The Leys School

The Leys School (founded 1875) is a British Independent School located in Cambridge. It is a co-educational boarding and day school for over 540 pupils aged between 11 and 18.

Related Topics:
Independent School - Cambridge - Boarding

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The school's status as a "Public School" is debatable, due to the lack of a consistent definition of that term. By some definitions, its membership in the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference would place it as such, but on the other hand, it does not share the same history or prestige of the more well-known examples.

Related Topics:
Public School - Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The nineteenth century saw the founding of a large number of schools, especially by the churches. Although there were already several leading schools which offered an education for the sons of Ministers, Methodists were asking for schools for sons of lay members of their church. The Methodist Conference set up a committee to look at the possibility of starting a school at Oxford or Cambridge.

Related Topics:
Nineteenth century - Methodists - Oxford

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Following several visits to Cambridge, they discovered that a 20 acre (80,000 m²) site called The Leys Estate was being offered for sale. The Reverend Doctor Moulton, who had been the secretary of the committee, was asked to become headmaster of the new school. The School opened on 16th February, 1875 with sixteen boys, all from English Methodist families. After two years there were 100 pupils.

Related Topics:
Headmaster - 1875

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the twentieth century, The Leys expanded significantly, during the Second World War temporarily decamping to Pitlochry. The majority of the pupils are boarders. Since the admission of girls to the Sixth Form in the 1980s, the school has become fully co-educational, and now accepts pupils from the age of 11, rather than the age of 13 as it was before.

Related Topics:
Twentieth century - Sixth Form

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One of the remarkable strengths of The Leys is that despite its proud Methodist traditions it is the case that for more than fifty years it has been liberal on religion. Many pupils received confirmation into the Church of England in the school chapel, and many other pupils had religious backgrounds from other faiths (or none).

Related Topics:
Methodist - Confirmation - Church of England

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~