From the Head Master

The first week of Term 2 at Trinity has been the clearest demonstration yet that we are well-advanced through the (long) tail of the pandemic. The usual activities of the School have been able to roll forward with minimal compromises and the mood of the community appears to be upbeat following the Easter break.

I am struck by the quantity and diversity of activity that has taken place this week. The Year 9 students for Field Studies Programme #2 have departed for their term in residence at our Woollamia campus and the students from Programme #1 are regaling us with stories of their experience. The Duke of Edinburgh hike has returned from Tasmania, having successfully completed our first inter-state trip since the pandemic commenced.

The Trinity Grammar School Cadet Unit was heavily engaged in ANZAC Commemorations at both Trinity and Meriden, as well as Dawn Services around the Inner West, and our Marching Band served the parade at Huskisson on Jervis Bay near our Field Studies Centre. A more detailed story, along with images and a video, can be found here.

On the Summer Hill site, the work associated with the first couple of stages of the Renewal Project is underway, with the first parts of the new playing surface of Oval #2 laid and the building sites on Seaview St and Oval #3 established. The rain looks likely to delay the completion of Oval #2, but we are looking forward to being able to host fixtures, as well as being able to use it for training and general recreation.

We are expecting to receive another delivery of Rapid Antigen Home Tests (RAHTs) from the government to be distributed to staff and students in the near future.

There has been some further relaxation of COVID-19 regulations over the break; these were communicated to families at the start of this week. The key difference is that students who are household contacts are no longer required to isolate, but may attend school, provided they test negative on a daily RAHT and if they wear a mask indoors. More information can be found here.

We continue to see confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community, but at a much lower level than was the case in Term 1. During the course of last term, about one third of our students tested positive to COVID at some point, with the high point being one hundred and forty students in early March. However, there are only sixteen current confirmed cases amongst the students as of Thursday. COVID-19 continues to cause minor disruption as staff test positive; I suspect that this will be our ongoing experience.

Finally, the School bade farewell to Mr Ian Moore today. The following text is extracted from the speech I made on the occasion.

On quad this morning we farewell Mr Ian Moore.

Mr Moore is the longest-serving current member of staff, having been at teacher at Trinity since 1978. Straight from university, he was appointed to the Economic faculty by Rod West, and his Head of Department at the time was Milton Cujes. For more than forty-four years he has served at the School, leading the Economics faculty for more than thirty-five years.

Mr Moore has been a towering figure in the teaching of Economics in NSW. He has helped students to achieve outstanding HSC results, he has written text books, and he has developed teachers, many of whom have gone on to positions of leadership in other schools.

During this time Mr Moore developed and ran the Economics Q and A, where he demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to bring some of the leading politicians, public servants, journalists and business people of the country to the school to be grilled by our senior economics students. Malcolm Fraser, Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have all been brought to Trinity. So too have Federal Treasurers, State Premiers, Governors of the Reserve Bank, CEOs, Departmental Secretaries and the list goes on. The opportunities for Trinity students to engage with people whose thinking and decisions have shaped our country are innumerable and priceless.

Mr Moore is also the founder of the RAW Challenge co-curricular. Part fitness training, part motivation seminar, part life coaching, part peer support, the RAW Challenge experience has been a unique co-curricular offering that has been loved by generations of Trinity students.

Every day and every week for a Trinity teacher is full. Full of challenges and opportunities, interactions with students and with staff, occasions in which teachers can shape the lives of students, moments in which memories are made. For more than forty-four years, Mr Ian Moore’s days and weeks have been full of Trinity. His contributions have been wholehearted, unique and invaluable. Men of the School, will you join with me in representing the last four decades of Trinity students as we acclaim and bid farewell to Mr Ian Moore.

Detur gloria soli deo

Tim Bowden | Head Master