• A pupil jumping from the Trent College high ropes course

Our Vision

To have an exceptional reputation for providing a first-class all-round education for boys and girls which ensures the best-possible start for their future and enables them to be the best they can be.

Our Ethos

We give the highest priority to the quality of our academic provision. We are also proud of our reputation for delivering a fully rounded curriculum, with sport, music, art and drama all being important elements of an education at Trent and The Elms. This, coupled with a focus on the strongest pastoral care, makes us a school that nurtures young men and women to be the best they can be in terms of achievement and character, enabling them to flourish in a changing world. This is what stands at the very core of Trent and The Elms.

Our aims are built around five strategic pillars

  • Pillar 1: Pupil Achievement

    Providing an exceptional education with excellent outcomes for each pupil across a broad range of fields by:

    • Ensuring high quality teaching
    • Continually reviewing and enhancing our curriculum
    • Delivering a programme of outstanding academic and non-academic extra-curricular activities
  • Pillar 2: Pupil Development and Wellbeing

    Equipping every pupil to achieve their potential, prepare for the next life stage, and lead a fulfilled life in an evolving world by:

    • Enhancing our pastoral care and welfare support
    • Delivering a programme of wellbeing initiatives
    • Reviewing and enhancing our Boarding provision
    • Offering the best advice and experience in school transition, careers, higher education and lifestyle choices
    • Enabling pupils to contribute positively to society
    • Promoting high standards of behaviour for learning and more widely
  • Pillar 3: Staff Development and Wellbeing

    Promoting a confident, engaged and progressive community of professional staff by:

    • Delivering a wellbeing and engagement strategy for all staff
    • Ensuring highly effective Continuous Professional Development processes for all
    • Focussing on best practice in recruitment, retention, and reward
  • Pillar 4: Communications and Engagement

    Engaging all the schools’ stakeholders with the vision, ethos and offer of the schools by:

    • Creating clear messages about the schools and delivering them in a simple and effective way
    • Developing external links and partnerships to benefit pupils and staff
    • Developing and delivering engaging external and internal communications strategies
  • Pillar 5: Enablers

    Offering an inspirational environment in which to learn, teach, work and play by:

    • Ensuring our campus best supports the academic and wider learning environment while reducing its impact on the environment
    • Implementing the best technology available to support learning
    • Providing excellent corporate governance to ensure operational efficiency, financial sustainability, and strong regulatory compliance

Strong Foundations

With a rich heritage dating back to 1866, our schools have never lost sight of the traditions and values with which we have carved out such a distinctive reputation.

In 1865 Francis Wright (High Sheriff of Nottingham and Deputy Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire) set the foundation of Trent College in motion. He proposed that a number of schools, with Evangelical roots, be founded in the Midlands from the receipt of grants. Trent College was to be the first of these schools – but in fact it was the only school in the area to be founded in this way. The foundation stone was laid on 3 December 1866 by His Grace The Duke of Devonshire K.C. and sits proudly at the front of the main school entrance.

According to early records, Trent was “designed as a boarding school for boys of the middle class; that is, for the sons of farmers and men of business, and of such professional men as are not able to meet the expenses of the great public schools”. In April 1868 Trent College welcomed its first 53 pupils.

More than a century later, the first girls joined in the mid-1970s and by 1992 the school was fully co-educational. In 1999, The Elms Nursery and Junior School became an exciting addition to Trent’s 45 acre campus and provided families with a full educational journey.

As we look to the future after celebrating Trent’s 150th anniversary in 2018 and The Elms’ 20th anniversary in 2019, we now have a vibrant, thriving community of more than 1,000 pupils.

Today, Trent College and The Elms are dynamic, forward-thinking schools.  Our pupils benefit from a strong, vibrant community in which they are nurtured to thrive in our increasingly complex world.