Head's Newsletter 26 November 2021

and lost 4 - 2 in a match that looked like it could have been drawn for a while. However, with the A ’ s having autoqualified, we look forward to a record 3 tiffin teams playing in the regional final. The School ’ s chess club with more than 400 active members is also thriving. We are in the middle of the house chess season with the Year 7 and Year 10 competitions now complete. At this stage Darwin Wilberforce have a narrow lead over Livingstone and then Churchill Gordon. MENTAL HEALTH AMBASSADOR TRIP

CHESS

Tiffin Chess has had a wonderful month. In the Ivan Gromov League our A and B teams sit at 7th and 3rd respectively in a very strong field featuring teams with some of the best players in the country. We also entered a record 6 teams into the National Schools Chess Championship this year. On the 12th November, the B, C, and D teams went down to Wilson's school to fight for qualification. Either side of a close loss (2 v 4) to Wilson ’ s B team, the Tiffin B ’ s put in dominant performances (5.5 v 0.5 and 4.5 v 0.5) to beat two other Wilson ’ s Teams to qualify for the regional finals. Special mentions to Samvrit Subin and Anixton Linton for remaining unbeaten on boards 2 and 3 throughout the day with performance ratings over 1700. They were soon joined by the C team who, having started slowly against Wilson ’ s B team came back, beating Wilson ’ s F (4 - 2) and Sutton ’ s B (5 - 1) teams. Sadly the D team were not able to qualify in spite of great wins from Shriyans Muddana, Jake Bastow and Jack Spicer, the latter winning a nail biting endgame in the first round that came down to a single tempo. The E and F teams, composed almost entirely of year 7 students, also headed down to Kings on the 24th of November to try and qualify for the regionals. Despite excellent wins by both teams against JAGS ’ s B, the E ’ s came up against KCS ’ s U13B in the qualification playoff

Earlier this month ten Year 9 students accompanied Mr Shaw and Mrs Mccondach to the Kingston Academy. We departed in a Tiffin School bus from Tiffin at 8:30. We then parked at the YMCA and walked the remainder of the journey to the Kingston Academy. Once we entered the premises of the Kingston Academy, we were guided to a Hall in which all the other schools ’ Y9 Mental Health representatives were situated. During the time we spent there, the Mental Health Staff of the Kingston Academy and many other Guests gave us a detailed and interactive presentation on mental health, how we can heal poor mental health as well as useful pointers when distinguishing Anxiety, an Anxiety Disorder and Depression. Gabriel (9MMB/MCM)