Sir John Leman High School

Sir John Leman was a Suffolk man who went to London in the 1580s and made his fortune by dealing in dairy products. He became a leading citizen of London during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I, serving as Sheriff of London and later as Lord Mayor. He retained strong links with Beccles and, upon his death in 1631, he left a bequest to educate forty four students from Beccles, two from Ringsfield and two from Gillingham. Sir John Leman High School was established in 1632 at Leman House in Ballygate, a Seventeenth Century Grade 1 listed building which now houses the Beccles Museum. The wall of Leman House still bears the motto: ’Disce aut Discede’ (roughly translated as ’learn or go’). The school became the County Mixed Grammar School and moved to our present site in Ringsfield Road in 1914. The original school building still sits at the heart of the site, surrounded by the additional buildings and facilities which have been constructed and developed as the school has grown. In 1971, we became a Comprehensive High School and we converted to Academy status in August 2011. In 2014, an exciting major refurbishment programme was undertaken to welcome Year 7 and 8 students back to the site following the return in 2012 to a two tier education system and to ensure that our school continues to offer excellent facilities for many years to come. This included the creation of our Centenary Courtyard, a fitting celebration of 100 years of school life at Ringsfield Road. Sir John Leman High School has produced many generations of well-educated young people. A number of highly successful people have attended the school including Professor Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin (Nobel Prize Winner), Sir John Mills (Actor) and Sir Stanley Rous (former FIFA President).