Truro School Foundation

TRURO SCHOOL

Foundation

Truro School Foundation, like most of the country, is looking forward to a sense of normality as we move into the festive period - meeting up with family and friends as opposed to virtual Teams and Zoom meetings.

Indeed, as a result of Covid restrictions, we have been unable to have our usual Foundation gatherings; uniting our alumni, refreshing memories with old friends and meeting new ones. However, an afternoon in the late summer found us making one very important exception – the celebration of the life of Headmaster, Guy Dodd (TS 1992-2001). We were blessed on the day with fair weather, despite a poor outlook, and had a great turnout of people wishing to commemorate Guy in the school garden. I believe that Guy’s wife Helen Dodd and their family, in many ways, typify the spirit of Truro School – inclusive, selfless and generous.

The final total for our campaign in Guy’s honour (The Guy Dodd Appeal) was over £40,000 – a remarkable amount of money, coming as it did in the depths of Covid. We would like to say a very sincere and heartfelt thanks from all of us at the Foundation if you contributed – and be assured that 100% of your contribution is making a significant difference to a child’s life at the school.

GRAHAM HOOPER OLD TRURONIAN PARENT & CHAIRMAN OF TRURO SCHOOL FOUNDATION It’s also worth considering all the extra work that the school has had to put in in the last few months; the support structures that the school has put in place has helped the resilience of Truro School students over the course of the last academic year. We are just beginning to learn more about the wider implications of lockdowns and isolation for young people. We are fortunate for Tim Bunting, one of our trustees, who previously worked for BBC Children in Need, and his insights into the issues facing young people in the UK are invaluable. Referrals to organisations who look after children with mental health issues have recently doubled. If you’d like to find out more, it’s worth investing an hour of your time on the BBC documentary ‘Dr Alex: Our Young People’s Mental Health Crisis’, which is available on BBC iPlayer now. If you missed it on the BBC first time around, please watch it – it’s a salutary lesson in this growing issue, and how some organisations are trying to help. In the context of what we’re trying to achieve at the Foundation, it is very important.

The simple fact is that we need more money so that we can further support underprivileged children in Cornwall and allow them the opportunity to benefit from a Truro School education.

Our alumni are testament to the value of a Truro School education and how it can change lives, sometimes in the widest possible sense, as in the cases of Sir Patrick Vallance CO78 and Professor Trevor Drew OBE CO72, who have both been doing their level best to carry the battle to defeat Covid on both sides of the world: Sir Patrick here in the UK, and Professor Drew in Australia.

We very much look forward to being able to meet up with both the Old Truronian and current Truro School family around the country once restrictions ease, and we can be a little more confident about meeting indoors.

Finally, the Truro School Foundation is run as a charity, and I would like to thank our trustees for giving up their time to help create the opportunity for children to come to our school. I should also like to thank the school itself for supporting us, especially in the light of Nicky Berridge (TS Development Manager 2016-2021) leaving – they are big shoes to fill – but Amanda and Ella (Development and Alumni Relations Officers) are doing sterling work.

We wish you and all your family and friends a peaceful, safe and enjoyable Christmas and a brighter New Year. Nadelik Lowen, as we say in Cornwall.

SIR PATRICK VALLANCE CO78 Sir Patrick Vallance FRS FMedSci FRCP attended Truro School between 1973-1978. He is a Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) and Head of the Government Science and Engineering (GSE) profession. His personal research was in the area of diseases of blood vessels and endothelial biology.

Patrick was President, R&D at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from 2012 until 2017. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Medicines Discovery and Development. He joined the company in May 2006 as Head of Drug Discovery. He was a member of the GSK Board and the Corporate Executive Team. During his period as head of R&D over 14 new medicines were approved for use worldwide, for diseases ranging from cancer to asthma and HIV.

Prior to joining GSK, he was a clinical academic, Professor of Medicine and led the Division of Medicine at UCL.

Professor Trevor Drew OBE attended Truro School between 1966-1971. He is Director of the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP), which brings together human and animal health, disease protection and biosecurity measures, to better protect Australia to prevent, prepare for and control highly infectious diseases of animals as well as zoonotic diseases. The activity being undertaken by CSIRO at the ACDP is tripartite, reflecting a multi-sectorial, one-health approach to disease preparedness across the three sectors of humans, animals and the environment which they share.

Trevor was born in Cornwall and, following his undergraduate studies in microbiology, he studied for his Masters in applied immunology at King’s College and Brunel University, London. He completed his PhD in molecular virology, as part of a research collaboration between the UK Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the Central Veterinary Institute, the Netherlands, completing in 1995. He has over 20 years’ experience of basic and clinical research, and was a consultant physician in the NHS. His research spanned from work on medicinal chemistry and structural biology through to cellular work, studies in humans and use of large electronic health-record databases.

He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999 and to the Royal Society in 2017. He was on the Board of the UK Office for Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research (OSCHR) from 2009 to 2016.

He is an Honorary Fellow at UCL and holds honorary degrees from Imperial College London, Glasgow University, University of York and St George’s, University of London. He was a nonexecutive director and board member for UK Biobank and a non-executive board member for Genome Research Limited, but stepped down in taking up the GCSA role.

Prior to becoming Director of AAHL in 2018, Professor Drew was Lead Scientist and Head of the Virology Department at the UK Animal & Plant Health Agency, with responsibility for managing the UK surveillance programme for exotic viral diseases of livestock, along with an extensive portfolio of research in that area, delivering to the policy needs of their agriculture ministry. He also has an extensive record of overseas work, including extended secondments on behalf of overseas aid projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, Bangladesh and Nepal. He is a specialist in viral diseases of pigs and has published over 140 peerreviewed research papers.

Professor Drew is also a regular contributor to the work of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), where he has held a position as Reference Expert for a number of viral diseases. He has also been a member of numerous Ad Hoc Groups and has undertaken several missions. He is also a Visiting Professor of Virology at the University of Nottingham, UK and Jilin University, PR China.

PROFESSOR TREVOR DREW CO72