Head's Newsletter 14 September 2018

Dear Parents Welcome to the first newsletter of the new academic year 2018-19. In particular, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to the parents of all new students. In the last two weeks 180 new Year 7s have started, and in the Sixth Form we have welcomed about 80 new students, who constitute approximately 40% of the year group. Tiffin welcomes new applicants each year to the Sixth Form and from September 2019, we are delighted that we will also be welcoming girls as the Sixth Form goes mixed. I do hope that all the new students to the School have now begun to settle in and feel very much at home. It was great to also complete the new Sixth Form Centre over the summer. The Sixth Form now have some excellent new

facilities, which they appreciate and are making very good use of. Thank you very much to those parents who contributed towards the refurbishment of this area.

Exam results Once again, Tiffin achieved fantastic results this summer. With 85% of A Level grades at A*-B, these results match last year’s excellent achievement and are even more impressive in the light of the new linear A Levels. Our A* percentage was the highest we have ever achieved. As a result of this excellent performance, most students have been accepted into their chosen universities or courses. In year 11, students had to face the challenge of the new GCSE system, but they performed extremely well with just under 80% of grades being awarded 9-7 on the new scale, equivalent to A*/A on the

IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday 18 September Thursday 20 September Monday 24 September Tuesday 25 September Thursday 27 September

Y8 Open Forum at 6.30 pm Y10 Open Forum at 6.30 pm Y12 Open Forum at 6.30 pm Y7 Open Forum at 6.30 pm Y9 Open Forum at 6.30 pm

Monday 1 October Tuesday 2 October Thursday 4 October

Professional Development Day; no boys in school

11+; no boys in school, except prefects

Sixth Form Open Afternoon and Evening; school closes 1 pm

old scale. This represents an even better performance than last year's results with the percentage of grades at 8/9, the equivalent of the old A*, at its highest ever. Many congratulations to all the students for their achievements. New staff As usual at the start of the September term we welcome a number of new staff to Tiffin. Mr O'Reilly is the new Deputy Head of English, Miss White and Mrs Suchak join the History Department, Miss Eckert joins Modern Languages, Mr Goodchild joins the Classics Department and Mrs McCondach joins the Music Department. We also welcome Miss Mahamdallie as Study Centre Supervisor. We wish them all the best in their new roles. In addition, we welcome back Ms Hughes from maternity leave as Deputy Head of Sixth Form, and Mr Brown remains this year as Head of Year 13. This newsletter contains a number of reports on the final summer term events, which now seem a long time ago, as well as the very successful Leavers’ Celebration held last night. Also during the Summer Term, the Government announced the Selective Schools Expansion Fund. You may recall that Tiffin had some possible proposals, which necessitated a consultation within the very tight timescale for applications. We thank those who showed an interest in and responded to that consultation. There were particularly complex issues involved in developing these proposals, and after fully evaluating these, the Governors decided not to submit an application to the Expansion Fund.

Following the dramatic changes to the fabric of the School last year, this year is also certainly going to be another exciting one for the School. The introduction and use of Chromebooks in Years 7-10 is a very important innovation, and one which is going well so far. We will also be starting work on the £2m sports hall extension, where we expect construction to begin in late Spring. This will be a very exciting development, which will significantly enhance the sporting facilities at the School. Thank you to all the parents who have signed up to give to the Tiffin Education Fund. Tiffin School is very dependent upon the voluntary contributions it can raise in order to continue to offer its extraordinarily high quality of education. Please give what you can to the Tiffin Education Fund; the years of austerity and cuts to education budgets mean that the money is more necessary than ever. To give, on either a monthly or annual basis, please click on this link to the TEF Donation Form , print the form, complete it and return it to the TEF Administrator, Tiffin School, Queen Elizabeth Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 6RL. Please complete the Gift Aid section of the form, if you are eligible, to enhance the value of your donation. This will increase the value of your donation by 25%, at no extra cost to you. If you have any queries, please email TEF@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk . We look forward to seeing parents at the Open Forums for each year group, and wish your son every success this year. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

LEAVERS’ CELEBRATION EVENING It was excellent to be able to see the A level students for the last time as a cohort at their Leavers’ Celebration last night. We were delighted to welcome Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Buckingham, a contemporary historian, commentator and political author, known in part for his biographies of John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. He was the 13th Master (headmaster) of Wellington College, one of Britain's co-educational independent boarding schools.

It was amazing to recall the successes of this year group, and we wish them all the very best as they move on to university or employment and hope they keep in touch through the Tiffinian Association, which unites the alumni of the School.

Prize winners with former Headteacher, Hilda Clarke

Following fantastic performances at the Choir Concert and Founder’s Day at the end of the Summer term, Tiffin Boys’ Choir finished their year with a trip to Norfolk and Ely, where they performed alongside the Gabrieli Consort in a CD recording and an enormous concert in Ely Cathedral.

will be released at some point over the coming year. On Saturday the Oratorio Choir, alongside the Boys’ Choir and the Children’s Chorus, ran a Come & Sing event, directed by Ralph Allwood. An extremely exciting performance of Faure’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria was put together in a very short space of time and performed to an exceptionally generous audience. This event was held in aid of the Choir Tour Fund, which will go towards the Boys’ Choir’s tour of Croatia in July. This will be one of a number of tours this year, with boys from the Boys’ Choir also visiting Berlin in November. This Sunday several of the Year 7s will perform with the Boys’ Choir for the first time. Alongside children from Tiffin Children’s Chorus and Tiffin Girls’ School, the will be part of a chorus of 100 children singing in a performance of Britten’s Spring Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus, directed by Sir Simon Rattle. Performances take place at the Barbican on Sunday 16 th , 7pm, and Tuesday 18 th , 7.30pm. Instrumental lessons and ensemble rehearsals have now begun, and all children are encouraged to get involved with an ensemble, or come and try and instrument during our Introduction to Musical Instruments week next week. Parents and staff are also welcome to come and join in with school music, by joining the Oratorio Choir, which rehearses 7-9pm on Wednesdays in school, and is this term working towards a performance of Verdi’s Requiem on 25 th November.

The sound was absolutely incredible, made up of 200 young singers, a 50-strong professional choir, a large orchestra, and a band of military brass who performed from halfway down the nave. Led by conductor Paul McCreesh and narrator Simon Russell Beale, the musicians strung together a recreation of a coronation, complete with music performed at the four twentieth century coronations and a spellbound audience taking the part of the Westminster Abbey congregation. The CD

HOUSE CHAMPIONSHIP Kingsley Montgomery Seniors gather to celebrate winning the House Championship for the fourth consecutive year. House Captain, Shiv Kapila, fifth from the left holds the C F Lyon Cup for the Champion House. He is flanked by vice captains Andrew Conder and Visistaa Suresh (who is holding the Athletics Trophy). A resurgent Churchill Gordon finished the year very strongly winning the Swimming and coming second to KM on Sports Day by the tiniest margin to come 2nd overall - their highest finish for more than a decade.

CROSS-COUNTRY On Saturday 8 th September, several boys represented Tiffin in the Kingston Park run. It was an excellent opportunity for new year 7 boys to take part, and a thoroughly enjoyable morning by all. Eshan Patel was the first of the new cohort of Year 7s to clock a great time in his first School Park run. The next was Fergus Feltham. The year 8 runners Connor Foley and Oscar Luck both clocked good times and positions well up the field. Finishing in the top 20 against all ages is quite a feat. One of last year’s finds, Kai Pischke, put in a Captain’s performance, and the much

awaited school debut of Charlie Rogers looked to indicate he might be a find for this season. Alistair Brendon again looked strong finishing in a tidy time well to the front of the 300 strong field.

Fencing Championships that took place in Newcastle in July. He finished 10 th in the Under 17 Cadet foil competition and then fenced in the team competition. Luca and his team mates fought well throughout the event and reached the final where they took on an up and coming Indian team who had defeated the favourites Canada in the semi-final. The England team though held their nerve running out 45-22 winners to take the gold medal.

RUGBY The opening Saturday of the Tiffin rugby season started with a block fixture against Reigate. This is a well balanced fixture and a great one for the boys to start on. Having had to move all our home games to Reigate due to the dry pitches of Grist’s, the boys lacked home advantage but were confident nonetheless. The 1st XV since have always had an extraordinarily close game with Reigate and this time was no different. Unfortunately this time we were on the wrong side of the scoreline and ended up losing 8 – 6. This was disappointing after a strong pre-season where the boys came back from holidays early to put in the hard yards before the season began. Hopefully I can report more positive news after this Wednesday's Natwest Cup game against Greycourt and Saturday's fixtures v Wallington. Elsewhere there were equally tight games with the pick of the bunch coming from the U13s who won all their matches at A, B and C level. Congratulations on what looks like the start of another strong season for them. Good luck to all teams this Saturday against Wallington. Are you a TIPRA supporter yet: Tiffin parents supporting Tiffin school rugby? To find out who your TIPRA parent representative is please email ablackburn@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk. Follow us on Twitter @tiffinrugby for updates on school rugby! FENCING—LUCA TAKES GOLD AS PART OF THE ENGLAND TEAM This summer Luca Plastow was selected to represent England in the Commonwealth

SIXTH FORM DRAMA PRODUCTION

Come along to this year's Sixth Form production of The Ladykillers , a classic black comedy, running from 15-18 October at 7 pm in the Drama Studio. Tickets: £5 concessions, £8 adult from https:// www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/269060