Head's Newsletter 14 July 2017

Dear Parents Welcome to the last ‘bumper’ edition of this year’s newsletters! It reflects the enormous range of activities that the school has been engaged in during the second half of the summer term. These activities are a key part of the all-round education that Tiffin offers and I hope that you will enjoy reading about them. I have certainly enjoyed attending a number of these events. It was great to view the Art Exhibition and appreciate the extraordinary talent and work of our boys. It was also fantastic to attend the junior school production of The Importance of Being Ernest . The boys put on a sterling performance to a full house in the Drama Studio, and deserve congratulations for the play. I would also pass on our thanks to the Year 10 Junior Prefects who have done a superb job performing duties whilst the Sixth Form were away on study leave and work experience. A large number of boys from Years 9 and 10, as well as the whole of Years 7 and 8, were helping with the Open Evening on Tuesday. As usual this was a very popular event and the boys were excellent ambassadors. While these visitors were thinking about entry to Tiffin in 2018, it was a great pleasure to meet at the Induction Day last Wednesday the new boys and their parents who will be joining the School this September. We are looking forward to our final week, which is always enjoyable, and reminds us of

the strengths of the Tiffin community, as we help develop in the boys many of the attributes that we hope they will finish with. Today we have the very special musical and performing arts event, Tiffin in the Garden , and I look forward to seeing many parents there. On Monday we have the House Rowing, followed by House Swimming on Tuesday and the fantastic Sports Day on Wednesday. Parents are most welcome as spectators. The House competition is a key part of our Tiffin community, and the week finishes with our Founders’ Day on Thursday when we celebrate the 400-year-old legacy of the Tiffin Brothers. For the boys, school finishes at lunchtime on Thursday, although for the staff we will still need to teach the 1stXI cricketers a lesson at the Widger match! None of what we do would be possible without the amazing dedicated staff that we have, and I thank them for all their tremendous efforts during this year. Unfortunately, we must say goodbye to a few staff next week including Mr Skerten and Dr Diamond from English, Mr Reekes from History, Mr Narey and Mr Lloyd from Maths, Ms Harris from the LRC, Mrs Kenyon from Learning Support, and Mrs Bevan from Music. We wish them all the best for their futures and thank them for all they have done at Tiffin. I do wish all pupils and their families a very relaxing and enjoyable summer holiday, and thank parents for their support for the School.

IMPORTANT DATES

Founders’ Day; last day for boys

Thursday 20 July

Rugby teams from Year 8 upwards at Grist’s from 2 pm; Cross-Country practices at School from 1.50 pm. No other boys in School Year 7 and Year 12 required in School from 8.30 am Year 13 required in School for 1 to 1 appointments with tutors. Year 12 required at Grist’s from 8.45 am. Year 7 required at School from 8.30

Monday 4 September

Tuesday 5 September

Wednesday 6 September

All year groups required in School for a 9.20 start

Thursday 7 September

Year 10 Trip to Berlin 2017

At the crack of dawn on Thursday June 22nd 2017 the History Department took 50 Year 10 pupils to Berlin to teach them about Weimar and Nazi Germany and the Cold War, all of which are taught in their new GCSE. Having arrived after a smooth journey and checked into the hotel in the Mitte district of Berlin, the group made its way to Heckershermarkt in the centre to meet two tour guides. Each group of 25 was then taken on an enriching and very enjoyable walking tour of the city, taking in sites such as Rosenstrasse, where one of the few successful protests took place against the Nazi regime, Hitler’s World War Two bunker and the Holocaust Memorial to the East of the Brandenburg Gate.

Cup; and Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam where the German Kaisers resided and where negotiations took place after the Second World War in 1945. This was a varied and absorbing day, which gave the pupils a full view of their GCSE, both for their Germany depth study and their study of the Cold War. Our third and final day was back in central Berlin and involved a visit to the Reichstag, where we climbed the renovated dome, a visit to Checkpoint Charlie, home of numerous standoffs between Russian and American forces after the division of Berlin, a visit to the Topography of Terror, a Museum about the Nazis’ SS and Gestapo forces and a visit to Berlin’s huge shopping mall. Pupils and staff were incredibly moved and fulfilled by the whole trip. It has acted as both an educational stimulus and a clear lesson to all on morality and the value of the lives that we live, and was greatly enjoyed by all.

Both pupils and teachers were incredibly tired after this tour but everyone learned a lot; a leisurely night at the hotel was welcome for all before another intense day on Friday. On this day, the group were escorted out of the city by coach all day, taking in more fascinating sites. These included the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp, 35 miles out of the city, where Mr Bryan- Williams gave a set of talks about Nazi persecution there from 1936; the Berlin Olympic Stadium, originally constructed by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympics and also home to the 2006 World

THE NEW BUILDING The building work progresses nicely. You can of course make donations to the building appeal if you have not already done so by going to ParentPay .

Paul Bolton, Structural Engineer, showing sixth formers who aspire to Engineering around the building site

On Sunday 25 th June 60 trebles performed Mahler 3 at the Barbican together with the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus. Daniel Harding was due to conduct this performance but had injured his wrist so Robert Treviño, a rising young American conductor, was the late replacement making his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra. ‘ The presence of The Tiffin Boys’ Choir and the Ladies of the London Symphony Chorus made for a very crowded Barbican ... but both groups brought their usual well-tuned and well-prepared contribution to the fifth movement setting of the Wunderhorn poem “Three angels were singing a sweet song”.’ bachtrack 26/6/17

Some of the wonderful art on display this week. The thread installation is by Milo Gardner, Y12, inspired by Naum Gabo and Barbara Hepworth. The Head (above) is also by Milo. The Venice painting is by Eric Williams in Y10

RARE DISEASE DAY AT ROYAL HOLLOWAY On 24 th February, 13 Year 12 students attended an immersion day at Royal Holloway University of London in celebration of Rare Disease Day.

Last weekend a group of eight Tiffin students were selected to be the UK’s delegation to the next European Youth Parliament (EYP). Since 1987, the European Youth Parliament has supported the development of young people into politically aware and responsible citizens by involving them in European political thinking and promoting intercultural understanding. After winning a regional heat in March, they spent four days at Liverpool Hope University engaging in discussion and debate with finalists from 11 schools across the UK. They were placed first by the jury and have now been invited to the 83 rd International Session of the EYP which will be held later this year. Many congratulations to the team of Ujjaval Dhingra, Andrew Conder, Sulaiman Amin, Nathan Langford, Adam Fereday, Haaris Malik, Aditya Deshpande and Oscar Duffy (see photo below).

The day is used to bring awareness to the number of rare genetic diseases that have been discovered to date, but also to those that have not yet been discovered. We have now received the official video of the day. We feature at 51 seconds in! https://youtu.be/R68bvRlYzic

Matt Stevenson 12MO, Ed Hubner 13LL, Will Sharp 12CR and Jamie Glancy 12MO

enthusiastic and confident and we manged to achieve second place in the first 2 rounds. The third round proved to be a challenge and unfortunately we slipped down the score board slightly. The boys were successful with the “Eggstra Challenge” managing to fire a rocket quite a distance with the egg still intact. Overall we achieved third place in the main competition. This is a great result as Tiffin School have not been awarded a medal before in this competition, congratulations to Joe Murphy, Asher Kapinos, Bulcsu Diossi, Narmeephan Arunthavarajah, Deep Shah, and Praveer Kumar.

We were very pleased to be informed that Year 11 boys, Tanveer Bhandari and Hemanth Veluru, have been awarded an Arkwright Scholarship. This is a highly coveted sponsorship within Engineering with only 200 scholarships being awarded annually. Tanveer and Hemanth were successful in submitting high quality concepts within a challenging design examination following a rigorous interview process. Congratulations to Sebastian Tyrrell in the Lower Sixth whose work on the sea in antiquity was highly commended in a recent Cambridge University Essay Competition run by Fitzwilliam College. Sebastian fully deserves this esteemed accolade. Very well done! Cambridge University Essay Competition

Water Rocket competition On the 21 st June a selected group of Year 8 students participated in the annual Water Rocket competition at NPL in Teddington. The group have worked with true dedication over the past few months manufacturing and testing their designs to achieve the ultimate rocket. On the hottest day of the year so far we competed against 29 other schools. The boys were

BASKETBALL REFEREE COURSE Congratulations to the 13 candidates who took part in Tiffin’s first Level 1 basketball referees course. Officiating is no easy task and all the participants spent two hours learning the rules and mechanics of two- man officiating. After a quick break for a photo opportunity they were straight into a two hour practical session putting the knowledge into practice. Everyone gave 100% and showed real promise. This is only the start of their journey as they now have to umpire some full matches on which they are assessed and given feedback. Being able to referee all school matches will be a real asset and will raise the standard of basketball at Tiffin to a new level. We will also be able to offer their services to other local schools.

JET FUSION REACTOR

A Y12 group of future physicists and engineers visited the JET Fusion Reactor at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy on Tuesday 11 th July. CCFE hosts the world's largest magnetic fusion experiment, JET (Joint European Torus), on behalf of its European partners. The students were given a talk on Fusion, regarded by many as the only permanent solution to the world’s

energy crisis and global warming, followed by a tour of the facility by former Tiffin student Valentin Aslanyan (2008), who has a Masters in Physics from Oxford University and a PhD in Laser- Plasma Interactions from the University of York. It was an excellent day and we hope to turn this into a recurring trip for year 12s.

FENCING SUCCESS Luca Plastow in Year 10 competed in the British U17 National Cadet fencing championships recently. On this occasion he came third. He knocked out the British no. 1 in the last sixteen but fell in the semi- final to the eventual winner. Luca is currently ranked second in the U17 foil category in Great Britain. Congratulations to Luca!

Of all the races throughout the season, one of the most memorable has to be the King’s Trophy at King’s College School, Wimbledon. This race is infamous amongst the seniors, and is the race that truly transforms a student from a runner into a Cross Country runner. The length of the course, 8km, is not its only difficult aspect. What must also be mentioned is the somewhat dangerous first corner, and the famous water feature. Nothing says Cross Country like a course that takes you through a foot-deep river halfway round and then makes your run other half with soaked feet. This hazard, however, was not enough to deter the Senior team, especially returning Wednesday Warriors Ferdie Krammer and Joe Brown, and new recruits George Neville- White, George Birch and Max McGarrigle. The team placed 13th overall with notable performances from Humphrey Allen, Luca Jackson and Chris McDonald, who all finished in the top 65. Then the team faced yet another challenging course, this time at Charterhouse, a race whose name is practically synonymous with ‘very big hills’. King’s Trophy (From left: Tom Jackson, Ferdie Krammer, George Neville-White, Humphrey Allen, Luca Jackson, Marc Tidon, Joe Brown, Chris McDonald, George Birch, Max McGarrigle)

As the team arrived at the Hogwarts-esque school, nothing could have prepared them for the enormous slopes, and the almost insurmountable challenge of climbing them twice. As usual, the performance of the Tiffin Senior team was nothing short of superb. While Tiffin may not have won the main race, their spirits were renewed by their efforts to win ‘the most important race of all, the race for tea.’ In spite of their difficulty, incline and ability to crush morale, the hills of Charterhouse will always be home to some of the fondest memories for the Tiffin Cross Country Team. An unfamiliar track and tough competition at the Borough Championships were not enough to stop us and overall it was a splendid display with juniors Eyoel Abebaw- Mesfin, Tom Armstrong and Will Murphy, intermediate Eric Williams, and seniors Humphrey Allen and Luca Jackson all finishing highly. Tom and Will continued their streak of strong runs with a great display at the South East Regional Cup, along with teammates Euan Sinclair, Matt O’Donovan, Joe Murphy and Jack Hartrey.

The Judge Cup saw the Seniors perform strongly, as did the Tiffin Relay. A strong team of Humphrey Allen, Luca Jackson, Eric Williams and Eyoel Abebaw -Mesfin saw a convincing win for Tiffin. The most challenging race of the season, was, as usual, the Senior Knole Run, not least of all because of the snow. Eric Williams and Humphrey Allen were the

first two home for Tiffin, and both did exceptionally well to finish the 9.7km course in under 40 minutes, placing in the top 100 of what was a very strong field.

first round match would have made a brilliant final! To win the Reigate 6s competition for the first time since its inception went a long way to assuaging this disappointment. In between, results have been fair to middling for the sides from U13 to U15 with no one side able to find any degree of consistency despite some impressive individual performances. The three centuries have all been hit by 1 st XI players. Prasham Sivagnanasundaram of the U14s has taken a vast number of wickets, probably double the number taken by the next best bowler, Alex Cormack of the U12s finishes the season with 308 runs and a remarkable average of 102.67. Much discussion will take place in the next few weeks in an attempt to reverse the fortunes of senior cricket but the problem is not one of lack of talent but of a healthy work-life balance between cricket and examinations. Kingston Regatta was raced over the 8th & 9th July. Many hard races with great effort from our J15s (pictured) and J14s who picked up valuable race experience in some very tight racing. Our senior boys flew the flag, racing in adult events and winning Novice singles (Arthur Morris), Novice doubles (Adam Crowther & Alex Cavenagh) and an emphatic victory in IM3 doubles for outgoing captain James Lawn and his partner Jake Lane. KINGSTON REGATTA

The final relay of the year took place at John Fisher, and the Seniors narrowly missed out on gold. We were not disheartened and put out a strong team at Coventry, and ended up placing in the Top 20 schools in the country, an unbelievable result. TIFFIN CRICKET This has been a bitter-sweet for school cricket lurching between the extremes of the unbridled enthusiasm of the brilliant U12 sides to the bitter disappointment of the school’s senior sides. Cricket for the Under 12s was played throughout the Easter term and it was obvious from the outset that this was an exceptional group of players and their results at A, B and C team levels have borne this out. The A team was unfortunate to come up against an equally talented RGS side in the first round of the Surrey Cup and this proved to be the only match they did not win in the entire season! This solitary The Knole Run. (above from left: George Neville-White, Chris McDonald, Humphrey Allen, Alistair Brendon, Eric Williams, Louis Bullinger, Matt O’Donovan, Jack Hartrey; seated: Tom Jackson who wrote this report)

the last 5 overs in a tight 25 overs match. With the opposition needing just 6 to win from the final over, Yash took 3 wickets and conceded just 3 runs to give the Tiffin U14XI, who had just 8 fielders at the time, a deserved win. Tanmay Sood carried his bat for 72* against Epsom College but ran out of partners as Tiffin fell just one run short of the target.

MORE U12 CRICKET

The U12 A XI beat Emanuel U13 XI comfortably, knocking off the 74 needed for the loss of just 2 wickets with Datta Vasireddy, Iain Westbrook and Ashwin Bose making good runs. They followed this with a crushing win by more than 150 runs over Latymer Upper before beating the much fancied Reigate side.

In a day of competitive cricket, the U12a XI was the only side to beat our strongest rivals, Hampton. Shivan Aggarwal’s 5 for 7 in just 4 overs ripped out the middle of Reed’s U12 batting line-up. Yash Agrawal produced consecutive brilliant performances for the U14 XI. Against a powerful Epsom College side he batted for 18 overs to assure his side an important draw. Two days later he bowled

The U12, winners of the Reigate 6s. Ashwin Bose, Harshil Shah, Farhaan Shaikh, Datta Vasireddy, Chirag Patel, Alex Cormack, Ian Westbrook, Shivan Aggarwal

The ‘Widger’ Match

Next week will also see the highlight of the cricket calendar: the ‘Widger’ match. I am confident that the 1st XI (made up of Year 13 leavers) will learn some valuable final lessons when the staff beat them in the annual staff versus 1st XI cricket match! We would like to extend a very warm invitation to all parents and friends who have helped at School sporting events throughout the year, be it by making tea or providing transport for the boys, to come along to Grist's for cricket on the afternoon of Thursday, 20 July and tea from 4.30 pm onwards.

Boys in action, in photos above, at Kings’ College, Wimbledon

team building skills. The students’ completion of all tasks was rewarded with the John Muir Discovery Award.

LOWER SCHOOL PRODUCTION Early in July 20 students performed Oscar Wilde’s classic The Importance of Being Earnest. These boys had spent a month working tirelessly and were able to fit a busy rehearsal schedule into their already packed lives and were able to convey confidently the nuances of Wilde’s humorous narrative. Two casts rehearsed concurrently and worked together with enthusiasm under the direction of Miss O’Connell to produce a 1920s themed evening. Each cast had one night to entertain a sold-out audience. Both productions were a great success. For some of these boys it was their first time performing in a Tiffin School production and hopefully they have caught the performing bug. We may be seeing these faces on the stage soon! John Muir 2017 For this year’s excursion into the wilderness as part of the John Muir Discovery award, 39 boys left the safety of SW London and ventured into deepest, darkest East Sussex. Two groups of intrepid explorers took the opportunity to engage with life outside the confines of the busy city by engaging with the natural world in a variety of ways. The boys went on a day woodland trip learning the basic skills, followed up by a weekend camp trip where these skills were used in a practical basis. Both groups leant how to build fires, shelters, carve items safely out of wood and built on their communication and

STEM Challenge day 12 Y9 students took part in the SW London STEM Challenge day on Monday 10 th July, where they engaged in four different challenges competing with, and against, other schools in the area. There was a robotics challenge where students had to program a robot around a course using a colour and a proximity sensor, a model car building challenge, a medical diagnostics challenge and an e-fit challenge, recreating a suspect using police software. The boys were split into pairs, and then each pair joined up with a pair from another school to work as a team. There were prizes for the best team at each individual challenge and the Tiffin pair of Chin-Wei Tang and Geethaartha Vagga won the e-fit challenge (pictured) . Well done to all those who took part, they were all excellent representations for the School and thoroughly enjoyed the day.

YOUTH TRAVEL AMBASSADORS The current Year 10s have been participating in a Youth Travel Ambassador Scheme with Transport for London. With our YTA Coordinator, we got to grips with the previously created '#selfiescheme', which stated that people could gain the reward of a free canteen breakfast if they got off the bus early or swapped buses three times a week to reduce congestion during peak times. The team went to the YTA presentation day at the London Transport Museum. We had time to explore the museum with a guided tour, and learnt much about the history of Transport for London, including how a 19 th Century 'Omnibus' evolved and shaped itself into our well known red busses today (which related most to the team’s bus-based project). Our team then braved the stage in front of other schools and displayed our ideas and work to the other schools, and VIP guests including Mr Will Norman, shown below, who is the Walking and Cycling Commissioner for London. Mr Norman showed significant interest in our project and was very impressed with what we have achieved so far. This was an incredible experience for us, and we were all very proud of how much we have grown and developed during the course of this fantastic opportunity. Our team then participated in an exciting and competitive bike race. By Ajay Gill 10AR

MATHS NEWS Tiffin enjoyed its best Junior Maths Olympiad and Junior Maths Kangaroo results on record. These competitions are follow on rounds for students performing exceptionally well in the Junior Maths Challenge (taken by roughly 200,000 students nationally), with only the top 0.5% of entrants invited to the Olympiad. Of the Olympiad qualifiers, only the top 25% (of this already elite group) are awarded a Distinction, with 5 boys at Tiffin achieving this accolade this year. 3 boys achieved ‘Book Prizes’ (photo below), awarded to the top 50 nationally of all Year 7 & 8 students, an incredible achievement! Congratulations to the following boys: Ojas Gulati (Yr7): Gold Medal (top 30 nationally) Nathaniel Johnson (Yr7 ): Gold Medal (top 30 nationally) Jack Yu (Yr8 ): Silver Medal (top 50 nationally) Benedek Svilvasy (Yr8 ): Bronze Medal (top 150 nationally) Arlo Mckillop (Yr7): Distinction (top 25% of entrants) Those with high scores in the JMC but just missing out the Olympiad go through to the ‘Kangaroo’. In addition to the 10 boys who achieved ‘Merit’ in the Olympiad an additional 10 boys attained ‘Merit’ in the Kangaroo, awarded only to the top 25% of entrants. Congratulations to Osako Caleb (Yr7) for achieving close to full marks. We are incredibly proud of what our boys have achieved.

BIOLOGY FIELD TRIP

On July 3 rd , 63 Y12 students travelled to Pembrokeshire, Wales, on a Biology field trip. Our home for the next 5 days would be Orielton Field centre, a beautiful Georgian mansion with over 100 acres of Woodland - a fine setting to learn about the ecological aspect of our A level course. As well as a plethora of green space for us to explore, there were many other facilities, the most popular being the ‘Ein Geddi Table Tennis Championships’ where Mr Bala and Miss Bond proved to be a formidable doubles pair.

results back to our initial hypothesis. Our progress across the week was aptly illustrated through a sheet given to us on the first night. We were asked to complete a Venn diagram listing as many ways humans are affected by the ocean; many students sheepishly handed back near- empty sheets. However, on the final night, the same sheet was given back to us to update; this time there were no struggles in listing as many points as we could.

Over the 4 days after our arrival, we were able to visit and carry out investigations in a variety of settings ranging from the rocky shores of South West Wales to the Sand Dunes found at Freshwater West (which incidentally was also a Harry Potter filming location!). Combined with our classroom lessons in the evening, we were able to learn vast amounts such as different sampling techniques, working with statistical tests and becoming more ‘Ocean literate’. This all culminated in our final full day, where each student was required to carry out their own independent ecological investigation. This included us setting up a hypothesis, devising and

We are tremendously grateful towards our tutors for the week, who were both dedicated and determined to share their passion for ecology with us. Special thanks must also go to the lovely field centre staff for their hospitality over the 5 days, and of course, the Tiffin Biology Department, without whom this trip would not have been possible. Vith Ketheeswaranathan Y12

carrying out our own methods to obtain results, and using the skills we obtained regarding statistical tests to relate our

The Climax of the 2017 House Championship

With the final four events finishing next week the 2017 house championship could hardly be tighter; nothing separates Raleigh and Kingsley Montgomery who share the lead with 346 points each. Darwin Wilberforce are just two points behind on 344 points and the next four houses are separated by a mere 18 points.

Details of the final four events are as follows:

House Regatta : Canbury Boathouse, KT2 5AU, 11:00—3:50 pm

House Swimming Gala : Xcel Leisure Centre, KT12 2JG, (NEW VENUE) 1:30—3:30 pm

Sports Day : Kingsmeadow Stadium, KT1 3PB, 8:40—3:30 pm Sports Day Schedule: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwWa254sfu7ZMXE5Y3R6NHQtOXc

Parents are very welcome to come and watch the Regatta, the Gala or Sports Day.

The new House Swimming venue: The 8 lane pool with gallery at the Xcel Centre, Walton KT12 2JG