Trinity School, Nottingham

The Trinity Catholic School

Coat of Arms
Motto Ad Dei Gloriam
("To The Glory Of God")
Established 1975
Type academy
Religion Roman Catholic
Headteacher John Dexter
Founder Sisters of Loreto
Location Beechdale Road
Aspley, Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG8 3EZ
England England
Coordinates: 52°58′09″N 1°12′33″W / 52.96915°N 1.20922°W / 52.96915; -1.20922
DfE number 892/5404
DfE URN 138341 Tables
Ofsted Reports Pre-academy reports
Students <1105
Gender Coeducational
Ages 11–18
Houses Arrowsmith, Barlow, Campion, Dalby
Colours Green, Silver and Gold
Diocese Nottingham
Website Trinity Catholic School

The Trinity School in Nottingham, England is a Catholic secondary school and sixth form with academy status for pupils aged 11-18. The School asserts that its main concerns are: 'academic excellence, good discipline and achievement in all the broader aspects of education within a happy and distinctively Catholic atmosphere.[1] Trinity is often considered (in their own words) 'one of the best schools in the whole country', this can be accredited to their high levels of academic performance; in 2011 90% of students achieved 5 A*-C grades at GCSE level and 90% of students were accepted onto their 'first choice' course at university.[2]

Admissions

The school is a faith school, and has restricted admissions. Its good academic results give it a high profile in the city, and places for the school will be limited. It is situated off Beechdale Road, a main thoroughfare, near the junction with Kingsbury Drive, between Beechdale (to the south-east), Aspley (to the east), and Bilborough (to the west). The area has many secondary schools, with Bluecoat Beechdale Campus neighbouring to the west, and Nottingham Academy for Girls nearby to the east. Woodlands School, a school for children with special needs, neighbours to the east. The north half of the school lies in Aspley, and the southern half is in Bilborough.

History

Former Schools

Bishop Dunn School was a co-educational secondary modern school on Kingsbury Drive, and named after Thomas Dunn. St Catherine's Convent School was at the Convent of Mercy on College Street in central Nottingham near Nottingham Cathedral from 1846, run by the Sisters of Mercy. It became a grammar school in 1951. It moved to Beechdale Road in 1962, becoming the Loreto Grammar School for Girls, a girls' Roman Catholic grammar school. The site on Beechdale Road was then run by the Sisters of Loreto, also known as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It took in catholic girls from all over Nottingham and outside the city.

Comprehensive

It was formed in 1975 by the merger of the grammar school and secondary modern. The grammar school site is now the upper school.

Academy

The school converted to being an academy on July 1, 2012, and is no longer directly funded or governed by Nottingham City Council. However the school continues to cooperate with the council in regards to admissions.

Notable Events

A drama technician for the School was discovered in 2013 to have coerced a 17-year-old girl to perform a sex act on him in a locked classroom at a school disco. He was subsequently sentenced to a 12-month prison sentence (suspended for two years) and ten years on the Sex Offenders Register.[3]

Traditions

The school badge

The school badge, re-designed in 1988, encapsulates much of the school's credo and ideology. The cross is derived from the Bishop's cross. The fleur-de-lys represents the Loreto School and the Triangle the first symbol of The Trinity School. They are set in school colours of green, black, silver and gold. "Ad Dei Gloriam", their motto ("To the Glory of God"), sums up the driving ideology of the school.

Houses

In year 7 pupils are allocated into 4 different houses who compete against each other in a range of activities: most notably the annual athletics competition and swimming gala. The school has recently introduced House competitions such as House Debate, Inter-house Drama, Modern Foreign Languages and Piano recitals.

The 4 houses are named after English Martyrs who died in the name of Christianity.

Activities

Trinity School Show Band

The Trinity School Show Band was formed in 1997 as a traditional marching brass band with thirty eight members, developing into over a hundred members when it became a show band. They have taken part in competitions since 2001 when they entered the World Championships in Germany. They won the Colchester Band Contest trophy (Division Two) three times between 2006 and 2008. For the 2009 season, the band were placed in BYBA's top division. At BYBA finals, Trinity came first beating all the other bands in their division. Other awards include, Academy Brass 2006 (Division Two), National Championships (Division Two) in 2006 and 2007, and Ouse Valley Sounds MBC 2008 (Division Two).[4]

Following a year away from competing, for the 2014 season, the show band competed in Division 2 of the British Youth Band Association and won the first show of the season, at Music Revolution in Bradford taking Music Effect, Music Analysis, Field Wind, Field Visual, Field Percussion and Colour Guard captions.[5]

Academic performance

Trinity has achieved an outstanding academic reputation. Public examinations at KS3, KS4 and KS5 have all been to a very high standard. GCSE results have steadily improved, not just 5 A* to C benchmarks but also the numbers of higher grades including English and Maths. Each year most of the 100 or so Year 13 students leave with their first choice of University. [The actual raw data is on the DCSF performance tables web site, and the schools own web site]. This is coupled with excellent extra-curricular achievements in music, sport and adventure training which demonstrate the tenacity and ambition of the school. The school also works closely with its associated parishes, firmly within the Catholic ethos it seeks to promote. The school enjoys good support from parents and fosters excellent relationships with pupils, as is reflected and evidenced in the most recent Ofsted report of November 2008.

Although Nottingham has many poor performing secondary schools, it offers good results at GCSE, regularly having joint-best results for the LEA's schools, with Fernwood School. Fernwood, similar to many secondary schools in Nottingham, does not have a sixth form. Trinity is the only 11-18 school in Nottingham to get above-average results at A-level, except the prestigious Nottingham High School and Nottingham High School for Girls. Many schools in Nottingham have recently become academies.

Notable former pupils

Loreto Convent School

St Catherine's Convent of Mercy Grammar School

Convent of Mercy School

Teachers

John Dexter is the current Headteacher, with Aidan Brennan as Deputy Headteacher. Assistant Headteachers are Mr R Bennett, Mr S Manderson, Miss C McGrath, Mr S Wadsley and Mrs S Wilkinson.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.trinity.nottingham.sch.uk/general/overview.aspx
  2. ↑ http://www.trinity.nottingham.sch.uk/general/overview.aspx
  3. ↑ http://www.nottinghampost.com/DJ-seduced-pupil-Nottingham-school-disco/story-20674012-detail/story.html
  4. ↑ "Trinity School Show Band". www.trinity.nottingham.sch.uk. Retrieved 2010-08-02.
  5. ↑ "Trinity School Show Band". http://www.trinity.nottingham.sch.uk/showband/2014/bradford/default.aspx. Retrieved 2014-06-17. External link in |publisher= (help)
  6. ↑ Jo Cleary
  7. ↑ Teresa Higginson
  8. ↑ http://www.trinity.nottingham.sch.uk/general/default.aspx

External links

News items

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