St. Lawrence School, Kolkata

This educational institution, started in 1810 as an elementary school, is one of the oldest in Kolkata. It was attached to the Church of Our Lady of Dolours at Baithakkhana, Sealdah. From 1913 boys were trained for the Junior Cambridge Course. English became the medium of instruction. In 1920 the school was accorded recognition as a High School by the University of Calcutta. Fr. Lawrence Rodriques S.J on taking charge of St. John Chrysostom High School felt the need for developing and expanding the school. So he began to look for a better place and found a plot of land in Ballygunge, belonging to St. Xavier’s College, on sale. With the permission of the Archbishop of Calcutta he bought this land with the money he gathered by organizing raffle on Sundays. On January 1937, St. Chrysostom School was shifted from Baithakkhana to Ballygunge Circular Road and rechristened St. Lawrence High School. “St. LAWRENCE” and a new motto “LIKE GOLD IN A FURNACE” which was changed to ‘‘For God and Country’’. St. Lawrence High School opened the Higher Secondary Department in July, 1976, recognized by the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education with Science and Commerce streams. The School is primarily affiliated with CISCE (ICSE/ISC) and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (Madhyamik/Higher Secondary).