Head's Newsletter 9 December 2016

Dear Parents, As we come to the end of the term we look forward to the final week of traditional activities, with the Christmas lunches and of course the carol services. This year our guest evening service will be recorded for broadcast on Classic FM. This is a tremendous achievement and recognition of the quality of our choir, and our music as a whole. The broadcast will be going out at 8.00 pm on Wednesday, 21 December, so do tune in to the radio and listen to the Tiffin choir! It is also a busy sporting weekend with our final rugby fixtures of this term against St Benedict's and also on Saturday morning the annual 'Row Ho Ho' event at the boathouse. Many other events have been taking place recently including the house drama and the house public speaking. Also included in this newsletter are reports of various competitions that boys have been involved in, and trips to Fishbourne and Leicester. It is with sadness that we say goodbye to 2 members of staff this Christmas. Ms Neal is relocating to the Midlands in January, where she has been promoted to a new position in English. We thank her for the work she has done at Tiffin and wish her all the best in her new job and new location. Mr Wilson is also leaving us this Christmas. He has been with us for over six years and has had a tremendous impact in the rugby as well as wider sport. In the last two seasons in particular he has run the 1stXV and we are very grateful for the commitment and time he has shown over the years to developing boys sporting potential.

Throughout this time he has had an extremely long commute, and he has now accepted a prominent position far closer to home. We wish him all the best in his new job and you can read his final contribution to the newsletter in this edition. As we look forward to the New Year we are also anticipating the tremendous changes that will be taking place as a result of the new building. The contractors will be at school the day after we break up for Christmas, when we will be moving the dining facilities into the Main Hall for the duration of the construction period. They will be setting up site, and the project will be progressing at speed in January. It will be very exciting to see the old canteen come down and the new building arise. A letter was sent out yesterday regarding lunch arrangements from January. The fundraising campaign has made a very good start and is going well, and I will report in more detail on this in January. Many thanks to all those who have contributed so far, but I would urge you, if you have not already done so, to please donate to this campaign. We need to raise £200,000 in order to fit, furnish and finish the building as we would like, so I would encourage you to please give what you can, to allow us to provide a first class facility for the benefit of your sons, and of Tiffinians for years to come. I do hope that you and your families have an excellent Christmas break, and we look forward to seeing the boys again at the start

of the spring term on January 3 rd . Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

IMPORTANT DATES

Y12 Parents’ Consultations; school finishes at 2.40 pm

Tuesday 13 December

Evening Carol Service, All Saints Kingston, 7.30 pm

Wednesday 14 December

School Carol Service, 2.30 pm, boys dismissed from church

Thursday 15 December

End of Term; boys dismissed approx. noon

Friday 16 December

Start of term. Normal 8.30 am start.

Tuesday 3 January

Y11 Parents’ Consultations; school finishes at 2.40 pm

Thursday 5 January

On Tuesday 29 th November, the History Department took all Year 12 Historians to Leicester to visit the Richard III Museum and archaeological dig site. There was a great deal to see at the Museum and a guided walk around the Cathedral to see

include a trip to the site of Richard's last battle, Bosworth Field, half an hour from Leicester, however this had to be cancelled due to flooding on the site. Despite this the boys enjoyed the visit greatly and took a huge amount away for their Year 12 Wars of the Roses History course. ~~~~~~ In the penultimate week of the Christmas term, the History Department took the whole of Year 9 on three separate trips to the Imperial War Museum , to add depth and a greater visual insight into their study of the First and Second World Wars. The First World War galleries took a sweeping overview of the causes of the War, the life

Phillipa Langley’s wellingtons worn at the excavation. She was the originator of the Looking for

Richard Project.

of a soldier, and the key theatres of the War, from all perspectives. The interactive trench was a particular hit with all forms, giving boys an impression of the sights, sounds and smells of a First World War trench very authentically. After this, The Holocaust Exhibition was a much more harrowing experience, and an incredibly

moving summary of the Nazis’ actions against the Jewish race through the 1930s and 1940s. It was an information-rich introduction to what the boys will be studying in the Spring and acted as an emotive insight into the experiences of many of those who sadly lost their lives as a result of the Holocaust and the ‘Final Solution’. The boys behaved maturely and sensitively and were a credit to Tiffin. They took way a lot of knowledge of two of the most tragic conflicts ever.

Richard's tomb and the newly unveiled stained glass was an added bonus. The Museum contained replicas of Richard's armour, his discovered bones and a chronology of the famous 2013 dig too, when his body was discovered under an inconspicuous car park. The information on offer was fantastic and very innovatively displayed and the guides gave the boys a real insight into the significance of the discovery as well. Unfortunately the trip was intended to

Our Tiffin group came joint 4 th with two other groups. The well-deserving winners were 2 young girls from North London Collegiate, who produced a mosquito repelling coil that the people of Africa could make themselves. All the finalists enjoyed the whole event, especially the hour spent in the Wonderlab. Well done to our Tiffin competitors, you all did a fantastic job! VISIT TO FISHBOURNE PALACE On Thursday 24 th November the 180 strong Year 8 cohort embarked on a trip to Fishbourne Roman Palace in Chicester. This was the home of King Cogidubnus, to whom the boys have recently been introduced during their Latin studies this year. During an activity-filled day our Latinists learnt about the construction of Roman villas, took on the role of Roman school children, and saw the well- preserved mosaics which the palace has to offer. All the information which they gathered during the trip is being used for their 'Fishbourne Palace: Grand Designs' CAT, for which they are assuming the roles of property developers and attempting to 'sell' the palace to its next lucky owners. The boys had a very productive day and took much from their experience at this valuable heritage site.

GSK SCHOOLS’ CHALLENGE On Tuesday 29 th November, four Year 9 students: Fin Isaacs, Jazvir Kapoor, Chin- Wei Tang and Varun Tiwari, took their fantastic idea to the finals of the GSK Schools’ Challenge: Fight Malaria 2016. This was held in the “Engineering Our Future” exhibition of the Science Museum. Their mission was to come up with a SWAT team that must form a task force to devise ways to help free the world from Malaria. The ‘RCG Tiffinians’ decided that Education over Medication would provide a long term solution to the malarial epidemic, and came up with a fantastic mini-education programme to test their hypothesis.

Our students were up against some serious competition, from schools such as Lady Eleanor Holles and North London Collegiate. Ultimately, our Tiffin team was one of six finalists out of 137 entries in a national competition. Quite an outstanding achievement. The competition was judged by Kelly O’Callaghan, VP of global brand communications at GSK, Andy Wright, VP of global health programmes at GSK, Adam Askew, Head of funding partnerships of Comic Relief, and Roxanne El-Hardy – the UK Young Scientist of the Year.

Abiram Uthyakumar and Euan O’Connor (both 10SE) proved more than able. They argued amongst other things that young people should have a part-time job, but that homework should be banned! Euan and Abiram won all three debates, and secured top spot by a single point over the hosts, and that is a very special achievement for two boys competing in a higher age group. They are all to be congratulated for their immense preparation and fluent logical arguments. IN GERMAN!!!! TARGET 2.0 Target 2.0 is an annual competition where students get the chance to advise the Bank of England what to do to reach the target inflation rate of 2%. This difficult challenge was taken on by able Economists Jeremy Chen, Matt Stevenson, Greg Tucker and Tariq Freyer-Elgendy. Before a panel of judges on November 23 rd at the Bank of England they gave a succinct and detailed fifteen minute presentation on the state of the UK economy and their recommendation to keep the interest rate at the current level and not employ any more quantitative easing. They then faced demanding questions which displayed their excellent understanding of the economic climate. Although the students did not get through to the next round they displayed impressive teamwork presentation skills.

GERMAN DEBATING COMPETITION On Tuesday 29 th November, Tiffin went to Ibstock Place School for the 2 nd annual German Debating Competition. Tiffin put forward teams of 2 contestants in each of the 3 year groups: Year 11, Year 12 and Year 13. The tournament consists of 3 rounds of debate on three different motions all done entirely in the German language. The contestants did not know which side they would represent until they were in the debating chamber.

Abiram and Euan: Ibstock Place School Year 11 German Debate Winners 2016

The competition this year was stronger than ever but the level of fluency and spontaneous argument from both our Year 12 and Year 13 teams was excellent. Sebastian Tyrrall and Joe Dumpleton had to argue a range of topics: that social media has too many negative effects; that German bands should be forced to sing in German. Sanchith Nadanakumar and Andrew Siu had to argue that the Olympic Games were a waste of money, and in favour of the use of high pressure water to release shale gas from reserves deep underground. The Tiffin Year 11 team was actually selected from Year 10, but both

CROSS COUNTRY NEWS

The seven strong squad of Alistair Brendon, Jack Hartrey, Joe Murphy, Tom Armstrong, Matthew O’Donovan, Will Murphy and Euan Sinclair produced the string of performances of a lifetime in forging Tiffin through to the Final of the English schools cross country cup for the first time in Tiffin History.

was just behind them and Jack did well against the best the country could put up against him. The team completed their target of beating the third place teams from around England. Having us ranking 16 th in the country is a best so far for us in the lower age groups; we have to go back to the senior performance of the team coming 9 th at the national relays in Coventry to do any better. The return saw us survive a friendly encounter with a vociferous Liverpool supporter and a fine pizza in a vibrant Liverpool. Thank you both to those who have represented and train in the successful club and to the triumvirate of Mr Reekes, Miss Nava and Mr Russell who enable the training and fixtures to happen. ~~~~~~~~ The seniors saw their first victory in Surrey League Relay on Saturday 26 th November. The prodigal Eric Williams returned from his travels to enhance an already strong team of Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin, Luca Jackson and Humphrey Allen. The combination of this quartet and our home turf proved too strong for all that Surrey could throw at us. Despite injury to a key runner in the squad the Juniors still managed to get the team round in a creditable 4 th .

The enthusiasm of the squad was not dimmed by a 5 o’clock start from Tiffin on a Saturday and up to Formby. Team manager, Mr Costello, took them for a spin around the course and Euan led the team well in the warm up. The day’s team charged out of the starting gate and gained good position for the first of a series of sharp turns spread throughout the undulating course. Having qualified third in one of eight regions, by rights we should, on average, be placed 20 th out of the two dozen teams. The team packed well with Will and Euan in the top 25% and Tom and Matthew in the top half of the field. Joe

Outstanding, frustrating, amazing, giving up, ecstatic. These are some of the thoughts and feelings I have had in the last month of coaching Tiffin School 1XV. Having had, what is fair to say a fairly disappointing start to the season, coming second in too many winnable games was becoming tedious! After losing to Wimbledon College for the second time in only a couple of weeks, both times by less than a score; this time they dumped us out of the cup, the players and I were starting to question what we were doing. Then came Trinity.

An outstanding display of aggressive defence and creative attack resulted in an unexpected win that would last an age in the memory. The feelings of disappointment and despair after the Wimbledon College game seemed to have completely disappeared. We’d cracked it, or so we thought. The following Saturday, away to Langley Park we came back down to earth with a huge bang. A lesson in physicality and preparation saw the 1XV go down by 35 points to 13. The feelings of disappointment and despair returned! The Caterham game was a long week away

but finally when Saturday came we were ready to go. We left early, the team was fit and well and the preparations couldn’t have been much better. Being 17 – 3 down with 15 minutes to go was not in the plan. Fortunately, the referee pulling a muscle gave the team time to re-group. What was to follow was bordering unbelievable. Ignited by an outstanding 70 yard run and

This excellent result was backed up by a tremendous attacking performance against Emanuel on Wednesday and another 30- 12 win. Hopefully we can finish the term on a high with another good performance against St Benedict’s this Saturday. As this will be my last article in the newsletter I would like to take the opportunity to thank the staff who give up so much of their time for the boys both at lunch time and on Saturday mornings. I would also like to thank TIPRA and all the other volunteer parents who help in the Tea room after matches, and finally I would like to thank all those boys who I have had the pleasure of coaching over my six and a half years at Tiffin school. It’s been brilliant. Good luck and keep playing. Mr G. Wilson

try by open side Sam Cockcroft we were on a comeback. 17 – 10 soon became 17 – 17, but not for long. Two more tries and a conversion before the final whistle made it a 29 – 17 win, and one of the best comebacks I have ever been involved with.

singing at Tiffin as only a few of these boys are invited to join the main Tiffin Boys’ Choir. After the departure in the summer of a very established group of Tiffinians, the new group, led by the experienced Rory McKeon, showed how hard they have been rehearsing for the Christmas season.

The younger members of the choir have had a busy week recording for a commercial and for the Blankety Blank Christmas Special – to be aired on Christmas Eve on ITV at 6.30pm. The boys were well looked after at ITV Studios and certainly enjoyed the whole experience, particularly the revolving stage.

With one week of term left there is just the Rose Theatre Christmas Concert, the BT Christmas Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, the Tiffin Carol Service (to be recorded by Classic FM) and the Jazz Evening.

A special concert took place at the Kingston United Reformed Church involving the Tiffin Children’s Chorus, Oratorio Trebles and the new line up of the Tiffinians. Children’s Chorus comprises

Thirteen Year 12 Economists attended the 2016 Royal Economic Society Lecture at the Royal Institution on Tuesday 29 rd November. This year’s lecture was delivered by Philipp Kircher, Professor of Economics at the University of Edinburgh who came to Economics via a first degree in engineering and a master’s degree in business administration before being attracted to microeconomic theory, specialising in search theory and matching. Professor Kircher’s lecture addressed the question “How economics can help you find a partner and employment”! He elegantly showed how theory can be used to understand why some are unhappy with their work or with their partners and how improvements towards an optimal outcome can be achieved.

mainly primary school children across the boroughs of Kingston and Richmond and rehearses on Mondays at Tiffin School with Deputy Head of Music, Sian Cadogan. There are up to 60 children signed up and some of the older girls love it so much they keep coming, even at 15 and 16. The Oratorio trebles gave a lovely rendition of Howard Goodall’s The Lord is my shepherd and are testament to the popularity of