School History

1875 is the official year in which the count begins but there is an earlier connection. Mrs. Frances Chapman wife of Bishop Chapman had set her heart on setting up a school for Christian girls with funds collected while on Furlough in England. She established a school in 1857, a school in their own residence in Mutwal called Bishopsgate, with the 25 pupils she desired. The Principal was Mrs. Long, who had served earlier at the Church Missionary School in Nallur, Jaffna. In May 1859 Mrs. Chapman returned to England due to ill health, and Mrs. Long passed away in 1861. The school had to be temporarily closed and no reference to its reopening is available in the Diocesan Archives.