Canterbury School

Founded in 1915 and guided by our Catholic heritage, Canterbury is a college preparatory, coeducational boarding and day school for students in grades 9-12. The School prides itself on creating a community based on its Five Values—Honesty, Respect, Compassion, Spirituality, and Self Reliance—in which students and faculty forge lasting bonds and every student experiences a broad and challenging program in a small school setting. The School’s educational environment fosters academic rigor, athletic development, artistic enrichment, spiritual growth, and strives to ensure a superior experience that prepares students for leading colleges and universities and for life.

With its rigorous and humane approach to students, both in and out of the classroom, Canterbury’s program inculcates vital intellectual and ethical habits of mind. The School sees all students as individuals, encourages them as necessary, challenges them as appropriate, and inspires them to become moral leaders in a complex, secular world.

Canterbury has evolved tremendously with the changing of the times, however, the core and history of tradition on which Canterbury is based has not changed.

In the fall of 1914, Nelson Hume began work towards founding a Catholic school for boys. From the beginning, he and the co-founders believed it important that their new school be led by lay Catholics, a radical idea at the time, and that the School’s graduates could enter any college or university, not just Catholic colleges. The Catholic faith was an integral part of the School culture, but the intent of its founders was to prepare Catholic boys for a pluralistic society. Becoming coeducational in the early 70’s changed the culture of the School but did not affect its original mission of being Catholic and independent.

Canterbury’s system of values and the principles of community, service, justice, and faith are deeply rooted in who we are as a school. These foundations are woven throughout every aspect of learning and life on our hilltop and are central to the overall experience of personal growth that truly differentiates a Canterbury education.

At Canterbury, educating young men and women is not ordinary or routine. For us, it's about more than helping our students excel academically and become well prepared for college. It’s about more than developing their talents artistically and athletically and encouraging them to try new things.

Yes, we push our students to do all of these; however, we also challenge them to seek justice and peace, cultivate their critical and reflective thinking, work with and for others, and be their best selves. Their Canterbury education helps them develop as moral leaders who are constantly reflecting on their role in the world and are intentional about how their values play out in their daily actions.