Prizegiving Ceremony 2025

Students, staff and family gathered on the last day of term for Prizegiving Ceremony, a chance to reflect on the year, recognise the achievements of our student body and look forward to what the next couple of years will bring. 

David Seymour CB, alumnus and Chair of Governors, opened the event: He spoke of talking to people outside of our school, and the positive reputation our students have. He said that today, while we recognising the incredible achievements of our individual students, we must also recognise the efforts of our teaching staff. 

David then went on to acknowledge the special community of Trinity parents, the governors who help ensure the highest standards are maintained, the operational staff who keep the school running and to all contributors of the Trinity Bursary Fund, which helps keep our community diverse. 

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Headmaster’s address 

The Headmaster then took to the stand and reiterated that Trinity is about nurturing outstanding young people who can go out and make a difference in the world. The three priorities to instil are:  

• Kindness and care – students must experience this daily at school. It takes different forms and of course there are challenges. Sir Gareth Southgate spoke about the importance of an open culture when he visited Trinity, and this something that is important to us. Mr Kennedy highlighted our award-winning mentoring programme and the 900 Good Human Awards which have been issued across the school this year 

• Stretch and ambition – we encourage self-motivated ambition, because this is more sustainable. Fantastic programmes across the school which encourage ambition and challenge include the Trinity Extension Award, Independent Travel Awards, our Second Year TEDTalk and the Lower Sixth Public Speaking workshop 

• Strength of community – we were delighted that this was recognised by the ISI as a Significant Strength (which only 10% of schools achieve). The ISI highlighted the respect and strong relationships between staff and students and how students celebrate each others differences. The Trinity Partner Primary Schools programme is a key part of school life, giving fantastic leadership experience to our students, as well as hoping to inspire young primary pupils – e.g. Travelling Band. Next year we celebrate the 60 Year Anniversary of this site in Shirley Park and as part of that have given students a challenge to raise money for the Trinity Bursary Fund. It’s important to keep our community diverse with a broad range of perspectives to prepare them for the world beyond Trinity and that is the reason we are extending our co-education to all years from 2027. 

Mr Kennedy ended by quoting Sir David Attenborough: “Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.” 

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Musical interlude from Trinity Musician of the Year 

We then enjoyed a beautiful musical interlude from our Trinity Musician of the Year  2025, cellist Tom Shaxson who played Arensky’s Chant Triste, accompanied by Head of Piano Mr Evans. 

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Prizegiving 

Vanessa Upton (Class of 2014) was our keynote speaker. Before speaking to the audience, she handed out our prizes to students from across the school. They were awarded for academic excellence, all-round endeavour, receiving Good Human Awards with special prizes awarded for Music, Community and Sports. 

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Keynote speaker 

Vanessa Upton was Head Girl at Trinity before studying English at Cambridge and is now a Senior Manager at Deloitte. 

Vanessa shared her experience of being the second year of Sixth Form girls and how the initial intrigue of being in a mixed environment soon melted away to build well-rounded relationships built on shared interests. 

She spoke of how she used university as a test ground – trying a whole range of committees and clubs to find out what route she might want to explore a career in.  

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Heads of School 

Maddy and Jared then thanked the speakers, and all involved who influenced their experience of leading the student body as Heads of School. Maddy reflected on her two years of Trinity and how she felt welcome and settled very quickly, and how the diverse community allows people to express themselves equally. 

Jared then ended with a fantastic story of his worst decision at Trinity, but in a way only he can, Jared then turned it into a lesson to share with the whole school. We are sure it made a big impact on the students. 

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Many thanks to all involved in Prizegiving, and to the whole school community for a fabulous year. Have a great summer!