohort spent three days on site with the Field Studies Council tutors, where the final aim was to design and carry out an independent investigation into some aspect of Ecology. We had a masterclass in several major ecological experimental techniques, such as laying transects within a sample space, using quadrats and pond dipping (arguably the best one!). We used dichotomous keys to identify previously unfamiliar species, which formed some of the memorable moments in the trip. We were exposed to many different pieces of technical equipment, which enhanced the experience and allowed all A-Level Biologists to collect valid sets of data for their investigations. The Field trip proved to be a great experience and completely changed my perception of Ecology; it was exciting to be able to combine my knowledge from the classroom with a real life practical application. Sophia Year 13