Head's Newsletter 19 January 2018

University of East London on 13 January. As South London champions, the team, con- sisting of Ashrith Behara, Harshil Shah, Oli- ver Cheung and Aarya Karthik, competed against London’s finest teams to progress to the Regional Finals. Tiffin played superbly in their first match of the group stage, beating Burlington Danes 7-1. In the second match against City of London School impressive victories from all players secured a 5-3 win and guaranteed Tiffin a place in the semi-finals. In the final group match they faced tough opposition from University College School and despite some outstanding performances, suffered their first loss as a team. Second place in the group stages, meant that Tiffin faced the top team in the other half of the draw, Sacred Hearts, in the semi -finals. All matches were close, but Sacred Hearts pulled through. Despite narrowly missing qualification for the Regional Finals, there was still the Bronze medal to be decided. In the 3rd place play-off, Tiffin faced London Acade- my. With four 5-game matches and two 4- game matches it was one of the closest and most thrilling contests of the competition. All players showed tremendous skill and determination in claiming a 5-3 victory and a medal. They are a credit to Tiffin. Fan- tastic job boys!

MUSIC NEWS The annual Service of Lessons and Carols at Kingston Parish Church celebrated the Christmas story through the traditional structure of readings and choral and con- gregational carols. One boy from each year of the school read a lesson, and there were many excellent solos from within the choir, including an extremely fluent rendition of some 16th century Spanish from Euan O’Connor and Kiran Dasani. Daniel Blaze sang his last solo as Head Chorister, ending his time as a Boys' Choir treble on a high (and very beautiful) note. On the final night of term, the main hall was transformed into a festive jazz venue, complete with a bar run by the Friends of Tiffin Music, and fantastic performances from Swing Band, Jazz Combo and TYJO.

Just a few hours before this, the ABRSM exam results came through to reveal a 100% pass rate, with 51% of the boys who entered reaching Distinction, and Ben Gib- son achieving 91% in his Grade 8 Singing. This cohort also included Tiffin’s very first ARSM candidate (a new diploma offered by the ABRSM), and Henry Saywell (guitar) rose through the challenge with flying col- ours. MORE MEDALS FOR TIFFIN TABLE TENNIS The Butterfly National Schools Team Cham- pionships Zone Finals took place at the