Head's Newsletter 12 July 2019

Dear Parents Welcome to the final newsletter of the school year. It has been very exciting over the last week to see the building site develop next to the sports hall. As you can see from the pictures, the old weights room and outbuildings, which have stood in a sorry state there for some years, have now been almost completely demolished, creating a large space over which the new two storey extension to the sports centre will be built. This will house our new gym, as well as new fitness rooms and changing areas. It is very exciting project which will again enhance our facilities. As

This summer term is always exceptionally busy with the final week including our Sports Day, Swimming Gala, House Rowing and Founders’ Day. We have had many trips going out recently and you can read about the Classics trip to Hadrian‘s Wall, and also a detailed report on the Year 12 Biology field trip; what interesting and thorough practical work goes into this A-level Biology trip! Do read about the music department’s activities, ranging from recording with Madonna, to the sound track of the film Dumbo , to classical recordings with The Gabrieli Consort! I’m sure the choir are looking forward to their tour of Portugal in a week’s time. Year 8 pupils have been on a series of walks around Kingston looking at the aviation history of the town and the development and construction of famous aircraft such as the Hawker Hurricane over the road from the School! The cricket season is now coming to an end and I’m delighted that two boys made it into the Surrey schools team and played at the Oval. Reports on chess, mandarin, and ultimate frisbee, alongside the sports and music, really do demonstrate what an extraordinary range of activities our Tiffin students are encouraged to participate in. I do wish all parents and pupils a very restful and relaxing summer holiday and we look forward to the new term in September. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

with our last project on the dining hall, we are hoping again to successfully raise £200,000 from the Tiffin

community to help fit, furnish and finish the new build. All parents will soon be receiving an appeal from the School to help in this fundraising campaign, and I would urge everyone to donate what they can towards this terrific project. More information

about this can be found on the website by clicking here .

IMPORTANT DATES

Sports Day

Wednesday 17 July

Founders’ Day; last day for boys who are dismissed from the church at about 12.30 pm Staff only (rugby practices for Years 8-13 2 pm at Grist’s)

Thursday 18 July

Monday 2 September

Year 7 and Year 12 required in School from 8.30 am

Tuesday 3 September

Year 12 required at Grist’s from 8.45 am. Year 7 re- quired at School from 8.30; Year 13 have 1:1 interviews All year groups required in School for 8.30 am start

Wednesday 4 September

Thursday 5 September

Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Tiffin Children’s Chorus are proud to be performing on three major releases this season. Madonna’s Madame X, her 14th studio album, has reached sales of 100,000 in the US. On this album she performs alongside Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Tiffin Children’s Chorus on tracks which include ‘Come Alive’ and ‘God Control’.

London performed by the Gabrieli Consort, DRET Youth Choir and the Tiffin Boys’ Choir. On this release, Tiffin pupils can be heard performing semi-choruses in works which include Walton Coronation Te Deum.

Also recently released was the Tim Burton film ‘Dumbo’. An estimated 35 million cinemagoers worldwide have heard Tiffin Boys’ Choir perform Danny Elfman’s score in musical numbers which include ‘Pink Elephants on Parade’ and ‘Train’s a Comin’. More recent work by Tiffin’s musicians can be seen and heard here: https://sites.google.com/ tiffin.kingston.sch.uk/music/home/media

The Gabrieli Consort welcomed the Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Tiffin Children’s Chorus, alongside youth choirs from around the country, to their residential recording project in Ely last year: Gabrieli ROAR. One of the country’s most eminent ensembles, the Gabrieli Consort have released the recording: ‘An English Coronation’ with launch concerts in Northampton and

HADRIAN’S WALL TRIP

51 intrepid Year 9 Latinists ventured to the North East to follow in the footsteps of Second Century Roman legionaries. After a long coach journey, we explored the Roman Fort at Binchester with its fantastic bathhouse and had a fascinating Q&A session with a leading archaeologist.

After a picnic lunch in glorious sunshine – most unusual in the North East! – we were regaled with amazing anecdotes about life on the edge of the frontier by our local guide Peter who really brought the whole thing to life for the students. Our final afternoon transpired to be the highlight; we visited the ancient fort at Vindolanda where we watched archaeologists at work and toured the impressive extensive remains.

The second day was spent exploring the interactive Roman Army Museum before a hike to Hadrian’s Wall itself.

My thanks, as always, go to the staff who readily gave up their time to afford the students this opportunity. I would also like to thank the boys themselves whose conduct was exemplary and enthusiasm infectious; their attitude certainly made the very long journey most worthwhile.

BIOLOGY FIELD TRIP

Last week, 63 Y12 students travelled to Orielton Field Centre in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for a field trip, an essential part of A Level Biology practical education.

of time explaining the different types of lichen found at different points of the rock shore, and the distinctions in the environmental factors that affect their competitive abilities. A small investigation was also completed at Sawdern Point, comparing width of limpets and whether they were on ‘seaward’ or ‘landward’ aspects of rocks, the data from which was used when the students returned to their respective classrooms to complete one of the three statistical tests the students were required to be able to do as part of their CPAC training, the ‘T-test’.

The students spent a total of 5 exciting and intense days carrying out investigations in different coastal sites, learning new statistical tests and becoming familiar with the local ecosystems. They were exposed to the geography and biological heritage of the site, as well of the Pembrokeshire area. They then conducted a mini-investigation using data gathering equipment to simulate the nature of the work they were to undertake in the following days. The real work began the 2 nd day. ‘Required Practical 7 - Chromatography’ was completed within the laboratories. The students were taught how to calculate R f values and identify different pigments in seaweed samples. After lunch, on the rocky shore at Sawdern Point, the FSC instructors taught the students how to identify different organisms, using different individual markers and rules. The students slowly took to identifying different organisms including limpets, seaweeds, sponges and crabs. A 1m x 1m quadrat and a cross staff was used in order to investigate how height above sea level leads to differences in the abundance of different organisms, by using the SACFOR scale. The instructors spent a brief period

On Wednesday, the students went to investigate the sand dunes at Broomhill Burrows, after having a classroom lesson based on the evolution of sand dunes and ecological succession thereon. A ‘point frame quadrat’, a measuring tool with a long pin, was used with a 10m x 10m grid at different points in a series of sand dunes, to investigate how the abundance of different species change as a sand dune develops from an ‘embryo dune’ to a ‘fixed or mature dune’. This data was then used in order to create a large bank of data, which was later used to determine diversity using a formula, known as the ‘Simpson’s Diversity Index’. A small investigation into the correlation between

the length of salad burrett, a type of single -stemmed plant, and distance from the footpath was carried out, in order to investigate the relationship between plant growth and trampling by hikers or animals. Later, on returning to Orielton, the students completed a Spearman's Rank Correlation coefficient on the smaller investigation, to tick off another one of the required statistical tests. Later in the afternoon they took part in a woodland walk, in order to broaden their understanding on ecology in preparation for their Required Practical 12 - ‘Independent Field Investigation’ - as well as to familiarise themselves with the area and environment. On the final day of field work, students were able to sample different organisms found in freshwater streams and ponds. This included using a ‘catch and release’ system, where water snails were captured, marked with a waterproof golden marker pen and released, then recaptured. Through a short calculation, the population of water snails in a pond was estimated. The diversity of organisms found in freshwater bodies was analysed by dragging a net in figures of eight, or through kick capture where the water is slow-flowing, which entails a net being placed at the bed of the stream, then the soil just upstream being gently aggravated in order to accumulate organisms in the net in a 30 second period. The organisms were then collected in petri dishes, identified and counted, before being returned back to the stream. A Chi- squared statistics test, the last of the required statistic tests, was then completed from the data that was obtained from Stembridge Stream. The

rest of the day was left to planning and completing the Required Practical 12. In this practical, students had to independently think up their own hypothesis and investigation, set up the method and request the correct equipment. The data was accumulated over a 2 hour period on site of Orielton by the students themselves. After the data had been collected, the students returned to the classrooms in order to complete any of the three statistical tests that they had become familiar with over the past few days, to answer their question and conclude their investigation. Their findings were then written up in scientific report form. The students were then left to relax and enjoy the fresh air and sunny weather for the rest of the day ahead of the long journey home the following day. Overall, it was incredibly jam-packed week with various activities, team-building sessions, and the opportunity to experience the collection of data and data handling first-hand, which is a world apart from simply reading about it in a textbook. Although intense, it was an extremely rewarding few days for the students, who enjoyed their time both working on investigations and relaxing. We would like to extend our thanks to the Tiffin teachers, Mr Leeves, Ms Grant, Mr Rennie, Ms Caudwell and Dr Moore, for putting in the time and effort to run the trip, the FSC tutors for their expertise and enthusiasm, as well as all Orielton Field Centre staff for providing the students with such a unique experience.

Aditya Bhattacharya & Muazzam Muhammad, Year 12

Ultimate Frisbee Schools’ National Championships This year for the first time Tiffin entered a team in the U14 (Year 7/8) division of the Schools Ultimate National Championships. The 8 boys had a very early start to make the 3 hour journey to Leicester for their first match at 10.30 am. Tiredness did not seem to be an issue however, with the team winning their first game 6-2 against a very experienced team to make an excellent start to the tournament. Their second match was much tougher though, and despite some excellent play in very windy conditions, Tiffin’s slow start to the match proved costly. They fought their way back into it but ran out of time to steal the win, losing 6-5. These results were enough to secure a place in the quarter-finals for Tiffin, where they came up against another team from the same school, but again they couldn't find a way to win against the high- quality opposition. This left the team in the 5-8 bracket where they went on to win their final two games to finish 5 th . That’s 5 th best U14 team in the country, and second best U14 school in the country as the four teams in 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th were remarkably all from the same school. Overall a great result but the boys want to do better next year!

PHYSICS CHALLENGE

11,000 candidates from 205 schools took part in the Year 10 Physics Challenge last month. Competitors sat two 25 minute, 30 mark multiple choice tests and the overall average for all students on both papers was 33/60, the average for Tiffin students was 41.5/60. The aim of the competition is to encourage students in their study of Physics. It is not about practising past sets of questions and short term preparation to get a top mark. Success is achieved by longer term preparation, doing questions regularly at home and at school which stretch and challenge thinking and raise aspirations. It should also be noted that the content of the tests is designed to fit where the organisers believe schools will be in their study of GCSE Physics, but each school will teach the syllabus in a different way and there were a number of questions this year on topics that our Year 10 students have not yet studied. As a result, all those who sat this Challenge should be praised for their participation and effort. Nationally, only the top 40% of candidates received a certificate of any colour, and only the top 10% received a Gold; nevertheless Tiffin achieved 7 bronze, 10 silver and 7 gold certificates from the 29 boys who took part. The gold winners are listed below, but particular congratulations must go to Oliver Tang in 10RC who achieved the highest mark of the Tiffin students (53/60), and was in the top 100 nationally. Gold Emmanuel Dunstan, Benedek Szilvasy, Jack Yu, William Huynh, Asher Kapinos, Matthew O'Donovan, and Oliver Tang

CRICKET

The Oval (3 rd July), The Hobbs Trophy & Rokeby Sixes (1 st July) It was brilliant to see two Tiffin cricketers at the Oval and particularly to witness their success in helping Surrey Schools to an emphatic win over London Schools by 7 wickets.

Rayhan Rafiq (Tiffin U15) opened the batting for Surrey and hit a highly impressive 32. Earlier in the day, Alex Cormack (Tiffin U14) had struck with his first ball in a spell of 2-20 which partially helped in reducing London Schools to a paltry 173 all out.

On Monday 1st, Tiffin U13 couldn’t quite repeat the previous year’s heroics but still managed to come home with silverware in the form of The Rokeby Bowl after an intensive day’s cricket competing against the top prep schools in Surrey. Congratulations to Captain Dylan Shori, Harish Narasimhan, Alex Homes, Aashiken Aathavan, Sam Jenkins, Inul Gunawardana and Aaryan Ghag pictured above. The Widger Match We would like to extend a very warm invitation to all parents and friends who have supported school sport throughout the year to come along to Grist's for cricket on the afternoon of Thursday 18 July and tea from 4.30 pm onwards.

Ollie Coppellotti

Also Ollie ran 1500m in a time of 4.09.73 at Watford on 29 th May; not quite a school record yet but he has over a year to go!

tennis

The inaugural annual fixture of the ‘Tennis Challenge Cup’ against Kingston Grammar School took place in June. The format was Fast4 tennis doubles, with 6 players from Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 taking part. The Year 9s got the ball rolling with a 5-3 win and the Year 7s continued in the same vein with a hard fought 5-4 win. So at the half way stage, Tiffin had a handy lead of 10-7 and the Head of Tennis at KGS, was starting to worry that Tiffin were going to pull further clear. However, that was not be and our Year 8s lost 6-3; the tide had turned. This meant that for the Year 10s going into the final match, we were all square at 13- 13. Despite trying their best, the Tiffin side lost 5-4, with one of the rubbers being 3 games all, followed by 4 points all in the tie break and then the Tiffin pair losing the sudden death deciding point.

Ollie has made a great contribution to the cross-country/athletics in the school. He won the Borough championships with ease. He was 5 th at the Surrey Schools’ championships and was selected for the Senior boys’ team at the English schools championships held in Leeds in March. The Surrey boys’ squad won aggregate silver in their category at this event. He was 3 rd for RBK in the schools’ athletics championships at 800m, gaining a bronze medal. For his club he won silver at the Bruce Judd Surrey relays in October at Guildford. He then gained a silver in the team race in January at Lloyd Park. Ollie’s best times this athletics season: He recorded a time at Watford on 19 th May of 1.57.84, a School senior boys’ record. He beat the old time recorded by Mark Reed of 1.58.4 set in 1992, who subsequently went on to obtain a Blue for both Oxford and Cambridge in the 800m in the course of his undergraduate and post- graduate studies for medicine. Ollie looks set to beat one of the oldest Sports day records of 2.00.2 for 800m set by Andy Moore in 1984.

YOUTH TRAVEL AMBASSADORS

Staying overnight, the best 16 teams in the country gathered at Uppingham school to compete for the coveted trophy playing on average 8 hours of chess over two days. They competed exceptionally well to finish 11 th and all enjoyed the experience. With only one Y13 in the team there is plenty of scope to do even better next year.

A team of Youth Travel Ambassadors have been working with TFL to promote better transport habits in the school. Their scheme ‘Upgrade your Travel’ was targeted at Year 7s and involved developing a website. Participants could upload their travel data to the website, and the winner received a cash prize and priority slips! They presented their pitch to TFL for funding of £250, which they did at Sky HQ. Presentations were given to Year 7 form groups, posters and surveys produced as they worked to promote and enhance their scheme. A special mention to Benedek Szilvásy and Matthew Clapp who worked hard to create an amazing website which was the driving force of the project.

SIXTH FORM ECONOMICS PRIZE

Spring 2019 saw the inauguration of a new competition for school students the Winston Churchill Sixth Form Economics Prize organised and sponsored by members of faculty at Churchill College Cambridge. Applicants were invited to predict, “to four decimal places”, the nominal exchange rate of the Pound Sterling against the Euro on 1st June. This was no mere fantasy exchange rate activity as applicants had to support their prediction by providing a five hundred word commentary, outlining the economic and political reasoning behind their exchange rate judgement. The Economics faculty at Churchill College Cambridge received over two hundred entries from a worldwide audience and the judges announced that they were delighted by the quality of the submissions. We are pleased to report the Tiffin Sixth Form Economics student Tim Jones received a commendation for his efforts – well done!

MANDARIN EXAMS Congratulations to Year 9 students, Neel Kandlagunta and Daniel Kehoe, who have passed the Level 2 YCT Language Tests in Mandarin and to Year 10 students, Thomas Cowan and Oliver Tang who have passed Level 3. This is a real achievement given the limited time they have learning this fiendishly difficult language. We look forward to further success from them with their Mandarin next year. CHESS Tiffin School Chess Team having won the Greater London and Surrey Region, were invited to compete in the finals of the U19 National Schools Chess Championship.

AVIATION HISTORY TOUR

planes such as the NATO fighter, Hawker Hunter. Later, Sydney Camm and Ralph Hooper, working with Bristol Siddeley, designed the Hawker Harrier Jump-Jet, the first truly successful VTOL (vertical take off and landing) plane. The company later became nationalised, with many other companies and became BAe. BAe developed the Hawk in Kingston, used by the RAF Red Arrows Display Team. The Richmond Road Factory was finally sold in 1992. On our tour, we explored the landmarks around the local area. We started at the old Bentalls furniture depository (now the Odeon in the Rotunda), which was used for storage during WWII. Next we went to the Kingston Railway bridge, under which is a dip in the road. This dip was originally used so that trams could run underneath this but also made it easy for the transport of planes (without wings) transported to Brooklands, in Weybridge. After that, we saw the ice rink, used by the Sopwith Company and the Hawker company, due to the fact that ice rinks have no columns and therefore make it easier to manufacture planes there. Nearby was Sir Sydney Camm’s design office, where he would have designed the Hawker Hurricane. Next we went to the Siddeley House where the prototypes for the planes were made. Here you can find the original lifting crane and chains on a runner. There are many other clues that can be found on Canbury Park Road such as the propeller design on the fencing surrounding the housing estate, marking the site of the factory. Also, on this road is Sigrist square, named after Fred Sigrist, the engineer. There are many more interesting aviation landmarks across Kingston, such as the

Written by Ben Luca Attassi Quinton Y8 Over the past few weeks, each class in Year 8 went on an Aviation History Tour of Kingston and saw the clues to Kingston’s past aviation industry in the local area. This tour led us into our Summer History Project: creating a video documentary of a Tiffinian who died during the First World War. Going on this tour made us see that there is much more history in our town than is normally apparent from modern day Kingston. The aviation industry in Kingston started when Tommy Sopwith set up the ‘Sopwith Aviation in Kingston Company’. Tommy Sopwith, soon needing more space to build his planes, bought the Canbury Road ice rink and used it as a factory. This company continued to expand and it created the Sopwith Camel, Britain’s main fighter plane during the first World War, along with many other very successful planes. After the first World War the business went bust, but Tommy Sopwith and his colleagues re-entered the industry with the initially much smaller H.G Hawker Engineering Company (named after Harry Hawker who was the chief test pilot for Sopwith), in the 1920s. With Sydney Camm, H.G Hawker Engineering developed the ‘Hawker Fury’, the base design for the Hawker Hurricane, which had a pivotal role in the Battle of Britain, over the English Channel in 1940. The mass production of this aircraft was only possible because the Sopwith factory had already paved the way with designers, test facilities and factory production. The Hawker Company bought the Richmond Road factory after WWII and started to buy other companies. The Hawker Company started to develop new

Richmond Road factory which was once 8 acres big and used by Sopwith, Hawker and BAe. And along the river, near Canbury Gardens, is the Sopwith testing area where 235 Sopwith Schneider and Baby Floatplanes were tested. Kingston and Canbury Park Road have an important place in aviation history, as it is the site of the creation of some of the aircraft that changed the course of history. The Hawker Hurricane defended Britain in the Battle of Britain in WW2 and the Sopwith Camel was used widely in WW1. Kingston was one of the most significant fighter manufacturing centres in Britain. It is really important that, as a local school, we have this opportunity, as it allows us to realise that Kingston did have an impact on aviation industry nationally and possibly internationally. This allows us to see in detail the ways in which Kingston ended up being as it is today, and it would be likely that without the aviation industry in Kingston, and the jobs it created, Kingston would be a much smaller place.

Tiffin Parents Association (TPA) Thank you to all our parents, supporters and volunteers! This year we made £3,175.00 in uniform sales and you helped raise £214.15 for Tiffin over the last 30 days (roughly £900 p.a.), by using Easyfundraising – remember it doesn't cost you a penny extra when you use this link to shop online.

EVENTS

Our Nearly New Sale proved to be popular and our next sale will be in October/November. We aim to be a source of information and support for all Tiffin parents; enable a sense of community with a calendar of events and raise funds for Tiffin. Please check out our website https://www.tiffinparents.org/ or facebook https://www.facebook.com/ tiffinparent/ for more information.

12 July from 5.30 pm 16 July at 7

Tiffin in the Garden (with interna- tional food festival) —FOTM/TPA

Choir Concert, KPC—FOTM

October tbc

Nearly New Uniform Sale—TPA

October tbc

Annual General Meeting—TPA

Tbc

Curry Evening – TIPRA

Tbc

Race Night @ the JLT—TPA

11 October

Comedy Night—TIPRA

1—30 Nov

Crowdfunding Campaign—TIPRA

15 or 16 Nov Formal dinner/dance—TIPRA December tbc Christmas Car Parking—TIPRA/ FOTM/TSBC/TPA