The Archbishop Lanfranc School

The school was founded in 1931 as a boys' school in Thornton Road, Thornton Heath, near the junction with Mitcham Road and is close to Mitcham Common. In 1953 work began on a new school nearby in Mitcham Road, being opened in 1956 by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher. On 9 August 1961, 34 boys and 2 members of staff from the school were killed when their plane crashed near Stavanger Airport, Sola, Norway. The fiftieth anniversary was marked by a book published in summer 2011, The Lanfranc Boys by Rosalind Jones, sister of Quentin Green, one of the victims. The school remembers this tragedy each year through its Memorial Day The school converted from secondary modern status…

The Ofsted report of March 2025 opens with 'Pupils enjoy attending this friendly and welcoming school. They strive to achieve the academy values of Teamwork, Accountability, Leadership and Aspiration. Caring relationships with staff encourage pupils to try their best'; the school was judged to be Good in all areas. The Archbishop Lanfranc Academy describes itself as a modern, vibrant community and yet one with a long and historic tradition of educating students from the three London boroughs on whose crossroads it sits – Croydon, Merton and Sutton. The academy is proud of its history, and through its various incarnations, has educated children from its local community since 1931. The school…