Head's Newsletter 30 November 2018

Dear Parents The School has been incredibly busy again with all sorts of events and activities to report on in this newsletter. It was certainly a great pleasure to attend the fantastic performance of the Tiffin Oratorio Choir, singing Verdi's Requiem before a packed audience in the Sports Hall. To have over 200 singers, a mix of the Oratorio Choir, the Tiffin Boys’ Choir, and Tiffin Girls’ School Choir, is an achievement in itself, but for them to sing to such a high standard with a professional orchestra and professional soloists really is a fantastic opportunity and occasion. The choir are now rehearsing for not only their Christmas engagements but also for the two engagements we have at the Royal Opera House, where they are singing Carmen , and English National Opera, where they are singing La Bohème . On the sports front there is a report in the newsletter on the latest rugby, and also on the success of our new table tennis teams. We were also very pleased this week to host the 70 th running of the cross country Judge Cup at Grist’s, where we were host

to the finest teams in the South East.

There have been many trips out recently, including Year 7 to London Zoo, Year 8 to Fishbourne, and Year 9 to the Natural History Museum, and you can read reports on some of these in the newsletter. Many of the sixth formers have also been involved in lectures in London over the last week or so. We look forward to the Spanish and French trips that are about to take place, and also to welcoming the German students from our exchange partner school. Year 11 are currently involved in their mock exams and we hope that these are going well. It was very good to see parents at the Year 13 consultations and we look forward to the Year 12 consultations in December. I do hope that parents will make the most of the talk for them on e-safety, taking place on December 12 th ; this is done by an expert and is extremely informative on an area that I am sure many parents would like to know more.

Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Parents’ e-safety talk, JLT, at 7 .00 pm

Wednesday 12 December

Y12 Parents’ Consultations; school finishes at 2.40 pm

Tuesday 18 December

Evening Carol Service, All Saints Kingston, 7.00 pm

Wednesday 19 December

School Carol Service, 2.15 pm

Thursday 20 December

End of Term—boys dismissed approx. midday

Friday 21 December

Start of term —normal 8.30 am start

Monday 7 January

Y11 Parents’ Consultations; school finishes at 1 pm

Thursday 10 January

was the perfect opportunity to show the links between the two theories and how each supports the other. The day was spent collecting and organising evidence from the different exhibitions on continental drift and Evolution by Natural Selection and the period in which this occurred. By the end of the visit, the students came away with a much deeper understanding of how biological evidence can be used to explain the movement of landmasses by plate tectonic forces and some comprehension of the vastness of deep time. A great time was had by staff, students and parent volunteers alike.

Year 7 undertook their first major expedition last week with our annual visit to London Zoo. Concerns about the weather proved unfounded as we were blessed with a fine day allowing us to enjoy fully the experience. It was wonderful to see the boys so excited yet so well behaved. They loved the lions and gorillas but the favourite experience was watching ‘Animals in Action’. In addition to the simple fun of meeting the animals, the boys were able to take notes and speak to zoo staff to help them with their task of evaluating the role of zoos in conservation. It was a fantastic day all round.

On Wednesday 21 st November, all 180 students of Year 9 accompanied by the Biology and Geography departments, along with other willing volunteers, visited the Natural History Museum with the aim of investigating BioGeography as a unifying theory of life and Earth. The Year 9s are currently studying Plate Tectonics in Geography and have just finished Evolution in Biology, so this trip

SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND BOYS’ CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS On Sunday, 4 th November a team of 10 Tiffinians entered the South-East England Boys’ Chess Championships held at Sandown Racecourse and came back with the trophy for best school in the South- East of England. Congratulations to all involved!

anachronism, and the negative impact of the fashion industry on the young. The standard was again fierce, and a number of prestigious schools were involved in the process, including Lady Eleanor Holles, Kingston Grammar School, Highgate and Ibstock Place. The Tiffin German Debating Team won both the Year 13 and Year 11 competitions, (both finishing undefeated after 3 debates) with a creditable 3 rd place in the Year 12 competition. All the entrants in the Year 11 competition were highly commended. Euan O'Connor and Laurie Kenney won their category for the 2 nd year running, and Euan has now won at all levels in the 3 years he has competed. The competition highlights the wonderful dynamism, enthusiasm and rigour that our students of German possess. Well done to all involved!

GERMAN DEBATING COMPETITION The 4 th annual German Debating competition was held at Ibstock Place School on Tuesday 20 th November, with a Tiffin team comprising 4 experienced Sixth Form veterans and 8 keen Year 11 rookies. The Debating Competition is entirely voluntary, and is offered above and beyond the normal German curriculum. With significant interest in Year 11, Tiffin were permitted to enter 4 teams in that age group. With 12 competitors, this Tiffin team was the largest team from any school in the history of the competition. All competitors engage in very formal debates against students of the same age from other schools on a number of contentious issues. All the debates are held entirely in the German language, and are scored by independent umpires. This year’s motions included making school uniform voluntary, the EU as an

String Ensembles playing music by Chick Corea and Handel. The String Quartet performed a challenging movement from Shostakovich’s 7th quartet. At the centre of the concert were two sets performed by the Jazz Combo and Swing Band, including Morning Dance by Spiro Giro and Bill Withers’ Just the two of us. The performances of Purcell and Abreu given by the String Orchestra and Wind Quintet were followed by the Guitar Ensemble playing movie themes: Skyfall and Mission Impossible. The Chamber Orchestra performed three movements from a concerto by Handel. The Orchestra concluded the concert with a medley of music from John Williams score to Star Wars: The Empire Fights Back. Notable were the many ensembles which brought together pupils from Year 7 to Year 13, working together to give memorable performances.

Congratulations to the 220+ singers, amazing orchestra and stunning soloists— Noel Bouley, Rhys James Batt and Claire Barnett-Jones—at Sunday’s performance of Verdi’s Requiem in the Sports Hall. Huge congratulations to James Day, our Choral Director for his work on this year’s Oratorio.

The school’s ensembles were on excellent form when they gathered in the Main Hall for the Autumn Ensembles Concert on 20th November. The Wind Band opened the concert with disco tunes, followed by performances from the Clarinet and

Year 11 Art mock exams The Year 11 students have recently taken their GCSE Art mock exam with great success. The following three images are by Edward Gravestock, Ajay Mahendrakumaran and Fin Issac. The students had the choice of choosing what topic they would explore.

SENIOR TEAM MATHS CHALLENGE

SENIOR MATHS CHALLENGE In November, 118 boys took part in the UKMT’s Senior Maths Challenge, taken by hundreds of thousands of students nationally. The challenge consists of 25 multiple choice questions of increasing difficulty. We are delighted with the results, with 44 Golds (representing the top 10% nationally), 40 Silvers, and 37 boys invited for the follow on ‘Kangaroo’ round. 7 boys qualified for the prestigious British Maths Olympiad, with a large number of boys missing qualification by just a single question. Only 1000 students are invited nationally to take the Olympiad, a 3 hour exam consisting of just 6 questions. Those who do well in this are invited to Round 2 (consisting of just 100 students), which is used to select UK’s team to compete internationally. We have included an example question below! Congratulations to the boys on an outstanding set of results. BMO Question: “Prove that the product of 4 consecutive positive whole numbers can never be the product of 2 consecutive whole numbers.”

Over the half term, our Senior Maths team, consisting of Dipayan Chowdhury (Yr13), Vincent Trieu (Yr13), Arnav Jadhav (Yr11) and Ojas Gulati (Yr9) represented Tiffin School in the regional heats of the Senior Team Maths Challenge, run by the UK Mathematics Trust. The competition consisted of 3 rounds: the Group Round (consisting of 10 difficult problems), a ‘cross number’, and a relay, in which the answer of one person’s question fed into the next question. The heats consisted of 15 schools, although the half term timing fortunately meant that our historic rivals, Hampton School, were attending another heat! After the first two rounds, Tiffin, replicating their performance last year, had full marks. They made no errors in the last round, losing only a few marks for a time bonus. Their win was decisive, and have therefore subsequently been invited to attend the National Final in February. Well done to the boys.

but and matchplay, saw Tiffin win 6-2. But all good things must come to an end; Wallington were in top form in the finals and managed to inflict the first defeat on the U13 team in South London. Outstanding achievements by both teams. We set off for King’s College Wimbledon on Monday, 26 November to participate in this year’s South London Literature Kids’ Quiz. It was a tense battle of book knowledge. Our team moved up and down the league table throughout the competition on the day. After a thrilling tie -breaker question, our team won an amazing 3rd place. Many congratulations and well done to Meet Thakkar, Ben Luca Atassi-Quinton, Leo Saggese, Charles Sauve, Shayan Ladak, Neel Podder, Tommy Fondie, Harry Marks, and Krish Chohan. impressive shot-making

U13 AND U16 TABLE TENNIS SUCCESS On October 18 th the Tiffin Table tennis teams entered the Borough Championship at Coombe Boys’ School. In a round robin format the U13s, consisting of Aarya Karthik, Ewan Brett, Qais Kamaraldin and Gavin Tsui impressed from the start and dominated all opponents, successfully defending the title Tiffin won here last year. The U16s, consisting of Darshan Kumaresan, Krushan Krishnananthan, Ashrith Behara and Harshil Shah showed superb skill and determination, beating all comers to win Tiffin’s first U16 title.

On November 22 nd and 26 th both teams competed in the South London Finals. The newly established U16 team drew Whitgift in the first round but, after putting up a good fight, we unfortunately saw a 6-1 loss. We were then entered into the County Plate competition and won their first match against Stanley Park High 6-0. We then entered into the plate final against St Olaves. The boys dug deep and drew out a win of 6-2. A superb win for the U16 team. The U13 team, this time including Harry Cowan, were in superb form in the first match against St Olave’s, claiming an 8-0 victory. Whitgift proved to be tougher opposition in the semi-finals,

RUGBY REPORT

Tiffin rugby has had a successful start to the half term with some fine results. A Saturday block against St George’s Weybridge ended finely balanced with some excellent Tiffin victories including all matches at home. The 1 st XV continue to improve and although they lost to St George’s, the scoreline did not do the boys justice and they deserved more than the one try scored. This promising performance was built on further when the 1 st XV recorded a fine win against Gordons school. JoJo Cronin was warrior- esque from No.8 leading the defensive effort with powerful tackles.

Luke Nichols leaps like a salmon to claim a lineout

The U13s continue their fine run of form with wins against St George’s, Rutlish and Royal Albert and Alexandra. Their record now stands at 11 wins, the Cragg Cup won and 1 draw. They have lost one game since October 2017! We hope the boys keep it up and don’t let the success go to their heads! Tiffin is currently fielding an incredible 20 teams across all years – but with that, comes extra demand on resources, kit, transport, first aid, Refs etc which is why we’re reaching out to you to become part of #TeamTIPRA (Tiffin Parent Rugby Association). If you are able to make a one-off, annual payment of £40 or a monthly standing order of £4 you can make a HUGE difference to the amount of additional support we can provide for our boys. So, why not sign up this term (referencing your son’s name and year group)? Thank you!!

Shyam dominates a collision against Gordons

The team then capitalised on this victory with another one against Windsor and then a third in a row against ACS Cobham last Saturday. Special mention must go to Matt Cormack in Year 11 who has now scored two tries in three games, Shyam Patel, who joined the school only this year, has become a stalwart of the 1 st XV and Huw Morris who has been invited to train with the Wales U19 team; a fine achievement indeed.

Account Name –TIPRA Account No – 43474585 Sort Code – 20-46-76

C H R I S T M A S LUNCH

See our wonderful ca- tering staff below (minus Mr Swann, Ca- tering Manager, who was taking the photo). They’ll be busier than ever feeding all our boys their school Christmas lunches!

Monday 17th December 2018 YEARS 11, 12 & 13 Tuesday 18th December 2018 YEARS 9 & 10 Wednesday 19th December 2018 YEARS 7 & 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Traditional Roast Turkey With all the trimmings Or

Vegetarian choice Leek Fondue Tart

Chef’s Special Roast Potatoes Seasonal Vegetables Yule Cake served with lashings of cream £5 per person