Лейсская школа Кембриджа: История и современность

Public school in Cambridge, England

The Leys School is a co educational private school in Cambridge, England. It is a boarding and day school for about 574 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen, and the head is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

The nineteenth century saw the founding of a large number of new schools in Britain, especially by the churches—including the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Although there were already several leading schools that offered an education for the sons of ministers of the church, some Methodists were asking also for schools to be established for sons of lay church members. The Methodist Conference set up a committee to look at the possibility of starting a new school at either Oxford or Cambridge. Following several visits to Cambridge, they discovered that a twenty acre (80,000 m2) site called "The Leys Estate" was being offered for sale. The estate was situated within easy reach of the city centre on the Trumpington Road, and it was close to the River Cam and to a number of Cambridge Colleges. The estate was acquired for the sum of £14,275 on 27 September 1872. The Reverend Doctor W. F. Moulton, who had been the secretary of the committee, was asked to become headmaster of the new school. The school opened on 16 February 1875 with sixteen boys, all from English Methodist families. After two years there were 100 pupils. During the Cold War, the school was designated the auxiliary headquarters to the Regional Seat of Government for Cambridge in time of war. Today the majority of the pupils are boarders and since the admission of girls to the Sixth Form in the 1980s, the school has become fully co educational. It now accepts pupils from the age of eleven, rather than the age of thirteen as it was before. Due to its location, the school is popular with Cambridge academics as a place to send their children, as well as a place to teach. For example, the physicist Stephen Hawking sent his son to the school and gave a number of talks to its pupils.

The red cross signifies the Christian foundation of the School whilst the open book and the lighted lamp are both symbols of learning. The significance of the red rose is obscure: three such roses appear in the arms of the largest Cambridge college, Trinity, and Cambridge bears two silver roses in its arms. The most likely explanation, however, of the red roses is that several of the School's founders were from Lancashire and likely incorporated the Red Rose of Lancaster to symbolise their origins. The stars of the original design may have symbolised aspiration or faith and hope in higher things. The wyvern, the crest used by the Wesley family, was presumably added to signify the association of The Leys School with the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Despite its Methodist traditions it has, for more than fifty years, been liberal on religion (although never secular). Many pupils received confirmation into the Church of England in the school chapel, and some others have had religious backgrounds from faiths other than the Christianity. Despite its religious liberalism, The Leys is predominantly a Christian school and they state openly that "The School’s Christian ethos lies at the heart of our education philosophy." Pupils attend chapel services twice a week; a weekday service on a Friday afternoon plus Sunday services with the whole boarding community on a monthly basis with a weekly service with just their House on another specified day of the week. In addition, Holy Communion takes place once a term. The school motto is "In Fide Fiducia" (Latin for "In Faith, Trust"), which is also the motto for its associated prep school, St Faith's School. The two schools make up The Leys and St Faith's Foundation. The school song is Rev. B. Hellier's Χαίρετε.

In 2019, 52% of pupils scored A* A for their A Levels examination, whereas 83% scored A* A for their GCSEs.