Trinity Grammar School (Victoria)

History

Trinity Grammar School, Kew was founded by members of the Holy Trinity parish in 1902 and opened the next year. The school originally opened in the parish hall of Holy Trinity Church with 23 boys. Edward Taffs was the first headmaster, although G. M. Long soon succeeded him.

In 1906, the school purchased a property, "Roxeth" (now Henty House, the staffroom and other offices), a small distance to the south of the church, on the corner of Wellington Street and Charles Street. Trinity quickly built Arnold Hall, the first classroom block, completing it the next year. In the same year, Trinity was registered as a public school of the Church of England. The school leased "Molina", a property on the other side of Charles Street and the site of the former Kew High School which is now further to the north, in 1908. In 1909, the school built a science laboratory beside Arnold Hall.

Two years later, G. M. Long left the school to become Bishop of Bathurst and the Reverend A. W. Tonge was appointed headmaster. A second classroom building was built, now demolished to make way for the Centre for Contemporary Learning. In 1917, Trinity again appointed a new headmaster, Frank Shann, who would lead the school for the next two and a half decades. Under his tenure, the school grew to a total of 245 boys and many buildings were built, including the now demolished War Memorial Library, the junior school classroom building and the "Health Pavilion". "Molina" was brought from its owner, John Henning, as well as the neighbouring property, "Elsinore". The properties were subsequently renamed in 1925, "Molina" becoming Merritt House, "Elsinore" Roberts House and "Roxeth" Henty House. Frank Shann died in 1943.

Alfred Bright became headmaster upon Frank Shann's death. The school built a second storey for the Junior School in 1952, and in the following year, the Parents' and Friends' Hall, a multipurpose venue, was built between Merritt House and Xavier College. On Alfred Bright's retirement, John Leppitt was appointed Headmaster. The school advanced greatly during his time as Headmaster, the number of students reaching 812. The Robertson Science and Administration Building was opened in 1959 and extended later on, and two years later, the junior school building was extended to almost meet Roberts House, providing art and music facilities. In 1968, the Shann Building was constructed between the Robertson Building and the old Arnold Hall, as well as a major sports facility, Cornell Gymnasium.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Trinity purchased land beside Lake Eppalock, near Bendigo, opening the Leppitt Outdoor Education Centre in 1973, named after the headmaster. In 1975, the boarding house, which had been run in Merritt House, closed after more than 60 years. The War Memorial Library was demolished in favour of a new classroom building, the three storey Tonge Building, and the library relocated to one floor of the Shann Building. Several years later, in 1979, John Leppitt retired. The new headmaster, Don Marles, continued the development of the school with a new swimming pool in 1980 and the renovation and renaming to the Bright Laboratories of the original science laboratories housed in the Shann Building. Merritt House, the former boarding house, was converted into a music school.

As a result of new buildings constructed over the previous two decades, the school sought further land for outdoor sports facilities. Trinity purchased land in Bulleen, near the Yarra River, and opened the Marles Playing Fields there. These facilities continue to be used today on a regular basis.

1989 saw the building of another classroom building, the, now demolished, Poynter Building. The tuckshop, the original canteen, was closed in 1990, and the cafeteria opened on the ground floor of the Shann Building. Two years later, the school finally built a dedicated chapel for weekly services (previously, students had to attend services at Holy Trinity Church, where the school began). Don Marles retired the same year, replaced by Peter Crawley.

The school was interested in the development of curriculum and saw the immense possibilities being opened up in business and industry by the use of computer technology. Nearby MLC had recently introduced Laptop Computers for the personal use by the students as an everyday part of their learning. Trinity, under the leadership of the new Headmaster Peter Crawley decided to introduce a similar programme, at Trinity, from the start of 1994. However, the new programme did not use the computers in the same way as had been the MLC experience. Trinity decided to use a business model and became the first school in the world to adopt the use of Microsoft Office within an educational setting. This attracted the attention of Microsoft in the US and they sent a film crew to the school to record the way the school was using the Laptops. In 1995 the headmaster received a letter from Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, commending him for his influence on American educators in the area of the use of technology in education. In 1996, the school purchased the Kew Municipal Offices, after the City of Kew was amalgamated into the City of Boroondara, in order to further expand its facilities. Two years later, it opened as the Peter Crawley Centre for the Arts. Peter Crawley then resigned in the same year as he accepted the position as headmaster of Knox Grammar School in Sydney.

In 1999, Richard Tudor was appointed as headmaster and the co-educational Early Learning Centre was opened. In 2000, the computers began using wireless technology and, in the following year, the school began the construction of the Science and Technology Building to replace the Bright Laboratories. This opened in 2003 the year in which Trinity celebrated its centenary year.

The school opened a new gymnasium, the Peter McIntyre Sports Centre, to complement the old Cornell Sports Gym, and another block of forested land was purchased at Licola, to complement the Outdoor Education Centre at Lake Eppalock. The school also purchased the Stillwell Showroom in 2005, on the corner of Charles Street and Cotham Road, which is currently used as a multipurpose venue, with impending development of the site in the future.

Modern Times

In recent years, the school was given money to further extend and renovate the old Kew Municipal Offices. This included a Junior School Hall (named the South Room) and a new facade to the building. This, as nearly all new buildings, were designed by Peter McIntyre. The building still has heritage features with some doors saying "Kew Town Hall" and "City of Kew".

In 2011, the Poynter Building and Tech Centre were demolished to make room for the Richard and Elizabeth Tudor Centre for Contemporary Learning. This was completed in 2013. It contains six Year 12 classrooms as well as a multi-level library. It will cross a basement, ground level with a mezzanine and an upper level. The mezzanine will have an art display gallery. The school has a ten-year plan which will include a new, indoor pool and new auditorium.

Trinity has developed a reputation as a high-achieving school in the VCE and is known for a well-balanced approach to single-sex education. In recent years, Trinity and its sister school, Ruyton Girls' School, have conducted co-educational classes for VCE year levels, and in 2013 is celebrating its twenty-year anniversary of co-education.

In 2014, Michael Davies took the position as Headmaster, succeeding Richard Tudor. Dr Davies had plans to make the school bigger, more modern and world-class.

"Trinity Connect" was created in 2014 to replace notices. It is a website that enables staff to digitally communicate with parents.

In 2015, Trinity rolled out a "new look" featuring a new logo and new digital stationary. At the beginning of the year the School employed a new Director of Innovative Learning who, using Firefly, created a new Intranet, replacing TGSNET. A student competition was held to decide the name and the winning entry was "myTGS". The School plans to officially replace TGSNET with myTGS on day 1 of 2016.

2015 also saw many new sport uniform items that were made by 2XU.

Towards the end of 2015 the school undertook two building projects: the demolition of Arnold Hall (to be replaced by the Centre for Business & Social Enterprise) and the renovation of the Tonge Building. The state-of-the-art Centre for Business & Social Enterprise will include 8 classrooms and a lecture hall.

2016 saw many changes to the Senior School curriculum, including Year 7 examinations and elective subjects for Year 8.

Notebook computer program

Co-curricular

Trinity is known for its extensive co-curricular program.

House system

A significant part of school life is that of the house system, named after notable contributors at Trinity.

Outdoor education

The Leppitt Outdoor Education program, as it is known, includes participation in Bushwalking, Sailing, Canoeing, Kayaking, First Aid, Navigation, Cooking, Knot Skills, and White Water Rafting. The program is compulsory for students from Year 7 to Year 10. Camps are based around school properties at Lake Eppalock, Lake Nillahcootie, Licola and the Grampians.

Campuses

The main campus in Kew covers all sides of the intersection of Wellington and Charles Streets in Kew, and houses state of the art facilities including the Sport Centre, Centre for the Arts, Building for Science and Technology, and the Tudor Centre for Contemporary Learning.

Buildings on Kew campus

Old Trinity Grammarians

The Old Trinity Grammarians' Association (OTGA) was formed in 1909 continues to remain a notable alumni community.

The aims of the OTGA are:

Old Trinity Grammarians sporting clubs

One of the most popular network of communication for old boys is through the OTG sporting clubs. Currently, the following sporting clubs exist:

Controversies

In 2016, Mark Watson, a former employee of Melbourne's Trinity Grammar School whose work involved caring for boarding school students, was committed to stand trial over 41 historical sex offences against five boys. The abuse is alleged to have taken place between 1975 and 1978, and is the present subject of a compensation claim.

In January 2017, the school was again brought to prominence over allegations that senior members of the school community knew of abuse allegations against a different teacher when it sent a tribute letter.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of Trinity Grammar School include: