Towards the end of the summer term, we welcomed Dr Mark Prince OBE to Trinity, to share his incredible story with our partner primary schools and students.
He spoke to the Heads of schools involved in our Trinity Partner Primary Schools initiative at our annual lunch and then addressed Second Year students in the Mitre Theatre.
Dr Prince’s speech covers his own experience of running away from home at a young age, and getting involved in substance misuse and street crime. He was introduced to boxing, and turned his life around, becoming an internationally renowned Light Heavyweight champion. Sadly, in 2006 tragedy struck when his 15-year-old son Kiyan (a talented striker for QPR’s youth team) was killed by a young person with a knife, while he was trying to break up a fight at school.
Determined to use this experience to educate others, Dr Prince set up the Kiyan Prince Foundation and regularly speaks to young people and adults.
While knife crime is certainly an issue in London as a whole, for our students, Dr Prince’s speech focused on fostering a positive mindset, the importance of health self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-belief. He spoke of the importance of treating others with respect and kindness – mirroring how they would like to be treated themselves – and nurturing positive societal interactions.
His speech had a profound effect on our students. They said:
“I would like to say thank you for making me realise that I should choose the harder things instead of the easier things in life as they result in a bigger reward – respect.”
“Thank you very much for inspiring me to be able to be positive and in control of my life even when things get tough.”
“I felt this was the only talk I’ve ever heard in my life that actually persuaded me to be a nicer person to people.”
“It will help me forgive and forget, avoid mistakes, learn to work hard and to be kind and compassionate.”
Many thanks to Dr Prince for visiting us and inspiring our students and partners.
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Trinity School, Croydon, has a long history of working with local primary schools, but the Trinity Partner Primary School initiative was set up two years ago to develop stronger partnerships with a group of 16 schools. There are multiple opportunities throughout the year for their pupils to visit Trinity and utilise our facilities, and our staff and students often visit their schools for musical performances. To find out more, visit our dedicated page.
To find out more about the Kiyan Prince Foundation, visit their website here.
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