Head's Newsletter 15 November 2019

Dear Parents It has been an extremely busy few weeks at Tiffin with lots to report on in this newsletter. The choir have had some fantastic opportunities recently. On Tuesday night they were officially singing at the turning on of the Christmas lights at Covent Garden by Emma Thompson. This was because the choir appear and sing in her new film, Last Christmas , released this week; do watch out for them if you go to see the film! Meanwhile they also had very significant commitments at the Royal Festival Halls and at Cadogan Hall, and it was a pleasure to watch them during half term at the Barbican. Many of the Year 7s who sang in the inter-form competition before half term, will also be sharing in the success of the choir and the opportunity to sing at prestigious London venues. Also on the theme of performing arts, it was fantastic to see the sixth form play just before half term. This involved a large number of sixth form students and was a great sign of the strength and capability of our mixed sixth form. We have also had perhaps our most successful house dance competition with an extraordinary range of performance. The write-up in this newsletter sums up the benefits of the house system and such a competition. In sport, we’ve seen a lot of success recently, especially in cross country, badminton and tennis. Our rugby teams are also doing well and beginning to pick up more victories. You can also read about the

achievements of individual Tiffin students in sailing and gymnastics. I’m delighted that we have been named by The Cricketer magazine as one of the top 100 schools for cricket, an amazing accolade which will be celebrated in their publication published at the end of November. There have been a number of trips going out and you can read reports on the geography field trip, the Latin trip to Bath, and the history trip to Berlin. Also in this newsletter you can read about the Jack Petchey winners and some of the careers work. Sixth form parents will also be familiar with the careers newsletter that comes round which I know they and the sixth form find most informative and useful. We look forward to a number of events coming up including the public speaking and further trips in the next few weeks. Year 11 will also be doing their mock exams very soon.

Amid all this, it was poignant on Monday to commemorate in three separate Remembrance services those

Tiffinians who died in the wars, that we might enjoy the freedom and opportunities we do. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Year 13 Parents’ Consultation; school ends 1 pm

Monday 18 November Sunday 24 November Tuesday 26 November (changed from 28 th Nov)

Oratorio Concert, Sports Hall 7 pm

House Public Speaking Final, JLT at 7.30 pm

Professional Development; no students in school

Friday 6 December

key case study for the students work on water and carbon cycles as well as contemporary urban environments. On our final day, we travelled down to South Hans, where we looked at the concept of eustatic change, coastal management and hydrosere succession.

GEOGRAPHY FIELD TRIP On Monday 14 th October, the Geography department took the Year 12 cohort to Dartmoor for 5 days. This residential trip, is an integral component of the A Level course, and equips students with the expertise and skills needed to understand water and carbon cycles, contemporary urban environments and coastal systems.

The trip was a huge success. Students built upon, and consolidated knowledge learnt in class, through real life examples and experiences in a spectacular surrounding. Students worked hard and behaved exceptionally well, which made for an extremely enjoyable trip.

During the trip we stayed at Bellever Youth Hostel, located in the very heart of Dartmoor National Park; the hostel is idyllic and provides students with the perfect base for understanding the nature of the landscape. On day 1, we explored the concept of drainage basins and watersheds, with a walk up to Longaford and Littaford tors, followed by an evening lecture preparing for the next day ahead. Day 2 began with a trip to Meldon Reservoir, followed by the spectacular Lydford Gorge, where students explored the idea of river capture and storage. In the afternoon, students carried out an independent study in groups of 3, measuring the East Bovey River, to gain an understanding of flow characteristics on Dartmoor. Day 3 consisted of a trip into Exeter, and the study of Exeter’s globally renowned river management strategy, a

112 Yr 9 Latinists visited the ancient city of Aquae Sulis, modern-day Bath, on Tuesday 5 th November. During the course of the day they explored the baths themselves and the museum, and had informative sessions with local experts which included handling original artefacts. The boys' behaviour was exemplary and their enthusiasm for what they saw and did infectious. My thanks, as always, go to the boys who were uncomplaining about the long journey and the staff without whom such days would not be possible. Mrs O’Connell, Head of Faculty of Languages

Even by Tiffin standards, the last few weeks have been incredibly busy for all the School’s choirs. On Tuesday, the Chamber Choir and some of the Trebles performed at the switching on of the Covent Garden Christmas lights, in collaboration with Universal, the film company behind this year’s major Christmas movie Last Christmas, which a number of the Trebles and Children’s Chorus recorded and filmed for last year, and which is being released this week. The event was an enormous and very glamorous one, hosted by Harriet Scott and Ronan Keating, and featuring celebrity guests from Last Christmas, Emma Thompson, Emilia Clarke and Paul Feig. The Choir sang “Walking in the Air” from The Snowman and “Once in Royal David’s City”, in which Jasper Jones (Year 8) sang the first verse solo beautifully. They then sang two arrangements of George Michael songs, “Faith”, and “Heal the Pain”, with a fantastic solo from Emily Jones (Year 12).

As well as the release of Last Christmas (look out for the Choir in the opening sequence), this month has seen the release of Dunedin Consort’s CD of Handel’s Samson, which eleven Trebles recorded with the ensemble in June 2018, directed by John Butt. The Trebles sing the chorus line throughout the recording. On the same evening as the Covent Garden event, thirty Trebles made their way to the Cadogan Hall (photo below) for the second of two performances of Mahler’s Third

Symphony with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. The boys performed brilliantly, and for many of them it was their first big concert with the Choir. Shortly before half term, the Boys’ Choir also visited Oxford to sing Evensong with New College Choir, performing music by Howells and Jonathan Dove.

The Chamber Choir made their debut at the Royal Festival Hall last week, performing in charity concert, ‘Night Under the Stars’, in aid of homeless charity ‘The Passage’. They performed a number of choruses from Italian operas, including the Te Deum from Puccini’s Tosca, which a number of the boys had performed as Trebles.

For the sopranos and altos of the Choir, this was the second major concert hall they had performed in in the space of a week. Alongside a number of Trebles and Children’s Chorus singers, they performed Philip Glass’s Music With Changing Parts at the Barbican the previous Wednesday. Unfortunately the composer had become ill during the previous part of the group’s tour and wasn’t able to perform in the concert, but it was incredibly exciting to perform such an important work with the group for whom it was written.

On Monday 4th November 8 Tiffinians received Jack Petchey Achievement Awards from Councillor Margaret Thompson, the Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. They had been nominated for the awards by their peers and then selected from those nominated by the School Council. A large number of students were nominated but those chosen were selected for their remarkable contributions and achievements in hugely varied fields including the Chess Team, School Rugby, The Engineering Society, The School Production, The Cross Country Team, Academic achievement, contributions to the learning of peers, Origami Club as well as their kindness and consideration of others. Dr Michael Selig from the Maths Department also received the prestigious Jack Petchey Leader Award for his enormous contributions, in particular in the classroom, the music department and on the cricket field. The Tiffinians, the school’s self-run close harmony group, also performed arrangements of ‘Blackbird singing in the dead of night’ and ‘Build me up Buttercup’ at the ceremony to a very appreciative and impressed audience.

Winner of RA Butler Prize

Over the summer, Year 13 student Bertie Panicucci entered the RA Butler Prize for Politics and International Relations. The prize is a prestigious essay competition run by Trinity College, Cambridge. Bertie’s essay focused on the impact of the 2008 financial crash on the growth of populism. The judging panel awarded it a ‘special commendation’ and described it as a “well -researched piece of work demonstrating high potential for the study of politics”. As a result Bertie was invited to an awards ceremony in Cambridge where he discussed his work with other prize winners and academics. (see picture – Bertie is in the middle of the back row).

On 3 rd October we flew into a surprisingly warm Berlin and passed by the hotel before taking a leisurely walk to the Reichstag. Here we learnt about the its role in the history of the Weimar republic and how its history was essential to the NSDAP (Nazi party) when taking over Berlin. We went on to visit the wonderful Berlin Mall, that would be our food hub for the next few days. The next day was very eventful with a visit to the Sachenhausen museum where we learnt about Nazi concentration camps and how they were operated. We then went on a short walk through the key parts of Nazi Berlin where we saw the mesmerizing memorial to Holocaust victims. On the last day, we took a walking tour of Cold War Berlin where we visited the largest stretch that remained of the Berlin wall. Here we saw some very impressive artwork and also learnt about brave attempts to cross the wall. We also saw the old SS headquarters where we learnt about the scale of the Nazi organization. We then departed to the Olympic stadium, where we got to enjoy the boxes and even Sepp Blatter's personalized seat and a gold chapel! By Bakr Al-Derzi Y11

Old Tiffinian’s success

Many congratulations to old Tiffinian Robert Jones, a first-year bass in the Chapel Choir, who has won the 2019 Clare College Carol Composition Competition with his setting of Adam lay ybounden . The Competition was adjudicated by Graham Ross, Fellow and Director of Music at Clare College, and William Vann, Director of Music at Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Robert's winning composition will be performed by the Chapel Choir at the College’s two Advent Carol Services on 28 th November and 1 st December in the College Chapel, and broadcast worldwide as a webcast shortly after.

CROSS COUNTRY BOROUGH CHAMPIONSHIPS

On 17 th October Tiffin had five teams competing for the school at the Borough Cross Country Championships for the first time, running in harsh conditions battling both the wind and the rain at Grist’s. We saw the first senior girls team compete in this event for the school. Representing Tiffin were Olivia Cronin and Neve Husaini. They ran fantastically well together pushing each other forward to a faster pace. Olivia ran a fantastic race finishing in third place and taking the bronze medal with Neve finishing close behind in fourth. For the first time in the history of Tiffin the girls together helped achieve an overall team victory in the Senior Girls event ahead of Holy Cross in 2 nd and Tiffin Girls in 3 rd . Olivia and Neve should be very proud in helping to lead the way forward for girls’ sports at Tiffin.

seconds ahead of Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin in their first competitive race against each other. A surprise 3 rd place went to new Year 12 student Aaron Evans, who signed up to the race just the day before. Another strong performance for the school by Max von Wittgenstein in 4 th place, closed out the comfortable team win. The dominance continued with the next four Tiffin runners home, with Charlie Hudson finishing in 5 th , Udit Tuteja in 8 th , Ajay Patel in 9 th and Ryan Foley in 10 th . This put Tiffin’s B team in second place in the Borough, and this meant that every single Tiffin runner qualified to run for the Borough in the Country Championships by finishing in the top 10. Having spent the cross country season so far racing against boys in Year 8, Tiffin’s team of keen Year 7 runners were eager to test themselves against the best the borough had to offer in their own age group. Jesper Naisby showed his experience by keeping a cool head when other runners set off very fast at the start, and over the course of the first lap he gradually began to reel them in. He finished in a hugely impressive 2 nd place out of 93 runners. Second and third home for Tiffin were the irrepressible Falla twins, who have improved immeasurably as runners over the course of their first half term running for the school. Strong performances all round closed out an excellent 1 st place for the team against 7 other schools, allowing us to reclaim the Year 7 Borough Champions trophy that we had lost last year. In the Year 8 and 9 race, Tiffin faced their toughest opposition of the day in the form

In the senior boys category, Tiffin continues to set the benchmark for cross country running in the borough. The sheer wealth of running talent in the sixth form at the moment is so phenomenal that even without two of our top runners, Tiffin’s first five runners finished in 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th . Defending his title from last year, Ollie Coppellotti won the race, just 9 The victorious senior girls cross country team, their coaches and one of the prefects who helped organise the event. From left to right: Mrs Davis, Neve Hussaini, Olivia Cronin, Lottie Fry and Miss Ramsbottom.

of a very strong Kingston Grammar team. Their national quality Year 8 athlete won the race by a large margin but Connor Foley and Oscar Luck worked well together to hold off the rest of the opposition and secure 2 nd and 3 rd place. The team finished in 2 nd place out of the 8 schools. The year 10 and 11 team emphatically defended their Borough Cross Country title again this year, finishing with an almost perfect score of 11, claiming 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 5 th place. And for the first time, it was Will Murphy who took the win, ahead of Tom Armstrong in second. Running at the same time as the seniors, Will matched the pace at the front of the race with Year 12 Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin, and Year 13 (and last year’s winner) Ollie Coppellotti. Coming into the home straight, Will had a narrow lead, but Ollie turned on the speed and just stretched ahead. Will showed that, despite being in Year 11, he is going to be a real challenger in the House run later this year. Ben Couzens and Alistair Brendon closed out the A team in 3 rd and 5 th place respectively. On what I believe was his debut for the school, Gideon Afreh led home the B team with a 7 th place finish. He was followed by

long-time cross country runners Matt O’Donovan in 8 th and Jack Hartrey in 12 th , and new addition to the squad, Rishon Rajkumar in 14 th . Such is the strength in depth of this year 11 cohort that this B team were not only the best B team, but were 3 rd place overall, ahead of three other schools. A special thank you must go to the nine prefects who oversaw the organisation of the race over a very long day in some extreme weather conditions, to ensure a fabulously run championships for all schools involved. Their efforts undoubtedly contributed to the success of the school on the day, not only with their vocal support of the runners, but by allowing the Tiffin staff to be able to focus on organising the team, while the event was run smoothly in the background by the prefects. Thank you to: Daniel Smith, Sophia Botnar, Lottie Fry, Chloe Hunkin, Joseph Manley, Tristan Galvin Sparks, Ralph Talman, Gabriel Armstrong and Naiara Osako. However the hardest work was done by senior runners Eyoel, Udit and Ryan, who not only competed in the event, but also orchestrated the efforts of the prefects, to make the whole event possible.

Coco Barrett , pictured below, who has just joined us in the Sixth Form, is a member of the Royal Yachting Association UK Youth Squad – Laser Radial. Coco’s selection for this squad recognises her potential to progress within the British Sailing Team, with the aim of winning selection to the Olympic Development programmes. Coco has been selected on the basis of performance and commitment to a programme of training and competition over a period of several years, and establishes her status as a UK Squad sailor who it is hoped will represent Great Britain at major international events in the forthcoming years. Well done Coco!

SCHOOL SPORT

As we arrive at the halfway point in the rugby season, we look back at a mixed start with the 1st XV recording good wins against Haliford, Gunnersbury and ACS Cobham giving them a 50% win ratio. The U14s return to winning ways after their blip against Wallington and all other teams showing great improvement, with the U16 battling to a draw against St George’s and the U15s recording a good win on the same weekend. The U12s have bought into rugby culture slowly but surely and this was demonstrated with 7 teams—a hundred plus players—playing at St George’s last Friday with many more still involved in games at Grist’s begging for a place in any of the teams! It is brilliant to see such enthusiasm and although their talent is still raw, this bodes well for the future. We look forward to our table tennis teams, under 16 and under 19, bringing back some silverware from the county finals, which are being held at Wilson’s and Whitgift respectively. The girls’ rugby squad have been training well on Friday evenings and the netball squad during Wednesday lunch. The latter will have their first fixture against Salesians School on 27th November and we look forward to reports of progress made.

With a flurry of acrobatics and a dynamic fusion of contemporary dance and swag-filled hiphop, the Tiffin House Dance Championships were brought to an end. All houses competed fiercely with Raleigh all-conquering and proceeding to claim first place overall. Darwin Wilberforce came in second, leaving Kingsley Montgomery to round up the top three. The dance studio was filled with expectant spectators who came to cheer on their friends, houses and just to enjoy good performances. The atmosphere was tense and pulsing with excitement as each unit took to the stage amidst cheers. As someone who enjoys dance, I came with a lot of anticipation and I wasn’t disappointed! The house dance finals were like a buffet; each unit had something different and enticing to bring to the table: furious popping, flirty flexibility, balaclavas and that outfit oozing with charisma (cheers Sophie Flatman), throw in the breakdancing and gymnastics and you get a potluck dance party. There were three categories: the free piece, the solos and the set piece. The selected music for the set piece this year was Ten Walls’ “Walking with Elephants” (If you haven’t heard it, it’s a blend of classical and electronic music - really cool), giving lots of room for varying interpretations by each house. Most units seemed to tell a story, my favourite performances were the ones that conjured such vivid stories, stimulating one’s senses and imagination with just sharp moves and synchronization. There were flawlessly executed techniques on show, manipulating tiny details and sound effects in the track (like Joseph Fox) as well as utilising the stage to the max and altogether pulling off enthralling and exhilarating performances. I personally found the teamwork between the years really cute - the ‘stripies’ coordinating with the sixth form to achieve a common goal is another facet of the Tiffin ethos; these competitions emphasise the need to cultivate synergy with one another which will benefit us when we go out into the wider world. Forget all this serious talk, these competitions are simply a great way to unwind from the demanding workload of school that doesn’t involve netflix or instagram. I definitely want to find the time to

dance. Kosi Ugonabo 12MO Please follow this link to House Dance 2019 by Tiffin Broadcasting Network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msyKjgOzra0

GYMNASTICS

Thomas Powell in Year 7 competed in the South East England Regional championships in the Elite 3 division for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics and finished in 2 nd place, earning him a place in the National finals in Birmingham which have just been held. Competing against teams from the whole of the UK and Northern Ireland, the South East team won the gold medal and Thomas achieved an overall 9 th position nationally. Due to his performance at the Elite national finals, Thomas has also been selected to trial for the national squad in Manchester. BADMINTON The School Under 19 badminton team has now despatched all of its local rivals having beaten Reed’s, Hampton and KCS, all by a considerable margin. Indeed the U19 B team has not lost a single game through the 3 matches. Congratulations to Aarav Bhati and his U14 team. 12 Tiffin players took on King’s Wimbledon, winning the A team match by 8 games to 1 and the B team by 11 to 4. CRICKET Tiffin School has been adjudicated as one of the Top 100 cricket schools in the country. It is a great achievement to make it into The Cricketer Schools Guide 2020. We will be included in a prestigious supplement accompanying the December issue of The Cricketer (newsstand November 22). Furthermore, the guide will be published and available to view online throughout the year. TENNIS The Year 9 and 10 tennis team were entered into the LTA Schools Team Tennis competition for the first time. After winning the group stage matches, the team progressed to the knockout stages. A bye in the quarters saw Tiffin face Hinchley Wood, the winners of the event for the past 2 years. Beating them in some horrible weather saw the team progress to the finals. Here they faced KGS, and winning our matches with relative ease (5-1), meant we were the winners of the Surrey event, an incredible achievement. It did not

end there though, as we went off to represent Surrey in the Division 2 regional finals, facing the winners from Kent, Sussex and Middlesex. At times we played some amazing tennis, and after saving 2 match points in one of the doubles matches, the team beat a very strong Haydon School side (representing Middlesex) in the semi finals, to take Tiffin through to the finals. Here the Sussex team, Lancing College, were clear favourites with some unbelievable players and, although we eventually lost, the Tiffin team played amazingly well. Huge thank you to Mr Taylor and Mr Brown for organising it, and to everyone who played during the competition: Tristan Scurr, Lucas Murtagh, Matthew O’Donovan, Joseph Parkinson, Ben Couzens, Joshua Cruice, Georgiy Lesyuk, and Ashan Asghar . PUBLIC SPEAKING Please join us on Tuesday 26 th November at 7.30 pm in the JLT for the House Public Speaking Finals—quality entertainment and a star adjudicator. All welcome. FREE!

an advertisement for Legoland and given advice on what makes a successful advert. Split into groups, we had from midday until 3 pm to create a campaign that aimed to encourage 9-12 year olds to visit the attraction. Although it seemed challenging, we were given mentors from the team at BMB who pointed us in the right direction in terms of making the campaign relevant and appealing to the target audience. Each team then pitched their ideas to the head of the creative team. The day gave us an overall idea of how an advertising agency runs in London and made a positive impact on many students. One year 12 student said “It has given me an insight about advertising as a career”. Another student hopes to do some work experience with an advertising agency.

Sixth Form Production 2019

In celebrating Tiffin School’s first mixed Sixth Form, the Drama Department decided to produce two plays just before the half term break, Bull by Mike Bartlett and God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, both with meaty parts for females. Starting this ambitious process on 16 th September, the sixteen cast members managed to juggle their packed schedules to fit around the four week rehearsal schedule.

Every were entertained not only by the fantastic acting talent on show but also having the joy of watching two plays all before 9pm. Huge congratulations and thanks to all who were involved. Year 12 BMB advertising trip On 11 th October a group of Year 11 and 12s went on the ‘advertising unlocked’ trip at the advertising agency BMB. The objective of the day was to give us an idea about working in advertising and the opportunities and routes that are available. The day started with a talk from the CEO of the company who discussed what advertisements his agency had worked on with various businesses such as: Samsung, LinkedIn and Thompson and how he managed to establish his own agency despite the competitive nature of the industry. We were then briefed on making evening the audience

Receiving homework Notifications Parents can receive automatic daily or weekly emails informing them what homework their child has been set on Google classroom. Students get this information in real-time through their own Google Classroom accounts but a few parents have found it helpful to receive the emails too. Parents who wish to receive these emails should request them via contact their child’s form tutor.