Head's Newsletter 12 February 2021

This latest edition of a lockdown half-term has naturally presented challenges to the House system. However, now experts in virtual House Meets, the Heads of House have continued to try and keep students across the school engaged with the trials and tribulations of the House Championship. This half-term has seen two virtual competitions taking the fore, Lit Quiz and Debating. In Lit Quiz, following the Junior win for CG before Christmas, KM won the virtual edition of the Intermediate round just a couple of weeks ago to set up a crunch final Senior round after half-term with CG holding a narrow lead overall. In Debating, 3 weeks and 6 rounds of intellectual combat on topics ranging from taxation to vaccines resulted in a resounding victory for TN. A special thanks must go to former students Yuvraj Sehmi and Joseph Niblett for volunteering to help judge these events, as well as Yr12 Ibrahim Ejaz for his continued energy and endeavour to ensure the smooth running of this event. The disruption of this year means that we are still very much in the infancy of this year's competition and all are looking forward to the potential of a bumper late spring and summer of House competitions as we all dream of the heady days of a sunny summer sports day !

The 32 qualifiers for the final assembled online after school on Wednesday for an epic 5 round ‘Swiss’ tournament. Both Ron and Sagnik were undefeated (drawing with each other in the third round) but Ron won on the tiebreak (his opponents won more matches than Sagniks’). Fittingly Ron clinched victory in the final match of the day against Martha (Y12) which swung backwards and forwards watched (and commented on) by most of the other competitors. With over 300 members of the online club Tiffin chess club is thriving in lockdown. We finish the half term with a tournament against 33 other schools at 6pm on Friday 12th Feb. Results of the final of the inaugural Tiffin Chess Cup: 1st: Ron (Y10) 2nd: Sagnik (Y10) 3rd: Tong (Y12)

Young Reporter Sayanen Sawmynaden had an article on the Year 10 annual House chess tournament published in the Surrey Comet. You can read the article here.