Trinity Schools
"The family of schools of first choice,
upholding Christian values and focused on personal excellence"
About the Trinity System
Hadlow Preparatory School, St Matthew's Collegiate School and Rathkeale College form a family of schools under the proprietorship of the Trinity Schools Trust Board. This family of schools offers comprehensive educational opportunities for students from pre-school to Year 13, and caters for boarders and day students.
The Trinity family of schools
Hadlow incorporates the pre-school, and is co-educational to Year 8. In Years 7 and 8, girls have the option to move to St Matthews. From Years 9 to 13, girls attend St Matthews and boys attend Rathkeale. Both schools accommodate borders and day students. During Years 12 and 13, the girls and boys combine to have co-educational classes in the Senior College, on the Rathkeale campus. The senior girls continue to fill leadership roles, and to board, at St Matthews.
Trinity Schools – Hadlow, St Matthew’s and Rathkeale
Students may enter the system at any level. The Trinity system enables students to develop in a single sex environment in their early adolescence, and brings them together in more mature years when the educational and social benefits of co-education will be greater. Close liaison between the schools is maintained to facilitate arrangements for families with children in different parts of the system.
Governance - how the schools works together
The foundation of the Trinity Schools was laid when St Mathew's Collegiate School for girls opened in January 1914. In 1929 Hadlow was founded and later, in 1954, was purchased by St Matthew's Trust Board. The Trinity was complete when, in 1964, Rathkeale College for boys opened. A further development occurred in 1982 when Senior College co-educational classes for Years 12 and 13 students commenced at Rathkeale.
Trinity Schools' outstanding facilities are represented
by this aerial view of Rathkeale College
Integration into the state system came in 1992 for St Matthew's and Rathkeale and in December 1998 for Hadlow, thus blending the traditional values of independent education with the best of modern educational management practice in a devolved state system. Under this system, the Trinity Schools Trust Board, as the proprietor, remains responsible for school grounds and the boarding establishments. However, at each of the schools, separate Boards of Trustees have responsibilities, with the respective Principals, for the governance of the schools. The Special Character of each school, which strongly emphasises Christian values, has been guaranteed in the Integration Agreements with the Ministry of Education.
The TSTB operates alongside the Boards of Trustees of the three integrated schools. The Integrations Agreements are with the TSTB, which is the element of the Trinity system that is accountable to the Ministry of Education. However, for operating efficiency, the TSTB delegates the day to day responsibility for most of the activities to the BOT of each school. Consequently, the BOTs of Hadlow, St Matthew and Rathkeale are a very important part of our system. They have the first responsibility for educating our students within the requirements set by the Ministry of Education and in keeping with the Special Character provisions of the Trinity Schools. The Integration Agreement provides for the TSTB to appoint four representatives on each BOT to join the five elected representatives, the Principal, a staff representative and a student representative (the latter at the two secondary schools).