sir john leman high school
Beccles
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).
