Head's Newsletter 17 June 2022

Dear Parents, It ’ s great to see the Summer Term returning to its usual busyness. Obviously, we are still working our way through the A - level and GCSE public exams and we wish all those students taking exams all the best. This newsletter though exemplifies the range of activities that our students have been participating in over the last few weeks, from the sport or music or competitions, to journalism and gardening; there really is something for all interests here at Tiffin! On the sporting front, the cricket season has been going exceptionally well. Very large numbers of students have been involved and we ’ ve seen some really good performances from a number of the year groups with the U15s being a particular highlight. Our rowing continues to go from strength to strength, and it is very exciting how many rowers we have competing in competitions, and rowing regularly. A significant number of girls from Tiffin Girls School also row with our club and they have recently also been able to join us in the regattas with the boys. Inevitably there has been much music made in the last few weeks and you can read about the activities of the choir, and also orchestras in the different concerts we have held. Our dance also continues to be

extremely active including using guest choreographers to work with the dancers. In this newsletter you can read about the Classics trip to Hadrian ‘ s Wall, which is the first overnight stay Classics trip for three years. You can also read about the activities of all geographers in year 10 on their field trips. It was excellent to be able to invite Year 7 & 8 parents to a social at school, as they had missed out on the opportunities to visit when they joined the School. They will have noticed the extensive building works going on in the Dempsey Centre, where we are creating more sixth form facilities, and new library facilities, as we continue to invest in the infrastructure. Obviously, OFSTED visited us during exams week but their reports do not come out for a number of weeks. When they do finally report I will write to parents separately. I do you hope parents and students enjoy the fine weather.

Yours, Mr M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday 5 July

Open Evening

Wednesday 13 July

Sports Day

Founders Day and last day of term for students

Thursday 14th July

PDD day for staff—no students in school

Wednesday 31st August Thursday 1st September Friday 2nd September Monday 5th September

Year 7 & Year 12 only

Year 7 & Year 12 only Whole School Returns

DANCE

This term, selected Tiffin students have been working with James Aiden Kay, the Artistic Director and choreographer of Traceworks dance, and Mrs Brittain on a contemporary dance piece. It is based around the idea of a pack of wolves, sometimes in unison, other times following others. This idea is used in the whole piece from start to finish. What I really enjoyed working on was getting synchronised with others with certain exercises and then to see it work in the number; we also had explored the idea of “ puppetry ” work which helped

bring the piece together. Finally, what I most enjoyed was the experience of making new friends and improving my dance skills overall. I think that it was definitely worth joining and I have had a lot of fun taking part. Harrison Lee 8SER

ROWING

FRENCH

Bonjour, On Wednesday the 14th June, 11 Year 7 students took part in the Love Languages 2022 competition organised by the City of London Freemen ’ s school. Competing against small groups ranging from year 5 to year 8 from the most prestigious schools in London, we quickly realised that the standards were very high and this would not be a ‘ walk in the park ’. But this did not deter our Tiffinians. They performed their short play on protecting the planet perfectly (and all in French!) in front of a crowd of 150 people. Although we were disappointed not to win the ultimate Shield, our group was awarded the trophy for Most Confident and Enthusiastic Group with Outstanding Use of Language. Hearing the cheers and seeing those proud smiling faces is part of what makes teaching at Tiffin such a uniquely rewarding experience. And BRAVO to: Tife, Hugo, Finley, Ocean, Eesah, Tom, Harry, Reuben, Cillian, Iason and Mika, all from 7JXE!

TSBC took 13 crews to National Schools regatta over the 27th - 29 th May, including a first of 4 crews from Tiffin Girls' school. In cut - throat time trials where scant seconds decided the outcomes crews raced well and made several finals. Our girl's crews , whilst not yet making a final,acquitted themselves well showing much potential for 2023. The J16s made the B final in a brutal competition full of private and selective rowing schools. They are now focusing on Henley. The result of the day was our J14s ( Year 9s ) who narrowly missed out on a medal this time but have the recognition of knowing they are the 4 th fastest crew in the UK.

CRICKET

It has been a terrific cricket season so far. The enthusiasm for the game is probably higher than it has ever been, with 57 Year 8 boys at 7.00 a.m. nets! But this is not a one - off. It happens every week for these boys and for the other age groups as well. Not surprisingly there are

talented players in the 2 junior age groups and it has been brilliant to watch them play and make so much rapid progress. They are becoming highly competitive teams. Already highly competitive is the Under 15 side which has qualified for Finals Day in the National

20 - 20 Cup. They play at Whitgift School on Thursday 16 th June. From this team, 3 players represented Surrey Under 15 v The ACE Academy at The Oval on June 10 th . Pictured are Om Sharma, Anshul Pradeep Sharma and Kajus Syed all of whom contributed to a splendid win. At the top of the school, the 1 st XI has played so much attractive cricket. Vice - Captain Datta Vasireddy has been in the form of his life with 4 half centuries against tough opposition. 1 st XI Captain Rayhan Rafiq has the only century of the season so far but there is a lot of cricket still to come.

GEOGRAPHY GCSE FIELDWORK

SURREY HILLS YOUNG COMPOSER COMPETITION

Year 10 Geographers undertook their GCSE fieldwork at the River Tillingbourne in Surrey from Monday 6 th - Wednesday 8 th June. The

trip involves students collecting data, with the aim to show downstream changes in the characteristics of the river from its ’ source to mouth. The trip is an integral component of the GCSE course and their experiences are assessed in Paper 3 of the exam in 2023. Despite some very wet weather, students were engaged and took part in the data collection methods with maturity and

In January several pupils from Tiffin entered the Surrey Hills Young Composer Competition, which was open to composers aged 18 or under. The brief was ‘ express what our vibrant county means to you in a work between 4 - 8 mins long and scored for any combination of violin, cello and piano ’. The Composition entries were adjudicated by Wu Qian Artistic, Director of the Investec International Music Festival, Charlotte Bray, an Ivor Novello Award - winning composer and Stephen Goss, Composer & Professor of Composition at University of Surrey. Prizes were presented at the World premiere performance by members of the Sitkovetsky Trio on 5 May 2022 as part of Investec International Music Festival 2022. Advaith Jaganath won third prize with his Composition and 2 complimentary tickets to the performance to meet the Sitkovetsky Trio and £100 cash prize which was awarded at the concert. Borimir Ivanov was awarded a Highly Commended for his Composition and was invited to the Performance as well .

enthusiasm, whilst showcasing accurate data collection techniques. Student ’ s were all brilliantly behaved and the trip was a pleasure to run.

ENGLISH

Young Reporter Winner 2022

The English Department is pleased to announce that Theo Richards 12MKY has been selected as one of this year ’ s winners for the Young Reporter Scheme. The programme offers students in KS4 and 5 the opportunity to experience writing articles for a live newspaper, giving them an insight into working in the world of Journalism. Through the scheme, Theo has interviewed a mental health charity CEO to discuss the stigma around mental health and how support can be offered to friends when they are struggling, and interviewed the Green Party Baroness in the House of Lords (Jenny Jones) around how issues around climate change in London can be addressed. Theo also attended a press release for homeless charity Centrepoint's new modular housing unit which offers a brighter future for young people without somewhere to call home. To read Theo ’ s article on Centrepoint, please do follow this link. The English Department warmly congratulate Theo on his success and offer their praise to all the students who participated this year. We look forward to running the scheme again in September. During the Spring Term, the Creative Writing Club launched an internal competition to promote creative writing across the school. The Club received a variety of entries and the judging process was challenging in the face of such excellent storytelling. Judging concluded this term, and the Creative Writing Club are proud to announce the winners for the competition: Congratulations to Dylan Anton 12MKY, Oscar Clement 11MJG, and Praneeth Lakshman 10DO! To read their entries, please follow the link to the Creative Writing Club ’ s website. We also want to give a special mention to the following students for being the best entrant for their year group: Tanmay Konda 7OB, Aaron Dutta 8HXB, Rephel Fonseka 9SPM, Luke Schwikkard 10JE, Aadi Deepchand 11KBA, Marcus Vilay - Underhill 12MT and Jude Ferguson 12MS. Well done to them! The Creative Writing Club would like to praise all the students who participated and extend our sincerest thanks to all the representatives across the school who helped with the judging process. A special thanks to Pranav Sharma 10SE, Barnaby Mepham 10SE and Praneeth Lakshman 10DO for taking on the role of Lead Student Representatives for the Creative Writing Club this year. The club couldn ’ t run without them, and such competitions and promotion of writing wouldn ’ t be possible without the help and enthusiasm of our students. Creative Writing Club Competition

CHEMISTRY CHALLENGE

SUPERBLOOOMS FOR THE JUBILEE

On May 25th, the four members of ‘ Friends of Tiffin Chemistry ’, our qualifying team of Year 10s in the Royal Society of Chemistry ’ s Chemistry Challenge, made their way to Kingston University to compete in the Downlands Local Section final of the competition. They competed against five other schools, taking part in four separate challenges that included a multiple choice round testing their general chemistry knowledge, a practical round that involved a titration, a round that tested their memorisation skills, and a materials round. The group demonstrated their excellent teamwork skills over the course of the afternoon, and they were a credit to Tiffin School. While waiting for the results to come in, we were given a tour of Kingston University ’ s chemistry department, which housed a plethora of interesting equipment from state of the art NMR spectrometers to electron microscopes. In the end, the team placed fourth, winning themselves each a £10 Amazon gift voucher and the chemistry department £40! Well done to Eric Meng (unanimously voted team captain), Kaizad Kapadia, Arnav Vacher and Vincent Xue .

Earlier this year Tiffin School joined the Superbloom project with the Tower of London receiving seeds to create a flower garden for Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee. The Superblooms Project has transformed the Tower of London's iconic moat into a spectacular, flower - filled garden. Our seeds for this were planted by Tiffin ’ s Horticulture and Dendrological Society (THADS) in March to form our own small Jubilee flower garden in the Head ’ s Garden near the Chester Centre which is now blossoming. The seeds include Anethum graveolens / Dill; Calendula officinalis 'Indian Prince' / Pot Marigold; Centaurea cyanus 'Blue' / Cornflower Blue; Echium vulgare 'Blue Bedder' / Viper's Bugloss; Eschscholtzia californica 'Single Mixed' / Californian Poppy; Helipterum roseum, 'Pierrot' / Paper Daisy and Linaria maroccana 'Fairy Lights' / Fairy ToadFlax.

CLASSICS TRIP

72 Tiffinians set off on the long journey up North at the crack of dawn on Thursday 9 th June. Excitement levels were high after such a long hiatus in Classics residential trips. On Day 1 the students visited Binchester Roman Fort where they toured the site with local experts, handled artefacts with an archaeologist, dressed up as Romans and even made clay pots! An enjoyable evening was spent in Gateshead. A hearty dinner at the hotel was preceded by a walk around the city taking

in local landmarks and followed by some very competitive and highly enjoyable games of bowling at the Metro Centre! On Friday we visited the Roman Army Museum with an expert local guide who was so knowledgeable and told great tales of life on the edge of Empire in

antiquity! We then headed to Hadrian's Wall itself which impressed all. Our last stop was

Vindolanda - a key military post on the northern frontier of Britain. The archaeological remains were astounding and brought to life by the archaeologists working on the excavations who took the time to talk to us. All in all we had a fantastic couple of days and I would like to thank the students for their enthusiasm and exemplary behaviour, as well as all the staff who gave up their free time to make this

OPEN CONCERT SUMMER 2022

The summer term Open Concert, which took place on Tuesday 15 th June, featured not only many excellent solo performances but also ensembles, some which were rehearsed and led most impressively by the student performers themselves. The guitar ensemble opened the concert with an excellent performance of the Beatles ’ Blackbird. The

impressive piano solos performed by Eric Matthew (7JM), Sean (7ASA) and Christian (8AGS) were complemented by Christian ’ s clarinet solo. A highlight of the evening was Tong ’ s (13CD) outstanding performance of Mendelssohn ’ s technically demanding Violin

Concerto first movement, a piece which he will perform with the Junior Trinity - Laban symphony orchestra later this term – a remarkable achievement. The final part of the programme, dedicated to performances of contemporary music, included engaging performances of ‘ Say You Won ’ t

Let Go ’ and Yesterday from Saahil (9MRL) and Suhaas (9MMB) on voice and guitar, as well as Don ’ t Let Go performed by Ryan (7JXE) on drums. The concert concluded with the Rock Band ’ s upbeat renditions of Ruby, Lean on Me and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Two highlights of the evening included the student led and rehearsed ensembles: the Y10 chamber ensemble performing a version of Pachelbel ’ s Canon in D adapted by them for two violins, cello and piano, and the Y8 chamber ensemble performing two of their own arrangements; Tchaikovsky ’ s Theme from Swan Lake and Sibelius ’ s Andante Festivo.

SCHOOL SPRING CONCERT 2022

The ‘ School Concert ’ which takes place in spring each year is, in scale at least, one of the greatest events of the school musical calendar, and this year was no exception. This is a concert in which, for over forty years, all pupils in Year 7 have performed together, forming a chorus to sing the music they have learned during music lessons throughout the spring term. The preparations for the concert, which took place on Thursday 5 th May, ended with all Year 7 pupils walking to the concert venue, All Saint ’ s Church, the only space large enough to accommodate such a chorus and their audience. The songs were chosen from the musical ‘ Guys and Dolls ’, the production performed by senior pupils earlier that term. As in recent years, a highlight of this performance was the accompaniment provided by the school orchestra, all of which made a fitting finale to the concert. The concert also featured highlights of pupils ’ recent ensemble music making, beginning with two traditional songs (‘ The Way The Money Goes ’ and ‘ Go Down Moses ’) performed by the Wind Band and Concert Band together, before the Concert

Band performed alone Gershwin ’ s ‘ Fascinating Rhythm ’ and Otis Redding ’ s ‘ Respect ’. The theme from Vivaldi ’ s ‘ Spring ’ concerto followed by Strauss ’ s Radetzky March were performed with energy by the String Orchestra, followed by a performance of the first movement of Mozart ’ s Gran Partita by the Wind Chamber Ensemble. The Jazz Combo ’ s ‘ Watermelon Man ’ featured some brilliant solos, including the final drum solo performed by Taro. Following a lively performance of the first movement of Mozart ’ s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by the Chamber Orchestra, the School Orchestra gave an impressive performance of the Finale to Dvorak ’ s 9 th Symphony.

MUSIC

A level Final Recital

With twenty - three pupils currently studying A level music at school, nine of whom belong to the upper sixth, the final A level Recital given by our Year 13 A level Music students promised to be an evening of not only brilliant but also varied musical performances. From our pianists Benjamin, Celia and William we enjoyed impressively well - prepared performances of works including Chopin ’ s Nocturne in E flat, Schubert ’ s Impromptu in G flat and Liszt ’ s Liebestraume No. 3. Contrasting with these romantic piano works were highlights from our singers ’ recital programmes, including music by Jason Robert Brown, Lucy Simons and Ivor Gurney performed engagingly by Sophia, Jotaro and Vera. The impressive tone and expression in Lois ’ s performances on the cello of Faure ’ s Elegie and Bloch ’ s Prayer were particularly memorable, as was Ituah ’ s performance of Bach ’ s Sonata in Gm in an intricate arrangement for Alto Saxophone. Contrasting brilliantly with these programmes was Hudhayfah ’ s set of two progressive rock solos for electric guitar. We are grateful to the talented A level music students who have contributed much to the musical life of the school during their time here, and we wish them all the best for their futures, especially their pursuits as musicians.

Choral Evensong at Westminster Abbey

You may know that, during term time, the Tiffin Choirs sing choral evensong at St. Luke ’ s Church Kingston each week, to which all members of the school community and public are invited. The final evensong service of the Spring Term was, however, a little more special, when the Tiffin Boys ’ Choir travelled to perhaps the country ’ s most famous sacred space, Westminster Abbey.

MUSIC

Westminster Abbey Organ

Beginning the afternoon with rehearsals in the abbey ’ s ancient choir stalls, the choir rested from rehearsals with a guided tour of the building, taking them up into the highest corners of the building where some of the institution ’ s most important artefacts are now on display. At the service the choir made an impressive sound, seemingly filling the space and matching the powerful reeds of the 1937 Harrison and Harrison organ (installed for the coronation of King George VI) in Sumsion ’ s setting of the evening canticles in A. The preces and responses by Ayleward were also sung beautifully, before the service concluded with an expressive rendition of Faure ’ s Cantique de Jean Racine, a fitting end to the choir term.

Britten St. Nicolas with Teddington Choral Society

Members of the Tiffin Boys ’ Choir were delighted to be invited to appear as soloists and semi - chorus members with the Teddington Choral Society in their recent performance of Benjamin Britten ’ s St. Nicolas at All Saints ’ Church in Kingston. In this work, the treble semi - chorus, which stands apart from the chorus of adult voices, sings in dialogue with the chorus from their offstage position, creating an ethereal effect. From this semi - chorus, three trebles are taken to perform the role of the ‘ pickled boys ’. These characters feature in the retelling of one gruesome story from the life of St. Nicolas, in which he brings these children back to life, alongside his other good works of saving sailors at sea and freeing slaves from captivity. The choir members gave excellent performances and were a credit to the choir and school in this performance enjoyed by a large audience at All Saints ’ Church.