St. Lawrence High School has a long history. It was established in 1810 as an elementary school attached to the Church of Our Lady of Dolours at Baithakkhana, Sealdah.

In 1855 the school came to be known as St. John Chrysostom’s School in honour of the Archbishop Primate of Goa who visited it. It sent up students for the Lower Primary Examination.

In 1902 St. Ann’s Orphanage was inaugurated. It incorporated the already existing school and got recognized as an Upper Primary School. Although Bengali was the medium of instruction great attention was paid to the teaching of English.

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. The first batch of students for the Matriculation Examination was sent up in 1922.

Fr. Lawrence Rodrigues S.J took charge of St. John Chrysostom High School at 126, Bow Bazar Street in the early 1930’s. It was a boarding and a day school. The place was very congested. There was no playground. The ground floor of the school building was occupied by a printing press. On the first floor were the classrooms and on the second floor, the boarding.

Fr. Lawrence 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.

In January 1937, St. Chrysostom School was shifted from Baithakkhana to Ballygunge Circular Road and rechristened St. Lawrence High School. As the first group of teachers and students entered the compound of this newly built school they could not but be overawed by the sheer size of the new school building, the beautiful flower garden, the large playground and the imposing row of tall eucalyptus trees along Ritchie Road. The School in its new location got a new patron “St. LAWRENCE” and a new motto “LIKE GOLD IN A FURNACE” which was later changed to ‘‘For God and Country’’.

In January 1953 a new Jesuit residence was built in alignment with the existing school building. In 1958 another block on the Western corner of the property was built to accommodate the Primary Section. The school was upgraded to class XI, Higher Secondary, in the same year. Following the adoption of the 10+2 pattern of education 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. A novel feature was the opening of a Bengali stream in Commerce and a Bengali section from class 1 to 10 in the Primary and Secondary sections in 1980. In 2006 the Humanities Stream was opend.

Reading the signs of the time, St. Lawrence High School initiated the process of affiliation to CISCE. In 2022 the school got affiliation and the first batch of students appeared for the ICSE exam in February 2024. The first batch of students will give their ISC exam in February 2026.

Earlier, to respond to the increasing space requirements, the Boarding section (which for many years occupied the top floor of the school building) was relocated in 1981, to an entirely new complex erected on the site of the old swimming pool. The school chapel was also shifted to the hostel building. In 1984 the school library cum reading room known as Rabindra Granthagar was inaugurated.

In 1986 a computer room was opened to provide computer literacy to students. Today there are four computer labs for students; separate computer lab for teachers and a well laid out state of the art Apple Lab named after Fr. Lazarus.

A decade ago, St. Lawrence, renovated the existing school hall and relocated the staff room. Britto Stoa (open hall) was renovated to hoist various events. Fr. Wavreil Hall was inaugurated for conferences and meetings.

Selfless dedication and tireless commitment of several Headmasters / Principals nurtured the school and contributed to its growth. Over the years many successive Jesuit Headmasters / Principals ensured the growth of St. Lawrence High School to what it is today. Fr. L Skillebeekx S.J., Fr. Theodore Richir S.J., Fr. Augustine Cordeiro S.J., Fr. Albert Wautier, S.J., Fr. K. C. Jacob, S.J., Fr. Boris D’Santos, S.J., Fr. Noel D’Souza, S.J., Fr. Aloysious Carvalho, S.J., Fr. Andre Bruylants, S.J., Fr. Adrien Wavreil, S.J., Fr. Anil Mitra, S.J., Fr. Benny Thomas SJ, Fr. Sebastain Nallail,S.J. and Fr. Kurian Emprayil,S.J., Fr. Sebastian James S.J., Fr. Francis Jimmy Keepuram S.J. are some of the Headmasters / Principals who lead the institution ever since its inception. St. Lawrence High School has always strived to cater to every sections of society irrespective of caste, creed or social class.

St. Lawrence High School makes an effort to instill in every student a sense of service to the nation by service to the less fortunate. The institution is proud of its alumni, St. Lawrence Old Boys Association (SLOBA), which runs a charitable dispensary and involves itself in various philanthropic projects heralding the Jesuit motto ‘‘Persons for and with others’’ and to give back to the society more than what one has received from the society.