St. Mary's Academy

Welcome to St. Mary’s Academy, Denver’s premier Catholic, independent co-educational JK-8 and All Girls High School located in the beautiful Cherry Hills Village. As the first school in Colorado, established in 1864 by the Sisters of Loretto, St. Mary’s Academy has been a forward-thinking educational leader over three different centuries. Teaching young Coloradans has been our mission and privilege for more than 150 years, and we understand how important choosing the right school is for your family.

Our impassioned teachers foster rigor and exploration, inspiring our students to succeed in and beyond the classroom. Our inclusive community welcomes students of every race, religious tradition, and economic background. In fact, our student population boasts over 28 percent diversity (based on race and ethnicity), one of the highest percentages among independent schools in Colorado.

As powerful agents of change, our graduates go on to careers that enhance the future of Denver, the country, and the world. Since our inception, St. Mary’s Academy students have been guided by the four Loretto School Values – faith, community, justice, and respect. Our students actively engage in community service, appreciate giving back in a meaningful way, and experience the impact they can have on the larger community.

In addition to academics, St. Mary’s Academy students have access to extensive offerings in the visual and performing arts, private music lessons, and a comprehensive athletic program. Daily instruction with computers, tablets, interactive projectors, and access to robotics and coding invites mastery in critical skills for today’s world.

St. Mary's Academy fosters excellence in each child through academic achievement, spiritual development, and service. The Loretto School Values of faith, community, justice, and respect provide the foundation for students to be powerful agents of change.

Every year St. Mary’s Academy provides experiences for students, teachers, and administrators to deepen the bond with Loretto and with the other schools. Since 1988 teachers have traveled each spring to the Motherhouse in Kentucky for an intensive weekend immersion in the community’s rich history and vibrant mission of today. For almost as many years, high school students from the Loretto schools spend a week of service at the Motherhouse, learn advocacy skills in El Paso and participate in a leadership conference in Denver culminating in a Loretto Leadership Statement to guide their year’s work.

As a school dedicated to educating young people to be powerful agents of change, we embrace the Constitutions of the Sisters of Loretto that encourage us to “educate others as well as ourselves to truth, beauty and the ways of peace, in the spirit of Jesus.”

As an independent school in the Catholic tradition, and committed to the Loretto School Values of faith, community, justice, and respect, St. Mary’s Academy is committed to diversity in its many forms. Diversity includes the human facets of race, ethnicity, national origin, geography, religion, gender, affectional or sexual orientation, age, physical ability, learning style, and marital, parental or economic status.

St. Mary’s Academy affirms the inherent dignity and value of each individual. Our school embraces the distinct identity of each person and helps students to appreciate their own identities and those of others. St. Mary’s Academy actively seeks families, faculty, and staff who bring a range of experience to the school. We believe diversity increases the ability to formulate and nurture ideas and relationships resulting in a school community where all opinions and views are respected.

St. Mary’s Academy provides a scholarly learning environment for an educational experience that prepares students to participate in an increasing complex global society. We believe that in a multicultural society, developing competency, the will and ability to create an authentic and effective relationships across differences, is crucial to being a responsible and compassionate world citizen.

The faculty at St. Mary’s Academy is committed to offering a dynamic curriculum designed to unleash the curiosity, creativity, and passion of their students. We provide a rigorous academic environment where excellence is modeled and abundant opportunities to develop resilience and responsibility.

Junior Kindergarten to grade 8 at St. Mary’s Academy is coeducational, while our high school is all girls. Students come from across the metro area and represent many religious and ethnic backgrounds—creating a vibrant community of collaboration, discovery, and unity.

In the Lower School, children explore through socio-emotional and authentic learning; they connect and discover identity in the Middle School through service within their local community; and in the High School, evolve into young women who trust their own voices, serve as role models for our younger students, and with confidence, leave prepared for the demands of college life.