A Message from the TSA President

ANDY JOHNSON HEAD OF TRURO SCHOOL

I hope you are all well. Last year I hoped you were all managing to navigate a summer of extraordinary heat. If you are UK based, I hope this year that you and your gardens have been enjoying the rain.

We have also been thanking and celebrating the dedication and impact of longstanding staff who leave this summer, most notably the Rev, Aubin de Gruchy, who moves to a wider role within MIST after 21 years of service to our school family, and Martin Palmer, who retires after 19 years as Director of Music.

The School continues to look ahead, however, with an emphasis on securing the future quality of educational experience for all pupils who join the School. In a great education, the pursuit of knowledge is exciting, and the development of transferrable skills is crucial, but it is the values we hold that define us. Our Strategic Plan and the annual Action Plans that underpin it have this agenda in mind. The School value of focus in 2022-3 has been Compassion, culminating in a superb Summer Festival and World Aims Week.

In a School that champions and values the personal development of all pupils, the most important achievements are not necessarily the most public, but it would be remiss of me not to celebrate here the role some of our choristers played at His Majesty’s Coronation in Westminster Abbey this year.

We have also, of course, maintained our excellent standards of learning, teaching and pastoral care, at Prep and Senior, and for day pupils and boarders alike. Our School roll is again extremely healthy, including the largest Lower Sixth cohort we have seen for very many years who will add further strength and vibrancy to our community.

The School year has been busy and successful again. It has been wonderful to experience a full year from start to finish without any of the constraints imposed by the pandemic. It feels strange writing that as I end my third year as Head, and is a reminder too of the experiences of others. Our marvellous Upper Sixth cohort, the CO23, are the last year group to have had public examinations disrupted (their GCSEs in 2021), and their successes this summer will be applauded all the more as a result.

Outdoor performances on our newly landscaped front terraces, looking out across the skyline of Truro, were my personal highlight. Compassion must remain central to our purpose as a community, especially as hard and challenging times hit families and institutions alike. I commend the generosity of our alumni and benefactors that allows us to remain a School committed to means-tested bursary support, and at the same time a place of ongoing educational ambition, investing in excellence. I am extremely grateful.

As you would expect, the School has enjoyed a full and vibrant co-curriculum, promoting the engagement and development of pupils as well as the nurturing of ambition. Successes at a national and international level sit rightly alongside personal triumphs too.

As we look ahead to next year, our community and School continues to build on strength. I welcome the CO23 into the OT fold. They and all our community were celebrated at Speech Day, held this year in the Hall for Cornwall, where we were all encouraged to know the power of compassion by our guest speaker, Max Levene CO10. Amidst some hilariously unrepeatable anecdotes about his own School days, Max was the personification of more than simply resilience, but of positivity and the potential for success in the face of even the most unpredictable challenges.

To end this introductory message, I thank you all for your ongoing support and interest in the quality, evolution and ambition of our Truro School family. I look forward to meeting many of you at the Old Truronians Reunion Tea Party on Friday 18 August, and the social and reunion events that follow across next year about which more details can be found on our website and in the Development Office’s communications.