Head's Newsletter 8 March 2019

was the performance put on for four evenings, but we were delighted to also do a midweek matinee performance for the local primary schools, which they thoroughly enjoyed. As well as reading about the Oliver! production, you can also read about the singing that has taken place recently including the very successful House singing competition. In addition, the choir have now finished their recent run at the English National Opera, and are looking forward to further events, including performing at the Barnes Festival. It is exciting that the Rugby Sevens season has now begun and we are pleased that the U13s have started the competition where they left off with the fixtures, by winning the Ibstock Sevens. The U14 Rugby Sevens also gave an extremely creditable performance at the Surrey Sevens, and the U15 Sevens won the Borough competition. We look forward to more successes over the course of this half term. There are a number of other reports in this newsletter ranging from Table Tennis to the Debating Society, to the Borough Lit Quiz, (hosted by Tiffin), which I hope you will enjoy reading. It's been good to see parents at the Parent Consultation afternoons where we are now utilising our new dining hall in a revised format of the event. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

Dear Parents With only four weeks to go until the Easter holidays, and with public exams starting in May, our senior students are hopefully working hard as they approach the culmination of their courses. Year 13 students have just completed mock exams and Year 11 students have just done their further English mock exam, so I hope these have been valuable learning experiences. Whilst Year 13 are now deciding upon their final university choices, and looking forward to hopefully meeting the grade requirements, Year 12 students are also looking at their futures, and I hope the Progression Evening for Year 12 parents was a useful occasion. The two weeks since half term have also been exciting as we have been holding meetings with large numbers of eager prospective new Sixth form students, keen to join the Sixth form, which obviously goes mixed from this September. Also this week prospective new Year 7 pupils received notification of their places at secondary school, so we look forward to welcoming a new cohort of Tiffinians in due course. The half term finished with the brilliant performance of Oliver! . Huge credit goes to all the boys and girls who were involved, as well as of course to the Drama and Music departments who put on the show. The acting, singing, dancing, music and staging were all first class, and not only

IMPORTANT DATES

Tuesday 19 March

Spring Ensembles Concert 7 pm Walden Hall

Thursday 28 March

School Concert 7 pm All Saints Church, Kingston

Y10 Parents’ Consultations: School finishes at 1 pm

Wednesday 3 April

Friday 5 April

Break up for Easter holiday: School finishes by noon

Tuesday 23 April

Start of Summer term: normal 8.30 am start

The whole school production of Oliver! before half term was a huge success, with students across all year groups and girls from other schools shining in lead roles.

Special mentions go to Benji Clegg, who ended up performing as Fagin four times due to cast illness, and to the students who were our Workhouse Boys and Pickpockets, learning incredible amounts of choreography and music. Our Olivers (Amadeus Jeetla-Lang, Dylan Warchus,

The orchestra, led by Mr O’Malley, sounded fantastic. We pay credit to all cast and orchestra members sustaining their superb performances for a marathon five shows. The Drama Department would like to thank Joe Prentice for all his much- needed assistance and industry expertise with the production.

Ishaan Artful Dodgers (Jai Mark, Noah Hickman) gave truly outstanding performances, made all the more impressive given that they are in Years 7 and 8. Four performances were recorded and we will be selling DVDs soon - please email boxoffice@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk if you would like to purchase a copy. Khan) and

HOUSE SINGING FINAL

Raleigh—winning Unison Choir

On February 6 th , the final of the House Singing competition took place, adjudicated by renowned choral conductor, Aidan Oliver. A fantastic variety of performances was given in each of the four categories, producing a hugely enjoyable evening. Robert Bywater (K- M) took first place in the ATB solo category with a dramatic performance of Finzi’s The Clock of the Years , winning the newly-awarded Weymes Cup. He was followed by Dhruv Sengupta (Scott) in second place, and Robert Jones (Raleigh) in third.

Kingsley-Montgomery also won the Partsong category, with a rendition of Bill Withers’ I Want It That Way ar- ranged by Daniel Blaze. Churchill-Gordon came second, singing George Harrison’s Here Comes the Sun , and Raleigh took third place with a slick arrangement of The Beach Boys’ Surfer Girl by Robert Jones.

Robert Bywater

Henry Studholme (Livingstone, pictured right) took the cup for the Solo Treble category, performing Britten’s arrangement of The Plough Boy . Daniel McCarthy (Scott), also singing a Britten arrangement, took second place, and Alan Erdelyi (T-N) came in third. The Unison Song category, in which all the year 7 boys in each house take part, was won by Raleigh House conducted by Robert Jones. Churchill-Gordon, led by Joseph Way- mouth, took second place with a spirited rendition of The Bare Necessities , and Darwin-Wilberforce, excep- tionally well-drilled by Euan O’Connor, came in third with a nuanced performance of George Ezra’s Shotgun . Euan was awarded the Baton prize for his conducting in this category.

Evensong at

Jesus College At the end of January, the Chamber Choir spent an afternoon in Cambridge, vis- iting various colleges and singing Evensong with the Chapel Choir of Jesus Col- lege. After lunch at St John’s, we had a very informative talk about Choral Scholar- ships in Cambridge from their Director of Music, An- drew Nethsinga. Following a short walk around Cam- bridge and a look at King’s College and its famous chap- el, we went back to St John’s for tea and a performance of

acapella songs by some of the current choral scholars, which inspired an impromptu Tiffinians rehearsal later before our joint Evensong rehearsal with Jesus Choir. The reper- toire included Sumsion in A and Elgar’s Light of the World . It was a fantastic opportunity for the boys to think about the possibilities of university choral scholarships, and a lovely chance to catch up with a number of Tiffinians currently living in Cambridge. Final night of La Bohème at English National Opera Eighteen boys and girls from Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Tiffin Children’s Chorus have just fin- ished performing in English National Opera’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème, which opened in November and ran for a marathon fifteen performances. This is the second production of La Bohème in which some of the children have taken part, as several of them also performed in Royal Opera’s production last year.

CLASSICS TRIP On Thursday 14th February, GCSE Classicists attended a series of lectures on Latin and Greek texts at Westminster School. The boys were given a valuable insight into University life as they were lec- tured by leading experts from a range of universities, including Oxford and UCL. In the afternoon after a lunch stop in the City, we visited the Museum of London where ‘Londinium’ as it was known to the Romans 2000 years ago really came to life .

BOROUGH LIT QUIZ

BOROUGH LIT QUIZ

On Thursday 14th February, Tiffin hosted the Kingston Borough Lit Quiz which is organ- ised by Kingston Library. We had two strong teams who both performed admirably. The Year 7/8 team came an amazing 2nd place and our Year 9/10 team fought an incredibly close competition, to make 3rd place. This means we have won places in the Inter- Borough Lit Quiz which will be held at Tiffin in March. The boys really enjoyed the event and they were fantastic ambassadors for the school.

The debating society

different viewpoints of the students and their peers in a friendly environment and helps the students see the way in which communication and an open mind can help you go far with viewpoints you don't necessarily believe in. CROSS COUNTRY On Wednesday 6 th February, the Tiffin cross country team competed in the King Henry VIII Relay Race in Coventry. The day was brilliant, and all boys performed extremely well, showing a significant improvement on last year’s times. The A team finished 19 th out of 53 schools nationwide, which was a phenomenal performance, especially given the wet and muddy conditions. Ollie Coppellotti finished his lap in a very quick time of 12 minutes and 30 seconds, followed closely by Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin, with a time of 12.51. The B team also performed very well, with a time of 13 minutes 57 seconds from Will Murphy. Overall, a fantastic achievement and the boys should be very proud to have competed at such a high level.

The Debating Society runs every Monday at 12.50 in the JLT. It is led by three students: Ibrahim Ejaz 10RH, William Noble 13MO and Joseph Niblett 12LG. It gives the students the chance to develop their communicative skills, as well as their confidence in a supportive environment. Every week we present a new topic to challenge the students and make them think differently about the topic itself and how to display their view on it to their peers and persuade them. We encourage students to talk about their own beliefs and challenge those of others, to create true understanding of other beliefs and their own. In this, we are able to create a truly diverse audience for our debaters to present to.

We also regularly debate against other schools and in national competitions. We enjoy the privilege of being recognized by a vast multitude of schools and organisations who approach us to debate in their competitions, such as the ESU, which presents our students with new opponents on exciting topics. We have also begun to run debates between staff members on set topics. This helps promote more open discussion between staff members with students and promote the staff to also challenge the

RUGBY REPORT

The 1st XV finished their campaign with the usual fixtures against St George’s Harpenden and Harrodian. After executing a structured and attritional gameplan, Huw Morris, standing in for the injured Sam Gunman as Captain, controlled the game with maturity beyond his years, to guide Tiffin to a 17 – 10 win. The ‘potentials’ 1st XV for season 2019/2020 played the usual fixture against Harrodian and ran out convincing winners 44 – 7 thus finishing the season with a played 20, won 10, drew 1 and lost 10 record. A promising future awaits!

final they secured victories against Ibstock, St James, Portland Place, Gunnersbury and Hampton. A season to be cherished.

The U15 VII carried on where the U13s started and won the Borough Sevens on the same afternoon. Wins against Hollyfield, Coombe, Richard Challoner and Southborough saw them retain the Borough Sevens trophy once again. Captain Tom Armstrong led from the front and impressive contributions from Gideon and Josh Hazelden were too strong for the opposition borough teams. The U12 VII have also had a successful start to the Sevens season reaching the semi- final of the Ibstock Sevens, narrowly missing out on the final by an extra time, sudden death, try. Finally the U14 VII have had arguably the most successful start to the Sevens season. Attending the Surrey Sevens they had an intimidatingly strong group but finished top of their group after wins against Emanuel, St James’, Ashcombe, Wallington and, most notably, Trinity. Moving into the top group in the second half of the tournament was always going to be tough but the boys should be proud of a very successful day. Congratulations to all boys on a very successful start to the Sevens season.

The 1st XV after their win over Harpenden

Special mention must be made of Huw Morris, who, after missing last season with an ACL injury, has now been called up to represent Wales U19 against Japan in the coming weeks. A high accolade indeed and testament to his rugby education at Tiffin. The U13 Sevens continued their wondrously unbeaten season with a 55 – 5 win in the rearranged fixture against Harpenden. They finish the season with 20 wins and 1 draw. At the time of writing they had also just taken their first Sevens scalp, winning the Ibstock Place Sevens (picture top right). Along the route to the

TFL Youth Travel Ambassadors

some tough opposition, with 5 players progressing to the knockout stages. Like last year it was Tiffin v Tiffin in the round of 16; this time Harshil v Ashrith. The standard was exceptional with some brilliant shotmaking, but there has to be a winner. Ashrith won narrowly and progressed to the quarter-finals along with Darshan but despite valiant efforts from both players they missed out on the semi- finals. The U13 South London individual qualifiers took place on 14 th February. Aarya Karthik, Ewan Brett, Qais Kamaraldin, Harry Cowan, Gavin Tsui and Om Sharma went to Wallington accompanied by Miss Bond and Mr Costello. As with the U16s, the standard was exceptional. In the group stages Ewan Brett had to face the U13 England number 1 and in the knockout stages Aarya drew the U13 England number 3. An excellent experience for both players and one that they will no doubt take much from. Qais played some tremendous matches en route to the quarter finals, just missing out on qualification for the National Finals. To be fielding as many players in both age groups as the Table Tennis heavyweights, Whitgift and Wallington, was fantastic. Well done to all competitors!

Last month Tiffin School’s Year 10 Youth Travel Ambassadors were invited to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ event at Sky’s headquarters in South London. They had to pitch their vision of how Tiffin school could improve their safer/greener travel. Happily the judges agreed with their vision and offered the ambassadors the full amount of £250. Well done to everyone in involved!

INDIVIDUAL TABLE TENNIS

On 7 th February Darshan Kumaresan, Krushan Krishnananthan, Ashrith Behara, Harshil Shah, Oliver Cheung and Parin Shah headed to Whitgift to take part in the U16 South London individual championships. All players were very impressive against

Darshan Kumaresan