Cathedral and John Connon School

In 1860 Bishop Harding and the Cathedral Chaplain opened a grammar school within the walled city of Bombay which, along with a smaller establishment for girls, were the first of many strands that have joined to form the Cathedral and John Connon School.[3][4]

A Choir School, established with the objective of providing choristers for the St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai, the first Anglican Church in Mumbai was founded in October 1875. Meanwhile, the Bombay Scottish Education Society was founded in 1866. The society put up a building on the Esplanade, and named it for John Connon (then Chief Registrar of Bombay).

In 1878 a high school in Byculla, set up by the Bombay Diocesan Society, was merged with the Choir School to form the Cathedral High School. The present Senior School building, a blend of Indian and Gothic architecture, was erected in 1896. A girls' school had been started in 1880.

In 1922, in a public meeting held at the Town Hall, the present Asiatic Society of Bombay library, a suggestion was put forward by the principal of the Cathedral Boys' School for the Cathedral Schools and the Scottish School to work together, instead of competing, and thus the Anglo-Scottish Education Society was conceived. The schools were re-organized into the Cathedral Boys' School, the Cathedral Girls' School, and the John Connon School.

Today the old boys' school is the Senior School; the old girls' school is the Middle School; and the John Connon School is the Junior School. The Infant School, located at Malabar Hill, was set up in 1965.[5] The Senior School also serves as the main administrative office for all the sections of the school.

The IB arm of the school, set up in 2015, plans to shift to the Deutsche Bank Building (formerly Tata Palace) by 2018.[6] The building is located in the same vicinity (Fort) as the school, right next to Sterling Theatre.

The Cathedral & John Connon School is affiliated with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations[7] (CISCE), and its students appear for the Council's ISC, IB (Grade 12) and IGCSE, ICSE (Grade 10) examinations. English is the medium of instruction. Hindi is taught as a second language and Marathi or Sanskrit are taught as third languages.

A Hindustan Times report of 2013 named it the best ICSE and ISC school in the country. It now offers the IBDP programme and IGCSE programme, as well.[8]

College Board's Advanced Placement program has been conducted in the school since June, 2004.[9] The school is the only AP Examination Center in Western India.

The Cathedral Model United Nations is run entirely by the school's student body over a period of three days, where students assume the roles of delegates representing countries.[10] From a start in 1996 - the first CMUN had only one committee (Asia and Pacific Council), it has grown into an event with over 700 delegates attending.[11] CMUN 2007 was the first to have delegates from outside Mumbai. Schools like Mayo College, La Martiniere Calcutta, Doon School, Modern School Barakhamba Road, and others attended the conference. 2011 featured the first international delegates from Rato Bangala School from Nepal and Aitchinson College, Pakistan.

There are four houses in the school - Barham, Palmer, Savage and Wilson - named after Barham (a canon), James Palmer (Bishop in Bombay), Arthur Savage and Percival Wilson, the founders of the Cathedral School and the John Connon School. The House System serves as the centre of school life, with students from the houses competing at sports, games and other co-curricular activities, primarily divided into 2 categories- Cultural and Sports which include a plethora of activities.

There was also another house, that was brown in color, called Kuruvilla that was later disbanded and students were distributed amongst the houses available since it made more sense to have four houses in order to keep competitions easier.[12]

• Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan, Pakistan's first Governor-General, and leader of the All-India Muslim League.[13]
• Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, statesman, Founder of PPPP Pakistan Peoples Party of Parliamentarians) and Prime Minister & President of Pakistan
• Ameesha Patel, Movie actress
• Anand Mahindra, Industrialist & Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra[14]
• Ashmit Patel, Movie actor
• Cyrus Mistry, Indian businessman & former chairman of TATA Group
• Fareed Zakaria, Indian-American journalist, political scientist, and author.[15]
• Jamshyd Godrej, Industrialist[16]
• Jehangir Sabavala, Indian Painter[17]
• J. R. D. Tata, Industrialist & Father of Indian Aviation
• Karisma Kapoor, Movie actress
• Khalid Mohamed, Film Director & Noted Critic[18]
• Milind Deora, Indian politician & former Union Minister[19]
• Nisa Godrej, Industrialist & Chairperson of Godrej Consumer Products Limited
• Ronnie Screwvala, Businessman & Former Film Producer
• Ranvir Shah, Cultural Activist & Philanthropist[20]
• Ratan Tata, Industrialist
• Rahul Bajaj, Industrialist & Chairman of Bajaj Auto
• Rahul Bose, Movie actor
• Rakesh Maria, Senior IPS official & former Commissioner of Mumbai Police[21]
• Salman Rushdie, Author.[22]
• Siddhartha Basu, TV Director & Producer[23]
• Srikant Datar, 11th Dean of Harvard Business School
• Homi J. Bhabha, Father of the Indian nuclear programme[24]
• Rajdeep Sardesai, Indian news anchor, journalist, and author[25]

• List of schools in Mumbai
• List of the oldest schools in the world

• Official website