Local Communities

The Rowdown Inspire to Aspire Foundation has been set up to inspire children in Croydon to aspire to something big, something extra and to support them in their aspirations.

Croydon is ranked as the most deprived of all the South London boroughs. In terms of Income Deprivation Affecting Children (IDACI), it is ranked 78 out of 317 boroughs across the whole country.

Over the past few years, the Rowdown Foundation has developed its Tuition Programme to provide academically able pupils in Croydon primary schools with extra lessons in Maths and English to prepare them for 11+ entrance exams for selective and semi-selective state, grammar and independent schools.   

In 2017, Trinity took over the tuition for around 50 primary school pupils a year, both boys and girls. The school pays the teachers and provides all the books, equipment, and refreshments for two hours every Saturday morning.

We have been able to offer Trinity bursaries to eight pupils from the Rowdown Foundation programme. It is a community initiative in every sense.

Trinity Primary Partner Schools programme

Tuki Rounds

One of the toughest aspects of bursary support is simply ensuring that the right students know that it is something we offer. As Marian Wright Edelman famously said: “You can’t be what you can’t see”. This understanding is now at the heart of our work with our local schools.

Our new Trinity Primary Partner Schools programme, launched officially this year, allows us to form much closer ties with a more limited number of local primaries. With these schools, we are building deeper relationships and welcoming local children into Trinity more consistently.

We hope that regular engagement with activities such as STEM days, photographic and sporting competitions, musical concerts and plays will help these students understand that Trinity is a place where they can thrive and, crucially, where they will be welcomed, whatever their means.

This programme also allows us to form stronger relationships with the teachers in these primary schools by offering free professional development, subject-specialist advice, and by curating professional links. In turn, we hope this will encourage them to discuss the educational opportunities that Trinity can offer with their suitable families.

In time, we hope that students offered bursary places in this way will assist their former schools as role models and that, ultimately, they might give back once they are established in successful careers.

Our goal is for the Trinity Primary Partner Schools programme to be an engine of educational aspiration which, supported by the Trinity Bursary Fund, shows young people in Croydon that there is a place for them in our community and a successful future ahead.