The Leys School

The Leys School, Cambridge

The Achievement of Arms
Motto	Latin: In Fide Fiducia In Faith, Trust
Established	1875
Type	Independent boarding school Public school
Religion	Methodist
Headteacher	Martin Priestley
Location	Trumpington Road Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB2 7AD United Kingdom Coordinates: 52°11′49″N 0°07′17″E / 52.196956°N 0.121254°E / 52.196956; 0.121254
DfE URN	110914 Tables
Students	561
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Houses	See the Houses section
Publication	The Fortnightly
Alumni	Old Leysians
Rival	The Perse School
Website	www.theleys.net

The Leys School is a co-educational Independent school, located in Cambridge, England. It is a day and boarding school for about 560 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen, and 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 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 twentieth century, The Leys grew significantly and by 1930 the number of pupils had reached 271. During World War Two, the school temporarily moved to the Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry, Scotland, returning to Cambridge in 1946. 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.