Mission & History
Our Mission
Topeka Collegiate School is a private independent school whose mission is to prepare students for advanced education, successful careers and responsible citizenship through a commitment to academic excellence and humanitarian ideals.
Our Philosophy
Topeka Collegiate School strives to prepare its students to participate in the discoveries and challenges of the future with the foundations of wisdom, personal discipline and enlightenment.
The school is dedicated to nurturing the unique nature and potential of each student and is committed to building a school community enhanced by racial, cultural and socio-economic diversity. Topeka Collegiate School does not teach religious doctrine nor does it have any religious affiliation.
The mission of Topeka Collegiate School is pursued by fostering enthusiasm for learning, encouraging the development of leadership skills and a sense of responsibility to the community, and teaching the skills necessary to obtain knowledge and understanding of self, humanity, and the physical world. Toward these ends, the study of English, mathematics, science, social studies, languages, critical thinking, communication, fine arts and physical well-being are stressed.
Who We Are
Students at Topeka Collegiate School come from a variety of backgrounds and communities throughout the Topeka and Lawrence areas. While they are culturally, economically, racially and religiously diverse, all share an eagerness to learn.
Year after year, Topeka Collegiate students' standardized test scores place them among the highest-achieving independent school students in the nation. This is no surprise, as teachers are given the freedom to tailor their classroom curriculum to the individual needs of their students. Teachers work with parents to ensure that students are academically challenged, but not overwhelmed.
Our curriculum emphasizes math, science, history, reading, writing and Spanish. Specialists teach science, Spanish, computer science, music, art and physical education in all grades.
We honor learning and achievement at Topeka Collegiate. Children come here to receive an education that nurtures natural curiosity, cultivates a sense of personal commitment to service and develops principles of integrity, honesty, and a sense of fairness and justice.
Children leave Topeka Collegiate as young men and women who have a love of learning that will stay with them for their entire lives. They have a broad range of interests and openness to new ideas. They are communicators, risk takers and critical thinkers.
Our History
Topeka Collegiate began as an idea among a group of parents who wanted to provide their children with a school environment that emphasized academic excellence and humanitarian ideals. In 1979, they founded a school just south of Topeka and named it Shawnee Country Day School. The founders used as their guide an independent school model that had proven successful throughout the country. The result is a school independent in both governance and finance: organized as a not-for-profit corporation, governed by a board of trustees and managed by a head of school, free of government or religious control.
Shawnee Country Day School opened with 43 students in the fall of 1982, in a building that had formerly housed a public elementary school. In 1989, Dr. Michael Roberts was hired as Head of School and the school's name was changed to Topeka Collegiate School. Enrollment grew steadily, reaching 200 in 1995. The following year, the school purchased and moved into a former public school building located at 2200 SW Eveningside Drive, a more centralized location. The move helped boost enrollment that first year in the new building to nearly 250.
As we proudly celebrate our 25th anniversary year, enrollment now exceeds 300 students.
With thanks to our visionary founders, we look forward to the next 25 years of providing students with a once-in-a-lifetime education every day.