Head's Newsletter 21 June 2019

a request to help us raise those funds, and I hope that all parents will give what they can towards this specific project. More details can be seen on the fundraising page of the Tiffin website. I am very grateful that our fundraising campaign is being supported by former England cricket captain, and Tiffin student, Alec Stewart.

Dear Parents I’m very pleased to announce that construction on our fantastic new gym will be starting on the 1 July. As you know from previous newsletters, we successfully bid for government capital money in order to construct a new £2m two-storey extension to the sports hall, which will contain two new fitness areas, new changing facilities, and a fantastic new gym. With both our main and subsidiary sports, and our regular fixtures, as well as a focus on health and fitness, sport is very important at Tiffin, and brings multiple benefits to our students, all of whom are encouraged to participate at one level or another. This exciting development will mark a significant improvement to our already strong sports provision, and will transform the breadth and quality of what we are able to offer. The bulk of the funding for this project is coming from our government grant but as with the new dining hall we aim to raise a further £200,000 in order to fit, finish and furnish the extension. With the help of the whole Tiffin community of current parents, ex-parents and alumni, we successfully raised more than this amount in the last appeal to open the new building just after Easter 2018. We are therefore very hopeful that with your help we will again successfully raise the funds to create a fantastic new facility for Tiffin pupils. In the next few weeks, parents will receive

In other news, the public exams are now almost over, and other students will be receiving their papers back from the internal exams. This term is very busy indeed with many interesting and exciting events for the pupils. There are a number of trips that have been going out, and some reports can be seen in this newsletter. There are also reports on competitions which boys have been involved in. I’m also very pleased to draw your attention to our very interesting and successful careers festival for Year 10. This is shortly to be followed by our programme for Year 12 to consider their futures. Thank you to those parents who have been involved in these. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Open Evening for prospective Year 7 pupils; School closes at 12.40; current Y7/8 required for tours 5 pm—8 pm (details to follow)

Tuesday 9 July

Stop The Clock Day

Thursday 11 July

Tiffin-In-The-Garden 5.30 pm

Friday 12 July

Term finishes for pupils by lunchtime

Thursday 18 July

For more information, please follow this link or visit our website – www.tiffinschool.co.uk  About Us  Fundraising

answers to the question “What (if anything) about your attitude or thinking towards a career has changed?” demonstrates some of the benefits of the event for students and how individuals took different things from it. “ I now know that the subjects I do at A level or uni don't ultimately decide my future, as there are many paths.” “I have discovered more job opportunities and found out that there are a number of different branches inside a job.” “I didn’t realise how long you have to go to uni for architecture.” “Jobs aren’t all about the money, happiness is important.” “I learned to try out more extra curricular activities so I could put that in my CV.” “I realised that the future is very important and that I should start focusing my studies on what i should become in the future.” “I am thinking about it a lot more and have more ideas.” We need even more people to put themselves forward to continue running events like this. If you (or someone you know) would be able to bring work to life with our students, there are a variety of ways to do so. Please complete our form ! Thanks. Helen Varley, Head of Careers

CAREERS FESTIVAL

“The careers festival this year was an amazing insight to the real world and the possibilities and difficulties that we may face in these tumultuous times and how the future is becoming unpredictable. We experienced amazing talks and workshops that allowed us to get to grips with new industries that we may have never even heard of. An example of this was the Tech start-up workshop where we learnt about technology starting to take over things like transport through companies like Tesla and Uber and how websites and technological information is being revolutionized via new technology like blockchain. Furthermore, learning and creating a CV which will eventually be passed on to employers in the future really brought it home how truly close we are to entering the real world. Overall it was an amazing experience learning from entrepreneurs and how not to make the mistakes that they have made and how to succeed in the future.” Bakr Al-Derzi, Year 10 student Year 10 came back after half-term to two days of career-related activities, aiming to broaden horizons and develop their understanding of work and careers, through work simulations and talks from people working in a variety of industries. These were largely and generously run by Tiffin parents, alumni and other contacts, in collaboration with a team of Tiffin staff, and included learning about: communication skills; mathematical modelling; organising events for Premiership Rugby; jobs in medical communications; campaigning for responsible investment and much more. At the end I asked a variety of evaluation questions. The selection below of student

TEAM MATHS CHALLENGE

Congratulations go to the members of the team for all of the hard work that they put in to prepare and on the day to achieve such a fantastic result. GOLD MEDALS IN JUNIOR MATHS CHALLENGE On 30th April, 264 boys in Years 7 and 8 sat the Junior Maths Challenge, a maths exam taken by around 200,000 students across the UK. The exam consists of 25 multiple choice questions of increasing difficulty. The results are the School’s best yet: 134 Golds (thought to be the highest in the whole of the UK), 90 Kangaroo qualifiers and 9 Olympiad qualifiers. Only the top 6.7% of entrants nationally achieve a Gold medal, and roughly the top 0.5% for the Olympiad. Students have subsequently sat the follow on rounds and we eagerly await the results. A special congratulations goes to Lucas Bowman in 8KBA, who achieved the top score in the school. Tiffin has seen a dramatic increase in performance in the Junior Maths Challenge in the last 7 years, with almost three times as many Golds as the 49 achieved in 2012. Well done to our fantastic boys!

On Monday 17th June, the formidable team of Nathaniel Johnson, Arlo McKillop, Kai Jewson and Lucas Bowman set off to the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster to compete in the National Final of the Team Maths Challenge. Having breezed through to top place in their Regional Final in March, the team were up against 87 other schools.

They took part in four rounds, solving a succession of mathematical problems including a particularly frenetic final relay round. Working fantastically well as a team for six gruelling hours, they were placed 10 th overall: an amazing achievement given that over 1700 schools entered the competition this year.

The finals, at the Science Museum, had a stand, a presentation and a prototype of their idea. They spent hours honing their presentation and practised every lunchtime in front of teachers and students for a week before the trip. Using the help of the DT department’s Technician, Mr Samuel, they created a slick and polished prototype of the new landfills. Together they were extremely confident. When we reached the finals it was evident that all the groups had worked hard to get there and there were some amazing ideas. SAS (Serious about Science) were first to present, which was followed by an interview with the judges where they asked questions, and the boys showed how much preparation they had done on the subject. The students’ parents had made the trip up to watch and we all agreed just how proud we were of the effort and time they put in. Unfortunately, SAS did not win the overall competition but received goody bags and CREST awards for their efforts.

This year we joined thousands of students taking part in the BP challenge with the title of Re-Imagine . Students had to find an everyday problem and create a new and better solution. Some of our students tackled credit cards and wallets while others looked at battery power and traveling. One group went all out and decided to tackle the problem of Landfills and Recycling. We sent away four projects in total, 20-slide presentations on the ideas and solutions the teams had come up with. Of these four, one team made it to the finals. Armaan Khan, Sion Hwang and Sayanen Sawmynaden, known as SAS (Serious about Science) come up with the idea to link several new forms of technology and create a new way of mining old landfills and building new ones that are more efficient. This would reduce the landfill in this country by two thirds.

For this year’s excursion into the wilderness as part of the John Muir Discovery award, 40 boys ventured into deepest, darkest East Sussex. Two groups of intrepid explorers took the opportunity to engage with the natural world in a variety of ways. The boys learnt how to respect the natural world, taking and giving in return, along with developing the skills and values necessary for them to live in a community. 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 team building skills. The students’ completion of all tasks was rewarded with the John Muir Discovery Award. These trips were very successful and I look forward to next year’s John Muir trips.

The Astronomy Club received a solar telescope on loan from the Richmond Scientific Society. This sophisticated and expensive telescope is specifically designed to observe the sun, and can show features of the sun’s atmosphere invisible to normal telescopes. Several students have already used it to look with great detail at prominences, filaments, and the structure of sunspots on the surface of the sun. Back in December, Professor Hatton from Kingston University visited the school to give a talk about visual and digital astronomy and donated a reflecting telescope, which the club uses to observe spectacular views of the moon craters. The Tiffin Astronomy Club would like to thank the Richmond Scientific Society and Professor Hatton for their generosity and the great contribution they have provided to the club. In the photographs, members of the astronomy club are featured alongside the new solar telescope. On 19 th of January, having battled to come top ten in the boroughs, we went to the County Championships at Priory Park in Reigate. Having located the tent, got a race number and lined up on the start line and after lots of jostling and some pushing, the mass of people was in order, and ready to go. 3...2...1…*pause to keep everyone on edge* GO! Off everyone went at what felt like way too fast, which was proved correct when the first narrow, tight corner came and took out about fifteen athletes. Thankfully it then evened out so you could find a rhythm. A steep uphill, a slippery, fast downhill and an enclosed wooded CROSS COUNTRY By Zach Storey Year 8

section around a lake that took up the rest of the lap, twice. Coming round the final bend for the last time, into the finishing straight and realising that you really didn’t want to finish behind the guy next to you, and starting to sprint, next thing you know, you’re over the line and feeling genuinely sick, and looking at the cakes and crisps on offer with a mixture of dread and need. Mr Shaw commented: A great achievement for Zach to represent RBK as the age group for the County Championship was Year 9.

On Thursday 13 th June Tiffin Dance Companies were invited to perform as special guests at a dance evening at Surbiton High School. We performed our piece ‘Energy Within’ and the Junior Dance Company (Year 8 dancers) had their first stage debut in a piece called ‘Operation Neptune’. The choreography explores different experiences young soldiers go through during military training. All dancers adapted quickly to the new performance environment and performed really well!

On Monday 17 th June all year 7 students participated in a Bhangra Dance workshop. Bhangra refers to several types of dance originating from the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. This fun workshop was accompanied by live dhol drum and run by the Professional Bhangra Dance Company from Birmingham. Students learned about Punjab culture, music and of course explored Bhangra choreography with energy and enthusiasm.

Himmat Bains in Y8, pictured below, has been accepted to trial for Junior England Hockey . Very well done, Himmat, and best of luck!

On Thursday 9th May we were visited by a cyber security specialist from the world renowned SANS institute. Emma Kirby gave a wonderful talk to a very large group of boys in the JLT, from all year groups. She spoke about the potential threats posed by black hat hackers to our society and the need for more white hat hackers. By 2021, there will be reportedly over 3 million unfilled roles in cyber security so it is a much needed and hugely beneficial industry that we hope many Tiffin students will join. Many thanks to the Engineering Society chairman, Haotian Wu in Year 12, for organising the event. Last week was Healthy Eating Week. There were 5 different foci for the week: Eating Breakfast, Drinking Plenty of Water, Getting Active, Eating 5 A Day and Sleep. All of these things are important for Physical Health as well as Mental Health. On Thursday during break time The Mental Health Ambassadors gave out free samples of fruit, which had kindly been donated by ASDA, to encourage students to eat 5 a day.

The Richmond Bridge Club kindly provide us with resources for our Bridge Club. Please see below for details about their FREE summer holiday youth programme