From the Headmaster

Results. Inspection. Olympics.

Headmaster Alasdair Kennedy gives an overview of the latest at Trinity School.

Results: Character and perseverance After two of the most unusual and disrupted years of A Level and GCSE study, we were delighted that our public exam cohorts achieved very well deserved sets of excellent grades. They negotiated the requirements of the different assessment processes extremely well and both year groups recorded comfortably the best results Trinity has ever had.

In a very competitive year for entry, over 90% of the A Level cohort secured their first choice of institution for next year, including degree apprenticeships, universities in the US, music conservatoires and art foundation courses. Among our 146 A Level students, 39 were awarded straight A* grades, with particular congratulations to eight of them for achieving 5 A*s. At GCSE, 40 out of the 136 students in the year group achieved nine or more 9 grades. The last academic year will have felt very long to any student facing public exams but, behind the bare results, our students showed much character and perseverance, and have developed skills which will serve them well in their future lives. We are particularly proud of the way in which they supported each other. Inspection: Extraordinary young people Our six-yearly inspection of the school took place in June and the team from the Independent Schools Inspectorate spent four days meeting staff and students, observing lessons and activities, and scrutinising our policies and procedures. Two judgements are made at the end of this process, for Pupils’ Achievement and for Pupils’ Personal Development, and we were delighted to be awarded the top category of ‘Excellent’ in both of these. Beyond these headline judgements, however, the findings were most complimentary about the school’s success in meeting its aim - to nurture extraordinary young people. The report, which is now available on our website, comments not just on our students’ ambition but also on the all-round nature of their achievements, where ‘pupils achieve outstanding success academically and in a wide range of co-curricular activities’ and they ‘combine outstanding intellectual curiosity with a strong willingness to think independently’. The report also captured what we believe is the most important part of our ethos, that ‘pupils actively support each other in a collaborative atmosphere’, and they ‘are highly confident and self-assured independent learners, yet possess a conspicuous level of humility.’ Olympics: Post-school success Finally, we were delighted to watch alumna Imani Lansiquot, who left the school in 2016, running for Team GB in the Tokyo Olympics this summer. Imani ran the second leg in both the heat and final of the 4 x 100m relay, helping GB to win Bronze behind the Jamaican and US quartets. She met with our students online earlier this year, when she took questions on being at Trinity, living as an athlete and her interests as a student of Psychology. Our congratulations go to her on this success, and we wish her ongoing success in the next cycle of World, Commonwealth, European and Olympic events that lie ahead.

Imani at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021

“Pupils are highly motivated and well prepared for the next stage of their lives, helped by the exceptionally high standard of pastoral care that they receive.” “Pupils’ natural intellectual curiosity and eagerness to learn is strongly supported by energetic, imaginative teaching.”