Head's Newsletter 9 October 2020

Dear Parents,

online parent consultations with Year 11 students and their parents, and we are looking forward to conducting these in a new way. As the half-term has gone on, we have gradually found ways of re-introducing more of the wider opportunities. Clearly these are having to be done differently, but I’m delighted that we have been able to do some sport as well as some singing and instrumental music. We will be looking to expand these activities in the second half of term. We are also looking forward after half-term to finally using our new Sports Centre extension. The gym, new studios, and new changing facilities will be a very welcome addition to the facilities here at School and I thank all those parents who have contributed to the building project. This week we have part 1 of a special feature on A Level Art work produced during the lockdown. I’m sure you will agree that the quality of work being produced by our talented sixth formers is inspirational; special mention must go to Lizzie McKeon for her first prize in the Kingston Art competition. I would also like to thank all those parents who contribute to the Tiffin Education Fund. This is vital in order to sustain the outstanding education we provide at Tiffin. The Tiffin School Foundation, which manages all our voluntary contributions, has recently changed to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. For existing donors only, (rather than new donors since September), this has necessitated a change in the standing orders, and you will have been written to about this. It would be great if you could amend your instructions as soon as possible to continue paying into the Fund. We apologise for this inconvenience, but are very grateful to all donations into the Fund, which all Tiffin students benefit from. Please contact TEF@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk if you have any questions about this or the Tiffin Education Fund. Yours, M D Gascoigne, Headteacher

As we come towards the end of this half term, I have to say how pleased I am with the way that everybody, students and staff, has adapted to the changes necessitated by the coronavirus situation. There is no doubt that operating the School with the control measures in place, has been a massive logistical exercise, requiring maturity from the students, and it is great to see how they responded. With the coronavirus situation many things have had to change. The 11+ exam which was normally held in September, is being held next week across Thursday and Friday, 15-16 October. This means that apart from the sixth form prefects, School finishes for all other students on Wednesday, when they can take a well-earned half-term break. In further changes this half-term we conducted a Sixth Form virtual open evening yesterday. Although it was a shame not to be able to welcome prospective students and their parents in person to the School, the open evening, including subject presentations, overall presentation, and an opportunity to ‘meet the students’, is on the website for all parents of Year 11 students, and any others who are interested, to watch. The Sixth Form is certainly a great place to study for A Levels, and undoubtedly its vibrant atmosphere is enhanced by the mix of students both boys and girls, existing and new to Tiffin. Approximately 40% of the Sixth Form join us new each year, and we welcome applicants for Sixth Form places from boys and girls who will achieve good GCSEs. We have also conducted several online information evening for parents of Years 7, 11 and 12 students, I hope you found those useful. Year 11 students completed exams last week having missed them in Year 10. Straight after half- term we have another first, when we are holding

IMPORTANT DATES

15-16 October

11+; no pupils in school, except prefects

19 October— 30 October

Half–term (return Monday 2 November normal start )

5 November

Year 11 Parents Consultations online

WINNER OF BEST HISTORICAL STORY PRIZE

SCIENCE AWARDS

We are very proud to announce that two of our Year 13 students, Darshan Kumaresan and Geethartha Vagga have been awarded Gold Crest Awards by the

A massive congratulations to Ben Luca Atassi Quinton for being a winner of the Best Historical Story Prize in the Historical Association's Historical Fiction Competition!

British Science Association, the highest award offered to school age students and recognises the outstanding extended projects they started last term and completed over the Summer. Darshan taught himself Python and then used machine learning algorithms to predict survivors of the titanic disaster using a broad range of passenger data. His best prediction model was the Random Forest algorithm which achieved a remarkable accuracy of 79%, not bad for his first time using such a technique!

There was over 1,000 entries and his story titled, "The Screams of Protest" was chosen as one of the best.

Judges of the competition said; "This story of Peterloo and the 1984 miners’ strike is thematically and technically accomplished and a great read." Ben Luca's passion for history really comes through in this historical fiction read, and the amount of work and research that went into this is phenomenal. This is definitely an accomplishment that needs to be celebrated!

Geethartha built and trained a neural network, also in Python, capable of recognising handwritten digits. He used the MNIST dataset, which contains over 70,000 images of handwritten digits, to train the network. Once he had processed all of that data, his network could recognise the correct digit over 98% of the time.

Lizzie McKeon achieved 1st place Harang Seo achieved 2nd place

Ajay Mahendrakumaran, Cleo Scott, Frankie Sturdy , Maggie P Verdini all achieved Highly commended. To have a look at their art please click here.

Tiffin School Piano Competition 2020— Online 7pm Wednesday 4 th November Preliminary Round Highlights & 7pm Wednesday 11 th November Final Round

You are invited to Tiffin School’s annual piano competition. Although this year’s event cannot take its usual form, I am delighted that the competition can go ahead, and that we will, as ever, hear outstanding piano solos performed by Tiffin musicians. The two rounds of the competition will be shown online through the Virtual Concerts page of the Tiffin Music website sites.google.com/tiffin.kingston.sch.uk/music/virtual-concerts at 7pm on Wednesday 4 th Nov (preliminary round highlights) and Wednesday 11 th November (competition final). A distinguished guest pianist will adjudicate the final round of the competition. Competitors are asked to read the instructions below carefully. I hope you will join us online to hear Tiffin’s impressive piano students perform. To attend visit: Tiffin Music Virtual Concerts

THE LEARNING SUPPORT TEAM

We are excited to share the expansion and development of the Learning Support Department. Since Easter, we have been joined by Helen Langton, an experienced English teacher, and Kristin Jones, who previously worked as a US Diplomat and has been running business entrepreneurship workshops in schools. They are a great addition to an already established team of Joe Carrol, Lesley Keirle & Matilda Shaba, our Therapeutic Assistant. The department works tirelessly to support students both in, and outside of the classroom. The Learning Support Centre is a base for our staff to support our students both academically and socially, and we have use of a space nearby, where students can catch up on work, read, and use as a place of reflection during break and lunch. In this space there are mindfulness strategies for students to use when they need to self regulate, and it is in close proximity to the main base, should they require further support.

We look forward to welcoming more students to the Learning Support Centre as the year continues.

It has been an age since our last report and it is brilliant to be finally able to give you an update on Tiffin sport and how we have tried to adapt to the situation we all now face. It is easy to think that arriving back at school would signal a return to normal service in our field but as we have seen all over the country this is not the case. The restrictions that each governing body has laid out along with our new timetable, bubbles and separation procedures have made designing a schedule for clubs, training sessions and even fixtures a inextricable task. Director of Sport, Andy Blackburn had the unenviable assignment of finding time, space and staff for as many activities as possible and that he has done! With four weeks of term under our belt, we are now offering rugby, cricket, badminton, basketball, netball, rowing, volleyball and strength and conditioning sessions to all relevant age groups. Our new strength and condition coach, Chris Thomas, has been a great addition to our staff and has been heavily involved in curricular and extra- curricular sport.

With the English Cricket Board and government giving us the thumbs up for competitive cricket fixtures against other school we have jumped at the chance! Able to count the number of schools in Surrey that have taken this up on one hand has meant that fixtures haven’t come thick and fast, but as a start to cricket in the autumn term, RGS Guildford were our opponents on the 19 th September. We have not played them in a block fixture for over 10 years and it was nice to host four games at Grists and travel to Bradstone Brook for two others. Teams were kept in their year group bubbles, which meant our seniors, who would normally be mixed from Year 11 up, were of a mixed ability but played with great spirit and came off second best in all three games. Our juniors fared better with our U14s winning handsomely and our U13s narrowly losing what was their first ever game for Tiffin school. A weekend of in-house matches will be followed by a trip to Hampton school where five Tiffin teams will test themselves in an age-old derby.

achievement for all. Two lunches motion the conveyer belt of year groups in and out of the muga, sports hall and field with all involved arriving to school in kit to allow for more activity. Period 7 to end the day allows two rounds of practices, albeit shorter, in all the same spaces with staff returning from the ‘normal’ games sessions at Grists to make this all possible. We believe that in times like these it is even more important to provide these opportunities to our students not just for their continuing development as sportsmen and women but to help with issues that may not be so easy to talk about. To be healthy in mind and body stands at the forefront of what we are building here with the sports programme at Tiffin and we look forward to the

Split lunch, period 7s and staggered starts to the day has meant compressed sessions a lot of the age group teams and clubs but all the pupils have seized the chance to get active again. With seasoned coaches and new staff understanding the importance of this, there has been a massive effort from all to supervise and run sessions in what already seems a busy enough period. Long may this continue and, as we hope and pray for a healthy winter for all, we look forward to being given the green light for more competitive fixture and open training sessions. 7:15am no longer feels early but is the natural start of a sport-filled day with the sound of bat on ball in the nets and basketballs in the sports hall. PE lessons begin with strength and conditioning training and then move into skills then a game with fitness testing and analysis a priority now with the target of high

success this will bring us all. Kapilan Balasubramaniam

HOUSE CHAMPIONSHIP NEWS

In the strangest of years the House Championship provided some continuity for staff and students alike. Sadly lacking its normal crescendo of tennis, swimming, rowing and sports day; the competition was no less fiercely fought by students both at school and from home. Refusing to allow a global pandemic to get in the way of a good argument, students participated in our first virtual house competitions in debating and general knowledge. Though hugely successful, all hope this is something that won't need repeating! In the end it was Raleigh house that came out on top in the Championship for the first time in 18 years; winning drama, dance, badminton and the run in the process. A huge congratulations must go to Mr. Marley and his house for all their efforts, in particular his captain team of Arjan Dhatt, Saomiyan Mathetharan and Tim Jones. Final preparations for this year's competition are underway and hopefully we can have students competing once again very soon. Mr. Brown (Principal Head of House)

A GALLERY OF RECENT A-LEVEL ARTWORK PART ONE

Architectural work by Tristan

Architectural work by George

Architectural photoshoot by George

PORTRAITURE

Avery ‘s photorealism Yuki’s topic is vulnerability

Ajay is exploring movement and portraiture

Lizzie Isabel - digital painting

Edward Neve