Trinity Catholic College, City Rise (Dunedin)

Key facts

About Trinity Catholic College

Trinity Catholic College is a Catholic, state-integrated, co-educational school enrolling students in Years 7 to 13, located on Rattray Street in central Dunedin. The school was established in its current form in 1989, when St Paul's High School, Moreau College, and St Edmund's School merged on the Rattray Street site under the name Kavanagh College. The college was renamed Trinity Catholic College in 2023.

The Rattray Street site has a continuous history of Catholic education dating to 1871, when St Dominic's College was founded there. The three founding religious orders — the Dominican Sisters, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Christian Brothers — each established schools that eventually became part of Trinity's institutional history.

The college's special character is grounded in Catholic faith and the traditions of its founding orders. Four core values — Respect, Service, Justice, and Truth — are drawn from the charisms of those orders and are intended to shape relationships, teaching, and school activities. Prayer and karakia are part of daily school life, and students are expected to participate in social justice activities. Religious Education is a curriculum area through which social justice awareness is explicitly promoted.

Trinity is part of a Community of Learners with Catholic primary schools in Dunedin and maintains connections with other Catholic schools across the diocese, including through shared sports competitions and the annual Bishop's Shield scripture, speech, and drama competitions.

Curriculum

Trinity Catholic College offers NCEA qualifications at Levels 1, 2, and 3, corresponding to Years 11, 12, and 13. Most subjects offer around 20 credits per year, giving students the potential to gain approximately 120 credits across a full year of study.

Assessment in each subject uses a combination of internal and external methods measured against NZQA standards. Achievement Standards are graded as Not Achieved, Achieved, Merit, or Excellence. Students can gain NCEA Endorsed with Merit or Excellence by achieving 50 or more credits at the relevant grade level. The Level 1 certificate also requires co-requisite credits in Literacy and Numeracy — 10 credits each in English and Mathematics respectively.

Student Support Services

The following named support services are described in Trinity Catholic College's published information.

• Learning Support (LS) Department — staffed by a LENCO, a full-time Learning Support Coordinator (LSC), and a number of full-time and part-time Learning Assistants (LAs). The department provides tailored support for students with additional learning needs, combining small-group accelerated learning opportunities with in-class assistance. The LSC also works with coordinators across the school's Kāhui Ako to support transitions from primary through to senior schooling and into the community.
• SPEC programme (Southern Pacific Education Courses) — an accredited alternative learning pathway, offered since 2021, for a small number of students identified as needing a more structured programme tailored to their specific needs.
• Deans — referenced in the context of accurately recording student absence reasons in line with Ministry requirements, alongside teachers and administration staff.