St. John’s High School was founded in 1854 and through all its 161 years, has taken pride in the education of generations of students. Initially the school was built to serve the interests of the Anglo-Indian Community and the children of Military Personnel and Government pensioners. Rev. R. Posnett, an Anglican clergyman, was sent to look after the spiritual interests of the Europeans and the Anglo Indians in the Cantonment area. In 1853, he constructed a small room on the Mootycherry Ridge, which later came to be known as St. John’s Hill. This room served as a chapel-cum-school room. In the morning it was used as a school for the children; in the afternoon as a library and a reading room and on Sundays for public worship.
A new school building was completed and opened in 1854. St. John’s School and St. John’s Church have thus been intrinsically linked together from their inception. The school operated as a Middle School until 1961. At this stage, after completing the Middle School examination of the erstwhile Mysore State, children were transferred to other schools for their last two years.
It was in 1962, that the institution was upgraded to a High school and joined the select band of schools taking the Anglo Indian School Certificate Examination. The first candidates were presented for this examination in 1970.