REVIEW OF Trinity College School BY parent, Erica Brown

(5) Student Experience

Since walking on the campus at Trinity College School, our children have had outstanding student experiences... even during the COVID pandemic. Our son is in his second academic year at Trinity College School, and he really appreciates the variety of academic challenges, plus the variety of extracurricular activities. These include many clubs, sports teams, academic team challenges, international travel for academic classes, community service clubs, stewardship options and the list goes on. Our daughter is in her first academic year at Trinity College School. She too appreciates the variety of academic choices and extracurricular activities. TCS ensures that students have the opportunity to succeed at balancing a busy and robust schedule, creating a full and well-rounded student experience. However, during COVID, each child has been disappointed about the restrictions on participating in these many wonderful opportunities that create the full student experience.

(5) School Leadership

The leadership and administration at Trinity College School are outstanding. They respond to problems appropriately and foster a positive school environment...even during the COVID pandemic. The communication between leadership, administration, students and parents is also outstanding. TCS has many ways of communicating with parents. For example, each week, the TCS News is emailed to all families. It is an electronic newsletter that shares the school's latest updates on the activities, academics, COVID Progress Report, plus the latest pictures on events around campus. Monthly Parent Forum Meetings are another great way the school communicates with parents. The leadership team attends these meetings and shares all the latest updates. Since COVID, the meetings are on ZOOM and continue to be a fantastic way to communicate with parents during the constantly changing pandemic environment.

(5) Teaching

Trinity College School focuses on finding and encouraging outstanding teachers. Their dedication to the students is evident in their passion and knowledge of their subjects. TCS has a team approach to ensuring academic understanding and success for students. Teachers are the lead in the team. They offer assistance in person and online for extra help. Plus, each student has a Guidance Counsellor that helps with selection of courses for the year and terms. Then, they are assigned an academic advisor that works as a liaison between students and teachers to ensure students are on track with their work, grades, etc. TCS uses a popular educational online tool called Edsby, which manages all learning systems. This application is used to update students (and parents) on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis on grades, assessments, notes, assignments, and other pertinent information related to their classes. Even during COVID, teachers and students continue to meet in an actual classroom in person. Parents are also given a formal opportunity to meet with each teacher four times a year. However, they are available to meet at other times and also offer open communication with parents.

(5) Academics

Trinity College School has an outstanding academic program. Many academic strengths are evident in the academic atmosphere and culture of the school, which is rigorous, thoughtful, and well planned. They have a "challenging academic program over four years of high school emphasizing a liberal arts philosophy." To ensure academic success in learning, each student is assigned a Guidance Counsellor. The counsellor's role is to help the student explore, decipher and choose an appropriate and interesting academic individual plan for them. They were one of the first schools in Canada selected to offer the innovative Advanced Placement Capstone diploma. The academic program at TCS is important for student growth. However, it is only part of well-rounded plan to ensure the success of the students and their future.

(5) Extracurriculars

The extracurricular opportunities offered at Trinity College School are well balanced for students who would like competition and/or fun. Plus, they offer many opportunities for stewardship and service to the local community. The list goes on and on for students to try, explore, compete, challenge, lead, serve, learn, and understand life outside of the academic life. TCS encourages the well-rounded student that becomes a well-rounded person in the world.

(5) Students

Trinity College School has an outstanding student body. The variety of students, the size of the student body and spirit add together to make a wonderful environment for learning and living. Students come from all over Canada, plus different countries, which adds to the richness and diversity of the student body. The students learn about other countries, languages, and the greatness of other cultures. There are boarding students and day students, which makes a perfect size of the school. Each student is a part of a "House," which encourages being part of a smaller group within the larger student body. Each House consists of all four grades of students and encourages students of different ages to interact and get along with each other. Smaller House events and larger full student body events do an outstanding job of creating a spirit of fun and understanding of each other.

(5) School Life

The overall quality of student life at Trinity College School is outstanding. Our son has been at TCS for two academic years. When he started at the school, the TCS school life was many things....rigorous, fun, challenging, caring, rewarding, exciting. After six months in that first year, the COVID pandemic spread across the world and changed people's lives. Our son's TCS school life changed, too. He returned home and began a new TCS Online school life. The TCS administration, staff, and leadership teams immediately went to work on creating a new school life for their students. Despite these new challenges, their enthusiasm, energy and focus never wavered and was always on the students to create a new school life. As the next academic school year started, both our son and daughter went to TCS. Students could return to campus with many restrictions due to COVID. However, TCS continues to try and create a school life that is rigorous, fun, challenging, caring, rewarding and exciting.

(5) Community

Trinity College School reaches out with the great intention to the broader community of the school. As a family, we have seen that broader community involvement from two different perspectives. First, my husband is an alumnus of the school. The Alumni network is extremely strong and the school manages, leads, encourages and supports those efforts to stay connected to TCS after graduation. Second, my husband and I are now TCS parents. The school welcomes parent and guardian involvement in the life of the school. They do an outstanding job to reach out to parents and guardians and to communicate those opportunities. The Parent Guild is a long-standing and dedicated organization to support parents and students while attending the school. Even during the COVID pandemic, the Parent Guild is connecting and encouraging parents.

(5) School Location

Trinity College School is in an outstanding location for many reasons. For boarders who come from far away, an international airport is only an hour away. For local students, buses are available for going and back forth to school. The town surrounding TCS is very welcome to the students, plus the students are given many opportunities to support and serve that local community. Students can even walk to town for a change of scenery at different times during the week.

(5) Admissions

Trinity College School has the best Admissions team! From the initial interest in the school all the way through the application process through the acceptance process, the Admissions team was there for support, guidance, and encouragement. Our personal TCS Admissions experience for our children was exceptional. Since my husband was a TCS alumnus, he wanted to ensure that our children visited TCS plus other boarding schools and make their own decision on where to attend high school. Boarding school had to be the right fit, then the school had to be the right fit. Each child chose TCS independently of their father's attendance at the school. The way that TCS conducted their admissions process really gave the children every opportunity to see all great aspects and opportunities within the TCS school life.