School’s out for summer

Summer is in the air; the holidays are about to begin, and the Parent Council is feeling cheerful. Last week’s decision by the City’s Education, Children and Families Committee to commit to investing £10million on developing sports facilities at Bangholm and progressing plans for refurbishment of Trinity Academy was such a great way to end the school year. This decision comes after a long period of campaigning by the Parent Council over many years. It will be great to start the new school year with the school community working with the Council on shaping our new facilities. The Education Committee’s decision and three amazing performances of We Will Rock You have given us a warm end of term glow!

Campaigning for investment in the school has been a major focus this year for the Parent Council but we’ve been busy with other things too. We have been working with the school on initiatives to tackle the costs of the school day which can make life difficult for some families. We’ve worked together on a project which should result in more parental involvement in the life of the school. We’ve done loads of fundraising and we made a donation of over £12,000 to the school to fund projects such as stage sound and lighting systems, laptops for pupil support, cricket kit, the new school website and ties for our new S1 pupils. Our members have helped with the recruitment of new curriculum leaders for Mathematics and Expressive Arts. And our first survey of parents for many years gave us really useful feedback – thank you to everyone who contributed.

September 4th 2018 is Trinity Academy’s 125th birthday and a year-long programme of events to celebrate this milestone is planned. The year will kick off with a celebration event on Friday 7 September – details of this exciting event will follow – watch this space. The ever-popular Bangholm Fun Day takes place this year on Saturday 1 September. The Parent Council’s first meeting of the year will be on Wednesday 12 September. We would love to see you at any or all of these events.

On behalf of the Parent Council, I would like to thank all parents, carers, pupils, teachers and staff and our elected representatives for their support this year. As Trinity bids farewell to the pupils and teachers leaving the school this year, we wish them well in their future careers and destinations.

An island in the summer with boats in the foreground

We hope everyone has a good summer break and returns refreshed and ready for an exciting year ahead.

Liz Blair
Chair, Trinity Academy Parent Council

Pedal for Scotland 2018

Cartoon describing the benefits of rising a bicycle. Including, it feels like flying!

For the last few years a group of parents and pupils have taken part in Pedal for Scotland’s cycle from Glasgow to Edinburgh. This event is a highly successful fundraiser and this year we are hoping to enter two Trinity Teams with separate fundraising goals:

  • Trinity Academy Charitable Trust – open to anyone; with fundraising going to our charity. The Trust supports a wide range of charitable donations to the school and pupils.
  • Team Sri Lanka – open to anyone; with fundraising contributing to the fundraising target for the School’s Hockey and Rugby tour to Sri Lanka.

The cycle is a closed-road event on Sunday 9th September. Most of us will be doing the 45-mile route, but there are also 10 and 100 mile alternatives. The 45-mile route is a mixture of hills and flat roads that can be completed by riders with a wide range of cycling skills.

  1. If you would like to take part in either team please get in touch with us and we will pass on details to the two teams.
  2. To register as an “individual” for the 45-mile event, register for the Classic Challenge and choose the Wave 2 departure time (8:00-8:30am).

If you would like to learn more, or register for the alternative distances, details are on the Pedal for Scotland website.

Investment Update

Today marked an important step forward in achieving significant investment in Trinity Academy. The Council’s Education, Children and Families Committee agreed to invest £10m from the 2018-2023 budget into building a new Bangholm sports facility and to develop detailed plans for refurbishment at Trinity Academy.

You might remember when we asked for your help in February, it was to try to ensure funding for improvements at Trinity Academy is included in the Council’s budget programme. The vote today is a first step in spending some of the budget that was set aside for “Replacement High Schools
” on Trinity Academy in the near future. The decision needs to be agreed by the Council’s Finance and Resources Committee and then the full Council before development starts but we anticipate design workshops with interested parties beginning after the summer holidays.

The Council has started to deliver on the commitments it made to delivering a ‘new’ Trinity and developing Bangholm. There is still much to do and a bigger budget needed (a capital investment programme from the Scottish Government will make the biggest difference), but our  campaign has succeeded in highlighting the needs of the school and raising its profile.

THANK YOU to all of you who helped our campaign and took time to contact local Councillors to urge the Council to make this investment.