The English School is the leading academic school in Cyprus. Founded by Canon Frank Darvall Newham in 1900, it is now a selective co-educational secondary school of 840 pupils. The curriculum is based on the British educational system; pupils take GCSEs or IGCSEs in the 4th and 5th years, and move on to AS Levels in the 6th year and A2 levels in the 7th year.

The school is situated in an attractive partly-wooded park near the centre of Nicosia . The school day runs from 7.40 am to 1.40 pm Monday to Friday; all full-time members of staff are expected to offer at least one afternoon activity in addition to their teaching programme. There are currently 40 periods of 40 minutes in the teaching week and the usual teaching load for a newly-appointed full-time teacher is 28 periods per week. Most members of staff are form tutors and contribute to the pastoral and academic care of pupils in their form.

The pupils are predominantly Greek Cypriots, although a substantial minority are either of other nationalities, have lived abroad or have one non-Cypriot parent. 95% proceed to universities in the U.K., the remainder to Higher Education in the U.S.A., Greece or Cyprus.