From the Principal

During a visit with my History class to Trinity’s archives the other day, one of my students caught me off guard with a comment and I genuinely laughed out loud. After testing the significant weight of an exact replica of Ned Kelly’s helmet – yes, we have a full set of Ned Kelly armour in the school’s collection – he said, ‘It is as heavy as my mum’s shopping bags after a trip to Chadstone’.

The reason for being in archives was not to play with Ned Kelly’s armour, or indeed any of the very many other interesting items at hand, but to reach into Trinity’s history to help us understand a little more about ourselves in this era. Specifically, my students have been researching ‘Trinity at War’ and have been following various storylines about former students and their experiences in times of war. We have made some impactful discoveries and have unearthed a good deal of information that has helped us understand attitudes of different eras and the challenges that faced our school during our 119-year journey so far.

An affecting element to this research has been to see just how many of our former students served in the military. And just how many were casualties. Despite society’s recent pandemic challenges, the spectre of a ‘broad’ war is well outside the understanding of the majority of those involved in daily life at Trinity today. The selflessness of those who went to war is something that we have not had to replicate and the relative safety that we have enjoyed is something for which to be continually grateful. Studying the personal stories of those that demonstrated the selflessness of serving in war reminds us of the value of helping others, in whatever way we can, and that is something we do well at Trinity.

I am not going to attempt a definitive list of the various examples of outreach that our students and staff are engaged with at TGS. That is largely because we do not do it in order to ‘look good’ or even feel good. I think it is genuinely a part of the make-up of Trinity that looking out for those less fortunate is normal here. Perhaps the success of our Giving Day (to establish a means tested scholarship) highlights that point. It is worth mentioning that our new Strategic Plan, to be launched in the coming weeks, maintains ‘Service’ as one of the key values of Trinity. It sits very comfortably with Truth, Courage and Community. The strategy, like my class’s focus, borrows significantly from our past to inform our present. The intent is not to reform and revise in order to dominate a market position, for instance, but rather to amplify the things that make us such a well-respected learning community already. We believe that we can evolve Trinity to be further enhanced in ensuring the students in our care benefit from the same, enduring approach that has served us well for so long. We believe that we can continue to provide a personalised education for our students, and we think we can do it better in the future due to the great work done so far. We will recommit to our relationship with Ruyton Girls' School, building on the nearly 30 years of Coordinate program and over 100 years of partnership, ensuring that our schools’ students have a broad and realistic social experience and world view. We will work to further progress other, worthy partnerships in order to create credible and exciting pathways for all of our people. Through these and other measures, we will be an aspirational learning community that inspires every individual to thrive and contribute positively to society.

As we return to a more ‘normal’ way of life and the pandemic’s grip on society diminishes for us in Victoria, we anticipate being able to rekindle much of what we did before. Amongst overseas trips and glorious victories (well done to the F1 in Schools team!), there is also the resumption of the good daily work of caring that our people value. Of course, there is also the key work that we do in our classrooms and around the school every day, too!

It has been a joy for me to witness my first, largely uncorrupted, calendar year at Trinity. My observations of daily life include that the learning for all is palpable. That is to be celebrated, as it has been here for nearly 120 years.

Oh yes, and the humour’s pretty good, too!

Adrian Farrer

Principal