Lawrence Sheriff School

Lawrence Sheriff School is a boys' grammar school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The school is named after Lawrence Sheriff, the Elizabethan founder of Rugby School. Lawrence Sheriff School was founded in 1878, in order to continue Sheriff's original bequest for a free grammar school for the boys of Rugby and surrounding villages, which had originally been fulfilled by Rugby School, until the latter moved to become a fee-paying public school in the 19th century. The school's name is often shortened to 'LSS', or often just 'Sheriff'. The school has historically run in partnership with Rugby High School for Girls, a nearby grammar school. History Foundation Lawrence Sheriff School was founded to fulfil Lawrence Sheriff's original intentions to provide a school for the boys of Rugby and neighbouring Brownsover, which was originally carried out by Rugby School. By the eighteenth century, Rugby School had acquired a national reputation as a public school and moved to its present site. As the proportion of pupils from outside Rugby increased and the people of the town seemed to benefit less from Lawrence Sheriff's original bequest, local concern led to the nineteenth-century proposal of a Lower School for local boys, with Foundation Scholarships to the Great School. It was proposed to become "a first rate school for the sons of tradesmen and middle classes". Although the proposal faced substantial local opposition, the Lower School was opened in 1878 on the present site of Lawrence Sheriff School with a curriculum designed to meet the needs of a commercial education and preparation for Rugby School. By 1906, a compromise between the traditions of the Foundation and a proposal to hand the school over to the county, led to a Governing body chaired by the Headmaster of Rugby School and containing both Foundation and County Governors. The school was built on what before was glebe land named Market Field, at what was the east limit of the built-up area of Rugby.