St Helena School, Colchester

St Helena School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status, located in Colchester, Essex, England. The school is situated on Sheepen Road opposite Colchester Institute and is of easy reach from both Colchester North and Colchester Town train stations.HistorySt Helena Secondary School was opened on Friday 28 January 1938 by Kenneth Lindsay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education in Neville Chamberlain's National Government. In those days, education in Colchester was controlled by the Colchester Borough Education Committee, chaired by Alderman Alex Blaxill, the Mayor. Originally, the school comprised two 'schools'; boys with Mr H Hepburn Reid as Headmaster; and girls with Miss M Lucas as Headmistress. There were some shared facilities, but otherwise there was strictly enforced segregation.The school took its name from Colchester's patron saint. According to the Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth written in the twelfth century, St Helena was the daughter of Coel, a legendary King of Britain and duke of Colchester in the third century. She was the mother of Constantine the Great, the first Christian to rule the Roman Empire.