Headmaster’s Newsletter
Week ending 22 June 2018 Dear Parents, The 2018 Malawi team are just weeks from departure (our third trip) and we are very excited to see our Malawi classroom project (funded by Trinity parents and staff) progressing so well, as you can see from the pictures below. We will also be furnishing the classrooms upon completion.
The team are gathering resources such as chalk, stationery and netball hoops to take out, along with all the Sainsbury’s School Sports equipment we have bought using the vouchers that parents collected last year. This includes primary school level equipment such as tunnels, beanbags, hoops, balls, rockets, stopwatches and playground games. Benny Dembitzer, author of ‘The Famine Next Door’ spoke to the team and our Economics Sixth Form students this week about the need to develop small scale agriculture in Malawi. He is working to link local projects together from across Malawi to share best practice and hopes to feature our project. So far over £15,000 has been raised this year. If parents are able to donate bottles for the TPA Prombola event on 7 July, please bring them to the school office. Find out further information about our Malawi project, and you can also donate to the appeal. Galactic Challenge Last Saturday saw Trinity host its very first Galactic Challenge, a new, slimmed-down version of the UK Space Design Competition aimed specifically at younger students. With Trinity teams involved in the UKSDC since its inception 10 years ago – and national finalists almost every year since – it was an easy decision to run our own event. Students from a number of local primary schools who have participated in our Primary Partnership Programme joined a dozen or so of our Junior Form students to form two ‘Company Teams’, tasked with putting forward their proposals for a Mars research base. Trinity students Felix Barry-Casademunt (JW), Jonathan Brunet (JC), Finlay Evans (JL), Victor Ibberson (JC), Matthew Johnsen (5M), David Onadeko (JW), Dylan Patel (JW), Adhi Sasikumar (JW), Daniel Todd (JC), Adam Wisniewski (JL), Boaz Wong (JC) and Simeon Wren (JW) proved to be not only eager competitors, but also (and more-importantly) excellent collaborators and hosts to our Year 5 visitors, with whom they were inter-mixed. The event also provided an opportunity for some Year 9 students Seb Crabtree (3D), Joel Cuttle (3V), Ted Lockstone (3V), George Ogden (3M), Bashir Olatunji (3M), Anirudha Vikram (3C)and Liam Writer (3C) to act as guides and technical experts. Having themselves taken part in a similar challenge earlier this year, they brought to the day both their event experience and excellent mentoring skills. The teams were overseen by two of our Lower Sixth students, Ellen Wyllie and Julian Bromberg who, as veterans of the senior competition, were company CEOs for this challenge. Their good humour, energy and organisational skills were exemplary. A visitor to the competition remarked: “The children were so enchanting & fabulously clever”. Head of Science & STEM Coordinator Bill Tucker said “I so enjoyed being in their company, observing & listening. It was a privilege to watch them learn and grow in confidence as they worked together. I found it incredible that Ellen and Julian led their teams almost singlehandedly’. Congratulations to all involved for their hard work and for being such excellent ambassadors for the school.