Expect More From Your Child’s Education
We believe education should form both mind and character. By combining excellent teachers, great books, and dedicated students, we prepare young people to seek truth, practice virtue, and lead with wisdom.
Join us as we continue the great tradition of classical education — where learning inspires purpose, and virtue guides achievement.
Lafayette Academy is a fine academy – one of the finest.
— Dr. Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College
We’re Breaking Away From Modern Education
We are a private K-12 school in Lake St. Louis, MO dedicated to classical education and promoting superior educational results. Classical education values knowledge for its own sake. It upholds the standards of logic, beauty, truth, and goodness intrinsic to the liberal arts. The word liberal comes from the Latin word liber, meaning “free”. The liberal arts set the mind free. Free and independent thought requires virtue to be fully maximized. This liberal arts education prepares students to assume their place as responsible citizens and contributors in their communities.
Our Four Classical Virtues
The mission of Lafayette Academy is to develop the academic potential of each student through a rigorous, content-rich, classical liberal arts program while cultivating in them a virtuous character.
Fortitude
courage, optimism, perseverance, good citizenship, loyalty
Justice
respect, friendship, kindness, generosity, fairness
Prudence
honesty, wisdom, integrity, gratitude, humility, care
Temperance
order, courtesy, self-control, patience, obedience
What Makes Us Unique?
- Teaching HOW to think, not WHAT to think
- Content-Rich Curriculum
- Teacher-Led, Low Tech Classrooms
- Explicit Phonics and Literacy
- Intensive Study of Grammar
- Use of Primary Source Documents
- Reading of the Great Books
- Cursive Writing
- Study of Latin Beginning in Sixth Grade
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The Pillars on Which We Stand
Academic Excellence
Learning at Lafayette Academy is based on a timeless curriculum which uses a rigorous, content-rich, liberal arts program.
Virtue and Character Education
We nurture strong character and virtue in our students. Our four classical virtues of prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude are taught, modeled, and expected by everyone in the Lafayette community.
Love of America and Community
Our students develop a deep understanding of the American Founding, American history, American government, and what it means to be a good American citizen.
Exceptional education without screens
Teacher-Led, Low Tech Classrooms
Explicit Phonics and Literacy
Penmanship and Cursive Instruction
True History using primary source documents
Tuition and Fees for the 2025 – 2026 School Year
Grade Level
Enrollment Deposit*
2025 – 2026 Tuition
Kindergarten
$350
$8,495
Grades 1 – 8
$350
$10,995
Grades 9 – 12
$350
$12,995
About
Lafayette Academy provides a traditional education that upholds the high standards of teaching, curriculum, virtue and character, and discipline found in the schools of old – going back to the Greeks and Romans, the Medieval Period, the Renaissance, and the early American period. It is commonly called Classical Education.
