Lower School Years 7 and 8
We look forward to welcoming approximately 110 eager Year 7 pupils to Trent College every year. The Lower School consists of Year 7 and 8 pupils. An environment for all new pupils is established to ensure that our new students have a caring and structured introduction to Trent. Our intake is drawn from a wide variety of different types of Primary Schools within the East Midlands area and our Junior School, the Elms. Some pupils walk to school, arrive by car or make use of one of the buses operating each day to and from all parts of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire as well as the North of Leicestershire.
For the first two years of their secondary education, our pupils are based at the Lower School. Our Lower School building is specifically utilised for our pastoral care and not for any teaching purposes. It provides not only a secure place for pupils' belongings but it acts like a homely environment in which our girls and boys grow in maturity and confidence.
Each pupil is allocated to equal ability form groups, with a maximum of 24 students in any form. Lower School pupils are closely guided by their form tutors, who regularly see their form for morning registration for PSHE and form time activity. The tutors play a significant role in the life of all pupils at Trent College by overseeing the progress of each pupil in their Form. The tutors are not only key to liaising with parents or guardians, but also key in striving to develop a good work ethic amongst all pupils by closely monitoring their academic progress. Tutors also help their tutees discover their individual strengths and aptitudes by ensuring that their tutees are actively involved in the life of the school. All pupils, together with their parents, are afforded the opportunity to meet their form tutors before the start of the academic year.
Year 7 and 8 pupils follow a five day curriculum, with timetabled lessons each day in the morning and in the afternoon. More teaching is allocated to our core subjects Maths, English and Modern Languages. We monitor our pupils' academic programme regularly through internal tracking schemes which have been internally devised. We always aim to keep our parents informed of pupils' progress through our use of regular ongoing assessments, formal end of term reports and also face-to-face parent/teacher consultations. At Trent we encourage communication with parents on any issue at any time.
Pupil involvement in activities is an integral and exciting part of the day, when our boys and girls participate in activities within our timetable and in our wide-ranging after school activity programme, with its multitude of opportunities. Examples of some of our activities on offer are Horrible Science, Chemistry Chaos, Cookery Club, Outdoor Adventure Club, Drama Clubs and Sports Clubs such as hockey, badminton and basketball.
Apart from Drama as a curriculum subject, our boys and girls enjoy acting in the Annual Lower School Production, one of the highlights of the Trinity Term with a cast that normally exceeds 50 pupils. Normally two thirds of our intake choose to participate in our musical tuition programme. Our musicians play in ensemble groups from quartets to large bands and orchestras that rehearse weekly and perform regularly at our Lower School Concerts. Our really talented musicians play in our senior music groups such as the swing band, symphonic wind band and our first school orchestra. Our weekly assembly on Friday in the Chapel always features a performance from one of our musicians and/or a drama piece.
On the playing fields our pupils receive coaching in the major games for the term. For the girls it is hockey in the Michaelmas Term, followed by Netball in the Lent Term and Rounders, Athletics, Swimming and Tennis in the Trinity Term. The boys receive weekly coaching in Rugby Football in the Michaelmas Term, which gives way to Hockey in the Lent Term followed by mainly Cricket, with some Athletics, Swimming and Tennis in the Trinity Term. We pride ourselves on turning out several teams on a regular basis of each age group for A Teams, B Teams and C standard Teams. Unlike the Main School and Sixth Form, there are no timetabled lessons on Saturday mornings. Most sports matches against other schools take place on Wednesday afternoons, although there are a small number on Saturdays.
Our pupils are busy, enjoyably so, right up to the end of formal lessons in the afternoon. Pupils then have the choice to go home at that time or stay to finish their prep, under supervision at the Lower School, in their own Form Rooms. For those who opt to stay, tea is provided in the Obolensky dining hall before supervised homework sessions begin. We actively encourage pupils to stay and complete their prep so that they can enjoy quality time at home without the need to worry about school work.
We make every effort to ensure that our new pupils settle into Trent as smoothly as possible. Our new pupils are invited onto our Year 7 Orientation Programme, which starts a day earlier at the beginning of the Michaelmas Term. The other highlight of this programme is an Adventure Weekend, usually at an outdoors centre in the Peak District where our pupils participate in a range of outdoor activities such as cargo net climbing, cycling, sky ropes, tunnelling and low ropes. Our teams of Peer Mentors (trained in partnership with Childline) also play a major role in welcoming new pupils and making Lower School a warm and friendly environment.
Lower School pupils make a successful and meaningful start to the all-round education process at Trent. Our pupils make a natural progression into the Main School and face different challenges and opportunities which will allow them to develop those essential personal qualities that will make them successful leaders of the future.
