Head's Newsletter 5 February 2016

VISIT TO QUEEN MARY’S

SPANISH STUDIES

On Monday 25 January, Mr Horwood and Mr Reekes accompanied 16 enthusiastic Year 9 pupils to Queen Mary’s University, in East London, to take part in a day of talks and lectures concerning the Human Rights Act and its links to Britain.

Year 12 and 13 Spanish students attended a conference at James Allen’s Girls’ School in East Dulwich on the evening of Tuesday 2 February to learn more about the work of the leading Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, who they are studying as part of their Spanish A level cultural studies. Hosted by Professor María Delgado, who has interviewed the director several times for the international media, our students learnt about Almodóvar’s work from his own point of view. Professor Delgado provided a comprehensive overview spanning the course of Almodóvar’s film career drawing upon quotes from her interviews with him to give the students a fresh perspective on his work. The boys also enjoyed the tapas kindly provided by James Allen’s, prior to the event beginning!

The day had been organised by the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) in conjunction with Surbiton High School, who took 16 of their girls. It was fantastic to see the Tiffin boys engaging so well with the material and activities they were presented with and really enjoying working with the girls on tasks linked to the value of the Human Rights Act. They will now be tasked with competing against the girls in groups of four, for a chance to win a range of awards in a presentation evening in April. In the coming months, boys will be split into their groups and will set about producing a dissertation on a chosen topic, and a presentation to give to their friends, parents and judges from the BIHR too. We hope to do as well as last year, when Tiffin won two of the four prizes and performed outstandingly across the board; with such a talented group of boys we’d hope to do even better!