Head's Newsletter 22 June 2018

fantastic entries. Well done to the boys chosen as winners, as well as all who took part. There is also information in this newsletter on a number of other competitions that we have been involved in, including Maths and Chess. Special mention must also go to Year 8 dancers who performed brilliantly in the Ignition Dance Festival at the Rose Theatre. All Year 7 also participated in a Bhangra dance workshop on Monday, which was certainly a most enjoyable event. On the drama front, the junior play this year is Watership Down ; I do hope that many parents and friends will be able to come and watch the boys perform. Thank you to those who have contributed to the consultation on proposals for expansion. This follows the announcement by the government of the Selective School Expansion Fund. The proposals can be found on the website here . Finally, it was a great delight this morning to present Dr Frost with a trophy, having been shortlisted from thousands of nominations for the Pearson Teaching Award for the outstanding use of technology in education. He has been awarded a Silver Plate - one of only three nationally in this category – and we will find out in October whether he wins the Gold Award when the ceremony is broadcast on the BBC. Many congratulations to Dr Frost for his exceptional work, the fruits of which can be seen at www.drfrostmaths.com

Dear Parents It was good to welcome the Year 12 back this week after their internal exams; they now have an important couple of weeks when in particular they will be thinking about their futures during our special programmes. In the meantime, work on the new Sixth Form Centre has been progressing very well. It will certainly be an impressive addition to our facilities when it is fully open in September. Thank you to the parents who turned up for the evening about Chromebooks, which was widely regarded as highly informative. This is a very exciting development for the School and we look forward to its implementation next term. There have been a couple of new trips recently. Last week we had our inaugural Year 10 French trip to Angers; this was clearly thoroughly enjoyed by the boys. During half term, the School conducted its first cricket tour to Devon, with a mix of U13 and U15 players. The tour was extremely successful with some excellent matches against Devon clubs and some very good wins. Very excitingly, both U13 and U15 teams are also through to the semi -finals of the Surrey Cup. In addition, the Year 7 squad had an exciting trip to the Oval to watch Surrey play, and meet with Old Tiffinian and ex-captain of England, Alec Stewart, now Surrey Head Coach. Also new, was the Creative Writing Competition; it was great to see so many

IMPORTANT DATES

Professional Development—school ends at 1pm

Wednesday 27 June

Lower School Drama production

Wednesday-Friday 27-29 June

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

Tuesday 10 July

Stop The Clock Day (Yrs 7-9) Tiffin-In-The-Garden 5.30 pm

Thursday 12 July

Friday 13 July

DR JAMIE FROST

and Nathaniel Johnson set off to the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster to compete in the National Final of the UKMT Team Maths Challenge. Having breezed through to top place in their Regional Final in February, the team were up against 86 other schools and keen to beat Tiffin’s record 5 th place set the previous year. They took part in four rounds, solving a succession of mathematical problems, in addition to creating an impressive poster in under an hour on the topic of Leonard Euler’s work in Mathematics. Working fantastically well as a team they kept cool under pressure, coming in the top eight schools after both of the first two rounds. A perfect score in the cross number followed by quick thinking in the final relay round resulted in the amazing achievement of 3 rd place out of over 1600 schools entering the competition this year. As if that wasn’t enough glory, the team won the poster competition, bringing home an impressive trophy, and we can look forward to displaying a professionally produced version which will be sent out to all the schools who took part. 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 fantastic results.

Selected from thousands of nominations, Jamie is one of just 65 winners who we celebrated today, 22 nd June on ‘ Thank A Teacher Day’ , as the national Teaching Awards marks its 20 th year of celebrating excellence in education. The Pearson Teaching Awards are an annual celebration of exceptional teachers. Jamie will now join fellow Silver Award winners at the 20 th UK Ceremony of the Pearson Teaching Awards, a glittering ceremony held in Central London on 21 st October. There they will find out which of them has won one of just 12 Gold Plate Awards, the UK’s “Oscars for Teachers”. The October ceremony, titled “Britain’s Classroom Heroes”, will be filmed and broadcast by the BBC as a showcase of excellence in education. Previous award presenters have included former prime ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair, acting legends Jenny Agutter, Alison Steadman and Sheila Hancock and sports and TV personalities including Shirley Ballas, Helen Glover, Brendan Cole and Nadiya Hussain. Many, many congratulations to Jamie. NATIONAL FINAL OF THE UKMT MATHS CHALLENGE On Monday 18 th June, the formidable team of Jack Yu, Benedek Szilvasy, Ojas Gulati

of qualifying for the National Finals. 14 teams had already qualified for the National Finals by winning their regional matches, with another 10 of the strongest teams in the country vying for 1 of the 2 available places up for grabs at the day’s competition. Unfazed, Tiffin got off to a flying start by winning their first three matches against Eton College, Chepstow College and a thrilling 6-0 (all 6 players won) victory over Skinner’s School. The next round saw Tiffin lose to eventual winners Brighton College. Going in to the final match, 2 nd placed Tiffin just had to better the result of Skinner’s School in 3 rd . However, a mixture of nerves and strong opposition saw Tiffin crash out of the National competition, with Skinner’s gaining the 2 nd qualification place. Despite this, the boys have been a sensational outfit this year and must be commended for the enormous effort and outstanding quality that they have shown throughout the school year. We’ll be back with a bang next year! Those involved: Sagnik Chattergee, Sid Singhal, James Smith, Darshan Kumaresan, Haotian Wu & Vincent Trieu. A massive congratulations to them all!

In the past three months, a group of year 9 boys, Arrian Tabatabai, Asher Kapinos, Bakr Al-Derzi, Bulcsu Diossi, Euan Sinclair, and Krish Walia, took part in the Go4Set STEM programme building and testing an impressive solar still and a series of materials to design a jacket that could keep workers warm even in coldest environments. They worked in collaboration with two BP engineers and presented their work to parents, BP engineers and a panel of assessors at the BP Sunbury STEM Festival on May 2 nd . For their great effort and the quality of their work, they were awarded a bronze Industrial Cadets Award and will enter for a Silver Crest award.

In the picture above, the Tiffin Team discusses their project with an assessor at their stand.

After their thrilling run in the National Chess competition this year, narrowly losing out to Hampton in the London final, Tiffin were invited to a repechage competition at Eton College, with the hope

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design office which was preserved when the land was re-developed into a housing estate and we were able to see the original crane and lifting chains in the Experimental Building where prototypes were tested. We also studied the Bentalls Furniture Depository (behind the Rotunda cinema) as this was used in WW2 to store spare parts for Hawker and is now Grade II listed. Hawker went on to design the 'Harrier Jump Jet', which was the first aeroplane to achieve vertical take-off and landing; proving that Kingston really was at the forefront of aviation innovation.

Year 8 students have stepped out of the classroom in their history lessons this week. Each form has had a local history tour focusing on the cutting-edge aviation design and production that took place in and around Canbury Park Road during WW1 and WW2. They discovered that the Sopwith Aviation Company bought and modified an ice rink which was on the corner of Canbury Park Road and this became the first 'aviation building' in Kingston. This company developed the 'Sopwith Camel' (a fighter plane in WW1— shown below) along with other aeroplanes

like the 'Sopwith Pup'. Taking advantage of 'the dip' that had already been dug to accommodate trams under the railway bridge at Kingston station, Thomas Sopwith saw the opportunity to design, test and mass-produce these planes in Kingston before transporting them by road to Brooklands Airfield in Surrey. In the 1920s, Harry Hawker (Sopwith's chief test pilot) and Sir Sydney Camm (Sopwith's main designer) went into business and they created the 'Island Factory' further down Canbury Park Road. This company designed the Hawker Hurricane, which played a major role in the Battle of Britain in 1940. We spotted Sir Sydney Camm's

2 mins and 5s—4s quicker than his previous best time.

WATERSHIP DOWN

This year’s Lower School Production is Watership Down. It runs from Wednesday 27 June until Friday 29 June. All performances start at 7pm in the Drama Studio. Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this tale of adventure and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society. However, standing in their way is the evil General Woundwort who, along with the Efrafa warren, tries to stop their progress and destroy this bid for freedom. Watership Down delves into the surprisingly violent and competitive world of a rabbit warren. Tickets cost £8 (£5 concessions) and are available to buy either from the Drama Office or online by following this link: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/ tiffinschool

Creative Writing Competition We ran a creative writing competition which was split into two groups: KS3/4 and KS5. There were prizes for each group. The best short stories are to be published in an anthology. There was an incredible range of imaginative plot lines, and some beautifully written pieces of work. Well done to all of the entrants. Winners and Prizes: KS3/4 Rory McKeon, 13PR Matthew Shelley, 8JAF Ben Willows, 13PR KS5

Thomas Cowen, 9GB Robbie Hancock, 8CC

Tom Armstrong in Year 9 won the Surrey Schools 800m cross country on Saturday 9 June. He was selected for Surrey Schools in the South East inter- counties competition on Saturday and came third in a thrilling race, managing a new pb of

EUROPEAN FENCING CHAMPIONSHIPS

LONDON YOUTH GAMES On Saturday 19 th May George Halton in Year 7 and second from right in the photo below, joined a team of 6 sprint Kayakers representing the Royal borough of Kingston upon Thames at the London Youth Games in Docklands, part of the largest youth sporting event in Europe. George made his final in his first games in his class (lightning) and medals from 3 of his team mates led to Kingston winning team Silver.

In March, Luca Plastow in Year 11 represented Great Britain at cadet level (Under 17) at the European Fencing Championships in Sochi, Russia. As well as competing in the individual foil event, Luca played a starring role in the GB team that finished 7 th , eventually losing to the victorious Russians in the last eight. Recently he competed in the adult National Championships where he finished 27 th overall and in the U18 competition where he was 6 th . In July, Luca will represent England at part of the cadet team in the Commonwealth Fencing Championships which take place every three years.

ROWING At the Thames Ditton regatta held over the weekend of 19/20 May our top J14 quad - Joe Murphy, Hajun Chung, Louis Coombes, Ben Couzens and Daejun Kim - went through 3 rounds to win easily in the final against Walton Rowing Club. So good was their performance they got the Royal seal of approval … !

ROWING—NATIONAL SCHOOLS

YOUTH TRAVEL AMBASSADORS

TSBC went to National Schools over the May bank holiday weekend and produced some strong results that show continuing strength within the club. The event works with a time trial of all clubs and schools and the fastest 24 are entered in the side by side elimination races. Our Championship 4x narrowly missed the cut by 3 seconds though stern pair represented TSBC in the Championship doubles the following day and won the C Final making them the 13th fastest double in the country which is a huge achievement when the competition will have featured GB junior rowers throughout.

Tuesday 19 June saw the Youth Travel Ambassadors working with a TFL representative to run a 'Safer Travel' work shop to 60 Year 7 pupils. During the workshop pupils had an opportunity to board a TFL London bus and discuss 'safer travel' initiatives with bus operators. They also took part in a poster making activity and a quiz aimed at promoting TFL's and the Mayor of London's 'Transport Strategy'.

Well done to the TFL YTA's Gurshant Jnagal, Varun Tiwari, Shreyan Singh and Navjot Flora for all of your hard work this year!

Our J15 boys acquitted themselves well and displayed some fantastic technical rowing but didn't make the eliminations in a strong field with some truly huge athletes where under 5 seconds separated nearly 20 boats. The J14s made the finals with a blistering time trial and did well to place 21st overall in their first national competition. Overall a decent set of results against top clubs and independent schools. Our last races will be at Kingston Regatta on the 14 th -15 th July if anyone wishes to support.

lower order continued bravely to add to the total. 127 for 9 was agonisingly close to an unprecedented victory over them. We left disappointed, but knowing what to concentrate on in practice!

The season, as any other, has been a most enjoyable one and one of significant progress and enthusiasm for cricket. A pleasant headache is to find fixtures for the glut of players in the A, B and C team squads and it was very satisfying to field 4 teams last Friday afternoon at Grist against combinations of KCS Wimbledon and Emanuel school. I am pleased to report 4 wins too! The A team has enjoyed no shortage of success with wins over John Fisher, Hampton, Wimbledon College and KCS Wimbledon. Our good run in the county cup came to an end last week at the hands of Whitgift. Following wins in earlier rounds against Halliford and a particularly impressive win over Reed’s School, we travelled to Whitgift to contest the quarterfinal. A fine display of bowling and catching saw them bowled out for 131 in their 25 overs. Despite a valiant chase, some exceptional ground fielding led to our top 5 batsmen all dismissed by run outs. As wickets continued to fall, the

Above: Alec Stewart (ex Tiffinian, England cricket legend and now manager of Surrey C.C.C.) meets Tiffin students and signs autographs Left: U12 squad on a trip to the Oval for a tour of the ground and to watch Surrey v Glamorgan

teamwork. A quiz after lunch tested the boys’ knowledge of all things cricket and added points to their overall team score and for the final test came the Indoor Karting and time trials! A few disqualifications and some erratic driving was followed by a cricket tour must, curry for dinner at an Exeter favourite The Ganges.

On the 1 st June, twenty-six students and four members of staff set off for the inaugural U13 & U15 Cricket tour to Devon. Two games were scheduled for the first day of tour, one at the prestigious County ground in Exeter and the other at the spectacularly located Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club. Some brilliant cricket was played in glorious sunshine and both teams recorded comfortable wins against challenging opposition. A well-deserved trip into the town centre was made for dinner via Exeter Cathedral followed by preparation for the mornings training session. The training session on Saturday was held at Exeter Universities Indoor cricket centre, whose facilities are state of the art and shared by Devon County Cricket Club. A great intensity was shown in the first two hours of training which consisted of bowlers and batsmen refining their technique and discovering new skills. Two more hours of a fiercely competitive indoor cricket tournament followed with boys in mixed teams across both age groups displaying a great standard of

The final game of tour saw the boys reap the rewards of the all their hard work in training with all boys from both teams contributing well resulting in two wins against Budleigh and Exeter respectively. Credit must be given to all the boys for their application and manner over the 3 days. A great inaugural junior tour and exciting plans are in place for more! More recently, the U15s and U13s have made it through to the semi- finals of the Surrey cup competition defeating Epsom College and RGS Guildford respectively!

Bhangra Workshop On Monday 18 th June all year 7’s had a fabulous opportunity to participate in a Bhangra Dance Workshop run by a professional Punjabi folk dance company, Nachda Sansaar from Birmingham. Boys listened about history and purpose of Bhangra and learned and performed characteristic bhangra choreography to live music!

‘IGNITION’ On Saturday 16 th June Tiffin Junior Dance Company (18 Year 8 dancers) performed at the Rose Theatre as part of Community Dance Platform ‘Ignition’. The piece titled ‘Rise’ was choreographed by Shaun Dillon. Dancers had worked tirelessly on a weekly basis for the past 6 weeks to create this fantastic piece of contemporary dance. The experience of performing in such professional settings and seeing other high quality community dance groups from across London was an eye opener. A truly unforgettable