The mission of St. Richard’s School, an independent Episcopal day school is to educate children grades Pre-Kindergarten through Eight as we:

Instill knowledge and values for a lifetime through a superior education with a classic curriculum enriched by the inclusion of ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic diversity, and by the resources of our urban community; and

Shape our students’ intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual gifts by maintaining high academic expectations and ethical standards, and by encouraging and teaching moral and religious values, respect, service, discipline in a climate of enthusiasm and joy.

St. Richard’s Operational Commitments

• To serve children of demonstrated academic ability whose needs can be met in a challenging, structured classroom.
• To seek new knowledge and technology which will improve the students' learning as we choose curriculum content from classic and modern masterworks and insights of many cultures
• To promote imagination, creativity, critical thinking skills, and time management in all areas of the curriculum.
• To strive to provide the finest academic education with superior, caring faculty.
• To be rich with traditions celebrating learning and community life.
• To set and maintain high standards to encourage and measure the performance and participation of the students.
• To welcome students from all faith communities.
• To understand that learning occurs best with varieties of opportunities and when it can be emotionally positive.
• To exercise active commitment to the community in which we are located to maintain a spirit of mutual respect among parents, students, faculty and friends of the school.

What does it mean to be an Episcopal School?

Being an Episcopal school signifies a very unique set of characteristics that set a school apart form other types of religiously-affiliated schools such as Catholic parochial schools or evangelical Christian schools. The National Association of Episcopal Schools has published a document entitled “Principles of Good Practice for Furthering Episcopal Identity in Episcopal Schools” which can be read in a PDSF format at: www.episcopalschools.org/principles/pdf/naespogpei.pdf
This document articulates the various aspects of Episcopal (from the Anglican tradition) education in some detail, but the short summary below should help individuals unfamiliar with the distinctiveness of Episcopal schools to get a quick “feel” for some of what makes St. Richard’s different from other schools in the Indianapolis area. The following four “traditions” are excerpted from those delineated by the Reverend Paul B. Hancock, Head of School at St. John’s School in Roseville, California in his article, “Four Great Parts of Our Episcopal Identity”.

A tradition of learning –
The Episcopal Church - and its schools - “have been blessed with a tradition that has always valued learning. The seedbed of Anglicanism has always been the university. The formation of its clergy has always been highly intellectual. It is not a tradition that has been closed to new discovery and the reasoned pursuit of truth. It is very loath to allow itself to be boxed into a corner where there is a dogmatic conclusion to a discussion. It is a tradition wherein the believer must think, but it isn’t a tradition that tells believers what they must think.

“This is a great strength for our schools. We can be proudly academic and scholarly. We don’t need to compromise the rigor of thinking.”

Certainly St. Richard’s School carries on this strong tradition of learning. Our commitment to quality education provides our students with the best educational environment and highest academic standards that can be found in Indianapolis.

A tradition of inclusion –
“As school leaders, we have been blessed with a tradition that is founded on the principle of inclusion and not of exclusion.” “It celebrates and rejoices in the richness that diversity brings. It is a natural for us … to seek diversity in our students and in our faculties. It’s counter to our heritage to do otherwise.”

St. Richard’s School was the first private school in Indianapolis to open its doors to all races, creeds, and nationalities, and we still maintain that same commitment to diversity. Currently 27% of SRS students are of racial and cultural minorities with over 10 nations represented, 20% of our students are Episcopalian, with 80% representing other major denominations and religions, and even without a significant endowment, SRS devotes about 10% of all tuition revenue to financial assistance annually for families who demonstrate need.

A tradition seeking unity in liturgy rather than theology –
“We believe that strong communities draw their life from repeated rituals in which all have parts to play. Because they are so important to us, we have a rhythm of life with regularly scheduled ritual times that are guarded. Rituals form strong bonds – they form a family and nothing should get in their way. …it’s a natural that liturgy [is] one of the most obviously defining aspects of our schools….”

A defining aspect of St. Richard’s School is daily Chapel in the Lower School with the Middle School students joining every Wednesday for Chapel in addition to their regularly scheduled Divinity classes.

A tradition valuing quality and high standards -
“Ours is a tradition that values things that are of high quality, that express the finest we can accomplish.” “…we take offense at the careless and the clumsy and the sloppy, and the tasteless. When we do things, we want to do them well. We strive for the excellent…. [O]ur tradition propels us to a culture of excellence, and it is an excellence that is the development of the whole person.”

High quality and excellence are our benchmarks at St. Richard’s School, and they always have been. These have been ingrained aspects of our heritage and tradition for almost 50 years and will continue to be for the next 50 years and more. The tremendous success of our graduates at their successor schools assures us that our standards are as high as ever!