St. John’s High School, Bandel was formerly called St. John’s Middle English School and was opened on the 10th July, 1870, by Rev. Fr. A.C. Rodriques, Prior of Bandel Church, for the education of the poor boys in the locality. It was supported by Bandel Church with a Government grant-in-aid.
In 1920 on the occasion of the golden jubilee celebration of the school, His Lordship the Bishop of Mylapore, presiding over the prize distribution ceremony of the school raised it to the status of a High School. Accordingly Rev. Fr. Menezes, the then Prior of Bandel Church, made the necessary arrangements, repairing the house known as “Orellas Home”, and on the 2nd of January 1920, before a large gathering of the leading men of Hooghly Mr. A.V. Moberley, Collector-Magistrate of Hooghly District, declared the High School open.
The school building was considerably extended by the Salesians. In 1964, Fr. Charles Niznansky, the then Headmaster, built the ground floor on the Southern side of the school and in 1968 Fr. A. Doro and Fr. E.V. Chacko completed the first floor over the same building. In 1977-78, a two-storied Western wing was added to the school building by Fr. K.A. Thomas and Fr. M.C. Mathew financed through a donation from Fr. A. Doro and the Salesian Provincial. In 1970, the school completed its 100 years of service. Every year almost a hundred boys from the school appear for the Madhyamik (ClassX) Examination. It is the pride of the staff and students of the school to have maintained this status from the starting of the Madhyamik Examination in 1976. Prior to 1976 the students appeared for the Higher Secondary Examination, School Final Examination and the Matriculation Examinations. The medium of instruction is Bengali.
The school completes 129 years of educational service this year. It is a matter of pride that the school has achieved 100% success in this year’s Madhyamik Examinations. Besides academic success, the school caters to the all-round development of the students through a variety of co-curricular activities. All this the school has been able to achieve through the dedicated service of the staff, and the support of the well-wishers.