History

St Andrew’s School, Turi was founded by Peter and Jean Lavers (fondly referred to as Ma and Pa) in 1931. With an initial enrolment of 15 children, ‘Turi’ has grown into one of the leading international schools in the region that caters to over 600 students.

Ma and Pa combined their skills to successfully set up and run the school with Mr Lavers mainly taking on administrative duties and Mrs Lavers focused on the academic and pastoral needs of the students.
The couple felt that their work was in direct obedience to God’s calling to build a Christian school hence the strong emphasis on Christian love and care in the running of the school to date.

In 1988, the Senior School was added to provide a caring, safe and friendly boarding environment for students aged 14 to 18.

St Andrew’s College was then opened in September 2010, building upon the outstanding academic success of the Senior School.

Today, we have over 620 pupils, aged 5 to 18 years plus some little ones in the early years foundation stage (EYFS).

Rising Phoenix

Sadly, one hot February night in 1944, everything Ma and Pa had worked for, for years was burnt to ashes.

The entire school, with the exception of the Chapel was burnt to the ground. Italian prisoners of war helped to rebuild the new school.

The Phoenix symbol of St Andrew’s, represents the new school rising out of the ashes of the old, in memory of the fire that broke out at the School on 29th February, 1944.

The physical school was destroyed but the spirit of its founders remained unshaken and this enabled them to cope with the aftermath of tragedy and rebuild a bigger and better school.

Pa Lavers managed the rebuild of the School with the help of a number of well-wishers. He employed Italian Prisoners of War- many of them who were skilled artisans. The construction journey was not one free of bumps and obstructions but both the Lavers’ and the builders’ resilience and certainly the Grace of God saw them through.

“…. and when it was finally finished and we looked round at everything that was done, there really was a perfection there that we had never even dared to dream about… it was all exactly as the Lord gave us in the plan in the sand pit right at the very beginning before there was anything there after the fire.” -Pa Lavers

Since then there have been numerous additions to the school with new classes, boarding houses and staff quarters built to accommodate the considerably large Turi Family.