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Academic Scholars
Our academic scholarship programme aims to instil a lifelong love of learning, while nurturing the essential skills we hope to develop in our academic leaders, skills vital to their future success.
While there are opportunities for every student to stretch and challenge themselves intellectually outside of lessons, we expect that academic scholars will actively participate in the school’s enrichment activities.
Our dedicated programme for scholars encourages them to demonstrate intellectual leadership in the classroom, adopt scholarly habits, and share their knowledge with their peers.
It helps create a sense of community within their own year group as well as forming connections across the school. Sixth Form students get involved in younger students’ events, providing mentorship and role-modelling.
Hearing from other scholars, especially older ones who have been working on projects, is helpful when considering how to further extend your own learning.
Alastair Strathearn, Third Year
Becoming an academic scholar
Students applying to Trinity at 10+, 11+ and 13+ are identified as potential academic scholars based on exceptional performance in entrance exams and interviews. For entry to the Sixth Form, scholarships are awarded based on GCSE results – for current and new students.
Academic Scholars Breakfasts
A key event is the half-termly Academic Scholars Breakfast. We introduce Professor Sandra Kaplan’s Habits of Scholarliness - which include goal setting, intellectual risk-taking, academic humility, and multiple perspectives. These topics are explored at the students’ different levels.
We also challenge our scholars to consider questions from Oxbridge interviews, such as: ‘Are there too many people in the world?’ or ‘How many petrol stations are there in America?’ These exercises develop problem-solving and lateral thinking skills, leading to engaging and entertaining discussions.
“The Academic Scholar Breakfasts have really helped me to get the most out of my lessons. We have been shown how to view and respond to challenging questions, think creatively and ‘outside the box’ and engage with the many opportunities at Trinity. I have chatted with other scholars in the year, which I find really helps to know how they approach school life.
Jamie Hung, First Year
Educational excursions
We invite scholars on dedicated trips to museums or universities in London or cities like Oxford and Cambridge. These trips provide opportunities for experiential learning and reinforce the habits of scholarliness discussed in school. It also helps the group to develop further bonds.
Research projects
Each year, academic scholars are given the opportunity to pursue an in-depth project they are personally interested in. The Trinity Extension Award has an annual theme which ties into our Festival of Ideas, an extraordinary week of enrichment during the summer term. Students pursue a project independently, helping them develop research skills highly valued by universities and employers. Over the years, students have submitted in various formats including websites, games, coding projects, cartography, musical scores, economics journals, drama presentations, as well as many fascinating essays.
In Sixth Form, scholars work on an individual project as part of their Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) or Sixth Form Project (SFP), where they hone their research and analytical skills.
Talks and lectures
In our extensive co-curricular programme, Sixth Form societies explore ideas and topics beyond the A Level curriculum and are often run by older scholars. We encourage younger students to attend specific talks, where appropriate, to provide additional academic challenge and to see the Sixth Form scholars in action.
I recently presented a talk at Politics Society called 'Trident Tested' about the UK's nuclear deterrent. This was a very academically enriching experience allowing me to research into an area which hugely interests me.
Tom Braganza, Upper Sixth
I attended a Sixth Form History talk on the good, the bad and the ugly prime ministers of the past and present, which I thought was a really interesting topic. I learnt a lot, and it led me to research it further away from school.
Jamie Hung, First Year
As part of our Festival of Ideas, we also host a conference with external speakers. Academic scholars are a key part of the audience, and last year’s speakers discussed the role of imagination in their respective industries.
