Bishops Lea

Bishops Lea

The School began in the grounds of the Anglican Cathedral, near where Africa Unity Square is today, as the Great Depression raged. Its formative years were these – the 1930’s – and World War Two, which followed shortly after.

Sister Dorothy Jane set standards for the School which endure to this day – small classes, houses, organised games, and a shift from rote learning to teaching by doing – revolutionary for the time. The houses were later named after four great Bishops – Knight Bruce, Gaul, Beaven and Paget.

Bishopslea came to its modern premises at Bishop Gaul Avenue through the independent-minded determination of Bishop Paget and a parent of the 1940’s, Mrs Pat Pearce. In 1946 a five thousand pound debt threatened the School with closure, so the Bishop and the parent – together with a bold new board of governors – sold the old buildings at Baines Avenue and approached the Beit Trust to buy the new site in Belvedere. The Beit Trustees promised generous support, which they had also given to Ruzawi School in Marondera, and thus Bishopslea came under the ownership of the Ruzawi Schools Trust, where it remains to this day