Trinity Academy is a secondary school in the north of Edinburgh, which is a state-run school. It is located in the middle of the Trinity and Leigh borders. Besides, Victoria Park and the banks of the Firth of Forth at Newhaven are also in the vicinity of this school. In addition to its scenic beauty, the school also has a rich history. Earlier, it was a selective senior secondary school for which students have to appear in the qualifying exams. However, after the abolition of the old system, it is now a non-selective school. In this post, you can get to know all the essential information about Trinity Academy, Edinburgh.
Table of Contents
Aim Of The Academy
The main aim of the Trinity Academy, Edinburgh, is to create an environment where students and staff can live and work happily. It strives to promote positive behavior at the campus. It makes deliberate attempts to enhance discipline, not by punishments but by creating a controlled and safe environment. Fostering positive attitudes and developing relationships between the student and teacher is one of the foremost priorities. The friendly staff of the Trinity Academy plays a crucial role in establishing a nurturing environment for the students.
Admission Procedure At Trinity Academy
Before its removal, there was a selective Qualifying test in Primary 7 at the age of 11 or 12 years. Earlier, Trinity Academy was a fee-paying, selective Senior Secondary school. It is now a non-selective, comprehensive school that draws the bulk of its first-year students from three nearby ‘feeder’ primary schools: Trinity Primary (across the street), Victoria Primary in Newhaven, and Wardie Primary in Wardie.
Milestone Achievements
Many students have gone on to play regionally, nationally, and globally in sports such as hockey, rugby, football, rowing, sailing, basketball, badminton, cricket, and martial arts. To recognize sports achievements, Trinity Academy uses the ‘colors’ system. It awards half or full colors for different levels of achievement.
There is a special tie to recognize such achievements. This tie is worn as part of the school uniform instead of the standard school tie. The incredible talent and success are proudly celebrated in an annual Sports Personality of the Year award evening organized and hosted by students on the sports council of the school.
Trinity Academy has the Sport Scotland Gold award for its sport and physical education department.
History
Craighall Road School opened on September 4, 1893, with Thomas Trotter, formerly of North Fort Lane, as Rector. It had cost £18,850 and five shillings (excluding the land purchase from the Laird of Bonnington, James Clerk-Rattray) and had electric bells and voice tubes linking the Rector’s room to the schools, as well as gas lamps throughout. This part of the school has retained many of its original features and, as such, is a listed building. It is the oldest state secondary school building still in use in Edinburgh.
Flora Stevenson opens the academy formally on February 1, 1894. The board intended to make all the elementary departments fee-paying, waiving fees only for the secondary. However, a dissenting member wanted free education and complained to the Scottish Office. He pointed to friction at Leith Academy, with those paying fees looking down on those who did not. The majority prevailed, and fees were paid at Trinity until the comprehensive schooling debate, three-quarters of a century later.
Trinity Academy – Evolution
In 1895 the first 127 pupils were presented for Leaving Certificates in Mathematics, Arithmetic, English, French – 81 successfully. In 1901 the school became Trinity Academy under the new Rector, Thomas Duncan. The Great War claimed seventy-one former pupils and two teachers out of some three hundred who served. The school operates a house system, and the three houses are Arran, Orkney, and Skye.
In recent times the school has received attention for being used, several times, as the poster school for a national shortage of Mathematics teachers in late 2017. Also, for hosting a visit by Minister for Education, John Swinney MSP.
Second World War
Plans for a new block were again on the drawing board when the Second World War broke out. Many pupils were evacuated to Macduff on the Moray Firth until normal classes resumed in 1941. The following year Dr. Albert Weir became Rector. In this war, Trinity lost sixty-two former pupils.
Post-war landmarks during the rectorship of Alexander Neill between 1953 and 1969 were the completion of the new secondary block in March 1962 and the removal of the primary school from the huts at Bangholm to the new school on Newhaven Road in January 1968.
Trinity’s sixth Rector, William Brodie, arrived in 1969 at a time when educational tides were turning, fees were being phased out, and the days of selective schooling in the public sector were numbered.
Mergings
In September 1974, Trinity Academy merged with David Kilpatrick’s to become a fully comprehensive secondary serving North and West Leith, Newhaven, and Trinity. There was a split-site, first with the David Kilpatrick building and then, after 1981, with the Holy Cross annexes. Declining school rolls across the city led to the possibility of closure of the school or of a merger with Leith Academy.
Sport At The Academy
Trinity Academy offers a wide range of sports, making use of the sports halls in the main buildings and the local Bangholm outdoor sports complex. Hockey and rugby feature heavily in the tradition of the school, which has been home to many Scottish national junior team members over the years. For some time, the school calendar has featured a sports tour at three-year intervals. Originally just for the senior rugby teams, the hockey team soon joined in to make it a mixed affair. Tours have taken past teams to locations such as Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The school keeps hosting teams from many more countries.
Pupils from all age groups regularly compete in district and national level competitions in both sports, with major successes in some years. In both hockey and rugby, Trinity is ahead of the local state schools and often has success over teams from the independent schools too.
1: Rugby
Trinity Academy’s first XV rugby team won Rugby World Team of the Month in November 2005 after an unbeaten run, including away wins at George Heriot’s, Glenalmond, and Hutchison Grammar School. Bangholme The sports ground is also home to the Trinity Academicals Rugby Football Club.
2: Hockey
In 2004, Trinity Academy became the first state school to win the East of Scotland Hockey Knockout Cup. More recently, the first XI girls’ hockey team reached the final of the Aspire Cup in 2017 and saw a victory on their return the following year before winning the East district plate in the same season. 2019 came with a win in the Aspire plate competition.
Final Words!
This post provides all-inclusive information on the Trinity Academy, Edinburgh. If you want to become a part of the Academy, reading this full post can provide you all the insights into it. For more awe-inspiring posts, visit our blog section.
