Welcome to Trinity Episcopal School

I don’t think I’m aging faster than anyone else, but I am having a hard time keeping everyone’s age and grade straight. This is our ninth year to educate children; our first class of “lifers” commenced from middle school this past year, children I knew and read to and laughed with and taught communion to in kindergarten. Most of our students are returning for another year of classes, another turn at learning. As I pass them in our hallways, I have to work hard to remember what grade they’ve reached, what marker they’re using for bearings this year, what moments they’ll have and enjoy at this juncture in their educational journey. Like God, time shows no partiality. Like you, I just wish they wouldn’t grow up so fast.

Milestones, markers, cycles, commencements are endemic to all of our lives. As we get older, they seem to come less frequently, though with no less impact or portent. All too quickly, our children experience many of them – first words, first steps, first Christmas, first tooth, learning to ride a bicycle, going to preschool, first day of kindergarten, finishing the elementary grades, graduating from middle school. If we are not careful, many of these will fly by without due notice given the hustle and bustle of daily living.

Here at Trinity Episcopal School, we are very aware of and take delight in the markers that frame our students’ lives. In addition to joining our students in celebrating the many “firsts” in their lives, we become mentors and guides to them to help them reach the next milestone, whatever that might be. For some that may mean working on phonemic awareness or the difference between a participle and a gerund, for others it may mean wrestling with multiplication tables or linear equations, for still others it may involve becoming more confident in themselves and the talents and gifts with which they have been born, but have yet to break forth. For all of our students it means cultivating right and reasoned thinking based on strong academics, learning to take responsibility for their own actions and to work for the common good, developing a sense of community, a reverence for life, a respect for root values and an appreciation for beauty, and realizing the privileges and obligations of being citizens of the Queen City and of the Kingdom.

Creating scholars, nurturing spirituality and embracing diversity…that’s the Trinity Way.

The Rev. Dr. Louis “Smokey” Oats
Head of School

Trinity Episcopal School...A Place to Grow

For our students, the buzzing and humming of our city fulfilling its destiny is almost a life force of its own. The energy is all around us in First Ward. Things which were old are being made new. It excites our senses and fires our imaginations. The possibilities for learning seem endless.

With skyscrapers framed by our classroom windows, our city becomes another textbook offering wonderful lessons that both entice and engage us.

School walls cannot contain us, and Charlotte’s Center City has become our extended campus. We are within walking distance of museums, galleries, businesses, theaters and the public library. Each offers a new learning medium and a new experience, crafting who we are and what we shall become.