Growing as leaders, learners, and teachers.

For the past six years, Mr Adam Short has been teaching at Trinity – first he tackled a Year 2 class and this year is now his fourth teaching Year 6 at the Preparatory School. Alongside his teaching duties, he is also coming to the end of his Masters in Primary Education, something he is extremely proud of, but he says at a School like Trinity, teachers can’t help but be inspired to further their own education. 

“There’s a real atmosphere of lifelong learners here, and you can’t help but get swept up in it,” he says. “You can’t rest on your laurels. There’s always teachers doing different things.” 

Mr Short recognises that this culture of lifelong learning is one that comes from the very top of Trinity and the support from School management is what makes it possible to pursue further education, something he has experienced firsthand.

“As a permanent staff member I was able to apply for a Higher Education study grant for one of my semesters – this was a big incentive to further my studies,” he says. 

When it comes to managing his time, he says that Trinity’s support in this regard has made the process a lot smoother. 

“It’s always a challenge to try and get everything you need to do for your job as well as to do some extra study, but it’s been manageable with the support of the School. We are lucky to have a lot of RFF, which is something that is a real benefit here – that does allow time to get a lot of our planning done and collaborate with staff members for our jobs so that it frees up my personal time at home a little bit more.

“You won’t find many places that really encourage staff to do [further study]. It’s a real community; a lot of staff here are undertaking their own studies, even if it’s not something as big as a Masters … we’re constantly getting emails and updates on different courses that are running and our Curriculum Supervisors are often steering us in the right direction.” 

Study isn’t the only opportunity Mr Short has taken up – this year has seen him become a Housemaster, something he sees as extremely valuable in terms of his own leadership skills, as well as building relationships with students. He also notes that Trinity’s approach to pastoral leadership is refreshing. 

“It’s different to other places that I’ve worked, where you have the positions that are set until somebody steps down from that position. Every year, pastoral leaders for stages or Houses are advertised – you can put in your application and it’s often rotated to give lots of people an opportunity to have some leadership experience.” 

Trinity’s Co-curricular programme has also seen Mr Short take on different leadership roles, coaching Rugby, supervising coaches in a Co-ordinator role and running a morning fitness session in the terms he’s not involved in Rugby.

“I think it’s really important to get to know the students outside of the classroom,” he says. “You get to see the different characters and students who may not be excelling in certain areas of the classroom, but may be excelling in sports or in music or drama and it’s great getting to spend time with those students and getting to know them a little bit more, personally.” 

He sees every opportunity he’s given at Trinity as one that is beneficial for the future, even if his plans for the future of his career aren’t set in stone just now. 

“Looking ahead, leadership could be something that I’m interested in in a few years, and all these opportunities will help, whether it’s within the Trinity system or whether it’s taking a job elsewhere.” 

The idea of Trinity staff moving onto roles elsewhere is one that Mr Short says is encouraged and no one is thought less of for wanting to move on – an attitude that isn’t always found in many workplaces.

“It’s actually something that’s spoken about often,” he says.  “‘Let’s grow as teachers and leaders and learners, and if you end up outside in a different school, then that’s only positive for the education system as a whole.’ It’s definitely encouraged and promoted so that there are better teachers, all round.” 

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