School portraits: snapshots of three notable schools

Trinity School, Croydon

Headmaster Alasdair Kennedy says he wants students to leave the school ‘without any sense of entitlement, but with a humility that acknowledges the fact there is always more to learn and others to learn from’. The former grammar school, which accepts boys from the age of ten, now offers a co-educational Sixth Form, in a state-of-the-art building opened by Boris Johnson in 2012. More than half of parents do not pay the full fees of £20,437 per year due to scholarships and bursaries. This summer, 84 per cent of students got into their first choice university, with almost half of all grades awarded being A*s. The school’s co-curriculum is exceptional: there are more than 100 clubs and societies, and the boys’ choir has performed at Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House and the Aix-en-Provence Festival.