My Trinity, Autumn 2022

Issue 5: Winter 2022

Newsletter for former pupils, staff and friends

Alumni in the News - page 4

Alumni in the Spotlight page 8

Memory Lane - page 17

In Memoriam - page 22

Welcome to our first termly digital alumni newsletter. By publishing termly, we can keep you updated more frequently with school and alumni news, as well as having three times as many opportunities to feature you, our wonderfully inspiring alumni. And being digital, we can make it far more interactive. Most pages will have links to websites where you can find out more, book tickets for events or download school magazines from 30 and 60 years ago.

With both World Mental Health Day and Movember falling in the autumn term, we are dedicating this issue to the theme of “Wellbeing”.

We have conducted some fascinating interviews with alumni from across all generations.

Alisha Mehta (Class of 2016), is just starting her career as clinical psychologist while John Richer (Class of 1964), has had almost 60 years as one. Neil Price (Class of 1990), has gone from teacher to comedian to life coach and shares his journey with us. Tom Livesey (Class of 2007) and Eliot Brooks (Class of 2009), are co-founders of Thriva, a company offering at home blood tests for a range of health markers.

We’ve had some fantastic events this term and some amazing alumni

who have come back to visit the school, which you can read all about in this edition.

We hope you enjoy the first My Trinity Autumn Newsletter.

With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year

My Trinity

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Contents 3

School News

4

Alumni in the News

8

Alumni in the Spotlight – Alisha Mehta 2016

10

Alumni in the Spotlight – Tom Livesey 2007 and Eliot Brooks 2009

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Alumni in the Spotlight – Neil Price 1990

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Alumni in the Spotlight – John Richer 1964

17

Memory Lane

18

Alumni Return

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Events

22

In Memoriam

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Dates for your Diary

Student Wins Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2022 We are delighted to announce that Lower Sixth student Sienna Mehta has won a Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2022 and has been selected as one of the top 15 poets.

Student signs Kent Cricket EPP contract Congratulations to Third Year student Louie James, who has just signed a contract with the Kent Cricket Emerging Player Programme (EPP) and will be training with the U14 squad.

Arkwright Scholarships awarded to talented Design & Technology students Congratulations to Lower Sixth students Liam Bridgman and Ronak De who have been awarded prestigious Arkwright Engineering Scholarships.

Student represents GB in U15 Baseball In June this year, Fourth Year student Daniel Aisa Miller received the exciting call to say he had earned a place on the Great Britain U15 National Baseball Team.

4 - Alumni in the news

Laurence Watchorn (Class of 2017) “Skincrawl” at The Bomb Factory, is the inaugural solo show by former student and our current Artist in Residence, Laurence Watchorn. Laurence graduated from The Slade School of Art in 2022. He is also the co-founder of OOZ, a music collective based in southeast London.

To read more click here

Ollie Scarles (Class of 2022) We are thrilled for former student Ollie Scarles who made his debut for the West Ham first team in November, at just 16 years old. Ollie is one to watch!

To read more click here

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Imani-Lara Lansiquot (Class of 2016) Imani met the new King at a special reception held at Buckingham Palace for medallists from both the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympics and Paralympics to celebrate their incredible achievements in the Games.

Will Gao (Class of 2021) Congratulations to former student William Gao who has been nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Performance category of the inaugural Children’s and Family Emmy Awards. The nomination is for Will’s role as Tao Xu in the popular Netflix drama Heartstopper.

To watch Heartstopper click here

6 - Alumni in the news

Tom Livesey (Class of 2007) Tom has been announced as one of The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders of 2022. He is co-founder of the London-based health tech company Thriva, which employs 134 people and has posted and processed more than two million at-home finger-prick blood tests. These help people to measure things like cholesterol and hormone levels.

“This business has so much potential, not just in terms of the size it can become, but the impact it can make,” says Tom.

Mark Piesing (Class of 1986) Mark’s first book, “N-4 DOWN: the hunt for the Arctic airship Italia”, has recently been published in paperback. It is the critically acclaimed true story of history’s largest polar rescue mission. Julian Timm, one of Trinity’s history teachers, read it at half-term.

For a full review, click here

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Tim Broyd (Class of 1972) Professor Tim Broyd was recently invited to speak at COP27, the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference held recently in Sharm El Sheikh. Tim was invited to provide the keynote presentation on ‘Building for a low carbon future’ at a half day seminar. Organised by the Chinese philanthropic Vanke Foundation, based in Shenzhen, the overall seminar considered the development of zero carbon communities.

David Picksley (Class of 1951) Barn Barnabas (Class of 1989) No alumni newsletter would be complete without an appearance from Andrew “Barn” Barnabas! His company Bob and Barn wrote the music for Channel 4’s one-off reboot of Friday Night Live, which aired at the end of October. It was a mixture of up and coming stand-ups and legends such as Ben Elton, Harry Enfield and Jo Brand, whom Barn remembers watching in the 80s.

To find out more about Bob and Barn, click here

David completed the virtual London Marathon for the second time, and 14 min and 34 seconds faster than in the previous year. His ballot entry for the next London Marathon was successful and we all look forward to supporting him over the 26.2 miles when he’ll have turned 90. What an inspiration!

8 - Alumni Spotlight: Alisha Mehta

We caught up with Alisha Mehta (Class of 2016), who left Trinity to study psychology at the University of Bristol. She did a Masters’ degree at UCL and worked as an assistant psychologist in an NHS team that supports the mental health of sixth formers in schools across south London. She is now doing her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at UCL and will qualify as a psychologist in 2025.

Did you always want to become a psychologist?

I always wanted to work with people and in healthcare, but not as a psychologist specifically. I liked sciences but was also quite creative at school, so I wanted a job that would combine all my interests. During medical work experience, I was drawn to patients’ life stories and was more interested in learning about how to support them with their emotional difficulties, rather than their physical symptoms. These reasons (combined with a couple of fainting spells on ward rounds!) steered me towards studying psychology at university and I haven’t looked back since.

What has been your biggest challenge so far?

U6 CXM form class at their Sixth Form Prom (2016)

The journey to clinical training is not straight forward, and

I had to get a lot of relevant experience before attempting to apply. I did some volunteering with charities and completed unpaid placements before finally getting my first paid job as an assistant psychologist last year.

At the time, I felt frustrated by the uncertainty of the career path but in hindsight, the learning opportunities and the reward from these experiences made me more determined, committed and prepared for training. I would advise aspiring psychologists to not be put off by these challenges, but to be aware of the organisation and tenacity required to get a place on training.

Have you been able to see the impact of your work with sixth form students you’ve worked with?

It’s been really rewarding to see the positive changes in sixth formers that I have worked with.

In a nutshell, the service works individually and with groups of sixth formers, to help them understand the impact of stress and share evidence-based techniques that can help them to cope better. Each student sets a personal goal to improve their mental health that the team supports them to achieve.

Overall, the students this year

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necessarily need to be expertly trained; just an empathetic, listening ear and knowledge of mental health services in the local area can go a long way. Lastly, having good communication with students’ parents and carers creates a strong school community around young people and can further bolster their mental health.

Alisha now works in an adult mental health with Central and North West London NHS Trust.

had significant reductions in depression and anxiety scores, and improvements in wellbeing scores, through the course of the intervention. Most importantly, students told us how they felt they had more self-understanding and could feel improvements in their wellbeing. Some also shared that they felt more open to receiving support for mental health after working with our team. Of course, it’s not a perfect service, and there were some students whose needs went beyond the scope of what we could provide. We often made onward referrals for those individuals, so they could receive the help that they needed.

How can schools support their students’ mental health?

Schools are a vital support system for young people and are uniquely placed to provide both access to knowledge and to positive social relationships.

With that in mind, I believe that firstly, schools need to empower their students with more information about mental health and tools to cope and support one another throughout their time in education. Secondly, from my work, I have seen how just one supportive teacher-student relationship can be a huge protective factor for students’ mental health. Teachers do not

What one piece of advice would you give people to help improve their mental health?

My view is that we live in a society where we are constantly being evaluated and assessed, be that in education, at work or

How did your time at Trinity help prepare you for what you do now?

My interest in psychology began in Miss Ward’s A-Level class and her lessons inspired me to choose it as my university subject. While working with sixth forms this year, I have often reflected on my time at Trinity and how the culture of the school shaped my development. What I loved most about Trinity was its mission to enable students to become allrounded and interesting individuals, beyond academic achievement.

The school’s nurturing environment grew my confidence and character and it is also where I met some of my closest friends.

Travelling in Vietnam earlier this summer (2022)

even on social media. There has never been so much pressure to compete and succeed or to be the best or be perfect. I would say that having a hobby or interest that is just for your enjoyment (not for your CV or to fit in with others) is hugely important, as it gives you a sense of identity and purpose outside of work. There is good evidence that being out in nature and connecting with others is also of benefit to mental health, so if your interests happen to include being outdoors and with some friends, that’s even better!

Your job sounds quite intense, what do you do in your downtime to relax?

Drawing is a peaceful activity for me and something that I am trying to make more time for. Exercise is also a helpful outlet; I got more into running this year, after doing a halfmarathon with some friends from Trinity! In busy periods, I find that even everyday routines, such as cooking, spending time with friends and family or a lunchtime walk can keep me calm and motivated.

10 - Alumni Spotlight: Tom Livesey & Eliot Brooks

Tom Livesey (Class of 2007) and Eliot Brooks (Class of 2009), co-founded Thriva in 2015, a health tech company which supplies at-home finger prick blood tests to help people measure things like cholesterol and hormone levels.

They chat to us about what inspired them to set up the business and what challenges they’ve faced along the way.

What has been your biggest challenge since starting the business?

Tom: There have been so many big challenges over the years! I think the biggest ongoing challenge is the fact

that we’re trying to drive a big shift in the way people think about their health and how they act. This means we’ve had to do a lot of work to help people and businesses understand how we see the future and how it will be different to today.

Eliot: In June 2020 we began working with the Department of Health to explore how a remote mass testing service could be stood up for Covid-19 antibodies to sit alongside the home PCR testing service the government deployed.

We successfully secured a contract to deliver this end-to-end testing service and had to build the operations, integrations and technical service in just four weeks to deliver 10,000 tests a day. It was

a huge team effort full of logistics, regulatory and technical challenges, working in close collaboration with the government. Somehow, we managed to get it done through relentless, collaborative work and went on to deliver the service successfully.

What three key skills/ attributes would you say you need to be an entrepreneur?

Tom: I believe there are three main character traits you need to be a successful entrepreneur.

1. Resilience - there’s no two ways about it, building a business is hard.

It can be a bit of a rollercoaster with at times seemingly insurmountable challenges. The resilience to manage these peaks and troughs and keep pushing forward regardless is important.

2. Passion - related to resilience, unless you’re passionate and truly care about the mission, your team, and your customers, it’s going to be really hard to stay motivated.

Tom in Lower School

Eliot in the Sixth Form

3. Humility - the media has created the idea that successful leaders are big personalities who are always right. This just isn’t the case. Often the best leaders are those who surround themselves with the best people, actively listen to others, and are acutely aware of their own strengths and weaknesses.

11 so need to build it into my routine. I always do my best work after a run.

Eliot: Progress isn’t linear, so if you trip up or have a bad week, don’t dwell on it and just get back to the fundamentals of move, sleep, socialise and eat well. Plus, I love finishing my shower with a couple of minutes of cold water in the morning to start the day with a small win.

What one piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

You are the co-founders of Thriva, what inspired you to start this business?

Tom: The genesis of the idea for Thriva actually started from a personal need for Eliot. At 15, he was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia (genetically raised cholesterol), which meant he was having to do regular testing to manage the condition. Quite apart from the inconvenience of having to take time off work and get a big needle in his arm, after years of not really having access to his own data, he convinced a nurse to read historical results over the phone and was surprised by the upward trend. He felt that had he had the information, he would have acted differently. We set up the business in late 2015 with the aim of making it easier to get blood tests done at home and results received online.

Quickly after we started, we saw the potential of Thriva to deliver a preventative approach to healthcare that would increase the number of years people spend in good health through regular, proactive testing and healthcare advice.

Healthy body, healthy mind – what is your advice to achieving this goal?

Tom: This is something I’m first to admit I’m not always great at.

While it sounds simple and is easier said than done, I think the key is making sure you prioritise both physical and mental health.

I’ve always told myself “when this thing happens or stops, there’ll be more time to focus on health”, and something else always fills that space, there’s always a reason not to. I’m personally a creature of habit

Tom and Eliot with co-founder Hamish Grierson

Tom: Be more introspective and in tune with your feelings, and don’t lose focus on relationships with partners, friends, and family.

Eliot: Don’t get caught up in comparing with others, just trust that you’re putting in place the right systems that will lead to eventual success.

Please use the discount code TRINITY20 for 20% off your first test Click here to find out more

12 - Alumni Spotlight: Neil Price

Neil Price (Class of 1990), talks to us about finding his niche in school and how clowning around in the first year was a vision into his future as a stand-up comedian.

Tell me about your time at Trinity?

I started in 1982 and I found the first four years a real struggle. I wasn’t the brightest by some distance and I didn’t feel I fitted in with many of the other students because I was

on a bursary. At some point though I found a way to manage, and I found my niche in sport and drama which I could excel in. This gave me some much-needed confidence. With the support of one or two teachers who looked out for me, my latter years were both more enjoyable and more successful academically even though self-doubt still crept in quite a bit. I ended up being School Captain and captaining the 1st XV both of which were brilliant learning experiences. Perhaps it goes to

show that it doesn’t matter if you don’t make the best of starts.

It sounds like sports and clubs were a big part of your school life?

As I’ve mentioned I was 1st XV rugby captain and fly half in the rugby U13-15 A team, who went on a 40game unbeaten winning streak, still the best sports team I have ever played in. I was a keen athlete and held a couple of school records for several years until my younger brother John broke them. Drama was another passion, and I took part in all aspects of productions on stage and off. I loved it so much I ended up studying English and Drama for my degree before then starting teaching and building a successful Drama department at Sutton Grammar School. I was a more reluctant musician and played the French Horn. I say “play”, but in fact I mimed quite a lot of the time.

How did Trinity prepare you for life after you left school?

Neil performing at a stand-up comedy night

There is no doubt that going to Trinity provided me with great experiences and opportunities that formed big choices in my life. In my long teaching career in state funded schools I have realised how extremely privileged I was and this has not always sat well with me.

As a result of this privilege I didn’t

inspired me to want to have the same impact that he had on me. He is one of the main reasons I went into teaching. I hope I have done as good a job.

Teacher to stand-up comedian. What made you take the jump?

feel well prepared for adversity. In the highly competitive atmosphere of Trinity in the 1980’s I learned to not show weakness no matter how much anxiety and self-doubt I was feeling and I got good at putting up a front and pretending nothing was wrong. When some mental health issues emerged in my twenties my first approach was to repeat this behaviour but, as I learned to my detriment, it didn’t really work.

For the many benefits of my time at school I do find myself wondering how it would have been enhanced by being co-Ed. I think the addition of girls to the sixth form is a very positive step.

Name a teacher who inspired you.

Ian Jardine. He identified I had potential but also a greater ability to waste it and took it upon himself to do something about it. He was a passionate history teacher, attentive form tutor and, inspiring rugby coach. I first came across him in the Third Year when I was unsure of myself and, through his interactions, he gave me confidence in myself and a belief that I could succeed. I know he was a wonderful support to a lot of other students as well. He was also unerringly fair and the feeling of letting him down when I occasionally lapsed often made me feel worse than any other punishment that came my way.

Having him advocate for me

I had done stand-up at university but lacked the confidence to go into it upon graduation. It was always lurking and when I found myself in my early 30’s feeling a little frustrated in my teaching career, I had some sessions with a life coach who picked up that I kept mentioning the times I had done stand-up. I have always enjoyed making people laugh and at school this was not always appreciated. In fact Mr Griffin wrote on my FirstYear English school report “Clowns prosper only the circus.” So, one of my goals was to get out and do it again, which I did. I often describe it as a hobby that got a bit out of hand. In 2006, I came second in a competition to find the best new stand-up in Britain, which opened a lot of doors. Having scratched the itch, I was then able to walk away and moved into education leadership. I still do stand-up now in the USA for the simple reason that I like making people laugh. The clown is still prospering!

And now you’re a certified life coach. How has your life up to this point helped with that transition?

Neil in the 1987 production of An Easter Meditation

13 I think teaching and life coaching are very similar roles and feed off my own personal values. I get great satisfaction from seeing people achieve their potential and overcoming obstacles, whether in their learning or their life. Any teacher will tell you those “aha” moments are the best and helping clients realise this brings the same satisfaction. I am currently developing a programme for schools and teachers designed to help teachers learn self-coaching techniques to manage their wellbeing and to help schools initiate better wellbeing practices.

I’m putting my experiences and interests together for the benefit of teachers and schools. Transitions can be made far more easily if you have taken time to really know yourself and adversity is often the best way of doing this.

What have you learnt over the years that you would tell your younger self or indeed current Trinity students?

Life won’t always be easy, but it is the hard things you will learn the most from, so don’t be afraid of them and never be afraid to ask for help. Take time to get to know yourself, your values, your strengths, and your weaknesses.

And take time to get to know other people and use this knowledge to be kind to yourself and considerate of them.

Click here to visit Neil’s website

14 - Alumni Spotlight: John Richer

John Richer (class of 1964), shares his fascinating career with us and talks about the Trinity values he has taken through life with him.

especially in those areas that are developing in adolescence: abstract moral values, societal beliefs, interests in certain areas of knowledge, quality of intellectual thought and so on.

You have described your time at Trinity as happy and fun, where you felt safe and encouraged. What lessons or character traits did Trinity instil in you that you have carried though life?

At Trinity there was of course the usual grind of having to learn stuff for exams, but this was lightened by enthusiastic, charismatic, and clear teachers, (despite one French teacher having an execrable accent!). The background ethos was one of relaxed but focussed learning where we were simply expected to do well, but it was not hyper competitive and there was not, as I recall, much denigration of those less able. There were too, as there are now, numerous societies and other after school activities.

The founder of the Jesuit Order, Saint Ignatius Loyola, is quoted as saying, “Give me a child till he is seven years old, and I will show you the man.” As much child development research finds, the early years are vital. But that does not mean that schooling in the secondary years is unimportant.

Far from it. But it does mean that children come to their secondary years already with certain dispositions which impact on their behaviour and that behaviour affects how that person is treated by others. We partly make our own social environments. But not entirely. A mixture of good luck and particular peers and teachers and general ethos of a school can steer a young person’s development,

negative aspects.

As a child clinical psychologist there is the privilege and interest, usually denied to purely academic researchers, of learning about the inside story of the lives of others, which is combined with the satisfaction of trying to help them. There is the frustration of not being able to do enough, and not knowing how to help.

There is the challenge of trying to

So, we grew up in a school environment that was nurturing, kindly, and interesting but which expected high standards academically and ethically. As to lessons which I carried with me, they involve the idea that a world which embodies Trinity’s values and ethos is worth striving for.

When you reflect on your varied career, what aspects have you found the most rewarding and the most challenging?

All have had their positive and

produce the maximum of benefit in the minimum of NHS time.

There is the pleasure of teaching and mentoring students and addressing audiences of parents or colleagues or via TV or radio.

There is the guilt and stress of

the long waiting list, sometimes as long as a child has lived. This has got worse in the last decade as the government gradually underfunds and so undermines the NHS. A research ethologist. Ethology is a branch of zoology and is defined as the biological study of behaviour. Humans are just one amongst a myriad of species which ethologists study. It is different from psychology and focuses on trying to understand observable behaviour in everyday environments. As a research ethologist there is the absorbing interest in one’s subject (in my case child behaviour, especially autistic behaviour), the development of new ideas, the communication with colleagues around the world, presenting ideas at conferences or in papers and getting feedback and learning from that, the feeling that one is offering ideas to many which may, or may not, be helpful and advance a field. There is the frustration at the slowness of it, the (sometimes justifiable) nit picking and ivory tower mentality of some scientists, and of having to plough through numerous tedious scientific papers. One colleague once called me a maverick, which has positive and negative aspects. The negative ones related to my view that much psychology was both non-science and nonsense, which meant that many standard psychology methods were not ones I wanted to use. The positive aspect was that I was different from the mainstream, although supported by many likeminded colleagues around the world and we felt we were helping to develop a more coherent, more useful science of human behaviour.

I fell by chance into the commercial field for three reasons, to make money (let’s be honest), secondly it was different, fun, fast and required a different way of thinking from clinical and research work and, thirdly, to introduce human science ideas into the commercial arena.

I started the expert witness work late in my career. I see that job as offering the court an understanding of the case to help them help the children. The reward is the interest in the cases and being able to apply one’s knowledge to the benefit of the child and to explain that in court if need be. The frustration is dealing with combative barristers who try and impugn one’s competence, although it is sometimes satisfying to put their arguments down.

There is, very occasionally, a clash of my ethics with court rules or a judge’s mistakes which can be unpleasant. Ethics wins.

John in Arizona with a Navajo child, 1975

15 Being a charity trustee or official in a scientific society can be interesting and one feels one is contributing, meeting new people and perhaps furthering one’s career, but the details of administration, of finance and, especially, of keeping up with government regulations are areas I find very tiring and unmotivating.

In general, the nice thing about working in different areas – clinical, research, training, business, team building (I haven’t mentioned that), administration - is that there is a refreshing and stimulating crossfertilisation of ideas and skills.

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Your help was instrumental in the renowned well-known Persil Campaign “Dirt is Good”. How does a clinical psychologist become involved in something like that?

As I said, I fell by chance into the commercial field after being contacted by someone who had heard of my work designing playrooms for autistic children.

I gradually developed contacts, became a director of a friend’s company in London and later started my own small company whose aim was to bring the fruits of the human sciences into the commercial area. I presented at business conferences in the UK and Europe. That profile led to me being contacted to help companies develop background research to support their various endeavours. This usually also involved a series of interviews on radio or with print journalists.

Examples were research into children’s play for a charity to support play (for Debenhams), research into children’s dreams, (for Warner Brothers’ production of Alice in Wonderland), into children’s video watching and

John with the 1st XI hockey team in 1964

the evolution of storytelling in humans (for Disney), and for Unilever, human’s relationship with dirt in their worldwide “Dirt is Good” campaign for, as the soap powder is called in the UK, Persil.

This was part of Unilever’s more general promotion of “vitality”.

So, we researched the value of play and sport (good for you, you get dirty, but Persil can clean the clothes), but also the physiological and behavioural immune systems dealing with the threats of dirt. As I pointed out to Unilever, I work in a hospital, and we are only too aware that people die from dirt, I insisted a balance was necessary

and that would also prevent criticism that their message was dangerously one-sided.

What one piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

As any counsellor or psychotherapist knows, giving advice is one of the least effective ways of changing behaviour! So, I am not sure I would have taken the advice!

The question implies a recognition of mistakes that could have been avoided with the right advice.

There have certainly been lots of mistakes and errors of judgement, but perhaps one has to make them to learn from them.

I recall the Chinese saying, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”.

John aged 11

17 - Memory Lane

1960s “One teacher, inclined to hypochondria, had something put in his water on his desk which made his pee turn blue!”

1970s “Whilst working in the old lost property office in the underground, me and my two friends decided it would be a good idea to bring in a kettle and plug it into the light socket. Our physics lessons clearly hadn’t sunk in as, inevitably, we ended up blowing the fuses for the lighting in half the school. Ironic as 15 years later I ended up working in the electricity industry!”

Do you remember these school magazines from the 1960s and 1990s?

To read more about the history of the school magazine, read this fascinating article, on LinkedIn, by our archivist, Laurie King

Click on the images to read more

Welcome to the Trinity Sanderstead Sports and Social Club To find out more head to their website here

18 - Alumni Return

Higher Education Week Nineteen former students returned to talk to our Lower Sixth about their experience of university. It was a hugely positive experience for all involved.

STEM careers event On Tuesday 15 November, Trinity hosted a special careers evening for Fourth, Fifth, Lower and Upper Sixth students interested in roles in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sector.

We were delighted to welcome five outstanding speakers - including three Trinity alumni: Tom Livesey (Class of 2007), Navin Peiris (Class of 1991) and Patrick Hope (Class of 2017), together with two parents: David Fry and Cheryl Battersby.

Guest Talk: Paul Cleal OBE on tackling racism in football We were delighted to welcome Trinity alumnus Paul Cleal OBE (Class of 1984), to talk to students and staff about his work on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) - specifically tackling racism in football. He spoke about his love of football as a lifelong Palace fan, stepping out onto the pitch as a Palace ball boy, his career and current work with the Premier League.

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Prizegiving Guest of honour at the 2022 Prizegiving ceremony was 2015 Head Boy, Nathan White: “Without the foundations that I gained at Trinity, I wouldn’t be standing here today, and I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. I really do believe that Trinity not only helps you secure great grades and qualifications, but opens doors to you in the future and gives you the strength of character, of authenticity and the mindset that will not only get you through the door but allow you to thrive there, whatever that is.”

To listen to Nathan’s full speech, click here

Student Trip to the Houses of Parliament A group of Sixth Form Politics students and student members of the Law Society recently travelled up to London to visit the Houses of Parliament.

The students were also delighted to meet Trinity alumnus Chris Shaw (Class of 1986) who is currently working as a clerk for the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Festival of Ideas Trinity Schools Festival of Ideas was organised by English teacher and alumnus Harry Petty (Class of 2015). This year’s theme was innovation.

Dr Ed Millgate (Class of 2015), kicked off the festival with a talk on psychology.

Barn Barnabas (Class of 1989), talked to students about his work as a composer.

Matthew Eagling (Class of 2015), chatted to Junior and Third Form students about his work at the European Space Agency’s European Space Research & Technology Centre.

Cemal Ezel (Class of 2002) is the founder of Change Please CIC. Listed by Bloomberg as the world’s most promising start-up. Change Please was also Sir Richard Branson’s 2018 “Start Up of The Year” in The Sunday Times and they have recently won the Queen’s Excellence award for Social Mobility 2019. He gave a fantastic talk about what his company aims to achieve which you can watch here.

20 - Events

Remembrance Day Service The Remembrance Day assembly was led by our very own alumni ambassador and archivist Laurie King. The assembly was attended by students, staff, and our special guests - alumni from the Trinity Club. The Last Post was played, and a wreath was laid at the war memorial by the Headmaster and the Head Boy and Head Girl. We are looking forward to growing this event year by year.

2022 Leavers – Girls only event at the Turtle Bay in Croydon 12 girls including two 2018 leavers joined the group for a last catch up before they all set off for university and/or their GAP year.

Trinity Club – 5 Year Reunion Event More than 100 former students from the classes of 2015, 2016 and 2017 came together for a reunion at The Trinity Club in Sanderstead over the summer.

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Milestone Reunion After a three-year pause, we were delighted to welcome back our alumni for their milestone reunion at Trinity School. Some of our alumni were nervous and apprehensive, but these thoughts were soon cast aside and there was a palpable excitement in Trinity Concert Hall (Big School) at the prospect of everyone getting back together to build connections and reminisce.

Being back on the school grounds certainly evoked lots of memories and it was wonderful to hear stories from our alumni, reminiscing about their time at Trinity as they walked through the corridors and classrooms.

Reception for supporters of The Trinity Bursary Fund On Wednesday 12 October, we welcomed Trinity School’s invaluable community of Bursary Fund supporters to the iconic Old Bailey. Every year they are invited to an evening reception to thank them for their support. Their one-off gifts and monthly subscriptions to the Trinity Bursary Fund enable many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to benefit from an outstanding Trinity education.

Thank you to Trinity parent Adam Rout for inviting us to this incredible space, and for his entertaining talk on the history of the Old Bailey

Parents of the U25s Drinks Reception In August, we held our inaugural drinks reception for the parents of alumni aged under 25. It was one of the first opportunities we have had to welcome this important group from our Trinity community back after the restrictions of the last couple of years.

Around 40 people were in attendance, ranging from parents’ of 2015 leavers all the way up to parents of our Upper Sixth students who, at the time, were eagerly awaiting their A Level results the following day.

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Sadly, we lost dear friends from our Trinity community in recent months. They have been very much in our thoughts, and we remember some of them here.

Correlli Barnett CBE, left 1945 Distinguished former pupil, military historian, and sometime school rebel, Correlli Barnett died in July this year aged 95. Often outspoken, he shone an uncomfortable light on lionised military leaders, but was widely admired by experts for his forensic analysis of major events in British and world history.

He developed his enthusiasm for history during the Second World War at school and went on to study Modern History at Oxford.

David March, left 1967

Ian Law, left 1974

David was one of those fortunate to have been at both North End and Shirley Park and was a huge presence in 1960s Trinity life. He was a powerful and fast rugby centre, representing the school at all age levels and was also in the athletics teams. With his younger brother Rob, who was also in the rugby side, he shared a love of motorbikes and fishing. With his booming voice, constant chatter and strong physical presence, he was hugely popular with boys and masters alike. Alongside the macho image, David always showed a caring and considerate side that endeared him to everybody.

Ian joined Trinity on a scholarship in 1966. A proud member of the U12 rugby XV, Ian later became a supporter of the Modern Arts Club and appeared in the longest running house play ever.

Appointed CBE in 1997, he is survived by two daughters from his marriage to the late Ruth Murby.

Ian gained a PhD in sociology in 1985, beginning a deep, lifelong commitment to racial justice.

He left Trinity in 1967 to take up a graphic design course at Guildford Art College and moved into graphic design as a career, firstly with IPC, then as an independent consultant.

There are many areas where Ian’s work has been influential in shaping policy responses to issues of racism and ethnic diversity across many fields of public policy, including hate crime, mental health, community care, housing, and social security.

Ian is survived by his wife Jude, his sons Alex and Seb, and by his sister, Anita, and brother, Kim.

23 We send our condolences to the family and friends of the following alumni who also died in the past few months: Michael J Fox, left 1949

Malcolm R Prescott, left 1957

Richard M Dean, left 1981

Geoffrey R Pitts, left 1949

Martin C Rush, left 1958

Robert M Bridges, left 1980

David A Hunt, left 1953

Michael J Kilby, left 1960

John G Axford, left 1956

Jonathan H Prytherch, left 1962

Steve Howard, left 1977

Gavin Mander, left 1989 Martin How MBE – Friend of Trinity Gavin was at Trinity from 1981-

Steve was a footballer with silky skills and although diminutive in size, hence one of his nicknames was Mini, he had such prowess at finding the net that even when his team did not make the final of the Sixth Form football tournament, he was still the overall top scorer.

He loved West Ham and was often heard claiming that they won the World Cup in 1966. He played for the legendary Addiscombe Aztecs, winning player of the year in 1983 when the team won the Croydon Sunday League Cup Final at Selhurst Park. That Steve should succumb after playing walking football is ironic, but also so sad that we have lost such an amiable and really fun-loving guy.

89, along with his twin brother Richard and his other brother, Phil.

Gavin played the flute in the Junior Chamber Orchestra, as well as the piano but he always had a great interest in sport.

He represented the school at Junior Athletics and Cross Country, played 2nd XI Hockey and 2nd XV Rugby and was in the 3rd XI Cricket team. He was a prefect and took a leading part in directing and saving the Sixth Form revue – Gavin is reported in the school magazine as being solely responsible for rescuing the Revue from potentially being an utter disaster and actually delivering an hilarious show.

Gavin’s sporting love continued as he played hockey for the Old Boys and then joined Addiscombe Cricket Club when his son James was a junior there. Gavin went on to become a qualified umpire for the club over a large number of years and his presence will be greatly missed.

Martin was often referred to as the best cathedral organist this country never had. Martin started the Chorister Training Scheme in 1965, around the same time as he started supporting the Trinity Boys Choir. Students remember him as being incredibly encouraging with a great sense of humour.

He worked for the Royal School of Church Music at Addington Palace, where he was choirmaster and later their Southern Commissioner. He was to remain with the RSCM in one capacity or another until his retirement in 1993. In recent years, he has spent many days each week at Croydon Minster, either practising the organ or playing for services there.

23

Dates for your diary Spring

Summer

Autumn

Thursday 23 February 2023

Wednesday 26 April 2023

October 2023

London Networking Event

My Trinity Careers Networking Event

Trinity Bursary Fund Supporters’ Reception

East India Club Sign up here Saturday 18 March 2023 TPA Quiz

The Oxo Tower Sign up here Wednesday 24 May 2023 Trinity Golf Day

Trinity School Friday 24 March 2023 Founder’s Day Supper Trinity School

November 2023 My Trinity Careers Networking Event Remembrance Day Service

Croham Hurst Golf Club

December 2023

Sign up here

U25 Xmas Drinks

Saturday 17 June 2023 Milestone Reunion

Sign up here Sat 15 April 2023

All years up to 1969, as well as classes of: 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008

Evensong Ely Cathedral

Trinity School

Sign up here

Sign up here Saturday 8 July 2023 TPA Proms Trinity School Wednesday 16 August 2023 Past Parents Drinks

Contact Artwork by U6 student Joe Bodle

Shirley Park Croydon CR9 7AT 020 8656 9541 trinity-school.org alumni@trinity.croydon.sch.uk

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