Head's Newsletter 28 September 2018

specifically to these campaigns and also to the Tiffin Education Fund . Next week is a quite different week, with the boys having a ‘mini break’: Monday is an Inset Day, and Tuesday is 11+ day, so the boys are not required in School on either day, except for those sixth formers who are helping on Tuesday. Thursday is also a shorter day for all years except Year 11, as this is our Sixth Form Open Evening for new students to Tiffin, preceded by the Open Afternoon for our Year 11. We look forward to seeing all Year 11 parents with their sons on Thursday afternoon for what is a most important event as they consider their transition beyond GCSE. Year 10 have had a busy couple of days with the Geography GCSE students doing fieldwork, and also the Duke of Edinburgh expeditions taking place. We also have the Year 8 Classics trip to Pompeii taking place this weekend. Some of the events that you can read about in this newsletter include the cross- country competitions, and a visit by a well- known author. After some disruption to the beginning of the Rugby season caused by the exceptionally warm weather, it’s great that we are now getting fully underway with our fixtures. Particular congratulations to the Year 8 U13 sides who have got off to such a superb start to the season. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

Dear Parents Many congratulations to the choir who have recently performed with the London Symphony Orchestra in some very prestigious concerts at the Barbican, being conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. This has been another tremendous opportunity for them, and with the Boy’s Choir, the Tiffin Girls’ Choir and our Tiffin Children’s Chorus all performing, I'm sure all the parents were delighted to see their children on such an occasion.

James Day, Director of the Choir—arrowed

Boys are settling in very well into the new term and I hope that parents have appreciated the opportunity to meet with their son’s Form Tutors and Head of Year in the Open Forums held so far. I hope that parents have also appreciated the opportunity to see the new building and also the new Sixth Form Centre. These developments have been made possible partly through parental contributions, and I'm grateful to all parents who have given

IMPORTANT DATES

Monday 1 October

Professional Development Day; no boys in school

Tuesday 2 October

11+; no boys in school, except prefects

Thursday 4 October

Sixth Form Open Afternoon and Evening; school closes 1 pm Sixth Form Drama Production: The Ladykillers at 7 pm Y7 Inter-form Choir Competition 7 pm All Saints’ Church Half–term (return Monday 5 Nov.—normal start 8.30 am)

15-18 October

Thursday 18 October

22 October—2 November

“To open his second season as music director of the LSO, Sir Simon Rattle offered a challenging programme of British music. In addition to the London Symphony Chorus, we had here three Tiffin choirs (boys, girls and an outreach Children’s chorus). All sang with gusto and exemplary precision.” (Evening Standard review)

Other reviewers commented:

“assorted, joyous Tiffin school choirs” “the three choirs from Tiffin School were excellent” “the children of the Tiffin schools who made every word count”

YEAR 12 INDUCTION DAY AT GRIST’S

Everyone is new to Year 12; whether joining the Sixth Form from Tiffin, or from another school. They had a fine time at the Induction Day at Grist’s at the start of term.

over-60 strong race. This placed us as 7 th school in the oldest male section. The team effort of the day was from the Intermediate boys of Year 10 and 11. Eyoel Abebaw Mesfin led the field at one stage and looked strong until a slight misunderstanding with a fellow (senior section) competitor and a tree root left him impeded. He still struggled on manfully despite having the monster hill to climb twice. He heroically held on to a magnificent third place despite having an ankle injury that left him hobbling after the race. Tom Armstrong was behind the incident in question and exacted some poetic justice of sorts for the school in forging ahead for another considerable victory by a Tiffinian in this event. This saw Tom regain the individual title won last year. Fabulous efforts by Euan Sinclair and Matt O'Donovan closed out our scoring four. It was unusual in that the fifth athlete in the team, the debutant Udit Tuteja, had a vital part to play. The scores would have been tied at 28 each (we would have been placed second on count back) had he not beaten the 4 th scorer from Guildford by one place, thus securing the Intermediate title by the narrow margin of one point. Next year, with the Sixth Form going mixed, we anticipate competing with the home counties in all four sections of the race with our first attempt at the girls’ event firmly on the cards.

CROSS COUNTRY An intrepid squad made its competitive season’s debut at the highest calibre, Greater London and Surrey, medal match at Charterhouse. Awaiting the Tiffin competitors were a wide-ranging and strong set of schools such as John Fisher, RGS Guildford, Eton, Harrow, Oxted and the hosts. Not only were the teams the strongest that the area could offer, there was the small matter of the (in)-famous Charterhouse hill. This is a vertiginous (over 100m), seemingly vertical, scarp slope placed, handily, 600m from the finish.

Our fine Senior Team

The first Tiffin athlete to surmount this formidable obstacle in a race was Thomas Latimer, our first athlete home in the Year 9, smashing his own best over the Junior 2.2 mile course by a mammoth five minutes. We came fourth in this section. The older teams (inters and seniors) had the strongest looking squad we have had at this event this millennium. Their two lap course had the dubious pleasure of cresting the summit of the hill twice. The seniors showed typically leading efforts from the freshly promoted joint Captains of Jamie Krammer and Kai Pischke. They placed well within the top dozen in their section of the

Tiffin x-country fixture v Oxted Sat 22nd Tiffin seniors started their defence of the Surrey league title with a great performance to win at home to Oxted. Kai Pischke led the way home with Will Murphy second and Maximilian von Wittgenstein with a good school debut in third. As ever we were dependent on new signing, Udit Tuteja, to close out the senior team in a great 6 th place. The junior team also gave a great account of themselves with a leading run from Zach Storey in 4 th backed up by Nik Hilmy coming 6 th , Dominic Virley in 7 th and strong man Max Dale 11 th closing out a good performance. They didn’t beat Oxted but it was good to see a sterling performance from an emerging team.

Tennis Championships before half term. Pictured below left are this year’s crop. SIXTH FORM DRAMA PRODUCTION The Tiffin Drama department are putting on their annual Sixth Form production from 15 th - 18 th October. This year’s production is The Ladykillers , a classic black comedy. A sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing. Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her, unwittingly, in Marcus' brilliantly conceived heist job. The police are left stumped but Mrs Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse and Marcus concludes that there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet. With only her parrot, General Gordon, to help her, Mrs Wilberforce is alone with five desperate men. But who will be forced to face the music? The production starts at 7.00 pm in the drama studio and costs £8.00 for adults and £5.00 for concessions. Tickets are available through the following ticket source link.

The cross-country runners at Oxted

WIMBLEDON We will be launching the selection process for students in Years 9 and 10 for training to be ball boys at the 2019 Wimbledon

travels in life were his inspiration for his writing. He actually started writing books when he was 25 years old, and wrote books for the ‘Doctor Who’ series. The directors thought he would be perfect to write the books since he was a massive fan. He has also written scripts for Wallace & Gromit. We really enjoyed his visit

On Wednesday 19 th September, all of Year 7 had a fantastic visit from the author Andrew Lane. Andrew is the author of the best-selling ‘Young Sherlock’ series. He came in to talk about his new book, AWOL (Agent Without Licence). The book is about two boys, Sam and Kieron, who end up helping a British Secret Agent working for MI6 when they find some high tech spy glasses.

and are looking forward to his next AWOL book, ‘Last Safe Moment’, which is coming out soon. Written by: Visal Yogaraj 7SE Bruno Beheydt 7SE Samuel De Marchi 7TMH Andrew Lane also took some time to chat with the Year 8 Book Club members (photo below)

We had an interview with the author and we found many interesting things about him, such as how he decided to become an author. He started out as a physicist, but was then asked to work for the British Secret Service. He told us about his life working with the military and his current career as an author. He told us that his experiences and

CAPOEIRA WORKSHOP

This term, Year 8s are learning and exploring the art of Capoeira, an Afro- Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, and music. It was developed in Brazil at the beginning of the 16 th century. On Friday 14 th September all Year 8 students participated in a Capoeira workshop with Marcus Cabeca from Escola de Capoeira, Kingston. Dancers learned about this ancient art/dance and explored a variety of actions and movements. Each workshop ended with a performance of skills from the professionals.