Disrupting the Pattern 2024‍

The education of countless students at Trinity would not have been possible without the charitable funds made available for low income families by the John Whitgift Foundation and Trinity Bursary Fund. I was fortunate enough to have been one of the students receiving bursary support – and I do not think I will ever be able to fully repay the feeling and life-readiness this can provide to someone.

During the seven years that I spent at Trinity, I pushed myself to ensure I remained focused on my education, whilst also dabbling in various different non-academic activities. For instance, I gained my love of sailing from the school sailing club, and in my younger years at the school enjoyed playing rugby during the cold and wet winter months! There are such a vast array of clubs and societies that students can enjoy that really are quite like no other.

My time at Trinity came to a pretty unexpected and abrupt end when schools had to close in March 2020 as the world watched the outbreak of the coronavirus. That period of remote schooling allowed me to reflect on the previous seven years I had spent at Trinity. One of the memories I hold most dearly from my time at Trinity was the opportunity to travel to Malawi on the volunteering trip in the summer of lower sixth.

The teachers at Trinity really are like no other. The knowledge and passion that each teacher has for their subject is outstanding, but for me, the real care they have for each individual student helps to create the warm community feeling that Trinity embraces. All teachers want their students to do well, but what sets the teachers at Trinity apart from the rest, is that they want to create well rounded individuals that can go on to succeed in life in whatever career path they might choose to go on to.

I am currently a final year physical geography student at Durham University, and my passion for the subject has stemmed the engaging and exciting lessons at Trinity. During my upper sixth year I was fortunate enough to have been the president of the Trinity Geography Society, which allowed me to think outside of the curriculum to create engaging and fun presentations to other members of the school. During my time at Durham, I have enjoyed the opportunity conduct some interesting fieldwork relating to my studies – including the investigation of Late Devensian retreat rates of the glaciers in the Isle of Skye, and the retreat rates of glaciers since 1900 in Iceland.

After I complete my studies at Durham, I will be moving back down to London to pursue a first career in recruitment. I hope in the future to use the knowledge I learned in my degree to enter into an industry of sustainability.

I firmly believe that the bursary I was granted, enabling me to study at Trinity, has changed my life. Bursaries change lives, and words cannot describe how thankful I am for having had the opportunity to attend Trinity.