Leadership interview with Stuart Grainger, Trinity College School

TCS is like a little village in and of itself. And living in a village gives you lots of opportunities for downtime and sports, athletics and arts. We often say here that learning takes place twenty four hours a day. It’s almost like how a lot of kids look at camp. You can tell that kids who went to camp loved it. The big surprise [at TCS] is how much people love the school, and how much the alumni love the school.

The best part about TCS is it's like the best part of life. You know, if you’re to live a full and enriching life, what would you like to do? Well, you'd like to be challenged. You'd like to be academically stimulated; intellectually stimulated. You’d need to be physically active. You’d like to be connected. You'd like to be recognized. You'd like to be celebrated. You’d want to feel part of something bigger than yourself, and contribute to something bigger than yourself. … [At TCS], on any given day, in any given week, you're kind of fulfilling what you always wanted to do.

The regiment of a nine to five or a Monday to Friday work week doesn't really apply [at TCS]. And that's a good thing.

I try to have coffee with the kids first thing in the morning because we have boarding students and day students coming in. We have assembly — chapel — all those kinds of things that unite the whole school together. And that's probably my favorite part of the day: when you have five hundred, six hundred kids all together from all across Canada — all across the province, all across the region, different countries around the world — to connect face to face, with all the kids. That's an incredibly energizing feeling.

There's no typical day at Trinity College School. But every day, if there's a theme, it’s very active — at all hours of the day. The kids are moving very quickly between their responsibilities, and pursuing their interests on a very active level.

The day students benefit from being part of a boarding school. Everything from teachers who live on campus and are available throughout the day, early morning, or even to the evening for extra help; our teachers and coaches are here throughout the day. Our meals had better be good, whether you’re a day student staying for lunch or whether you’re having three meals a day, seven days a week: the food had better be good. And just the level of support that’s available to a student at any time — whether you’re a day student or not — including on weekends. So while there’s a different [formal] classification of day students and boarding students, the experience is actually very similar.

We are a mission driven school, and our mission is developing habits of the heart and mind for a life of purpose and service. We're very much on the brain and the heart: those are our two things. So kids are constantly striving to seek meaning and a sense of purpose in their lives, as they go forward in their lives. We talk about that a great deal.

Whether you're in grade five or whether you're in grade 10 or grade 12, you're very active here at the school. You're developing not just the skills, but ultimately developing the confidence to handle a variety of circumstances that you're going to face, either in your next grade or later at university, or in life.

Holding doors at TCS, in a very small way, is a sign of being part of a community and not just thinking of yourself — and we all [hold doors], and we talk about it a great deal. When you hold a door open, literally, you’re caring about somebody else. You're showing them a pathway; you're providing them an openness, a warmth, a hello, a greeting and eye contact, an opportunity to say thank you, and an opportunity to engage in some way, either verbally or otherwise. [We encourage] that habit of heart; of, yes, trying to enhance your own skills and prepare yourself for a future, but also being part of a team. Little, tiny, important social engagements are actually setting up kids to do the right thing.

A student who will thrive at TCS is a student who wants a fresh start; somebody who either really knows what they want to do — or who has no clue. So, somebody who knows, ‘I want to be a medical doctor’: we could actually give them the path. ... We could come up with a program that would best support them to pursue getting into a medical program. We could do that. But what about the kid that says, ‘I have no idea what I want to do’? Well, we have as much time for those kids, because I actually don't think it's a bad thing to not know what you want to do at age 14, 15, 16. So what you want to do [for them] is create as many opportunities as you possibly can, with the confidence that they're going to latch onto something.

The kind of kid we look for is like a typical kid who either knows what they want to do or doesn't know, but they’re interested in finding their purpose. They are keen on discovering, you know, where they're strong, what their strengths are, what those areas are they need to develop; they are motivated to come to the school. ... What [we] want are motivated kids; kids who want a fresh start. They want to pursue something. They want to be heard. They want to be connected. They want to be engaged. They want to be celebrated. They want to build their confidence so that by the time they graduate, they feel exceptionally proud of themselves.

We want our students to feel that when they move on to university or afterwards, they're better prepared to face the slings and arrows that life is going to send them; that they can reflect back on a pretty rigorous, pretty active school life and say, ‘Oh, I remember it was pretty tough. I remember being this busy. I remember being this worried. I remember thinking I wouldn't make this team. I remember I wasn't sure if I was going to make friends. I wasn't sure if I was going to fall flat on my face when I had to do this public speaking thing. But I succeeded. I did it.’ And so later in life, they will say, ‘I know I can handle these kinds of circumstances going forward’.

I would like to think that there are a whole series of pull factors [drawing families to TCS]. The parents would say, ‘Wow, TCS, we've heard of your international reputation’, or, you know, ‘I know such and such is raving about your school’. That's what we would like to think: that it's all these positive things. But the reality is there's normally a push factor for a family and child. And that’s no disrespect to the school they're presently at. But for whatever reason, there's a sense of a need for change. It could be associated with somebody not being challenged enough academically, or a child that feels kind of lost in the system. It could be a friend network that maybe they just need to break from. It might be they want to be in a sports program that's not offered at their present school, or they're driving all over the place for activities, and they're just getting tired because they're playing hockey or they're in dance at strange hours and driving all over the place, and they just want one place where they can just do it all.

What makes schools like TCS — and TCS [itself] — so strong is that the kids have chosen to be here. They've done the research. They've gone online. They're there for the tour and they want to be here. It’s like kids who love camp. They love camp. Why? The whole experience. And I find [in] a lot of our kids … that enthusiasm to want to be part of the community and get a fresh start. So the common thread would be kids wanting to have a change … and then, you know, just wanting to dive in, even if they're scared. ... They want to start looking after themselves. They want to take control over their own education.

We strive to be the most caring school. … Care and kindness is at the essence of all good communities, and particularly school communities. And so if our school was a person, I would hope that it would be a kind and caring person, who is willing to do whatever it takes to help others while also accomplishing your own goals in the process.

I think a lot of kids look at the world as almost broken. [Now], how can they be part of the solution? I would say the evolution of our school will be just to have a greater emphasis on creating kinder, more caring, more active, engaged, and involved students, willing to do something and not just speak about it.

We have a bit of a mantra here at the school in terms of what distinguishes us. And it tends to be very simple: we strive to care more and work harder. And I'm not suggesting that people aren't working hard enough, but if you care more about whatever it is you're interested in, then you're prepared to work harder.

Honestly, choosing a school will come down to a gut feel. The number of people that have said as soon as they drove through the gates to TCS, they went, ‘I knew that this was my school!’ Or conversely, some of them who went to another school, would say, you know, ‘As soon as I went to that school, I knew. I had all of these things that I was looking for, but [those things] didn't matter, because I love — I love the feeling at the school’.